This week is LGBT+ History Week, and so today's recommendations all featured books connected with LGBT+ themes and ideas. And if you're looking for further recommendations, why not try some of the books suggested on our LGBT+ reading list here.
Recommended by Mrs Cummings
This is the most beautiful story of love and loss. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers who both get the call from Death-Cast giving them bad news: they have only 24 hours to live. They connect through the Last Friend app and try to live a lifetime in a single day.
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
Recommended by Mr Kemp
This is Bechdel’s third autobiographical comic and my favourite. Fun Home is brilliant, and Are You My Mother? Is too clever by half, but this one is really super. It’s ostensibly a memoir told through the author’s lifelong passion for physical fitness.
It becomes clear relatively quickly that Bechdel is actually much more interested in exploring her own life: her coming out at university, her loves, her feminism, and her difficult relationship with her parents. It’s really great, and is also quite inspiring too if you’re thinking about getting back into exercise. How many works of literary non-fiction make you want to start jogging?
Material Girls by Kathleen Stock
Recommended by Dr Duits
It’s a crystal clear application of the methods of analytic philosophy to some contemporary discussions around trans rights and sex-based rights. It is very helpful for anyone trying to think clearly about the issues it covers.
The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye
Recommended by Miss McLaren
Like Dr Duits, I would highly recommend Kathleen Stock's Material Girls, alongside Shon Faye's highly informative account of what it's like to be transgender in contemporary Britain.
Faye's account of her time as a journalist is particularly fascinating, as she explores some of the ways in which the media choose to present trans people and their lives: she is especially illuminating on how the narratives used to frame trans people's stories can limit awareness of their actual, individual lived experiences.
Amateur: A Reckoning with Gender, Identity and Masculinity by Thomas Page McBee
Recommended by Dr Gaydon
Originally recommended to me by Mr Kemp, this is a fascinating reflective piece written by the first transgender man to fight at Madison Square Garden.
While telling the story of his training process, McBee wrestles with and explores both the physical and mental aspects of his masculinity, as well as what his transition means for his relationships with those around him, whether this be his partner, his coach, or the stranger on the street. Ultimately, the willing reader is drawn into confronting and questioning the links between masculinity, power, violence and competition.
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Recommended by Mr Dormandy
A moving and highly original memoir about love, marriage and motherhood by a woman married to a gender-fluid partner. The material is fairly adult – some of it is quite graphic – and intellectually challenging – chunks of contemporary philosophy and poetry – but the rewards are great for someone, like me, for whom this is unknown territory.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Recommended by the High Master
One of the most engrossing and entertaining novels I have ever read, it follows the lives of two Jewish cousins in New York and LA in the middle of the twentieth century as they become leading figures in the comic book industry. Inspired by real life events (and good for both Marvel and DC fans), it covers themes of heroism, persecution, and prejudice in a range of ways, including the challenge of being gay during this period and location. Suitable for 16+ readers.
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
Recommended by Miss McLaughlin
Johnson’s novel weaves a narrative centred on Gretel and her mother, and on Marcus who came to live with them for a final winter on the canals of Oxfordshire. Years later, Gretel finds herself wading into the past as she struggles to make sense of her time with her mother; her journey reveals family secrets and prophecies and leads the reader into a murky, dazzling and unsettling narrative which turns familiar myth into a modern tragedy. Suitable for 16+ readers.
Mr Harris recommends 'Life Story', a poem by Tennessee Williams, which you can read here:
I’ve always loved this poem - the casual tone belying the intimacy of the moment, and the painful introspection that this can cause. Wonderful images abound, the ‘pair of rag dolls’, the ‘mild astonishment’ at their own reflection, even the ambiguous ‘bowl of melting ice cubes’. The final punch line cuts through all this, symbolising, for me at least, the human tendency to soften self-exposure with humour.
The Care of the Self: the History of Sexuality Part 3 by Michel Foucault
Recommended by Mr Gardner
The Care of the Self is a fascinating and surprisingly accessible discourse on expressions of sexuality in the Hellenistic era, focusing in particular on the movement from Greek to Roman attitudes. Though more historical in approach than the two earlier theoretical volumes in the collection, Foucault’s discussion sustains an implicit contrast with, and critique of, contemporary attitudes.
This can be read as a stand-alone text, though I would also recommend the previous two volumes. Together they subvert a range of historical and cultural prejudices, whilst simultaneously uncovering problematic assumptions about sexuality that continue to be unthinkingly perpetuated in contemporary society. The long-awaited and final fourth volume, The Deployment of Sexuality, was published a few years ago, and extends further Foucault’s investigation into the complex and dangerous relationship between sexuality, power and social control. Together, the four books represent both a classic of 20th century cultural criticism and a topical must-read for our own times.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this post, and enjoy the rest of the talks and events taking place this week - there's a full list of the talks, discussions and screenings on the co-curricular hub here.
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