reviews, releases and recommendations of LGBT media
You asked (kind of), so we’re delivering! Well, actually… We asked if you want to ask & then you did. But it counts, right? It’s almost like this whole post was your idea!
Hopefully you will have as much fun reading our answers as we did answering your questions in the first place! 💛💚
Today is the day (for better or for worse). We’ve reached the last part of our recs list (sad face). You can find the rest of the list here. I’m really not sure what to say here, because it’s all been said, and I just feel like saying more would mean talking out my arse, so like. On to the books!
A brief reminder of the key:
lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
bisexual characters: 💎
trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
LGBT authors: 🌈
poetry: 🌉
I really hope I can say “here comes the post you’ve all been waiting for!!” and be right… Well, the post does come, so I’m already halfway there… In any case! Like the title says, this is part 3 of our very big and very great, and very much made up of books by & for the LGBT community recommendations list!
Today I give you books number 51 all the way to 75. There’s only one post in this series left! (So far. Charlotte & I hope you guys would be interested in more posts like this when we hit our next followers milestone!)
Question we already asked on twitter (here): would you be interested in a Q&A, to get to know Charlotte and me better? Let us know in the comments!
Before you dive in, make sure you read part one and part two of our Great Big LGBT Rec List! And take one more look at how we mark the rep in this series:
lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
bisexual characters: 💎
trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
LGBT authors: 🌈
poetry: 🌉
It’s Friday, which means (you guessed it!) Anna is finally letting me post the second part of the Great Big Rec List! (I’m kidding, kind of. Anna keeps the posts on this blog regular.) Anna posted her first 25 here, and you can find all of the parts of this list here or by the link in the menu up top.
So, here is a list of 25 of my favourite LGBT books. I say of my favourite because, not unexpectedly, when I tried to write down only 50 books, the list kept spilling over (so did Anna’s, which is good news for you guys because it means there might be more than 4 parts to this series). The books on here are all ones I’ve loved, and they’re also all ones which end on a, if not always outright happy, then hopeful note. (You can always trust me and Anna not to rec you tragic gay stories, or ones which end up burying their gays, just fyi.) There are some books that need trigger warnings on this list, so if you’re wondering, just drop us a comment and we can answer any questions!
Once again, the key to the rep is:
lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
bisexual characters: 💎
trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
LGBT authors: 🌈
poetry: 🌉
We talked about this giant rec list on twitter before & if anyone thought we’re only joking… well, you guys just don’t know how serious we are about LGBT literature yet.
100 LGBT books. Fifty from me & fifty from Charlotte. Our favourite titles that we think everyone should read. Posted in four neat parts over the first two weeks of the year, so we can start off 2019 properly.
Of course, for this list to make sense, you have to know what rep you can expect from each book. And this time, to make things obvious right away (and also to make everything cuter), we chose to use various emojis. And so it goes:
lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
bisexual characters: 💎
trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
LGBT authors: 🌈
And because most of the list is composed of novels and short stories, we decided to mark poetry as well: 🌉
Let’s go!
20gayteen may be over, but 2019 is looking even better for LGBT releases. We gave you a taste of what’s to come with two releases from each of the first six months, and now we’re back to our monthly lists. We have some monster lists for you in 2019 (March alone has 12 20 25 books!), and we’re kicking off with eight ten twelve amazing-sounding releases to look forward to in January.
As 20gayteen comes to a close, me and Anna wanted to take a moment to reflect on the best books we read this year. Of course, you know that, given the chance, each of us alone would be able to go on for days about our best reads, so, after some deliberation, we decided to only post three books each (yeah, I know. Only. Three).
Not unexpectedly, we then each took ages in picking those three (there have just been so many amazing books this year!). But, in the end, we have this. Three books each, representing (some of) our favourites from 2018. Enjoy!
Let’s be real, what’s better than some graphic novels. I mean, you get a great story and great artwork! (Also, you get a nice boost to your reading challenge, if you’re a bit behind at times like me…)
So today I’m here with ten titles, all of them featuring LGBT leads, most of them actually having way more than one character who’s not cishet. A Christmas gift for you all, if you will. :>>
Enjoy!
And if you need more, here’s a post about LGBT graphic novels, part II.
If you asked anyone in his small Vermont town, they’d tell you the facts: James Liddell, star athlete, decent student and sort-of boyfriend to cute, peppy Theresa, is a happy, funny, carefree guy.
