I love this question! Lesbian books are usually associated with Romance and Young Adult, but those aren’t the only genres with queer main characters!

I’ll split this into two: sapphic literary fiction (which are still pretty readable) and queer women lit that is dense and difficult to read (or just… weird). The books with (review) beside it are linked to my reviews, and those are the ones that I have read. The other I believe would fit, but I haven’t read, so I could be wrong. 

Lesbian & bi women literary fiction (bolded are the more classic/eloquent writing styles):

• Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
• The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (review)
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker (review)
  
• Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (review)
• The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie (review)
  
• Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S.J. Sindu (review)
  
• Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
  
• The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
  
• The Last Nude by Ellis Avery (review)
  Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy (review) 
  
• The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson (review) [Fantasy]
  
• Everfair by Nisi Shawl (review) [Fantasy]
  
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
  
• Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente
  

Dense, difficult literary fiction/classics:

• Orlando by Virginia Woolf (review)
  
• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
  
• Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
  
• Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes
  
• Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
  
• Women Lovers, Or The Third Woman by Natalie Clifford Barney
  

Let me know if that’s the sort of thing you were looking for! Feel free to clarify if I missed the mark.