Pride month in Seattle is both a celebration and a call to action — a time to reflect on the legacy of queer and transgender people and how we can continue to fight for a more just, inclusive future.
This month, the library and Charlie Hunts, owner of Charlie’s Queer Books in Fremont, are sharing books that highlight the resilience and euphoria of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature” by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian. As a child, mycology professor Kaishian saw forests, mushrooms and reptiles as safe and sacred playmates, feeling at home in the ambiguous world of the wild. In “Forest Euphoria,” she expands on this foundation, introducing readers to the fundamental queerness of the natural world.
Kaishian’s combination of science writing and memoir helps connect concepts of gender, sexuality and neurodiversity to the varied world of plants and animals, bringing a level of joy and wonder to both human and nonhuman experiences often maligned as “other.” A French documentary on snail mating is a far more interesting and pleasure-centered introduction to sex than “the birds and the bees,” while connecting with snakes, fungi, swamps and other feared beings leads to greater acceptance of her own queerness and gender expansiveness.
In asking “What kinds of knowledge can flourish when we celebrate queerness?” “Forest Euphoria” brings the spirit of Pride to the study of nature.
“The Sunbearer Trials” by Aiden Thomas. As Thomas expertly shows in the first book of his young adult duology, science fiction and fantasy are great genres to find stories of resistance and joy.
Set in a queer and trans normative world inspired by Mexican folklore, “The Sunbearer Trials” is the story of children of gods who are put through a Hunger Games-like competition to determine who will be sacrificed to keep the dangerous Obsidian gods away.
The main character, Teo, is the timid and overlooked son of the bird goddess and only when he fully embraces being trans and queer does he come into his full power. With striking investigations into the narratives of power, “The Sunbearer Trials” creates a fantasy world with plenty of real-life lessons.
“The Prospects” by KT Hoffman. In this sports romance that’s perfect for baseball season, author Hoffman explores what’s possible when we allow ourselves to swing for the fences.
Gene is the first openly transgender professional baseball player and has made a life he loves playing for the minor league Beaverton Beavers. However, that all changes when Gene’s former teammate and current rival, Luis, shows up. As the season plays on, the two fall into a comfortable rhythm in the close confines of dugout benches and roadie buses, and Gene begins to let himself dream of a life in the majors.
“The Prospects” imagines a world where queer and trans players don’t have to hide parts of themselves. Hoffman also dedicates the book to Glenn Burke, the first openly gay MLB player. The book has hope, healing and home runs with a touch of spice.
“The Emperor of Gladness” by Ocean Vuong. Adrift in “the midnight of his childhood,” 19-year-old Hai prepares to jump off a bridge. Grazina, an 82-year-old Lithuanian widow succumbing to dementia, spots him and urges him to come down. What unfolds in “The Emperor of Gladness” is a quiet yet profound exploration of life on the margins, and what Vuong has described as “kindness without hope”— the act of being kind when there isn’t a payoff.
While the American dream often hinges on upward mobility and dramatic transformations, Vuong instead centers the dignity of characters who don’t get the promotion, move to a better apartment or find their soul mate.
Like many queer folks’ experience with found family, Hai’s friendship with Grazina and his co-workers at his minimum-wage job puts him on another path that alters his understanding of himself, his family and those around him.
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