YA LGBT Books discussion

We've been debating how to change the Book of the Month system to get more readers involved, but right now it's also the holidays, and everyone is busy. So for January, we're going to go with just one book, any YA LGBTQ. After that, we'll see how it went and plan further.

Sorry about the short notice - crazy week.

We are now taking nominations for our January 2016 Book of the Month read - please nominate books that are YA-appropriate and have significant LGBTQ content. Please scan our old BotM threads, and the Buddy Reads, if you want to be sure we haven't already done your choice (or post it, and I'll check).

If possible please post a link to the book page, and a blurb or brief description is appreciated.

What book do you want an excuse to read? Or what book do you want to discuss with others? Nominate a book (to a max of up to 4 books) below.

Nominations will close Midnight Jan 4th or when we have 12 books nominated. Poll will be posted after that.


ETA : NOMINATIONS are now CLOSED because we have 12 nominated books.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to suggest books.

Poll is now up here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Voting is open through Midnight Jan 7th.

Hey since nobody else is nominating I'm just gonna put a few options out there.


Beast by Brie Spangler
Tall, meaty, muscle-bound, and hairier than most throw rugs, Dylan doesn’t look like your average fifteen-year-old, so, naturally, high school has not been kind to him. To make matters worse, on the day his school bans hats (his preferred camouflage), Dylan goes up on his roof only to fall and wake up in the hospital with a broken leg—and a mandate to attend group therapy for self-harmers.

Dylan vows to say nothing and zones out at therapy—until he meets Jamie. She’s funny, smart, and so stunning, even his womanizing best friend, JP, would be jealous. She’s also the first person to ever call Dylan out on his self-pitying and superficiality. As Jamie’s humanity and wisdom begin to rub off on Dylan, they become more than just friends. But there is something Dylan doesn’t know about Jamie, something she shared with the group the day he wasn’t listening. Something that shouldn’t change a thing. She is who she’s always been—an amazing photographer and devoted friend, who also happens to be transgender. But will Dylan see it that way?



If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo (this was nominated in like August but didn't win)
Amanda Hardy is the new girl in school in Lambertville, Tennessee. Like any other girl, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is keeping a secret. There’s a reason why she transferred schools for her senior year, and why she’s determined not to get too close to anyone.

And then she meets Grant Everett. Grant is unlike anyone she’s ever met—open, honest, kind—and Amanda can’t help but start to let him into her life. As they spend more time together, she finds herself yearning to share with Grant everything about herself…including her past. But she’s terrified that once she tells Grant the truth, he won't be able to see past it.

Because the secret that Amanda’s been keeping? It’s that she used to be Andrew.

Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard (nominated November, didn't win)
All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she’s trying to be a boy—that she should quit trying to be something she’s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty. But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth--that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up.



The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie
For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk, raising the genetically-engineered beasts to defend ships as they cross the pirate-infested NeoPacific. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas’s first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas’s dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water.

There’s no time to mourn. Waiting for her on the pirate ship is an unhatched Reckoner pup. Santa Elena wants to take back the seas with a monster of her own, and she needs a proper trainer to do it. She orders Cas to raise the pup, make sure he imprints on her ship, and, when the time comes, teach him to fight for the pirates. If Cas fails, her blood will be the next to paint the sea.

But Cas has fought pirates her entire life. And she's not about to stop.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling Bobby!

I would like to nominate a A Love Like Blood by Victor Yates. It won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction.

Summary: Half Somali and Cuban, 17-year old Carsten Tynes, deals with the intricacies of sexuality, race, Americanism, syncretism, and migration under his dying father's abusive hand in A Love Like Blood. Set in 1998, his family relocates to Beverly Hills, MI to expand their photography business. His father has lung disease and promises to give him the business if he marries his ex-girlfriend. Faced with an unwanted marriage and the slow death of his father, Carsten retreats behind his camera. His camera becomes the loose thread that slowly unravels his relationship with his father and reveals the unseen world of "men who move at night." However, it is his infatuation with his neighbor, Brett that severs the symbolic umbilical cord between his father and him. When death pushes his father and Brett together, he makes a dangerous decision to protect them.

