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36 Best LGBT Books of All Time


Our goal: Find the best LGBT books according to the internet (not just one random person's opinion).

    Here's what we did:
  1. Type "best lgbt books" into our search engine and study the top 5+ pages.
  2. Add only the books mentioned 2+ times.
  3. Rank the results neatly for you here! 😊
    (It was a lot of work. But hey! That's why we're here, right?)

(Updated 2023)

As an Amazon Associate, we earn money from purchases made through links in this page.

  1. 1

    Giovanni's Room

    James Baldwin

  2. MOST RECOMMENDED!
    2

    A Little Life

    Hanya Yanagihara

  3. 3

    The Color Purple

    Alice Walker

  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 8
  8. 9
  9. 10
  10. 11
  11. 12

    Middlesex

    A Novel

    Jeffrey Eugenides

  12. 13

    The Hours

    A Novel

    Michael Cunningham

  13. 14

    With Teeth

    A Novel

    Kristen Arnett

  14. 15
  15. 16

    The Guncle

    Steven Rowley

  16. 17
  17. 18

    The Price of Salt

    Patricia Highsmith

  18. 20

    Tales of the City

    A Novel

    Armistead Maupin

  19. 21

    Boy Erased

    A Memoir

    Garrard Conley

  20. 22

    Some Girls Do

    Jennifer Dugan

  21. 23

    Maurice

    E. M. Forster

  22. 24

    Orlando

    A Biography

    Virginia Woolf

  23. 25
  24. 26

    Under the Udala Trees

    Chinelo Okparanta

  25. 27
  26. 28

    The Line of Beauty

    A Novel

    Alan Hollinghurst

  27. 30
  28. 32

    City of Night

    John Rechy

  29. 34
  30. 35

    Death in Venice

    Thomas Mann

FAQ

  • How was this LGBT books list created?

    We searched for 'best LGBT books', found the top 5 articles, took every book mentioned in 2+ articles, and averaged their rankings.

  • How many LGBT books are in this list?

    There are 36 books in this list.

  • Why did you create this LGBT books list?

    We wanted to gather the most accurate list of LGBT books on the internet.

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