reviews, releases and recommendations of LGBT media
The first ten days of September brought us some excellent releases (which you can remind yourself of here). But the month isn’t done with us just yet. Remember how I said there were over sixty releases in September?
Well, these are the other thirty-odd of those.
So, dig in, and enjoy!
We’re here with another amazing interview and once again we managed to get some answers out of someone whose book we both can’t wait to read! Book blogging just has some really cool perks, huh?
If, like me and Charlotte, you’re super excited for The Gravity of Us (coming out February 4th!!), read on! It’s always nice to get to know the author a little better before reading their book, especially when they’re as enthusiastic & lovely as Phil!
The other day I reread one of my favourite classic novels (Evelina by Frances Burney, which I recommend wholeheartedly, even though it’s sadly not gay) (well, if you ask me there’s a butch lesbian there but) & ever since then, I was very much in the mood for period dramas.
Naturally, I started by rewatching some favourites, as well: Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Persuasion (2007). But then I realised what I’m actually craving are gay period dramas.
So that’s why I’m here today with 10 LGBT stories taking place in the past.
Sadly, only two titles with trans characters made it to my list. And that’s because while there is a number of arguably good period dramas with trans characters, I’m not about to rec you movies in which those roles are played by cis actors (like The Danish Girl or Albert Nobbs or Breakfast on Pluto).
Also, I feel like it’s important I make something clear: I did not rec any stories with Bury Your Gays trope.
August seems like it’s lasted forever, to be quite honest (though that may in part be because of my research project, and now the final two weeks are gonna go by like nothing, but okay). We have a lot of things in this post (mostly because I read a lot and Anna watched – comparatively – a lot).
And there were some great posts we saw as well! So, without further ado, here’s our wrap-up!
I know what you’re thinking. It’s not even the end of August yet, and that’s true, there’s still a few days left on our last book club read (which was Sing the Four Quarters), but we wanted to let you know what’s up next anyway.
Again, we asked on twitter what genre you wanted to read, and this month you came up with mystery! Because we read an f/f book last month, this month we’re reading an (ownvoices) m/m one (also because, shamefully, neither of us know any mystery novels with trans or nb mcs, which was our first thought. Next time definitely though).
Before I let you know what book we’re reading, just a reminder that we are on twitter for this and we have a hashtag too (#readarainbow). And also, watch out for our review of the last month’s read!
After a couple of more relaxed months in terms of releases, September brings us 60 alone. Some of our most anticipated releases are out this month (*cough cough* lesbian necromancers *cough cough*), and we are just as excited get to them as undoubtedly you are too.
So, in the interests of not rambling too much, let’s get into it!
(And, as ever, you can find all our previous release lists here.)
Today’s interview is special for a number of reasons. Partly because I’ve been friends with Gabriela for some time now, so being able to interview her officially? Incredible. And I’m so happy it happened so soon!
But first of all, we’re here to celebrate Keep Faith – an anthology of LGBT stories about faith & all the ways one can connect with it. Gabriela is one of the authors who contributed to it, but more importantly: she edited the whole thing & it’s safe to say this project wouldn’t exist without her.
So read on to see what marvelous things she had to say about her experiences as a bisexual Brazilian writer!
When a mysterious show arrives in town, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Brighton is both intrigued and unsettled. But none of the acts capture her attention quite like the blue-eyed woman. Locked in a birdcage and covered in feathers, the anguish in her voice sounds just a little too real to be an act—because it isn’t. The show’s owner, a sadistic witch known only as the Mistress, is holding her captive.
And she’s chosen Elizabeth as her next victim.
After watching the blue-eyed woman die, Elizabeth is placed under the same curse. She clings to what little hope she can find in the words of a fortune teller and in her own strange dreams. The more she learns, the more she suspects that the Mistress isn’t as invulnerable as she appears. But time is against her, and every feather that sprouts brings her closer to meeting the blue-eyed woman’s fate. Can Elizabeth unlock the secret to flying free, or will the Mistress’s curse kill her and cage its next victim?
