One of my favourites books of all time, Middlesex is vivid, emotional and mind-opening story of self-discovery that I can always revisit. The subject matter surrounds intersexuality, a topic still under-discussed despite today’s progress in the LGBT movement, in my opinion. Eugenides’ seamless blend of science and mythology, reality and imagination in this Pulitzer-Prize winning book is perhaps poetic parallelism to the complexity of gender and sex.Â
An emotional memoir of author Garrard Conley’s experience being outed as gay in a fundamentalist Christian community in Arkansas, USA, Boy Erased shines a light on the inhumanity of gay conversion therapy amongst other heavy-hearted issues in hopes of eradicating them. If you needed any fuel for your activism, this book is it.Â
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You’ve seen the movie, so why not read the source material for augmented fandom? Call Me By Your Name by Egyptian-American author André Aciman came out 10 years before the film that has literally made Timothy Chalamet’s career. And it’s no surprise about the movie’s success when you know that the book earned practically no negative reviews back in its day.Â
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Can’t get enough of Queer Eye and its star hairdresser Jonathan Van Ness? Well then perhaps JVN’s memoir of his “raw journey to self-love” will help fill in the void created by binge-watching Queer Eye way too fast. (Guilty as charged.) As you can expect from anything Jonathan does, the tone of the content is one hundred per cent JVN, a mixed-bag of flamboyance, humour, empathy and authenticity.Â
See also: Queer Cinema Beyond Homosexuality
