8 Books That Provide Clarity, Escape, and Comfort

She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy

Jill Soloway's memoir about the hit series Transparent, their own shifting gender identity, the numerous trans and gender expansive people behind the scenes, and the cognitive dissonance that descends with the #MeToo accusations against actor Jeffrey Tambor. Soloway is brutally honest about their conflicted feelings as the accusations threaten the show and all they'd worked for. (Crown Archetype) -- Jacob Anderson-Minshall

The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

The memoir of renowned neurobiologist Ben Barres (born 1954). A young math whiz who became one of a handful of female students at MIT in the 1970s, and faced sex-based bigotry before transitioning in his 40s. He was a vocal advocate for gender equality and female and trans scientists. As a Stanford University professor, he made discoveries about the glia, the connective tissue of the nervous system, before his death in 2017. (MIT Press) --Ashley Scheibelhut

Southern Discomfort

Grammy award-winning songwriter and producer Tena Clark's compelling memoir about growing up in a tiny Mississippi town during the civil rights era. Her wealthy (white) parents' relationship dissolved in a toxic stew of infidelity, abuse, alcohol, and guns. Different from her three beauty queen sisters, the budding lesbian often turned to her nanny for love and support even as the black woman was forbidden to use the family's dishes or bathrooms. (Simon and Schuster) -- AS

Ohio: A Novel

In Ohio: A Novel by Stephen Markley, four friends return to their Rust Belt town for their 10-year reunion. From the liberal activist with a mysterious package to the aimless veteran, post-9/11 U.S. politics influence every character. The two women shine: one a fragile creature with a past that triggers the shocking climax, and the other a lesbian whose brother preaches Leviticus at her. Ohio imagines life as a "collective dream in which we were all born and traveled and died." (Simon and Schuster) -- Donald Padgett

Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry

Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry celebrates the lesbian writer of the acclaimed Broadway play, A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry pressed John F. Kennedy to do more for the civil rights movement and hung out with James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Malcolm X, Duke Ellington, and W.E.B. Du Bois. An overdue homage to an extraordinary life cut tragically short in 1965, when she succumbed to pancreatic cancer at 34. (Beacon Press) -- Desiree Guerrero

Waging Justice

The memoir of Dr. Paul Zeitz, former executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance and director of the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development Team at the U.S. Department of State, about leading movements to end the HIV epidemic and prevent climate change. Zeitz beautifully explains how to transform personal challenges into a mission to pursue one's destiny while helping others. Bonus: 100 percent of proceeds go to sustainable development. (Balboa Press) -- David Artavia

Conversations with Friends

The debut novel by Sally Rooney, a young Irish novelist (who's already short-listed for the Booker Prize for her 2019 book, Normal People). In Coversations, former lovers Bobbi and Frances are attracted to the wrong people, setting off a brilliant and searing look at the brink of adulthood -- when jealousy, sex, love, power, control, failure, and friendship are interwoven pressures that push many of us to determine, sooner or later, what our values are and who we really want to be. (Random House) -- Diane Anderson-Minshall

Making Oscar Wilde

Making Oscar Wilde, by Oxford literature professor Michele Mendelssohn, is a groundbreaking revisionist work set on two continents, focused on the largely untold story of Wilde's life and career in post-Civil War America. His travels to the United States proved transformative to his career. But the brilliant gay poet and playwright's success was bittersweet, as he eventually faced public humiliation and prison time for "gross indecency" for his numerous liaisons (often with underaged young men). (Oxford University Press) -- DG

8 Books That Provide Clarity, Escape, and Comfort

the Editors of The Advocate