• All Releases,  Music,  Music Releases

    Music Releases: LGBT songs of January 2019

    29 October, 2019

    I wanted to make some kind of music rec list because despite claiming this is an LGBT media blog, we don’t really talk about much apart from books. And, in part thanks to a twitter poll I ran, I figured a “fav songs of the year” kind of post might be a good idea. But then I started listing songs and the number grew & grew & grew… Until I realised I have no choice but to make this “fav songs of a month” instead.

    Yes, I’m aware it’s the end of October. But that just means I have some catching up to do! You can expect those posts every few weeks, until I get to the point where I can just make a rec list at the end of each month as it ends.

    Anyway, important notes: all the songs I will list are by out LGBT artists, because this is the kind of blog we’re running here. And I’ll be linking them to YouTube and putting all songs together in a playlist on Spotify in case anyone wants to check them out that way. The playlist (with more songs!) is at the end of the post!

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  • Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: November Read

    27 October, 2019

    For November, we figured we would do something a little different (given that it’s currently book club 2 – 1 Anna). So instead of a picking a single book, we’ve picked three novellas, two at 20 pages and one at 60. I (Charlotte) will be trying to read them all (cannot speak for Anna, who has not yet even started the October read), but you’re welcome to pick and choose which to read or not. And because they’re novellas, they can hopefully be read in one sitting.

    And, of course, each of the novellas contains a trans or nonbinary main character in a fantasy (or sci-fi) setting.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: AIDS Stories (Ownvoices)

    23 October, 2019

    I didn’t originally plan this as a post for LGBT History Month. I actually only wanted to make this list because I read a book about gay teens set during the AIDS crisis that was written by a straight woman & that rubbed me the wrong way. But hey, what better time to publish it, right?

    What this rec list won’t feature: books written by anyone but gay men.

    What else this rec list won’t feature: non-fiction books. No memoirs, no biographies, no essays. Not because I don’t value those, it’s the exact opposite. But because I had a clear goal in mind and that goal was to show you what it looks like when gay men tell the stories and write the world as they remember it.

    Also, I should come clean about a crucial fact… I’ve only read the first book on here, so really, this is a list for all of us. And it’s why I opted out of the “why should I read it?” section, given how my only argument would be the same for every book: it’s authentic.

    You’ll notice that the iconic Angels in America by Tony Kushner & The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer are not on the list – I figured y’all already know about them (and I was right if you noticed the lack of them).

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  • Interviews

    Author Interview: Kelley York

    20 October, 2019

    We’re back with another interview today, and this time it’s one of our favourite authors, Kelley York! If you haven’t read any of Kelley’s work before, then you should absolutely do so, particularly her most recent paranormal YA series (which is, of course, also gay).

    And don’t forget to follow her on twitter too!

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Urban Fantasy (I)

    18 October, 2019

    High fantasy’s all well and good, but sometimes you just want to read something that happens in a world you recognise. So that’s what’s happening in this rec list! Ten great urban fantasy novels (featuring LGBT characters, of course).

    And just to make it that much better, I’ve tried to make this rec list as not-white as possible (though you’ll be able to tell where I failed in that), for whoever asked for this specifically (because I don’t remember, so I hope you see this!!).

    So, let’s go!

    See also: Urban LGBT Fantasy, part II.

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  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Discussion: Stop Turning Us Into Tragedies

    16 October, 2019

    In case you hadn’t realised, it’s LGBT History Month this month! (I know, I know, it looks a little like we hadn’t realised, but just wait til you see the doozy of a rec list Anna has for you later on.) This post was born after I finished a book, went to look it up on Google for whatever reason, and found that it had been turned into a film. But not only had it been turned into a film, it had been turned into a tragic film.

    The book, by tragic gay ending standards, was relatively benign. Yes, it was bittersweet and the characters didn’t end up together, but they both survived. The film had obliterated that. So, of course, I got annoyed, said to Anna “hey how do you feel about this as a discussion post” and wrote about a third of it just for the catharsis.

    The premise of this post is this: we have enough tragic stories as is without straight people taking what happy stories we’ve written for ourselves and making them tragic in the name of some bullshit historical accuracy. So. Enjoy.

    (And don’t forget, we have various rec lists of nonfiction, historical fiction, period dramas and historical f/f!)

