Gay's the Word Shop Favourites: Erica's Picks
By Gay's The Word
By Gay's The Word
Erica is a Gay's the Word bookseller, writer, and poet with a PhD in lesbian love stories in young adult literature. She's always keen to read the latest in poetry, short stories, novellas, and graphic novels. She adds more than a touch of Californian sunshine to our sometimes drizzly Bloomsbury bookshop.
Gentleman Jack: A biography of Anne Lister, Regency Landowner, Seducer and Secret Diarist
Angela Steidele
£9.99 £9.49In this bold new biography, prizewinning author Angela Steidele uses the diaries to create a portrait of Anne Lister as we've never seen her before: a woman in some ways very much of her time and in others far ahead of it. She conducted a love life of labyrinthine complexity, all while searching for a girlfriend who could provide her with both financial security and true love. The Lister Diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history: they changed everything. - Emma Donoghue
On a Sunbeam
£24.99 £23.74
Part love story, part epic queer space opera adventure, On a Sunbeam is a graphic novel masterpiece from an explosive, unmissable talent. On a Sunbeam is Gay’s the Word’s Book of the Month for December. Stunning. Tillie Walden is the future of comics and On a Sunbeam is her best work yet. - Brian K Vaughan
Out of the Blue
Sophie Cameron
£7.99 £7.59A stunning debut young adult novel about grief, loss, and what it means to fall in love when angels are falling from the sky. A charming debut, radiant with humanity and heart. - LoveReading
Salt Slow
Julia Armfield
£8.99 £8.54An unparalleled feminist (and slightly misandrist!) collection of short stories that are eerie, captivating and queer in equal measure. A writer to watch.
Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide: A graphic guide to lesbian and queer history 1950-2020
Kate Charlesworth
£17.98 £17.08A graphic memoir and archival dive into UK LGBTQ history by a legendary lesbian cartoonist, this book should be on everyone's bookshelves.
The Adventures of China Iron
Gabriela Cabezon Camara
£9.99 £9.49Argentinean author Gabriela Cabezon Camara imagines what happens to the wife of Martin Ferro, protagonist of the famous gaucho epic, after his departure. Joining Scottish settler Elizabeth in her covered wagon to find their captured husbands, the tale delightfully delivers unexpectedly in queer and fantastical ways.
Fleche
Mary Jean Chan
£10.99 £10.44This beautifully composed debut collection expertly grapples with gender and sexuality as well as the poet's relationship with her mother, the English language, and the consequences of colonialism. A breathtaking and heartbreaking book full of love.
Cinderella Is Dead: the TikTok sensation
Kalynn Bayron
£7.99 £7.59This is unlike any fairytale retelling of Cinderella I've ever read. Bayron's Sophia is going to fight for what she believes to be right, and she'll do it for and alongside a woman worth fighting for.
Wow, No Thank You.: The #1 New York Times Bestseller
Samantha Irby
£9.99 £9.49Samantha Irby's writing is so funny, so refreshing that my wife stole my copy of the book halfway through it after I kept reading parts of it out loud to her. Doubly endorsed.
The Air Year
Caroline Bird
£9.99 £9.49If Carol Ann Duffy’s Rapture charts the course of a relationship from butterflies to breakup, then Caroline Bird’s The Air Year is caught in the messy middle, the poet making her way haltingly through the falling debris. Desire, shortcomings, and addiction sit alongside lightness and whimsy each other in this audacious collection.
No Modernism Without Lesbians
Diana Souhami
£9.99 £9.49This is the brilliant culmination of Diana Souhami's career as a biographer of modern lesbians. With the way she demonstrates the beautiful and extensive 'daisy-chain' of women-loving women in Paris from 1900 onward, you'll wish time-travel really was possible.