Enjoy.

Always.

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel
I feel like you'll all enjoy it :)

Jarrard wrote: "Into the Blue by Pene Hensen

Weird People by Jarrard Martin

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee"

Not Your Sidekick was one of our October LBTQ+ books, though it didn't get much discussion at the time. I personally didn't read it because it's not available at my local library, not sure how much that factors into the general participation rate though.

We have debated how much that matters, because some books are only in ebook (and some of those are in libraries, and some are hard to find even in paper.) It's no doubt part of the participation algorithm, but it's too hard to control for.

BTW, you can go back and comment on old book of the month threads. I have "Not Your Sidekick" waiting for me, and just haven't gotten to it... but I will eventually :)

Radical by E.M. Kokie

Determined to survive the crisis she’s sure is imminent, Bex is at a loss when her world collapses in the one way she hasn’t planned for.

Preppers. Survivalists. Bex prefers to think of herself as a realist who plans to survive, but regardless of labels, they’re all sure of the same thing: a crisis is coming. And when it does, Bex will be ready. She’s planned exactly what to pack, she knows how to handle a gun, and she’ll drag her family to safety by force if necessary. When her older brother discovers Clearview, a group that takes survival just as seriously as she does, Bex is intrigued. While outsiders might think they’re a delusional doomsday group, she knows there’s nothing crazy about being prepared. But Bex isn’t prepared for Lucy, who is soft and beautiful and hates guns. As her brother’s involvement with some of the members of Clearview grows increasingly alarming and all the pieces of Bex’s life become more difficult to juggle, Bex has to figure out where her loyalties really lie. In a gripping new novel, E. M. Kokie questions our assumptions about family, trust, and what it really takes to survive.

We have nine valid nominees right now (not counting "Not Your Sidekick") so 3 more slots, for those thinking about a nomination. :) Thanks to everyone stopping by here.

I'd like to nominate boy robot by Simon curtis

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

I'll nominate Cub by Jeff Mann, which has a main character not seen elsewhere in YA: a hirsute Appalachian teen.

"Not every gay teen yearns for fashion and popular culture. Some boys are pure country folk and like the feel of flannel and the smell of the farm. And they're neither lithe nor muscle-bound but stocky boys, the ones who develop hairy chests, arms, and faces years earlier than their peers. One such seventeen-year-old is Travis Ferrell, shy among most of the other kids at school, but proud of his West Virginia roots. He has not yet admitted his passion for handsome guys--and his idea of what handsome is and what handsome does is not much different from him. Soon he'll learn that he's not unique; gay culture has a name for young men like him. Cubs. Lambda Literary Award-winning author Jeff Mann has written a touching romance for the outsider in us all.

Cub won an Honorable Mention in the Pauline Reage Novel Award Competition."

I've read it, and it was riveting.

Hei! I would like to nominate Dirty London by Kelley York and Know Not Why by Hannah Johnson, if they haven't been nominated in the past. I did check and I hope I didn't just overlook them accidentally ahah.

Cool. Neither have, but I'm going to have to suggest "Know Not Why" as a buddy read, because it is book #13. I can set that up tomorrow, or we can save it to nominate another month - such a fun book.

ETA - one of the above nominated books is more NA with sex than YA, (Into the Blue) so "Know Not Why" will be book 12.

NOMINATIONS are now CLOSED because we have 12 nominated books. The poll will go up tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to suggest books. The poll link will post here tomorrow.

I cannot suggest at the moment. I am just overwhelmed that I found this group. I can't wait for our January's book.

Jeront wrote: "I cannot suggest at the moment. I am just overwhelmed that I found this group. I can't wait for our January's book."

We have enough for this month anyway - just vote when I get the poll up. You can think about next month <3

And as a general FYI, we ask authors not to nominate their own books - but since I failed to make that clear in the description above, I will accept this month's self-nominations if they fit the YA category.

Poll is now up here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Voting is open through Midnight Jan 7th.