Opinions of a Wolf

So, you want to bring an LGBTQIA+ book to your book club. But Pride month is already upon us, so it needs to be short! Or maybe reading an LGBTQIA+ book will be a bit of a stretch for your group so you want to entice them into it by promising a short read.

Never fear, your friendly queer and bisexual book blogger has your back with 5 books all under 300 pages. Plus, I have discussion guides available for each and every one of them.

Let’s take a look at them from shortest to longest.

On a Grey Thread by Elsa Gidlow

Coming in at just 73 pages, this is also in the public domain – meaning everyone in your book club can read it on Archive.org for free. (They can also get it on Amazon or Bookshop.org if they prefer.)

Published in 1923, this poetry collection was the first in North American history to openly express lesbian desire. Both personal and political, Gidlow’s poems express the poet’s complex feelings as a young woman whose political ideology and sexual identity ran counter to the traditional values of her time. Whether or not this will work for your book club depends on everyone’s feelings about poetry. But it’s a nice, quick read with historical value.

Get the Discussion Guide
A beautifully graphic designed 2 page PDF that contains: 1 icebreaker, 9 discussion questions arranged from least to most challenging, 1 wrap-up question, and 3 read-a-like book suggestions.

Stage Dreams by Melanie Gillman

While technically more pages than the poetry book with 104, this is a graphic novel, so it’s possible it’s actually an even quicker read. Get it on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

In this rollicking queer western adventure, acclaimed cartoonist Melanie Gillman (Stonewall Award Honor Book As the Crow Flies) puts readers in the saddle alongside Flor and Grace, a Latina outlaw and a trans runaway, as they team up to thwart a Confederate plot in the New Mexico Territory. When Flor—also known as the notorious Ghost Hawk—robs the stagecoach that Grace has used to escape her Georgia home, the first thing on her mind is ransom. But when the two get to talking about Flor’s plan to crash a Confederate gala and steal some crucial documents, Grace convinces Flor to let her join the heist.

Get the Discussion Guide
A beautifully graphic designed 2 page PDF that contains: 1 icebreaker, 9 discussion questions arranged from least to most challenging, 1 wrap-up question, and 3 read-a-like book suggestions.

Solo Dance by Lit Kotomi, translated by Arthur Reiji Morris

This 149 page read is more of a contemporary, literary selection, translated from its original Japanese. Get it on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

Cho Norie, twenty-seven and originally from Taiwan, is working an office job in Tokyo. While her colleagues worry about the economy, life-insurance policies, marriage, and children, she is forced to keep her unconventional life hidden—including her sexuality and the violent attack that prompted her move to Japan. There is also her unusual fascination with death: she knows from personal experience how devastating death can be, but for her it is also creative fuel. Solo Dance depicts the painful coming of age of a queer person in Taiwan and corporate Japan. This striking debut is an intimate and powerful account of a search for hope after trauma.

Get the Discussion Guide
A beautifully graphic designed 2 page PDF that contains: 1 icebreaker, 9 discussion questions arranged from least to most challenging, 1 wrap-up question, and 3 read-a-like book suggestions.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gómez

If your book club likes the paranormal or urban fantasy genres, then this 252 page read should be right up their alley. Get it on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

A young Black girl escapes slavery in the 1850s United States. When she grows up, she is made into a vampire with her consent. We see her immortal life and her perspective of the US through an imagined 2050.

Get the Discussion Guide
A beautifully graphic designed 2 page PDF that contains: 1 icebreaker, 9 discussion questions arranged from least to most challenging, 1 wrap-up question, and 3 read-a-like book suggestions.

Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair

At 256 pages, this will be a great fit for a book club that likes historic fiction set in the mid-20th century. Get it on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

Set on Chicago’s Southside in the mid-to-late 60s, following Jean “Stevie” Stevenson, a young Black woman growing up through the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Stevie longs to fit in with the cool crowd. Fighting her mother every step of the way, she begins to experiment with talkin’ trash, “kicking butt,” and boys. With the assassination of Dr. King she gains a new political awareness, which makes her decide to wear her hair in a ‘fro instead of straightened, to refuse to use skin bleach, and to confront prejudice. She also finds herself questioning her sexuality. As readers follow Stevie’s at times harrowing, at times hilarious story, they will learn what it was like to be Black before Black was beautiful.

Get the Discussion Guide
A beautifully graphic designed 2 page PDF that contains: 1 icebreaker, 9 discussion questions arranged from least to most challenging, 1 wrap-up question, and 3 read-a-like book suggestions.

Bonus Suggestion:

Bloemetje: a speculative retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina fairy tale by Amanda McNeil

Of course, I must also mention my own queer-inclusive retelling of Thumbelina, coming in at 121 pages. Available on Amazon.

A Dutch company known as The Bedrijf commences colonizing Venus via the construction of a dome filled with plants that convert its natural air into something breathable by humans. Since all workers are granted permission to bear a child, a woman and her spouse join the crew. But the woman soon discovers she is plagued with infertility. When her spouse illegally brings home a tulip from the garden, they discover a miniature baby inside who they name Bloemetje – little bloom. As the baby grows in mere days into a teenager, pushing her boundaries, she illuminates the true horrors of colonization and leads them all on a journey to decolonize. 

If you’re interested in reading this for your book club, drop me a note at mcneil.author@gmail.com. I’d be happy to make a discussion guide and/or talk to your book club via Zoom or similar software.