Hello darlings!
Nearly the last #5OnMyTBR of Pride this year! I’m glad that so far you’ve been with me!
#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook (me!) and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR.
This week’s prompt is LGBTQ+ History!
I don’t read nearly enough books about queer history — I focus on escapist fantasies or here and now mostly and I would like to change that. So here are 5 Non-Fiction books about queer history & queer historical individuals!
|| The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf by Louise DeSalvo (Editor) ||
💛 sapphic love letters!!
💛 iconic
💛 super queer
I’ve read fragments of their love letters and dear gods they’re so gay!!
If you haven’t known Vita & Virginia had an ongoing love affair and both of their husbands knew and approved.
Virginia also wrote her Orlando for Vita!
|| Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman by Leslie Feinberg ||
💛 transgender
💛 personal journey
This is a personal journey of Leslie Feinberg through history to find people who crossed the cultural boundaries of gender.
It is more of discovering oneself through history than detailed biographies of trans individuals so it feels like an easy start for someone who always has been bad at reading history textbooks like me.
|| Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe by John Boswell ||
💛 gay marriages
💛 Middle-Ages
💛 Christianity & Orthodox Church
I’m raised Christian and while I’m no longer a believer (or was I ever??) I’m always looking for validating myself and other queer people in spite of Christian homophobic views so a book about same-sex marriages sanctioned by the Church???
Hell yeah! (Pun not intended)
|| Homosexuality & Civilization by Louis Crompton ||
💛 (some of) major civilisations & same-sex attraction
From the reviews I see that this work has some issues but it still represents same-sex relationships in Europe and Eastern Asia quite well so I would like to check it out at some point.
Just hoping I can get through this chonker because it’s over 600 pages
|| The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies by James Neill ||
💛 a study?
💛 wider spectrum of cultures than the last one mentioned
The author claims that the human species is ambisexual based on references to the animal world and millennia of human history.
Unlike the author of the book above, this book covers more than only Europe and Eastern Asia, too.
Last thought!
I always hated history classes — I have big troubles with remembering names and dates — but I love learning about queer historical figures! Why don’t I pick up more LGBT+ history books then? I have no idea…
Now, one cool fact from the history of queer people! Go!
I’ll be first — did you know that Queen Christina of Sweden gave her female lover an official position of the ‘royal bedwarmer? Nights were cold and sleeping alone was not advised back then!
- Do you participate in #5OnMyTBR?
- Do you have any of those on your TBR?
- Have you read them maybe? (Make me read them then!!)
Local Bee Hunter's Nook 
I had to post yesterday but I think I found some very compelling LGBTQ+ historical fiction books. The ones on your list look wonderful too ❤️
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I saw! Sorry for the late reply & thank you!! ❤
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i really want to read Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe too, even though i kind of hate reading about christianity fhdsklshsdkl but that’s where i grew up and i want to learn more about it! ♥
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I hate reading about Christianity too but I love reading about Christianity when it’s someting that would make a common bigoted believer faint so I’m motivated by spite to read that one especially 😀
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DLDHDDKJ that’s an excellent point actually and I agree!
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These look and sound interesting but I always struggle so much with non-fiction! I start the books off all eager and then slowly my interest wanes and… I end up indefinitely abandoning it! I hope you enjoy all of these though 😀
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Not only you, my friend!! I either listen to the audiobook and comprehend about half of it or it takes me months to finish one non-fiction book… One day we’ll get better 😀
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I am a teensy bit ashamed to admit that I don’t read enough non-fiction in general, and I don’t think I’ve *ever* read anything about LGBT+ history. Definitely need to rectify that ta some point. Your list gives me a great place to start, so thanks!
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I don’t read nearly enough of it as well! :c But I highly recommend Queer There and Everywhere — it has over 20 fun short biographies of various queer historical figures throughout the ages! 🙂
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