Books like The View from Here by Matthew Hays

Jeannette Walls' memoir chronicles her turbulent childhood in a dysfunctional, itinerant family, detailing poverty, alcoholism, and homelessness across the United States as she seeks stability and personal growth.

Neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi’s poignant memoir chronicles his battle with stage IV metastatic lung cancer and his reflections on life, medicine, and mortality.

Amanda Palmer, a rock star, crowdfunding pioneer and TED speaker, shares her candid journey of asking for help, revealing the politics of generosity and creative survival in the 21st century.

After being adopted by a quirky Dublin couple who treat him only as a house‑guest, Cyril embarks on a life‑spanning quest to discover his origins, his place in Ireland, and the meaning of true belonging.

A decade‑long exploration of butch‑femme dynamics among contemporary lesbians, blending oral histories, fiction, poetry, and fantasy to rethink identity, sexuality, and cultural roles.

Sam Harris argues that truthfulness can simplify our lives and strengthen society by dismantling the lies that support private vices and public evils.

Quadruplet brothers in rural Oregon are shocked by their father's suicide and the reveal that one of them is not biologically related, setting off a dangerous quest for truth that tests identity, loyalty, and survival.

A biographical look at Hollywood’s evolving view of gay and lesbian actors, documenting their careers and the shifting social climate within the film industry.

A collection of writing by queer femmes and LGBTQ artists featuring writing, photos, plays, and more from a multiracial DIY arts organization.

Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories reverberates with the sound of “cripgay” voices rising to be heard above the din of indifference and bias, oppression and ignorance. This unique collection of compelling first-person narratives is at once assertive, bold, and groundbreaking, filled with characters—and character. Through the intimacy of one-on-one storytelling, gay men with mobility and neuromuscular disorders, spinal cord injury, deafness, blindness, and AIDS, fight isolation from society—and each other—to establish a public identity and a common culture. Queer Crips features more than 30 first-hand accounts from a variety of perspectives, illuminating the reality of the everyday struggle disabled gay men face in a culture obsessed with conformist good looks. Themes include rejection, love, sex, dating rituals, gaycrip married life, and the profound difference between growing up queer and disabled, and suffering a life-altering injury or illness in adulthood. Queer Crips is a forum for neglected cripgay voices speaking words that are candid, edgy, bold, dreamy, challenging, and sexy. The book is essential reading for academics and students working in lesbian and gay studies, and disability studies, and for anyone who's ever visited the place where queerness and disability meet.

Joan Nestle’s collection examines the intimate and historical "fragile unions" of contemporary lesbian life, blending personal narratives with feminist history to illuminate LGBTQ experience in America.

Exploring contemporary gay life with humor and honesty, That's Mr. Faggot to You continues Michael Thomas Ford's work.

A unique anthology of twenty‑eight gay American writers, from Edmund White to rising voices, sharing never‑before‑published stories of their coming out between 1949 and 1995.

Screened Out traces how Hollywood’s films from the early 1900s to today have depicted gay characters, revealing the mix of stereotypes, tragedy, and moments of compassion that shaped public perception of homosexuality in cinema.