But whenever James sits down at his desk to write, he tells a different story. As he fills his drawers with letters to the people in his world—letters he never intends to send—he spills the truth: he’s trying hard, but he just isn’t into Theresa. It’s a boy who lingers in his thoughts.
He feels trapped by his parents, his teammates, and the lies they’ve helped him tell, and he has no idea how to escape. Is he destined to live a life of fiction?
Kenneth Logan
Rating: 4/5 🌈
Published: 7th June 2016
Goodreads
Rep: gay mc
I didn’t come up with the lie. It wasn’t mine. They handed the lie to me, and I tried like hell to make it work for a while.
First things first! Let me remind you guys abt the G I V E A W A Y we are running! You have a chance to win one book that’s coming out in 2019! You can also just check it out on Charlotte’s twitter!
Anyway. The year is coming to the end which means it’s high time to talk about what 2019 has in store for us! We all know 20gayteen has been good to the LGBT readers, some truly spectacular books came out & our gay hearts were soaring. But guess what? 2019 is shaping up to be just as good, if not better!
This post is actually just a taste of what’s to come. Charlotte and me compiled a list of upcoming releases that turned out to be way too long to present you all at once! So what we settled on finally is this: we both chose only one release per month that we’re especially excited about.
But guys, why so few, you might ask? Well, like I said, there is A Lot of LGBT magic coming our way next year. Plus we will still be doing our monthly (longer) posts about new releases, like we started this fall. We don’t wanna overwhelm you! (Also… Not all books have set release dates yet & it was kinda messing up our list…)
So let’s go!! Twelve beautifully gay books to look forward to!
If you’re like me, then you’ll understand that sometimes, you really have to read a romance novel. And, of course, 99% of the time, you just can’t find a decent LGBT one – it’s all either sex-filled and lacking tension, or straight-up awful. So, the point of this list is to rec you ten of the best LGBT NA romances I’ve read (hopefully, to be the first part of many).
What do a Black American soldier, invalided out at Yorktown, and a white British officer who deserted his post have in common? Quite a bit, actually.
• They attempted to kill each other the first time they met.
• They’re liable to try again at some point in the five-hundred mile journey that they’re inexplicably sharing.
• They are not falling in love with each other.
• They are not falling in love with each other.
• They are… Oh, no.
The Pursuit Of… is about a love affair between two men and the Declaration of Independence. It’s a novella of around 38,000 words.
Courtney Milan
Rating: 4/5 🌈
Published: 26th June 2018
Goodreads
Rep: gay mcs (lgbt author), black mc
Henry held John’s hand throughout, clutching it as if it were the lowest rung on the ladder to heaven.
In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret. It’s not easy being gay in Washington, DC, in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a newfound ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself—and Marie—to a danger all too real.
Sixty-two years later, Abby Zimet can’t stop thinking about her senior project and its subject—classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Between the pages of her favorite book, the stresses of Abby’s own life are lost to the fictional hopes, desires and tragedies of the characters she’s reading about. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym “Marian Love,” and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity.
Robin Talley
Rating: 2/5 🌈
Published: 13th December
Goodreads
Rep: lesbian mcs (ownvoices)
This is still a harsh world we live in, but you’re lucky you’ve found each other.
I don’t know about you guys, but personally I cannot believe the year is already ending. It felt excruciatingly long and at the same time – weirdly short. I mean, wasn’t it summer just like, yesterday?
Anyway, it’s still 20gayteen and so there are still some LGBT-themed books I can showcase for you! Let’s get started.
A disillusioned major, a highwaywoman, and a war raging across time.
It’s 1788 and Alice Payne is the notorious highway robber, the Holy Ghost. Aided by her trusty automaton, Laverna, the Holy Ghost is feared by all who own a heavy purse.
It’s 1889 and Major Prudence Zuniga is once again attempting to change history―to save history―but seventy attempts later she’s still no closer to her goal.
It’s 2016 and… well, the less said about 2016 the better!
But in 2020 the Farmers and the Guides are locked in battle; time is their battleground, and the world is their prize. Only something new can change the course of the war. Or someone new.
Little did they know, but they’ve all been waiting until Alice Payne arrives.
Kate Heartfield
Rating: 4/5 🌈
Published: 6th November 2018
Goodreads
Rep: lesbian mc, lesbian li, black mcs (not ownvoices), possibly autistic li
Kiss me, and then take my hand, because I don’t know what happens next.
