When I was just a babygay, I passionately identified as both queer and bookish, but I had not yet considered the intersection between the two. It was one conversation with my mom about lesbian books that set me on a lifelong path of queer women reading. It went like this:
“Danika, have you read Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown?”
“No, what’s that?”
“And you call yourself a lesbian.”
That back-and-forth opened the door to a whole world of stories in which women could love women. At first, I thought there were dozens of these lesbian books. When I couldn’t find many, I started the Lesbrary with the “humble” goal of reading “everything lesbian”. Ten years later, that idea is laughable. There are way more lesbian and bi women books out there than I could possibly read in my lifetime, and although I want there to be even more, I am profoundly grateful for the many, many we do have. It’s easy to think that only a handful of LGBTQ books exist: the ones that are recommended over and over by mainstream book media as their token Pride examples. Happily, that’s not true. There are queer books in every genre, for every reader.
A 100 book list can’t possibly contain the multitudes of queer women books worth reading out there! I tried to make this an example of the diversity of lesbian and bi women books out there, but it does come with my own bias. For example, I don’t read much romance (yet), so there aren’t many romance titles on this list. I included some of the classics, but also titles that are my personal favourites, that are lesser-known and might be new to you.
If you feel like I’ve left off a must-read bisexual or lesbian books, definitely let me know in the comments! I want this list to be the start of a conversation, not the end of it!
Classics
1. Odd Girl Out by Ann Bannon
2. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
3. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
4. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
5. Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller
6. Women’s Barracks by Tereska Torres
7. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
8. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Fiction
9. Nevada by Imogen Binnie
10. My Education by Susan Choi
11. Missed Her by Ivan Coyote
12. Painting Their Portraits in Winter by Myriam Gurba
13. When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai
14. The Collection edited by Tom Leger and Riley Macleod
15. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
16. The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie
17. A Safe Girl To Love by Casey Plett
18. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
19. I Can’t Think Straight by Shamim Sarif
20. Empathy by Sarah Schulman
21. (You) Set Me On Fire by Mariko Tamaki
22. Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
Historical Fiction
23. The Last Nude by Ellis Avery
24. Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy
25. Prairie Ostrich by Tamai Kobayashi
26. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
27. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
28. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
Romance & Erotica
29. Macho Sluts by Patrick Califia
30. My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris
31. Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman
32. Roller Girl by Vanessa North
33. The Long Way Home by Rachel Spangler
Poetry
34. Not Vanishing by Chrystos
35.The Complete Works of Pat Parker edited Julie R. Enszer
36. Bodymap by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
37. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho edited by Anne Carson
Young Adult and New Adult
38. This is What it Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow
39. How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake
40. Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
41. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth
42. Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden
43. Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett
44. Just Girls by Rachel Gold
45. You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan
46. All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell
47. The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus
48. Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
49. Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde
50. The House You Pass On the Way by Jacqueline Woodson
SFF Young Adult
51. Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
52. The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta
53. Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
54. Of Fire and Stars and Of Ice and Shadows by Audrey Coulthurst
55. Adaptation and Inheritance by Malinda Lo
Science Fiction & Fantasy
56. Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica
57. Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue
58. Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older
59. The Second Mango by Shira Glassman
60. The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
61. Falling In Love With Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson
62. The Worldbreaker Saga by Kameron Hurley
63. Bearly a Lady by Cassandra Khaw
64. Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi
65. Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks
66. A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams by Dax Murray
67. The Seep by Chana Porter
68. Everfair by Nisi Shawl
Horror, Vampires, and Zombies
69. Fist of the Spider Woman edited by Amber Dawn
70. Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink
71. The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
72. Eat Your Heart Out by Dayna Ingram
73. The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan
74. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, edited by Carmen Maria Machado
75. Better Off Red by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Comics
76. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
77. As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman
78. The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg
79. Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi and Fantasy Comic Anthology edited by Sfé R. Monster
80. My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata
81. Sugar Town by Hazel Newlevant
82. On Loving Women by Diane Obomsawin
83. Space Battle Lunchtime Volumes 1 & 2 by Natalie Riess
84. Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, and Shannon Watters
85. Supermutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
Memoirs
86. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
87. The Other Side of Paradise by Staceyann Chin
88. When We Were Outlaws by Jeanne Cordova
89. Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote
90. The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister
91. Zami by Audre Lorde
92. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
93. Before the Rain: A Memoir of Love & Revolution by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa
Nonfiction
94. Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker, illustrated by Julia Scheele
95. Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme edited by Ivan Coyote and Zena Sharman
96. Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire by Lisa M. Diamond
97. Inseparable: Desire Between Women In Literature by Emma Donoghue
98. Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 by Erica Fischer
99. Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
100. Dear John, I Love Jane edited by Candace Walsh and Laura Andre
An earlier version of this post ran on Book Riot.
