Reads 365: No.11
January - New Voices
Emerging authors & fresh perspectives
Some of the books features heavy subject matter, so please be mindful of the content warnings and research them fully.
Your mental wellbeing matters.
Exit West
by Mohsin Hamid
✨ What if escape was just through a door?
As civil war engulfs their city, Nadia and Saeed discover mysterious doors that transport refugees to safety. Mohsin Hamid's refugee story is tender, timely, and heartbreakingly beautiful—a meditation on love, loss, and what it means to start over.
💫 Perfect for:
Fans of Station Eleven
Readers seeking timely fiction
Magical realism lovers
Anyone exploring displacement
⭐ NYT Bestseller ⭐ Finalist for Booker Prize ⭐ National Book Critics Circle Award ⭐Barack Obama's reading list
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #ExitWest #MohsinHamid #PakistaniBritish #RefugeeStory #MagicalRealism #LiteraryFiction #Immigration #Timely #DiverseBooks #BookCommunity
Giovanni's Room
by James Baldwin
✨ Paris. 1956. An American man. Two impossible loves. James Baldwin writes THE definitive gay novel.
David is engaged to Hella but falls in love with Giovanni, an Italian bartender. Baldwin's meditation on sexuality, identity, and self-denial remains essential—written before Stonewall, before Pride, when being queer meant losing everything.
"I stand at the window of this great house in the south of France as night falls... and I watch my reflection in the darkening gleam of the window pane. My reflection is tall, perhaps rather like an arrow..."
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
🏳️🌈 Queer Classic
💫 Novella-length (perfect for a sitting!)
#MarginsXReads #BlackBooks #BlackAuthors #BlackLit #QueerBooks #LGBTQ #QueerLit #LiteraryFiction #DiverseBooks #ReadDiverse #BookCommunity #Bookstagram
Maurice
by E.M. Forster
Maurice Hall discovers his homosexuality at Cambridge and falls in love with Clive Durham. When Clive chooses conventional marriage, Maurice seeks a love society says shouldn't exist. Forster's gay novel ends happily, revolutionary for 1913, still moving today.
✨Forster's "love letter to queerness"
⭐ Written 1913, published 1971 posthumously
🏳️🌈 Historical Queer Classic
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #Maurice #EMForster #QueerClassic #LGBTQ #GayLit #HistoricalFiction #HappyEnding #MerchantIvory #Cambridge #British #QueerJoy #DiverseBooks
The Price of Salt
by Patricia Highsmith
Therese, a young photographer working retail, falls for Carol, an elegant older woman navigating divorce. Written under a pseudonym in 1952, this lesbian pulp fiction became a classic—giving lesbians hope when most queer stories ended in tragedy or death.
Later adapted as "Carol" with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara—but the book remains radical for its time.
💫 Perfect for:
Fans of Carol (the film)
Lesbian classic readers
Period romance lovers
Anyone needing queer joy in historical fiction
✨ The first major lesbian novel that ends HAPPILY.
🏳️🌈 Lesbian Classic
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #ThePriceOfSalt #PatriciaHighsmith #LesbianClassic #LGBTQ #LesbianLit #Carol #CateBlanchett #1950s #QueerHistory #HappyEnding #DiverseBooks
Stone Butch Blues
by Leslie Feinberg
Jess Goldberg navigates life as a masculine woman/trans man in 1960s-70s America, facing police violence, workplace discrimination, bar raids, and the search for belonging in communities that don't always have space for them. This is trans literature's foundation, raw, political, essential, deeply human.
Feinberg made the book available FREE online because they believed trans people deserved to see themselves in literature.
💫 Perfect for:
Trans readers seeking representation
Anyone wanting LGBTQ+ history
Working-class narrative fans
Readers ready for raw, honest storytelling
🏳️🌈 Trans Classic
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #StoneButchBlues #LeslieFeinberg #TransLit #LGBTQ #TransClassic #WorkingClass #Jewish #QueerHistory #ButchIdentity #Essential #DiverseBooks
Cinderella Is Dead
by Kalynn Bayron
✨ 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, girls are forced to attend the ball. Sophia doesn't want a prince—she wants the witch.
In a dystopian kingdom where Cinderella's story became law, girls must attend the annual ball to be chosen by men. Those not chosen disappear. Sophia teams up with Constance, a descendant of Cinderella's stepsister, to overthrow the patriarchy. Kalynn Bayron's queer Black YA fantasy reimagines fairy tales as feminist revolution.
💫 Perfect for:
Fairy tale retelling fans
Queer YA readers
Fans of The Cruel Prince
Anyone who loves rebellion and revolution
⭐ Feminist fairy tale subversion
📚 Genre: Fantasy (YA)
🏳️🌈 Queer Fantasy
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #CinderellaIsDead #KalynnBayron #QueerYA #BlackQueer #FairyTaleRetelling #YAFantasy #Feminist #LGBTQ #DiverseBooks #FairyTale
Rubyfruit Jungle
by Rita Mae Brown
Rita Mae Brown's semi-autobiographical novel follows Molly from her Southern childhood through college and New York, as she refuses to hide her sexuality or dim her ambition.
✨Funny, frank, and joyful—this is lesbian literature that celebrates rather than apologizes.
💫 Perfect for:
Lesbian classic readers
Coming-of-age story fans
Anyone who loves unapologetic characters
Readers seeking LGBTQ+ joy and humor
⭐ Sold millions despite mainstream rejection
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
🏳️🌈 Essential queer canon
#MarginsXReads #NewVoices #RubyfruitJungle #RitaMaeBrown #LesbianClassic #LGBTQ #LesbianLit #ComingOfAge #QueerJoy #1970s #Unapologetic #DiverseBooks
January’s New Voices list