The following recommended reading list was provided by Orca Books in Olympia for Pride Week coverage in OLY ARTS. Orca Books is the largest independent bookstore in Olympia, Washington, located in the heart of downtown’s vibrant shopping district.
| Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the UniverseBenjamin Alire Saenz
As two young loners start spending time together, they discover they share a special friendship — the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime — in this 2013 Stonewall Book Award winner. |
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| Freshwater
Akwaeke Emezi Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the author’s realities, this raw and extraordinary debut explores the metaphysics of identity and being, plunging the reader into the mysteries of self. |
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| The Argonauts
Maggie Nelson
Poet and critic Maggie Nelson’s genre-bending queer meditation on love, language, transformation and family life is thought-provoking and vital. |
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| Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany Tackling questions of race, gender and sexuality, Dhalgren is a literary marvel and groundbreaking work of American magical realism. |
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| Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Audre Lorde Zami, “a Carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers,” is a beautiful, intersectional “biomythography” detailing Lorde’s vivid memories of her childhood and coming of age as a Black, lesbian feminist and civil-rights activist in the 1940s and ’50s. |
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| Orlando
Virginia Woolf Orlando doubles as first an Elizabethan nobleman and then a Victorian heroine who undergoes all the transitions of history in this novel that examines sex roles and social mores. |
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| Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity C. Riley Snorton Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-19th century to present-day, anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence. |
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| Night Sky With Exit Wounds Ocean Vuong A haunting debut that is dreamlike and visceral, vulnerable and redemptive, and risks the painful rewards of emotional honesty. |
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509 4th Ave. E, Olympia, WA 98501 – orcabooks.com – 360-352-0123