Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson – In this humorous memoir, Jenny Lawson weaves her own experiences with severe depression, tragedy, and other life-challenges through her narrative as she explains how these combined things have led her to live her life to the fullest. While the subjects of her stories are sometimes sad and difficult; Lawson uses her vivacious, comedic life approach to relate to her audience around difficult topics that we sometimes struggle to find common ground on with a Leo-like bravery.

At The Mountains Of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft – Boy, was this man racist. That has nothing to do with Lovecraft’s zodiac sign or At The Mountains Of Madness, but it’s always worth pointing out. Anyway, the protagonist of this tale, William Dyer, is insane, but is also somehow the most sane person in the narrative, given that he knows his warning about the madness-inducing beings gathered at an Antarctic site will go unheeded (i.e., everyone else are a bunch of Leos because they’re going to explore the region anyway, because they do what they want). But Dyer’s a bit of a Leo too, because he thinks he shouldn’t have to explain himself at all, that he should be able to tell them stay away, and they’ll just follow his command without question.

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin – The characters in Baldwin’s fourth novel collectively represent everything good and bad about Leos. The racist cop—as well as the racist, broken system he represents—is headstrong, stubborn, and aggressive, while Fonny, Tish, and their families, while flawed in their own ways, demonstrate leadership, loyalty, and perseverance, despite seeming to have the deck stacked against them.

Women by Charles Bukowski – This book is so Leo it practically bites you. Bukowski paints himself as a gift to every woman on the planet, this magnificent lover for all the ages. Women practically throw themselves at him, and while also having all this amazing sex, Bukowski also expounds upon his newfound wokeness on female humans. He sure does know everything about the ladies by the end of the book. Yup, he’s the smartest man alive.

Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante – This innovative, wholly delightful LGBTQ+ book debuted in 2019. The book conveys the “fire of being witnessed,” which feels like a poignant representation of Leo. The story follows a queer trans woman who makes sense of her grief over the death of a close friend by creating an encyclopedia. The novel’s creative structure intermixes narrative with entries about a TV show, Little Blue, as a way to explore the relationship between the two women. The structure offers layers of witnessing a person for who they are, which conveys Leos’ warmth and their “big ways of showing up.” This is a beautiful, very funny, and heartwarming look into a character in a fullness that is still considerate and uncompromising in how they exist in the world.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – Brooding, self-righteous Heathcliff, one of the novel’s central figures, is as Leo as basketball is American (I don’t say baseball, since the sport, like our quasi-democratic government, is really just a knockoff of something the English were already doing). Is there some genuine reason for his anger and bitterness? Sure. But instead of considering all the angles of his “betrayal” and deciding to move on with his life, what does he do? He comes back to the titular estate to wreak havoc on the lives of all those he believes wronged him, even the woman he supposedly loves. Bad kitty!