Women and girls explore, discover, survey, analyze and envision the world as it is, and as it could be.

Books gone viral!

Fiction in verse!

Explore stories at the intersection of being Jewish and LGBTQ+. Included here are romantic stories with happy endings and historical stories–all keeping queer, Jewish protagonists at the center.

Read a trans author! Read a story featuring a trans protagonist!

Read stories featuring disabled protagonists.

Feeling the love this month? Check out our latest romance display featuring Black protagonists. Stories include a novel that takes place over the course of a single day, LGBTQ+ Black love, gentrification, immigration, and more.

Taylor Swift uses her social to occasionally recommend books she's read. Why not pick one up? The collection features titles she has claimed to love, including some classics and contemporary works. In addition, the library has selected some additional texts that we think Swifty and Swifty fans would love, too. See the collection here. 

The CSW Library asks you to explore both fiction and non-fiction works in our collection that explore the deaf experience and community. These titles include memoirs, as well as YA fiction, graphic novels, and even short essays, that center the experiences of deaf people–and all of their intersections. 

The memoir genre satisfies two of our most human desires: to be known, and to know others. A memoir is a narrative, written from the perspective of the author, about an important part of their life.

The CSW Library is highlighting books that are regularly challenged in libraries and school libraries across the country with increasing fashion as a reminder that the arc toward justice is long--and that this moment is a part of a larger LGBTQ+ history. It's equally important we remember the privileges afforded us here at CSW to have regular access to these materials.

A good mystery? A murder that needs solving and no one seems to be doing anything about it? A protagonist who starts a crime podcast? For fans of mystery, murder, and crime, these reads are for you.

Enjoy short stories you can dip in and out of? Explore this list of short stories collections and find your next read.

Through these #OwnVoices selections, we invite you to celebrate and elevate people with disabilities, call for disability justice, and challenge ableism through reading.

In response to systemic discrimination and negative views on disability and chronic illness, Disability Pride is a movement that seeks to celebrate people with disabilities for who they are, as they are—no exceptions. It's also important to remember that people have disabilities that are both seen and unseen.

Featuring folklore, magic, dystopias, and more — these science fiction and fantasy novels are perfect reads for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (celebrated annually in May) and beyond. Featuring dramatic retellings of traditional folklore to vast, complex, and technologically advanced new worlds, these authors celebrate and speculate all the while featuring resilient AAPI protagonists.

Explore these stories by Jewish authors featuring Jewish protagonists where Jewish identity is a central part of the story. The protagonists embody a wide range of experiences and emotions--from love and romance to heartache, parental loss, and community, these stories share the complex stories of Jewish people. 

Did you know April is Autism Awareness Month? Consider picking up these texts by autistic authors which feature autistic protagonists exploring life, romance, power, and more. 

Consider picking up one of these books about athletes, moments in sports, and important races. From the roughest individual horse race to the first African American NHL player Willie O'Ree (who played for the Boston Bruins and recently had his number retired), Britney Griner's rise to fame in women's basketball, and even Glen Burke, the first gay MLB player, there's a bit of something here for everyone. Explore how sports--and athletes--explore topics in intersectionality, racism, LGBTQ+ issues, and resiliency and activism.

Celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility 2022 (March 31) with these stories by transgender authors featuring transgender protagonists in all their power, joy, triumphs, and trials. 

Novellas, essays, and super short reads--perfect for a mod break or in between reading for classes. Looking to kickstart your reading life in 2022? Consider a brief encounter--texts at 200ish and under pages meant to be enjoyed in one sitting. These titles feature a wide range of topics--from lived experience and identity, to politics, philosophy, imagined fantasy, and social justice. Don't see something that peaks your interest? Ask a librarian. We have tons more of these small texts to suggest. Check out the collection here.

Dr. Nyle Fort, CSW's MLK Jr. Day speaker, discussed the importance of reading and diving into the works of scholars that both discuss the African American experience, oppression, and freedom, but also the mythologizing of MLK Jr. we often do on and around this day. The CSW Library has compiled a list of Dr. Fort's suggested readings--both from titles he mentioned during his talk and ones endorsed on his social media--and incudes both fiction and non fiction. It also includes articles he's mentioned or written.

