Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families is the UUA “Everybody Reads” book for 2025. Peggy Gillespie’s interviews with 35 families are based on an exhibit of photos and stories originally created for Family Diversity Project. Published in 2023 by the UUA’s own Skinner House Press, it was created in collaboration with PFLAG National, The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, and Family Diversity Project. Our Beacon Bookstore has sold this book throughout the summer and still has a number of copies. It will be used as the basis for an upcoming First U PDX program. In these very difficult times for our trans children and siblings, we owe it to them and to ourselves to be as educated as possible. The Bookstore sold out last Sunday, but is restocking for Sunday, August 31. Find this and a number of LGBTQIA+ focused books – for children, youth, and adults. 

Are you ready for a few new bedtime picture books to read to your little one? While they may want the same story over and over and over to the point where they (and you) have it memorized, it’s a nice time to find something fresh. We have dozens of great picture books. A new one in our store is Blue Boat Home, based on one of our favorite hymns. Many of our picture books are part of the Banned Books display in the store – for reasons that may (or may not) surprise you. A Note: I Am Jazz is one of the banned children’s books in our display. It’s about a real little girl who grows up to be one of the adults in Authentic Selves.

A number of books we’ve had on backorder are coming in this week, and we’ll have some of the books for the Antiracism Learning Circles scheduled this fall. The books Rev. Alison mentioned in her Q&A sermon have been ordered – and we already had some of them (bell hooks, Rainer Maria Rilke, James Luther Adams). Work by other favorite authors (Parker Palmer, Wendell Berry, Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodron, and William Stafford) should arrive this week.