The Kason Mordechai Smith Inclusive Books Library and LGBTQIA+ Archive
Established 2025
The Kason Mordechai Smith Inclusive Books Library and LGBTQIA+ Archive exists to:
Affirm and celebrate LGBTQIA+ lives and the stories of other historically marginalized communities, with a focus on Montgomery County and the surrounding region.
Preserve and share local LGBTQIA+ history, ensuring that the contributions, struggles, and victories of our community are never forgotten.
Empower people of all ages through access to stories and resources that inspire self-acceptance, resilience, and community connection.
Serve as a welcoming, intergenerational learning hub, where knowledge, creativity, and history foster a sense of belonging and pride.
This is not a general public library; it is a special, mission-driven collection that reflects the heart of the Montgomery County Pride Family.
Book of the Month
This month’s featured title was chosen by our CEO, Phillip Alexander Downie! For August, he has selected:
Giovanni’s Room, the Deluxe Edition (2024)
by James Baldwin
A deluxe edition of James Baldwin's groundbreaking novel, with a new introduction by Kevin Young and special cover art designed by Baldwin's friend and contemporary Beauford Delaney.
Giovanni's Room is set in the Paris of the 1950s, where a young American expatriate finds himself caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality. David has just proposed marriage to his American girlfriend, but while she is away on a trip he becomes involved in a doomed affair with a bartender named Giovanni. With sharp, probing insight, James Baldwin's classic narrative delves into the mystery of love and tells a deeply moving story that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.
Available Titles
Below you can find a small selection of what we carry in our library: and you could check them out! We have books available for readers at every level. Over 250 books, and 150 titles!
Click the link below to sign up as a library member and browse our catalogue. If you visit the library, our staff will sign you up for a membership absolutely free. It takes no time at all!
Café Con Lychee
by Emery Lee
Theo Mori and Gabriel Moreno have always been at odds. Their parents own rival businesses—an Asian American café and a Puerto Rican bakery—and Gabi’s lack of coordination has cost their soccer team too many games to count.
Stuck in the closet and scared to pursue his own dreams, Gabi sees his family’s shop as his future. Stuck under the weight of his parents’ expectations, Theo’s best shot at leaving Vermont means first ensuring his parents’ livelihood is secure.
So when a new fusion café threatens both shops, Theo and Gabi realize an unfortunate truth—they can only achieve their goals by working together to cook up an underground snack operation and win back their customers. But can they put aside their differences long enough to save their parents’ shops, or will the new feelings between them boil over?
A Peacock Among Pigeons
by Tyler Curry
Signed by the author! An LGBT-themed hardback children's book that tells the tale of learning how to stand out when you can't fit in. This children's story teaches the importance of celebrating our differences and learning to love the feathers you live in.
Peter the peacock doesn't know how it happened, but he found himself growing up in a flock of pigeons. Surrounded by a world of grey, he found himself feeling less than his peers and was embarrassed by his feathers. After he fails to blend in, he decides that it's time to learn to fly on his own.
Along the way, he meets new bird friends from all different flocks that teach him a lesson he will never forget.
Check, Please!
by Ngozi Ukazu
Currently in stock: Books 1 and 2!
Ngozi Ukazu's fan-favorite webcomic is now a graphic novel series. Check, Please! is the coming-of-age story of Eric Bittle, an ex-junior figure skating champion turned college hockey player learning to cope with the contact sport—and his feelings towards Jack, his attractive team captain.
Book #1 is a collection of the comic’s first half, freshmen and sophomore year: a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.
Book #2 follows Bitty into his junior year at Samwell University as he and Jack navigate their new, secret, long-distance relationship, and decide how to reveal their relationship to friends and teammates.
Visit the library to see our full collection!
Request a title
Is there something you want to read? Do you have other suggestions for growing our Inclusive Library? Submit your comments here and we’ll make sure your request is honored.
You can also contact the team at hello@mocopridecenter.org at any time. We’d love to hear from you!