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: LGBT Retellings (Classic Books)

    14 October, 2019

    Part three of my retellings rec lists, as promised (ages ago)! If you haven’t seen it before, take a look at part one (all about LGBT retellings of fairy tales) & part two (LGBT mythology retellings).

    Today we’re talking about new takes on classic books and when I say that, I mean books like Peter Pan or The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s interesting, actually, because there are a few books that seem extremely popular & have a lot of retellings (honestly, I could make a whole post just about Peter Pan…), but then there are some that hardly have any at all. I don’t know who decides which classics deserve to be retold in a gay way… (Whoever they are, they’re wrong, because clearly the answer is: all of them.)

    Let’s get into it, though.

    See also: LGBT retellings of folklore, fairy tales, classic books & books about historical figures
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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: October 2019 (II)

    12 October, 2019

    I’m here to bring you the rest of October’s LGBT releases! Part One covered the first eight days of the month and can be found here. There’s definitely a lot to look forward to! Especially if you’re an SFF fan who likes to read about girls falling in love…

    And as always, in case you’re here for the first time:

    all our posts about LGBT books that came out in past months
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  • All Reviews,  Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: Orientation

    10 October, 2019

    September saw us read a mystery book for the book club! We selected Orientation by Gregory Ashe, an ownvoices m/m novel. For once, though, we didn’t have mixed reactions over this book. In fact, we had remarkably similar views (bets on how that lasts for the next book?). Part of that was because, yeah, there are quite a few content warnings for this (we’ve tried to list them all, but please let us know if we’ve missed any!) and they felt almost gratuitous at times.

    So, did we like it? You’ll have to read on to find out!

    One last thing first: you can find our October read here, and look out for the twitter chat we’re planning at the end of the month!

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  • Other

    The Great Big Thank You Post

    9 October, 2019

    About 10 days back, we celebrated our first birthday for this blog. And in typical us, slapdash and hurried fashion, we completely failed to time our celebration posts at all reasonably. So, if you’re wondering why this great big thank you post is coming last, a good week after our actual blogiversary. Well. Yeah. Just pretend like we didn’t confess to how unprofessional this whole operation is. (Spoiler alert: adulthood is not fun, do not grow up kids!)

    Anyway. Before we start this post, here’s a reminder of the guests we’ve featured over the past week!

    🌻 Shri wrote about coming to terms with being bi. 🌻
    🌻 Gabhi wrote about her experiences with coming out. 🌻
    🌻 Amrita wrote about finding representation in Malinda Lo’s books. ðŸŒ»
    🌻 Kayla wrote about the importance of found family & background LGBT characters. ðŸŒ»
    🌻 Lou wrote about finding the right person to create comics with. ðŸŒ»

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  • Wrap Ups

    Wrap-up: September 2019

    8 October, 2019

    September was a great reading month for us, by which I mean I managed to read basically as many books as Charlotte! (So what if it was only because she was busy finishing her research project for uni…) But in any case, we both read some great books, so you should definitely pay attention to our lists!

    You’ll also notice a fire emoji next to some titles. I figured it might be cool to mark the books we’ve reread.

    (As ever, though, Anna beat me at watching things in September.)

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  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Guest Post: Writing Comics with Cait

    8 October, 2019

    This is the last of our celebratory guest posts – but not the least! We figured five is a very nice number & were super lucky to get five amazing people to write for us. Today’s post is by Lou. We’ve met on book twitter, which seems to bee the place to meet interesting & talented people, doesn’t it. She’s an aspiring author and believe me, y’all really want her to land a book deal! Meanwhile, you can read a webcomic she cowrites with an illustrator friend. Or follow her on twitter.

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  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Guest Post: Found Family and LGBT in the Periphery

    5 October, 2019

    Charlotte lowkey makes fun of me for this, but if she let me, I probably would turn this blog into a shrine for Kayla. I’m just a big fan of her work, okay guys? And not without reasons, because everything she already published is amazing.

    Anyway, I guess it comes as no surprise then that I asked her to write something for Reads Rainbow’s anniversary. And if you’ve read either of her books, you know that found family is a bit of a signature trope for her. So enjoy!

    You can follow Kayla Ancrum on twitter (and you should, because she’s hilarious) & read our interview with her for some more content!

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