Required reading for women ready to love women.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Clarissa Dalloway is planning a party and we're all welcome. Her story weaves in and out of the modern world between her high-society life as a wife and mother, all the way back to her charmed youth and falling in love with Sally Seton.
Lesson: Our minds often travel back to our happiest moments, and our happiest moments are usually the ones we spent being authentic.
Hogarth Press
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Therese and Carol come into each other's lives when both are desperately in need of love and understanding. Unfortunately, being together may mean making the choice between the family they know and love, and the family of two they've become.
Lesson: There are more than just happy or sad endings. Some endings are about hope, or at the very least, forgiveness.
Coward-McCann
When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz
In this poetry collection, Natalie Diaz writes us into her world and invites us into the lives of her family, community, and even her ancestors. While the book is indeed about her brother, he serves as more of a frame for the stories that arise around him.
Lesson: Your sexuality is only one part of your identity, and it's OK if it's not the most important part.
Copper Canyon Press
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
After the death of Cameron's parents, her conservative family members are charged with raising her — as she's just discovering her sexuality when she's outed, and sent to Camp Promise for conversion therapy.
Lesson: There's nothing wrong with you. There's something wrong with anyone who's threatened by your sexuality.
Balzer + Bray