Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

June is Pride Month! (I think this is an international observation?) Who is reading something special for Pride?

I just checked my list of books lined up for remaining challenge categories, and I've got nothing jumping out at me, except one book, so I think I'm looking for inspo.

For soccer, I might read One Life by Megan Rapinoe.

Oh! And without even realizing it, I've got a "lgbt" book borrowed from the library right now! The Last Bookstore on Earth. I don't even remember why I put it on hold.


Usually I have so many other ideas and plans, but June snuck up on me this year!! (I've been saying that a lot this year.)

I'm definitely planning some special reading for Pride, though it won't all be in June - I joined a Pride challenge that runs from 1 June to 31 August. I'm not 100% sure what I'll read for each prompt, but it will probably include some or all of the following:

Fiction:
Welcome, Caller - neurodivergent author
The Black Flamingo - not sure if it fits a prompt
The Phoenix Keeper - magical creatures
The Paris Express - highly ancticipated
Hell Followed With Us - about a cult
The Mimicking of Known Successes - under 250 pages, looks like it's probably not about coming out
The Dawnhounds - not sure if it fits a prompt; it's a dystopia, don't know if it has a happy ending
Strange Bedfellows: A Graphic Novel - chronic pain, highly anticipated
Key Lime Sky - neurodivergent author (I think), looks like it might not be about coming out
Taproot - under 250 pages

Nonfiction:
The Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany - under 250 pages, overlooked women
Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity - not sure if it fits a prompt
Red Dust Road: An Autobiographical Journey - overlooked woman
Trans Historical: Gender Plurality before the Modern - not sure if it fits a prompt
Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language - seems like it isn't about coming out
Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady - overlooked woman, not about coming out

Poetry:
Sympathetic Little Monster - could fit neurodivergent author if you count depression, he's written about how that interacts with his transness

Books I've already read this year that would qualify include:
Chouette - nonverbal character
Playing for Keeps - soccer
Too Bright to See - under 250 pages
How to Sleep at Night - about a politician
Vanya and the Wild Hunt - magical creatures, neurodivergent author, nontraditional education
All Systems Red - neurodivergent author
The Canterville Ghost - classic
The Vital Abyss - under 250 pages
Come Tumbling Down - neurodivergent author, nontraditional education
The New Moon's Arms - woman going through menopause, neurodivergent author
Wanted, A Gentleman - POC experiencing joy
A Fire Born of Exile - not about coming out

I couldn't leave well enough alone and I fell down the proverbial rabbit hole and now I have way too many books borrowed and/or on hold at my library for Pride month. There's no way I find time to read all of these, especially since none of them fill any challenge categories for me, but I'll read some:

The Last Bookstore on Earth
Affinity
Bath Haus
The Spear Cuts Through Water
Little Rot
Immaculate Conception
Ordinary Love
Make Sure You Die Screaming
It's Not the End of the World
Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

I'm planning to read It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror.

I wasn't specifically planning anything. However I do have a couple books that qualify.

Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights
Love Is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness and Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community and Friends

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame was a good novella.

Erica wrote: "Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame was a good novella."



I've never read anything by Yang before, but I always think shorter is better so I put it on hold.

I've got "Spear" borrowed right now and dang it looks long!!!

Did anyone get any Pride reading done this month? I didn't. I've barely been reading at all the last few months, life's just hectic.

But I'm so disgusted at the US Supreme Court ruling that parents can opt out their kids from LGBTQ+ books in school that I might just go to the library this afternoon and check out all the kids' Pride books I can lay my hands on! Not to mention, I'm probably going to have to join the school board or PTA to make sure this nonsense doesn't come to my kiddo's school.... Grrr

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/27/nx-s1-...

Jennifer W wrote: "Did anyone get any Pride reading done this month? I didn't. I've barely been reading at all the last few months, life's just hectic...."




LOL no. I had grand plans, and I borrowed a pile of books from the library, and they all look really good, and ... I have only started one book. And I think I need to DNF it. Affinity by Sarah Waters. It's just not grabbing me the way her other books have. I'm so bored. I'm questioning all my life choices that led to me being stuck listening to this rambling audiobook in which nothing at all happens.

Jennifer W wrote: "Did anyone get any Pride reading done this month? I didn't. I've barely been reading at all the last few months, life's just hectic..."

I did read Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights and have been slowly making my way through Love Is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness and Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community and Friends. I'm gonna need to jump on that soon though because it is due soon and I can't renew it again.


As for the Supreme court thing...why did they have to make it a ruling/law? It has ALWAYS been your choice to not let your kids read things. I have the same issue with banned books.

Jennifer W wrote: "Did anyone get any Pride reading done this month?"

I did! I read 14 books total in June and 10 of those were for Pride Month:
When the Tides Held the Moon
Jonny Appleseed
Disappoint Me
Memorial
The Emperor of Gladness
The Slip
Authority: Essays
I Leave It Up to You

These books were written by LGBTQ authors, but the books themselves didn't feature LGBTQ+ main characters:
When We Ride
A Room of One's Own & The Voyage Out- I'm still reading this, but hopefully I'll finish it by the end of today!

I also read Sky Daddy this month because Book-of-the-Month labeled it as LGBTQ, but after reading it I don't know what they meant. Maybe because the main character is sexually attracted to planes, she qualifies as part of the community? I really have no idea.

The only one I got to this month was Hammajang Luck. I enjoyed it as a sci-fi twist on an Ocean's Eight kind of movie.

I read Greetings From Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer and No Echo.

If you haven't had a chance to read It Rhymes With Takei, I highly recommend it!

I actually read a few without focusing on Pride month.

Godkiller 3 stars fantasy comparable to T. Kingfisher

Countess 4 stars sci-fi retelling of The Count Of Monte Cristo but novella length

It's All or Nothing, Vale 5 stars middle grade novel in verse about a fencer coming to terms with her new normal after injury

It Rhymes With Takei 4 stars graphic novel memoir all the same people who made They Called Us Enemy

Murder by Memory 5 stars cozy mystery novella length I read to get the goodreads pride bookmark

I started Atmosphere but didn't finish it before the library took it back.

I'm doing a Pride Season Challenge that runs until the end of August, so I'm not done yet, but I'm making good progress. I read a couple of Pride-related books in June that aren't part of that challenge, too. Altogether I read:

The Paris Express - 3 stars
Taproot - 4 stars
The Black Flamingo - 3 stars
Dinghai Fusheng Records (The Comic / Manhua) Vol. 1 - 4 stars
Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity - 3 stars
The Lilac People: A Novel - 4 stars
Open Throat - 4 stars
The Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany - 5 stars

I also read a lot of Pride-themed reviews and recs posts, so I added a ton of books to my TBR!

I only read one and that was for the GR bookmark: Murder in the Dressing Room by Holly Stars.