This display features speculative fiction by Black authors in celebration of the rich histories of African Americans and the African diaspora. The one important detail that sets it apart from classic sci fi and fantasy novels is this: the narratives are less concerned with the technology and science as with the human responses to new situations caused by the science or technology. Highlighting the human problem, and not the technological one, is the hallmark of this super genre.

This display features protagonists who are looking to escape, flee a place, and get out of complicated situations and fates. For fans of page turners, thrillers, dystopia, and more. 

Check out the digital collection here, too.

This collection features stories about what it means to be uprooted--forcefully removed from one's home, as in the case of the memoirs featured here.

 Check out the digital collection here, too.

This display features stories with harsh realities, rough edges, and protagonists with courage. Check out the digital collection here.

We hope these 12 books by trans activists, writers, artists and thinkers will ignite in you an interest in learning and understanding the vast, and often different, experiences of trans people, and to build an action plan for allyship.

As part of Native Heritage Month 2021, the CSW Library is highlighting the power that comes from the convergence of both words and images to tell a story. These Indigenous comic and graphic novelists span the entire North American continent; for Native peoples, borders between the United States and Canada are imaginary and refer to this place Turtle Island.

Check out the digital collection here. 

This collection features fiction and non fiction from Indigenous writers about the impacts of living in a settler colonial state. These impacts include displacement, identity, citizenship, mental health and other traumas. Some are memoirs and some are short stories from multiple writers but all aim to express how colonization has profoundly shaped their experiences. 

Be sure to check out the digital collection here.

In celebration of LGBTQ+ history month 2021, check out how authors are reclaiming queer narratives in historical fiction.

Located in the CSW Library window, these non fiction books discuss not only trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ rights movement, but memoirs of lived experience at the intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Fiction with strong female protagonists or feminist ideas and themes at its core can sometimes be challenging to locate on the shelves. Take a look at this evolving collection of Feminist Fiction in the CSW Library. Chloe Maya's Ultimate Guide to Feminism also features some of her favorite Feminist Fiction reads, as well as critical non fiction texts for those that like to sink their teeth into history and social science reads.

A revolving collection of the newest books to the CSW Library.*

*updated frequently

Books that have a witch. Or witches. For those that love spooky season.

Chloe Maya Funk '23 features stories with strong women loving women protagonists.

Latinx writers explore fantastical worlds that speak to Hispanic culture and folklore. Explore the digital collection here.

This collection features non fiction stories and memoirs told through the graphic medium--with images and words. These stories feature personal explorations of navigating the world with a particular identity, key moments in history, dissenters, and artists. Explore here for more detailed information on the books featured in this space.

A collection of stories and novels set in other worlds or with fantasy and sci fi themes by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

A collection of #OWNVOICES fiction by African American authors, published in 2020 and 2021.

5 authors from our collection who share the rich diversity of the Arab American experience in the United States. These stories feature themes that include faith, gender, sexuality, mixedness, and more. 

Check out our collection of Asian American authors of fiction, as well as our collection of non fiction writings and literary short stories.

This reading collection will help you either begin your personal anti-racist work or to continue your journey. It features smaller collections with more targeted focus, like personal stories at the intersection of race, as well as texts that focus on anti-racist action plans.

Features books newer to our collection that are either by LGBTQ+ authors of color or prominently feature people of color within the greater gay rights movement. You will find memoirs, an illustrated history, and even short stories and poetry.

Short books and essays easy for you to commit to? Check out our Small Sips. These are all fast, fast, fast reads.

A list of titles by Afro-Latinx writers spanning Puerto Rico, Brazil, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, and more. Featuring short stories, historical novels, YA adaptations of classic literature, and novels in verse.

A closer look at the breadth of fiction written by Indigenous authors today. These stories encompass a wide variety of genres including horror, dystopia, poetry, science fiction, historical fiction and more.

Seven titles rooted in fantasy--reality is bleak these days, so why not dive head first into a new world?

Unconventional love stories, sweet endings, and plots that bend toward the romantic.

From books to screen adaptations. Learn your favorite series’ origin story by picking up one of these titles.