Author Spotlight
Read a letter below from Emery Lee (e/eír), author of Café Con Lychee and Meet Cute Diary, to the MoCo Pride Center! You can pick up a free copy of Café Con Lychee from MoCo Pride Center courtesy of Comfort Cases while supplies last.
Dear Reader,
While I started my writing journey at a young age, my journey into queer YA came a lot later. More precisely, it began in 2016, while I was living in Orlando, Florida, just a handful of miles down the street from the nightclub known as Pulse. I was still figuring out what queerness meant to me when one of the most devastating shootings in the nation occurred in my neighborhood, to my community, in a place many in my circle frequented. At the time, it felt like being queer meant loss, devastation, and waiting for the next bad thing that would shake our community and tear us apart.
And that, more than anything, was why I started writing romcoms. I wanted to remind people that our lives are vibrant, that they're full of joy and love and possibility. I wanted to ensure that a genre that historically denied our existence–or framed them entirely in our political oppression when they acknowledged them at all–could no longer ignore our voices. I wanted to remind my community that love and joy are just as intrinsic–if not more so–to the queer experience than any pain or suffering ever can be.
As things in this country continue to worsen, I always remind myself that progress is not linear, and history is like a spring. So long as we continue to hold onto who we are and fight for what we know we deserve, eventually, the momentum will turn back in the opposite direction and we'll shoot forward into progress again. At times like these, it's especially important to hold fast to who we are, who we love, and continue to support each other as we struggle to carve out the space that we know we deserve.
I hope the space MoCo Pride Center will provide to you all will act as a support to keep you going, no matter how dark these times become, and I hope that Café Con Lychee can remind you of the joys that we deserve and can still carve out for ourselves, as long as we continue to stand together.
Yours Truly,
Emery Lee
COMING SOON!
MoCo Pride Center is currently collecting stories from LGBTQIA+ community members about the hidden history of Montgomery County, Maryland. Check back here soon to view that rich tapestry we’re weaving with help from folks just like you. We have always been here, and we will not be erased.
Tour the Archive
Other Resources
Pride at Maryland Public Libraries
Look up Pride events and collections at your local library! We’ve collected resources from major county public libraries in Maryland, and are hoping to expand library linkages soon. There’s even a guide to help you get your own library card in Montgomery County. Go forth and read for free!
Silver Spring LGBTQ Book Club
A book club for LGBTQ+ people in Silver Spring and surrounding areas in MD and DC. The club reads a variety of genres, not limited to LGBTQ-themes, and meet once a month to discuss a book and socialize.
A good way to meet other LGBTQ people in the area! Members suggest books to read and the club selects upcoming books as a group.
Here are some more bookish things we recommend:
Rainbow History Project
Rainbow History Project’s mission is to collect, preserve and promote the history and culture of the diverse LGBTQ communities in metropolitan Washington, D.C.
They are an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization and membership is free. Check out their upcoming events and tour their collection!
Connie Morella Library (Bethesda MCPL)
Visit our local chapter of the Montgomery County Public Library! MoCo Pride Center and the Connie Morella Library frequently collaborate on Pride Month programming as well as other special events throughout the year. Visit their calendar for information on book and textile clubs, more Drag Story Hours, and local author events!
Loyalty Bookstores
Loyalty works to create an inclusive, welcoming environment and provide books and goods for the home because, well, books are home. By creating a team of local vendors and community partners in Washington, DC and Silver Spring, MD that center Black, PoC, and Queer voices they create singular shopping and event experiences.
Queer Liberation Library
The Queer Liberation Library (QLL) is fighting to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community.
You can browse their collection or apply for a library membership to check books out!
Donate to our library!
Use the links below to make a contribution to the Kason Mordechai Smith Inclusive Books Library. Make a donation that will help us stock the books that our community members request. Thank you for your support!
OR, fill out our book donation form. We take book donations! Submit your title(s) for approval and reach out directly at hello@mocopridecenter.org to coordinate a book pick-up or drop-off.