BOOKS, FILMS, AND PODCASTS FOR 2021
We asked, and you delivered! Here’s a curated list of all of the sunbow community’s favorite media:
Since queer literature and media is often hard to find in today’s heteronormative society, we’ve marked all works that focus on queer characters or subjects with a (🏳️🌈).
Cover image by Tessa Tabor
Books:
Fiction:
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D Schmidt
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera (🏳️🌈)
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (🏳️🌈)
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (🏳️🌈)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (🏳️🌈)
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Swamplandia by Karen Russell
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Little Women Louisa May Alcott
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Historical Fiction
Inheritors by Asako Serizawa
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Fantasy/Dystopia/Science Fiction:
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Gone by Michael Grant
Memoir + (Auto)Biography:
Hunger: a Memoir of (my) Body by Roxanne Gay
All Souls: a Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick Macdonald
Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (🏳️🌈)
Tweak by Nic Sheff
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Untamed by Glennon Doyle (🏳️🌈)
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (🏳️🌈)
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee (🏳️🌈)
Current Events + Politics:
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harare
Gay, inc by Myrl Beam (🏳️🌈)
Normal Life by Dean Spade (🏳️🌈)
Short Stories + Poetry:
Green-Wood by Allison Cobb
No One Belongs Here More than You: Short Stories by Miranda July
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Graphic Novels:
My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
Films
Biographical/Historical
In the Name of the Father
Loving Vincent
The Trial of the Chicago 7
The Dirt
Drama + Romance
Little Women
Carol (🏳️🌈)
Submarine
French Kiss
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (🏳️🌈)
The Queen’s Gambit (miniseries)
Cable Girls (series) (🏳️🌈)
Unorthodox (miniseries)
The Lobster
Drama/Thriller/Adventure
Magnolia
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Tokyo Godfathers
Grand Hotel
The Place Beyond the Pines
The Usual Suspects
Comedy + Musical
The Farewell
Pleasantville
Jojo Rabbit
Pride (🏳️🌈)
Rock n Roll High School
Grease
Sci-Fi/Action
Inception
Horror
The Thing
Eraserhead
Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Oh No, Ross and Carrie
Mabel
Office Ladies
The Director’s Cut
American Arts and Culture Review
Nice White Parents
Acting my Age with Rohini Elyse
Very Really Good
Dada Pod
Growing with the Flow
Even the Losers by Katy Deyell
In Your Feelings by Thought Catalogue
Club Scene Chatroom
Invisibilia
Tree House Alex Green
You’re Wrong About by Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall
My Favorite Murder
Punch Up the Jam
Welcome to Nightvale
Jacobin Mag