Resource Lists
PUTTING YOU IN TOUCH WITH THINGS TO SUPPORT YOUR WORK
Please also check out our full lists of resources on Bookshop.org. You can purchase any of the books listed directly from an independent bookstore in your area, or to have them shipped.
Five Great LGBTQIA+ Advocacy Books of 2021
1. Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story by Julie Rodgers. "Outlove is about love and losses, political and religious power-plays, and the cost to those who sought to stay in a faith community that wouldn't accept them...This book ultimately casts a hopeful vision for how the church can heal.
2. Family of Origin, Family of Choice: Stories of Queer Christians by Katie Hays and Susan A. Chiasson. LGBTQIA+ Christians in the Fort Worth, Texas area speak of their relationships as "their families of origin, like all families, remain a work in progress."
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3. Queers The Word: A 40 Day Devotional for LGBTQ+ Christians by Shannon TL Kearns and Brian G. Murphy. Published at the very end of 2020, in this 40-day devotional you'll find entries from a queer and trans perspective written to support you in strengthening your faith and affirming your identity."
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4. Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer: The Church and the Famine of Grace by Jarel Robinson-Brown. This is a vital call to the Church and to the world that Black, Queer, Christian lives matter.
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5. Queering Wesley, Queering the Church by Keegan Osinski. Queering Wesley, Queering the Church presents a prototype for thinking about Wesleyan holiness as an expansive openness to the love and grace of God in queer Christian lives rather than the restrictive legalism that is sometimes found in Wesleyan theology and praxis.
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Bonus: The Queer Bible: Essays edited by Jack Guiness.
Five Great Anti-Racism Books of 2021
1. Making Black Lives Matter: Confronting Anti-Black Racism by Kevin Cokley. From the Author: "It is my hope that the book will provide a blueprint for readers that will empower them to actively confront anti-Blackness wherever it exists, because this is the only way we will progress toward making Black lives matter."
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2. Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love - Anti-Black Racism in the Charitable Sector, edited by Nneka Allen, Camila Vital Nunes Pereira, and Nicole Salmon. Written in reflection of the nonprofit sector (which includes churches), the authors of this anthology, "with searing and intimate detail, write about their experiences with anti-Black racism: from coping with being last hired, first fired, and overlooked for promotion to outright hostility in toxic workplaces. Their testimonies chip away at the idea of the inherent goodness of the charitable sector."
3. Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin Diangelo. This 2021 follow-up to her previous books highlights more of Diangelo writing as a white author to white people and white churches. She challenges the ideology of individualism and she demonstrates how white people who experience other types of oppression still benefit from systemic racism.
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4. Sparked: George Floyd, Racism, and the Progressive Illusion, edited by Walter R. Jacobs, Wendy Thompson Taiwo, and Amy August. The essays present reflections on racial dynamics in the Twin Cities and the intersection of the wonderful and wretched sides of that existence, revealing deep complexities, ingrained inequities, and diverse personal experiences. (Note - Thompson Taiwo was one of my undergraduate professors)
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5. Gonna Trouble the Water: Ecojustice, Water, and Environmental Racism by Miguel de la Torre. This volume of essays adds additional support that water is not a commodity, but the very source of life. It shares reflection on how water rights and toxic waste disposal are both tinged with racist policies.
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Bonus: Anti-Racism Begins With You Imagination Coloring Book.
Five Great Transgender Advocacy Books of 2021
1. Trans-Forming Proclamation: A Transgender Theology of Daring Existence by Liam Hooper. This book was actually released in December of 2020, but hit most shelves in 2021. Would be a great discussion book, with an author who writes from a place of deep connection to his faith.
2. The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood by Krys Malcolm Belc "is the story of a person moving past societal expectations to take control of his own narrative, with prose that delights in the intimate dailiness of family life and explores how much we can ever really know when we enter into parenting."
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3. The Real Lives of Transgender and Nonbinary Humans: A Publish Your Purpose Anthology as told to Brandy Lei is a "powerful collection of stories, told by transgender and nonbinary people of all ages and from all walks of life, is an inspiring tribute to the human spirit."
4. Raising Ollie: How My Nonbinary Art-Nerd Kid Changed (Nearly) Everything I Know by Tom Rademacher is the story of a past Minnesota teacher of the year adapted to changes in his own classroom and school with the struggles of his child, Ollie. Great book for considering the story of how one teacher and father navigated their child's transition.
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5. With Honor and Integrity: Transgender Troops in Their Own Words, edited by Mael Embser-Herbert and Bree Fram. Featuring twenty-six essays from current service members or veterans, these eye-opening accounts show us what it is like to serve in the military as a transgender person.
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Bonus: The Transgender Heroes Coloring Book by Tara Madison Avery.
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Five Great Health and Wholeness Books of 2021
Coming soon.
Five Great Faith Formation Books of 2021
Coming soon.