Taking a break from making very niche rec lists for a super specific trope used in an even more specific genre! So instead, I’m here today with books from various genres, featuring an even bigger array of tropes, but all of them sharing a specific representation. And yeah, the title gives it away, I know; it’s not a surprise all the books listed below have main characters who are on the asexuality spectrum. Hopefully, the selection is broad enough that everyone finds something for themself!
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Book Recs: Zodiac Signs as LGBT Books
This idea is sort of born of this thread (which was a great thread, if I do say so myself, so there’s a little bit of overlap in some signs…but I’ve mostly tried to add new books), but I decided I wanted to turn it into a blog post featuring all LGBT books, instead of solely sapphic ones. And here we are! This post contains thirty six books, one for the sun, moon & rising for each sign. So, if you’re looking for a way to create a little fun TBR, look no further!
Of course, I couldn’t start this post without having mentioned Anaïs, who is vastly more knowledgeable of astrology than me, and who helped a lot with fitting the right books in.
Want to skip to your sign?
Aquarius | Pisces | Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn
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Book Recs: 100+ Books by Trans & Non-Binary Authors
Today’s post is a collaboration with a group of bloggers. The idea came from Mols and she reached out to a number of trans and nonbinary bloggers, in hopes of creating a truly giant rec list of books. So here we are, with over 100 titles!
To see the full list, though, and not just my contribution, you have to check out everyone’s posts! So head over to those lovely people: Mols @ Mols by Moonlight, Artie @ ArtieCarden, Ocean @ Oceans of Novels, Anniek @ Anniek’s Library, Bertie @ Luminosity Library, Andee @ Mouse Reads, Danni @ The Rush of a Book, Vee @ Vee_Bookish!
Please keep in mind, all the books are written by trans and/or nonbinary authors, but not every single one of them features such rep.
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In the Intersection: Neurodiversity and Disability in LGBT Lit
The final post in our intersection series is here! Today we’re looking at books which feature neurodiverse or disability rep. That does, of course, give us a vast array of stories to choose from, and we couldn’t represent every possible facet of it in a single post. As such, perhaps even more than the lists, this is very much a starter pack. And if you don’t see a more popular one on here, that you might have been expecting, that’s just because we wanted to highlight those which aren’t often recced.
Everything else we’ve featured in this series can be found here: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit.
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In the Intersection: LGBT Lit and Faith
The penultimate rec list in this series is one that covers LGBT lit in which faith and religion play a big role (but isn’t always the sole focus, mind). We’ve done our best here to feature as many religions as possible, but, as you might expect, some are (as ever) easier to find than others. The sections are sorted alphabetically (with a miscellaneous section which represents books covering multiple religions) so are easily searchable.
The series so far: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Latine lit, Indigenous lit, neurodiversity & disability in lit.
We didn’t find much more examples (outside of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism), but here, have this documentary about a lesbian Taoist priestess and her daughter.
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In the Intersection: Indigenous LGBT Lit
This was probably the trickiest list so far. We wanted to cover as many different indigenous peoples as we could—obviously limited by what’s published and/or available and/or translated—of which, there are some easier to find than others (as is probably clear). There’s also a fair amount of overlap with at least some of the previous lists, so we’ve tried not to duplicate books (although authors may feature more than once here, and across lists).
This list is a little bit different to the previous ones. We aren’t marking with flags, or including an emoji to indicate diaspora. Instead, we’ll split the list by continent, and make a note for specifics. As such, this is going to be a longer list than previous ones (although undoubtedly you’ll spot where we couldn’t find any books).
And once again, briefly, some links to the series so far: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Latine lit, religion in lit, and neurodiversity & disability in lit.
And more links! Hausa lit, New Zealand lit (not all indigenous), some Sami lit (although not translated into English), North American lit (and here).
