Queereaders discussion

Happy Pride Month!

I'm starting off the month by reading Disorderly Men by Edward Cahill. It's about 3 men from different backgrounds all of whose lives are changed by being caught in a police bar raid Pre-Stonewall.

Hello and Happy Pride to all!

I just finished my 2nd book from my personal 2024 Pride reading list: The Seep by Chana Porter. I have a couple of fussy quibbles with it, but overall it's an interesting story about a gentle alien invasion that allows humankind powers and immortality that it could have only imagined before and what humans choose to do (and don't do) with it. The pdf is available on Trans Reads.

I also read Open Throat by Henry Hoke, a story told from the perspective of a mountain lion and explores how our queerness is shaped by the world we have to live in. I liked it a lot.

Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈

I'm currently reading All the Hidden Paths. There are a few other queer fantasy books I'm specifically hoping to get to this month, including Can't Spell Treason Without Tea and A Taste of Gold and Iron.

I’m about to start reading Swimming In The Dark. Then I’ll be reading We Could Be So Good. So excited to finally read them. Happy Pride Month!!! ❤️💜💙🏳️‍🌈

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (the author of Cemetery Boys!)

I just read The Prospects by KT Hoffman (which I adored) and The Feeling of Falling in Love by Mason Deaver, but technically both of those were end of May.
I'm Currently reading Husband Material by Alexis Hall, You can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne, and The Z word by Lindsay King-Miller.
Usually I don't read so fast, nor so many books at once but I'm on vacation and flying through them

Hi and happy Pride everyone, this bisexual demiboy sends love and rainbows!!

Just (re)started the second volume of Heartstopper today (43 pages in)- A. Oseman
and working on:

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
(130 pages left)- B. Saenz
This is Why They Hate Us (141 pages left)- A. Aceves
Autoboyography (126 pages left)- C. Lauren

(Re)Reading
The God Box- A. Sanchez,
Red White and Royal Blue- C. McQuiston
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World- B. Saenz
next

Enjoy Pride!!

Starting off Pride Month with My Best Man by Andy Schell. Quite problematic at some parts. 87% more to go

Swimming in the Dark is a beautiful novel. I keep waiting for the author to write something else but he doesn’t seem to have done…

Happy Pride month everyone!
Currently I’m reading;
Eragon
Hot boy summer
1984(audiobook)
(I might not even finish the last two this month)
I don’t really have a clear plan besides the Inheritance cycle, so maybe I’ll re-read some stuff

Hello, all! I'm trying to get out of a reading slump and I think if I can finish these two books that I've been working on for what seems like most of this year, then I'll be golden!

These are my two struggle reads:
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know?
Smoke

And then here are the reads that I've been enjoying and will likely finish this month no problem!
The Sentence
I Hope You Get This Message

I'm reading HEARTBREAK BOYS by Simon James Green It has the funniest coming out scene I've ever read. Nate is trying to get up the nerve to tell his parents he's gay and that his date to the prom is another guy, but before he can, his dad simply remarks, "Tell us about him!" followed by his mom asking, "Yes, what's his name?" To which Nate replies, "Yes, it's a him because I'm -- Hang on, what?" I think Green has it correct: I'm guessing 90% of parents have an inkling about their kids' sexual orientation before their child confirms it.

Currently reading Gone To See The River Man by Kristopher Triana, not a queer read unfortunately as I've been craving horror recently, but I'm very open to recommendations of queer horror reads! It's an area I'm not as familiar with as I'd like to be :)

I thought I should read some LGBTQ+ history this month. I was in high school when Stonewall occurred, and I remember the riots being shown on the news on tv. Not sure if that qualifies me as an elder or not!
The book is The Stonewall Generation: LGBTQ Elders on Sex, Activism & Aging by Jane Fleishman.

I'm reading The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne and loving it so far. Happy Pride Month all!

I just started A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas. I don't usually grab for a memoir or biography, (not really my thing), but I read a sample and decided to pick it up!

Read Nearlywed, A Fae Coin Transported Me Into Another World and Now I'm the Gay Holy Maiden, Theoretically Straight, and Tricks Of The Trade the past few days. I DNF-ed all of them though, except for the last one.

From my Pride Month reading list, I just finished Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, which was quite enjoyable, very imaginative and clever, but idk, not a lot has stuck with me after reading it.

I also re-read This is How You Lose the Time War for a different Goodreads group which I absolutely adore, and I wrote a review (mild spoilers!) here about how I see it as a queer story.

Outside of queer reading, I started A Memory Called Empire, an ambitious sci fi novel by Arkady Martine and Witch King, a high fantasy novel by Martha Wells. The first is a bit of chore for me but am loving the second.

From my Pride Month TBR list (which is going to last me to the end of the year at least), I just started Common Bonds: A Speculative Aromantic Anthology. Have been very eager to read this one.

Happy Pride month 🏳️‍🌈! I'm reading the Gay Metropolis: Landmark History of Gay Life in America, The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich, and Cinder. There's more but its been so long for the other books that I need to restart oop. I just started the Princess comic but I recommend it cuz its Deya Muniz which enough reason to be excited! Her art is so cute <3 Its a sapphic love story about cheese which I'm enjoying so far. Gay Metropolis is a history book. I wanted more information since I never got any at school. I don't think Cinder is a queer story but its a nice re-imagining of classic fairy tales in a scifi setting.

