There’s no better photo op or conversation starter on the Fire Island ferry than a tank-wearing queen toting his weekend read.
If you’re aiming to dial back your time on the Grindr grid, consider going old school and stacking up this summer. No, we don’t mean extra workouts. We’re talking about newly released LGBTQ+ books.
There’s a title for every type of queer reader. Whether you’re looking for a fast-paced summer rom-com, sapphic thriller, or cultural deep dive, this season promises to be a page-turner.
Jump to this summer’s new LGBTQ+ books by release date:
June 2025
What makes a restaurant “queer”? New York Times journalist Erik Piepenburg traces the history of LGBTQ+ spaces through a culinary lens.
From Hamburger Mary’s to the queer takeovers of chain restaurants across America, Dining Out leaves no plate untouched in our quest to create community.
Dining Out by Erik Piepenburg, Grand Central Publishing, June 3.
With Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin put San Francisco on the literary map, but he’s certainly not the only author to use the city as a queer romantic backdrop.
Christopher Tradowsky’s debut novel, Midnight at the Cinema Palace, offers a gay coming-of-age story set in 1990s San Francisco during the height of the AIDS crisis and dawn of the tech boom. But its central characters have a fascination with Hollywood’s Golden Age, lending a sweeping romanticism and nuance to this flashback tale of love and loss.
Midnight at the Cinema Palace by Christopher Tradowsky, Simon & Schuster, June 10.
