Recs if you like The Skin and Its Girl...

in progress

Basically, a huge list of every book I ever heard features sapphic characters.

I have not read all of these, so I cannot be sure of the amount of the time on page of the sapphic characters or of the quality of the books.

Some of these I do not plan to read at all, since they are not my style. If you feel like a book doesn't belong here, let me know.

For my favs / read, check out my other lists & shelves.

Open to suggestions for more titles.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Books written in or featuring 2nd person POV

pink, sophisticated & sometimes fatale <3 (added some essential nonfic & poetry!)

Fiction and non-fiction with significant intergenerational exchange/learning/teaching/relationship between trans and/or queer characters/people.

This list is in progress, please recommend in the comments! Especially interested in:

• positive exchanges between people of different generations, especially BIPOC and marginalized people
• characters learning about organizing from people of other generations
• multigenerational family stories with multiple trans/queer characters

Books that have been shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. I compiled this list because the criteria (and Le Guin's works) resonate with me:

"The Prize will be given to a writer whose work reflects the concepts and ideas that were central to Ursula’s own work, including but not limited to: hope, equity, and freedom; non-violence and alternatives to conflict; and a holistic view of humanity’s place in the natural world."

If you’re not familiar with Mychal, he is the new host of The Reading Rainbow and he has been spreading “library joy” on social media for years. Mychal has a book club on Fable that is for a more mature audience than The RR. He has posted a new book monthly since March 2024. I have enjoyed every book I’ve read from his club! I am not Mychal Threets and I do not know him personally. I am creating this list to help share a bit of Mychal’s Library Joy with Pagebound.

A collection of the next wave of influential Classics of our generation. These books will become staples in homes and schools contain themes that will always be relevant. Inspired by Pagebound Club Post I made.

A reading list celebrating books by Arab American authors and the many stories, histories, cultures, and imagined worlds they bring to the page. This list was created as a way to expand my own reading beyond the perspectives and experiences most familiar to me.

I am not Arab American, and I do not intend this list to speak for the Arab American community or define the full range of Arab American literature. I welcome recommendations, corrections, and notes from Arab American readers and authors, especially if there are books that should be added or removed.

Any sapphic book that I feel falls in the category of lit fic

reading diversely is not a trend. it’s the bare minimum. and if your shelves don’t reflect that, you’re missing out.

When you want to read something a step above trash

All books include main characters that are sapphic. This includes trans and non-binary lesbians

Nominees for the Ursula K Le Guin Prize for for Fiction, awarded since 2022 for imaginative fiction. (Mostly I have made this because they're always really great picks and I want to work my way through all of them.)

A list of books that have been considered for and/or won the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. From the official website - "This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now."

I thought it would be nice to have all of them in one long list.

The Books that didn't get any of the main awards, but we're still stamped with being an Honor Book.

2016-2025