Happy Pride! I’m reading The Gods of Tango by Caro De Robertis, which follows an AFAB character’s journey regarding gender and identity in early 1900’s Buenos Aires. (ETA apologies for being terrible with html links)

I’m currently reading ,momo ’ by Michael Ende a german author. I never read the book when I was a child only saw the cartoon :b so far I rly enjoy it!

Next up: Eating the Moon by Mark David Campbell

Currently reading The Trouble With Trying to Hook a Harbinger by Jennifer Cody

Reading Continental Divide by Alex Myers. It's about a trans man born female but newly out who leaves his home on the East Coast and moves to Wyoming in the hopes of living totally as male.

Hijab Butch Blues
The Town of Babylon,
All This Could Be Different
You Exist Too Much

Just picked up from the library:

Lunar Boy, a graphic novel by Jes and Cin Wibowo (listed as Jessica and Jacinta Wibowo on GR)

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa (extra excited about this because I checked out a print copy from the library to read along with the audiobook, narrated by Vico Ortiz, who played Jim on OFMD)

And hopefully will finish today:

Pluralities by Avi Silver

Still reading:

Common Bonds: A Speculative Aromantic Anthology--it takes me forever to read short story anthologies like this, but so far it's really good

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane, which I like so far; it's just a slow read for me

Finally updating with my reads for this month! I don't think I'll finish another book in the next 4 days so here is the wrapup:

Prophet Song -- DNF'd at 22%. Just could not get over the very minimal paragraph breaks, no quotation marks, and the ignorance/inaction of the main character.
The Vanishing Half -- great book about colorism and unexpectedly features a black trans man and his struggles with getting top surgery in an unaccepting time period.
The Song of Achilles -- 6th time reading this and every time I love it.
A Day of Fallen Night -- sapphic high fantasy? I'm sat.
The House of Doors -- set in the 1920s featuring good depictions of how gay men had to hide their affections, plus commentary on the judicial system and how it treats women who are victims of sexual violence and coercion.
Yellowface -- really interesting commentary on race in the publishing industry and how ignorant and entitled white people are when they're excluded.
Little Fires Everywhere -- GREAT book regarding motherhood, race, and privilege in my home state.
The Last Carolina Girl -- reminded me of Where the Crawdads Sing, which probably is why I didn't like it. I did finish it, but was very meh about it.
Transgender History -- about 66% of the way through this one and it'll probably be the last book of the month to round out pride!

Reading A Burning by Megha Majumdar

I just finished a lesbiana's guide to catholic school and it was pretty amazing, definitely one of the best books I've read this year :)

I recently finished It Was a Riot by Daniel Hall :)

The short overview of Nicked is this: young monk dreams of St. Nicholas, tells others (who see it as a moment of economic opportunity) of his dream, resulting in relic hunter, monk, and local political bigwig—along with crews of oarsmen and soldiers/mercenaries—finding themselves asea with a mission of stealing the remains of St. Nicholas in order to profit the local abbey and town.

My ***** review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Hall of Mirrors id a mystery set in 1950s Washington, D.C., featuring two gay couples: one female, one male. The author parcels out information a little at a time, creating tension among the characters because some of them know more about what's going on than others.

My **** review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Sons of El Rey tells the story of three generations of a family that becomes deeply involved in Lucha Libre. Ernesto, the patriarch of the family, is scouted in Mexico City as a potential Luchador. The work is demanding, bruising, exhilarating, and unpredictable. In East Los Angeles, his son Freddy (Alfredo) also becomes a luchador, less successful than his father, but competent; he also is trying to keep afloat the gym Ernesto founded. Freddy's son Julián will never be a luchador. He's fighting his own battles as a gay man of color trying to find a place for himself in the world. He's got an advanced degree and ekes out a living as a teacher of college composition, picking up classes wherever he can at a variety colleges and spending as much time on the freeways as he does in the classroom.

My ***** review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Now reading Four Squares by Bobby Finger. Great story and refreshing to read about some older gay/queer people and their lives, loves and history.

Happy Nonbinary Awareness Week to my fellow NBs! I know it's almost over but I at least have a relevant book I can talk about.

I'm currently reading The Wicked Bargain by Latine transmasc author Gabe Cole Novoa (he/him). It's a YA novel set in the 19th century Caribbean (yes, pirates! And anti-colonialist ones!), featuring Latine characters and a nonbinary MC. So far the representation has been amazing, especially for the MC. Some other books I've read recently that have a nonbinary MC have either used the MC's nonbinaryness only superficially (A Psalm for the Wild-Built) or more as an interesting literary device (The Empress of Salt and Fortune), but Novoa being trans himself really adds a lot of dimension to the experience of being nonbinary to the story and also connects nonbinaryness to the pre-colonial history of Latine people, and it's just lovely, especially for a YA novel.

Also the audiobook is narrated by Vico Ortiz (Jim on OFMD) and it's excellent (I'm reading with the audiobook and print copy together because auDHD).

If anyone is looking for other books featuring the nonbinary perspective I can also recommend Pluralities by Jewish-Canadian trans author Avi Silver (he/they), which I read recently. This is a novel aimed at adult audiences and is really thoughtful and creative in exploring the whole questioning "I didn't know being trans was an option for me" experience that many trans people go through.

Thom wrote: "Now reading Four Squares by Bobby Finger. Great story and refreshing to read about some older gay/queer people and their lives, loves and history."

Oh I'll have to check this out! One gripe I have from my recent queer fictional reads is the tendency among younger queer writers to present queerness as something mainly or exclusively experienced by young people. We old queers exist!