I’ve read and enjoyed (in random order):
- Broken Earth and Inheritance series by N. K. Jemisin
- Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir
- She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
- The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
- Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine
- How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
- Anything by Octavia Butler
Absolutely recommend The Left Hand of Darkness! I loved it and it was possibly the only book to move my husband to tears. It explores gender both as a social construct and as a biological truth, as well as love across cultures.
Everything by Le Guin is gold, honestly. I particularly loved the fourth Erthsea novel, Tehanu, on gender discrimination. And The Dispossed, discussing exile. As an expat/immigrate, it resonated deeply with me.