This month brings romance, mysteries, two YA graphic novels, a biography of an early trans sports pioneer, and nonfiction books exploring the anti-trans backlash, the meaning of gender, tools for transformation & survival, and gender transgression in the ritualism of the Church of England.
Ghosts That We Knew by Amity Malcolm (Paranormal Romance, 8/3/26)
While still running from the ghosts of his past, a trans man reluctantly returns to his hometown and runs straight into the arms of a ghost who is about to change his future.
All We Hide by Robyn Gigl (Mystery, 8/4/26)
A trans detective working for the District Attorney’s Office takes on the cold case murder of a local trans woman.
Just Another Summer by Tilly Bridges & Susan Bridges (YA Graphic Novel, 8/4/26)
When scandal sidelines two LA teen celebrities, a punishment summer on a Montana farm forces them to trade red carpets for rubber boots—and to choose between the futures they were raised for and the loves they never saw coming.
Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash by Sarah Lamble (Nonfiction, 8/11/26)
The twenty-first century "gender wars" have been driven by the narrative that safety can be secured through exclusion, surveillance, and the policing of difference. This has fueled an anti-trans backlash and distorted the meaning of safety itself. Unsafe is a clear-eyed and decisive challenge to these toxic ideas.
Hollow Magic by Mars Lauderbaugh (YA Graphic Novel, 8/11/26)
A new graphic novel from Mars Lauderbaugh (illustrator of the Cemetery Boys cover) about found family, magic, and the power of deciding for yourself who you truly are. Raised in the world of fey, seventeen-year-old Rosefinch has the ability to lift curses with nothing but a twist of her fingers. But the fey realm has made her magic supercharged, painful to use, and potentially even dangerous. Following a rumor of a witch who might be able to help control her magic, Rosefinch discovers an ancient ruined castle and a knight cursed to stand a frozen guard at the entrance.
Ship Happens by Mason Deaver (Romance, 8/18/26)
Trapped on a cruise together, exes Owen and Jacob are forced to confront why their relationship went off course…but in such close quarters, maybe they’ll finally be able to right the ship.
Finding Renée Richards : the groundbreaking story of tennis's trans pioneer by Julie Kliegman (Biography, 8/18/26)
Fifty years ago, tennis player Renée Richards made international headlines in her fight to compete in the women’s draw of the 1977 US Open—marking the first time a trans athlete sued to participate in professional sports in the gender category with which they identify.
Folio of Murderers: A Jacqueline De Loughrey Thriller by J. Ursula Topaz (Thriller, 8/18/26)
Britain, 1984. Thatcher in Number 10. Strikes, unemployment, and poverty. Britain is a tinderbox. But there's money to be made for a skilled operative, a freelance spy; Jacqueline De Loughrey. Feminist, criminal, and worse, a transgender woman. Jacqueline faces enemies that want to silence her. But she isn't going to go quietly.
But I Hate Him by Page Powers (YA Romance, 8/25/26)
A sizzling queer YA romcom about academic rivals who face off at the most competitive camp in the country. As the heir to the most successful tutoring company in the world, Rory can be nothing less than perfect if he wants to gain his parents’ approval. So it's simple. Rory studies harder than anyone else. And he never loses. Except to Luca Melendez. The infuriatingly good-looking hockey player who wins every academic competition without even trying.
Changing Gender by Susan Stryker (Nonfiction, 8/25/26)
From the groundbreaking trans scholar Susan Stryker, a provocative, genre-bending call to reconsider the story we tell about gender itself. In Changing Gender, the leading trans scholar Susan Stryker invites readers to ride along on her lifelong quest to uncover what gender means and does.
Gender Rituals by Eli Lawliet, PhD. (Nonfiction, 8/25/26)
Drawing from his lived experience as a trans person, his training as a gender doula, and years of leading ritual and body-based healing work, Eli Lawliet offers tools for both personal transformation and collective survival—so you can live your gender journey wholly and unapologetically.
Sacramental Trans Feminism by Chris Clare Dingwall-Jones (Nonfiction, 8/31/26)
Sacramental Trans Feminism explores historical and contemporary accounts of sacramental gender trouble, and bring them into dialogue with trans and feminist thinkers and concepts. This volume is inspired and informed by the author's own experience of gender exploration in the context of Anglo-Catholicism in the Church of England - a tradition with a long history of being accused of fostering gender transgression. Sacramental Trans Feminism searches the history of ritualism in the Church of England for theological resources which might help us meet the current political moment.
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