Jillian Maria
Published: 3rd September 2019
Goodreads
Rep: lesbian mc, bi li
I’m back with the second part of this series (the previous parts can all be found here)! This time, I’m reccing mystery/thriller books (because they are my favourite genre when done well). Good mysteries keep you on your toes the entire time, with plot twists you don’t see coming until they’ve happened (you know when you get a good one, and then you think back to what’s come before and you’re like oh this was coming. That’s just *chef’s kiss*). So with these recs I hope you will find some of that.
P. S. Some of the books I recced in the previous post may also apply here as mysteries, but I haven’t included them here so as not to duplicate too much.
P. P. S. Once again, I haven’t read all of these, so as such, I think some don’t have an f/f romance but do have a wlw mc, but I don’t necessarily know which those are.
We all know how US-centric the book blogging community can sometimes (often, if we’re being less nice) get. Myself and Anna have probably fallen into that trap on this blog a few times as well. So, in the interests of expanding this blog, here are 20 UK (and Irish) YA books.
First, a disclaimer: I haven’t read every single one of these books. And some of them aren’t even published yet (boo). But in the interests of raising awareness of LGBT lit out there that isn’t set in the USA*, I’m putting them all on here.
* Loosely speaking. Two books on this list still are.
Oh, do we have a treat for you guys today!!
I’m sure y’all are anxiously waiting for Nina’s book, as we both do. I mean, it’s the F/F book of our dreams! What more could we ask for? Turns out: a lovely & funny author, which is a perfect description of Nina.
On a side note, I’m (Anna) part of a blog tour for Crier’s War organised by Karina @ Afire Pages, so please look forward to my review of the book somewhen next month. Plus a little something extra…
Edit: the review & the playlist are up!
Part two of my retellings rec lists, as promised! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the series: LGBT fairy tales retellings & LGBT retellings of classic books.
Now, when it comes to mythologies… I actually had a bit of a problem. I wasn’t sure if I should include retellings of The Odyssey, for example. Sure, we have mythology there, but also part three of this series is going to be Classic Texts & wouldn’t it be more of a fit there? I even ran a poll on twitter and y’all were who decided in the end. :>>
Also obviously my first thought for this theme was The Song of Achilles, because I am gay and love to suffer, but I figured there’s no point in reccing a book we have all read multiple times.
And hey, a lot of those titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)
Personally, I don’t know when this whole month went past. If you asked me what day it is and didn’t show me a calendar, I would say it’s like… maybe… July 17th?? But here we are, already in August.
Neither of us really read A Lot in July, which I will gladly blame on it being the summer holidays (even though I didn’t get time off from work at all). And yes, I am aware that Charlotte’s list is 23 books long, but believe me – for her? That’s nothing. On my part, I was doing pretty well, until I read struggled with this one Polish book that was so awful, it actually put me off reading for the rest of the month…
Hopefully, August will be amazing for both of us! And for all of you, too! And now, let’s dive into the past.
Approximately once a month, twitter throws up a certain argument along the lines of there is no f/f, or where is all the f/f, or where is all the hyped f/f. And while I think there is a genuine case to be made for f/f books getting less attention, that doesn’t mean there is none (and also to say there is barely any/none blatantly ignores the authors who are producing f/f and the publishers who are backing it (did you know there are several publishing houses who only publish f/f), which is not cool). Basically, it’s there if you look.
But this will become too much of a rant unless I shut up now.
What I’m aiming to do with this series is provide you with a bunch of rec lists so that, next time someone says there’s no f/f, you can point them in this direction. Because yes. There is f/f.
Quickly, and finally, before I start I want to point you towards Mahana @ Sapphic Library who not only posts a lot of sapphic rec lists, but also has a twitter dedicated to it all.
So, on with the historical f/f recs! (There is some overlap in some cases with fantasy and mystery, just fyi.)
P. S. in the interests of full disclosure: I haven’t read all of these. This is less a rec list in the sense that these are ones I’ve read and enjoyed, more these are 20 f/f historical books as proof they do exist.
Today we bring to you the interview with one of my favourite authors. One of Christopher’s books – Wonders of the Invisible World – is honest to god in my all time personal top five. And to showcase just how gay I get about it, let me just say: I annotated my copy the last time I re-read it & this winter gifted it to my best friend when we went to Paris together.
So to say I was really excited when Christopher agreed to email us his answers, is a bit of an understatement… Read on to find out what he had to say about inspiration, how music doesn’t always help you write but experience sure does, and more (and more)!
