In honor of Pride month here's a list of LGBTQIA+ books Third Place booksellers have been excited about recently!
The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia
A hymnal for fairies in love, girlprophets, collectors and hermits. Aurora Mattia has created a new world of language and insisted upon its arrival. I want to run my fingers across every word. — Lou
This might be the most honest and glorious thing I've ever read. I love this book so much, I want to eat it. — Kit
Secret Summer Promise by Keah Brown 
The two main characters of this book are pining for each other, both certain it could never happen. They’re the only two people oblivious to how perfect they are for each other -- even their enemies are trying to hook them up. It’s the perfect summer read, full of yearning, sweetness, humor, and a happy ending, all from a Black, queer, and disabled perspective. – Madison
Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie
Ophelia has always identified with being boy crazy, so what happens when she starts crushing on a girl? This is a sweet, supportive, and hilarious book about a young woman coming into her queerness over the course of her last year of high school, finding her community and reckoning with the tricky legacies of the women in Shakespeare. – Sarah B
Snapdragon by Kat Leyd
This is a perfect summer afternoon read, full of taxidermy, witchcraft, shy hermits, and horror movies, and most of all absolutely bursting with love. – Allie
Your Love Is Not Good by Johanna Hedva
YOUR LOVE IS NOT GOOD will not answer your questions. It won't tell you what the right stance to take on identity is, what the best way to navigate being a working artist is. Instead, Hevda has crafted a meditation on seeing, being seen, and the absolute exhaustion of living in the space between them. Their prose curls in on itself like an oil-slicked rag, pulling you into the rabbit hole of creation. A triumph. — Lou
Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly
Oh man. This is the perfect romance novel! Anita Kelly writes fantastic characters here. It's funny, heartwarming, thrilling (spicy!) It has it all. And it fulfilled my deep desire for everything to include birding! – Zack
Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns
Damani is one of the most memorable main characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading! Fast paced, funny, sharp and full of deadly lines that sink into you. For sure one of the best books I've read so far this year. – Rosa
Borne of Grief and Flow by Becky Gibler
Pairing breathtaking photography of the Seattle area with poignant prose, local author/photographer Becky Gibler takes readers on a deeply personal journey through grief after losing her partner of 19 years. It is deeply moving and I would highly suggest it to anyone who is mourning someone they love. Becky has accomplished something incredible here. While the book features an LGBTQ+ relationship (which is not often depicted in this genre) she proves that, truly, love is love. This book is for anyone who has loved or lost and I thank her for writing it. – Brandon
Grand Slam Romance by Ollie Hicks, Emma Oosterhous (Illustrator)
What's more dramatic than lesbians facing off on the softball field you ask? Lesbians facing off on the softball field but some of them are magical girls with softball specific powers! Grand Slam Romance is so fun and so messy that it feels like a love letter to all of the real life lesbian drama we know and love. (Take off the dust jacket for a surprise?) – Kathryn
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
In these essays Sabrina Imbler connects lived experiences and hybrid aspects of their identity with ten different deep sea creatures. Each essay is a thoughtful presentation of race, gender, and self-discovery, synthesizing these introspections with scientific analogies. The cuttlefish is born to morph, and it can change both color and texture for camouflage and communication. In one essay Imbler explores this transformation ability as an extension of their own morphing gender and physical form as a queer human being. The blend is seamless. This is a book I will be putting into the hands of my born family, my queer community, and anyone else I can convince. – Jess
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
Finally! This book has given me the depiction I've wanted since I was child, that of a mermaid gnawing on raw viscera. Its an ashy and melodic tale that packs an impressively rich world into so few pages. Honk if you love mermaids! *HONK HONK*
Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen
Hard to put down! Very readable like chips are very eatable; you can't have just one. It tickled my behind-the-scenes of the Bachelor itch and hit me in my PNW heart. Allen really brought out the stops for this horror comedy with just the right amount of camp and believability. Come on, this lady sasquatch just wants to cuddle. — Emily
A slasher, on the set of The Bachelor, plus a host of morally questionable lesbians. I loved every single one of these terrible girls, and then I loved watching their terrible fates unfold. — Allie
Mrs. S by K. Patrick
This debut novel—a living portrait of queer desire, an absolute banquet of heartbreakingly affirming sentences—is so good. It's undeniably erotic, wryly earnest, unexpectedly funny and full of painfully honest moments of both fellowship and human disconnection. — Kitri