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In the Intersection: Latine LGBT Lit
Next up in our intersectional rec posts is Latine lit! We’ve done our best to cover as much of Latin America as possible here, but once again, what we can offer depends very much on what we can find and, as such, you’ll see pretty clearly where the gaps are. But. We hope you find something to enjoy on here! And there are plenty of links to search further (& if you speak Spanish, you’re in luck, we found some untranslated lit too!).
As before, we’re using flags to mark a country of origin (where possible) and a separate emoji (🏹) to mark if the author is a diaspora author.
And once again, briefly, some links to the series so far: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit, and neurodiversity & disability in lit.
As ever, more links: this Mexican book, which remains untranslated (boo), Chicana/Latina lesbians, Latine YA books, 9 books to read before you die, this Venezuelan book, again untranslated, some untranslated Ecuadorian essays, Puerto Rican lit (not all LGBT, but some by nonbinary authors), this (translated into German and French) book of stories about Argentine trans women, more Latin American authors, and some poets!
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In the Intersection: Southeast Asian LGBT Lit
The last of our lists covering Asia (if only because with the remaining regions we’d probably struggle to get 30 books), today we’ve got for you 30 books by Southeast Asian authors. I’m kind of running out of things to say in this introduction, since it’s much the same as previous posts: we haven’t read all of them, so it’s more a collection, than a rec list. So yeah. Enjoy.
As before, we’re using flags to mark a country of origin (where possible) and a separate emoji (🏹) to mark if the author is a diaspora author.
And once again, briefly, some links to the series so far: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Latine lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit, and neurodiversity & disability in lit.
And more links! Indonesian lit (primarily in Indonesian), Malaysian lit, Singaporean lit (and also here), and variously here.
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In the Intersection: South Asian LGBT Lit
After digging around for hours for South Asian lit that wasn’t primarily Indian, we finally have managed to get together 30 books for you, of which only about half are Indian (perhaps unsurprisingly those are the easiest to find, comparatively). Once again, there’s a mixture of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, so we hope you’ll find something to enjoy here.
As before, we’re using flags to mark a country of origin (where possible) and a separate emoji (🏹) to mark if the author is a diaspora author.
And once again, briefly, some links to the series so far: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, West Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Latine lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit, and neurodiversity & disability in lit.
And if you want more links, there are (so many) more lists here, here, here, here, here, and here. There’s also this zine by a Sri Lankan & an Afghan-Pakistani creator.
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In the Intersection: West Asian LGBT Lit
I hope everyone’s excited for this post, because me and Anna are! Of the posts we’ve collated so far, this is the one that’s required the most digging (I think Anna is most proud of finding a book by a Yemeni author), especially since we’ve done our best to cover as wide an area as we can with these recs. But we managed it! So here are 30 recs for you by West Asian authors.
As before, we’re using flags to mark a country of origin (where possible) and a separate emoji (🏹) to mark if the author is a diaspora author.
Before we start, briefly, some links to the series: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Latine lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit, and neurodiversity & disability in lit.
And if you want more links… well we found a couple of untranslated books too! Here’s one from Georgia, one from Azerbaijan and one from Syria (available in Swedish or German).
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In the Intersection: East Asian LGBT Lit
It’s like buses: you wait ages for one pride rec list and then two arrive at once! Today we’re covering East Asian LGBT lit, both that which is translated, and that which comes from diaspora authors. Once again, we’ve not read everything on this list (in fact, because we do want to prioritise translated lit in general, there’s a fair bit that’s not read), so it’s more a starter list for everyone.
As before, we’re using flags to mark a country of origin (where possible) and a separate emoji (🏹) to mark if the author is a diaspora author.
All of the series: Black, African & Caribbean lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Latine lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit, and neurodiversity & disability in lit.
Once again, some more links if you want to read more: translated literature from Taiwan and China, Japanese literature, Korean literature (also here – in Korean).
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In the Intersection: Black, African, and Caribbean LGBT Lit
For Pride Month 2021, our rec posts are taking a bit of a different shape. Over the course of June, we’ll have nine posts for you (of which this is, obviously, the first) in which we rec books where LGBT-ness intersects with another identity, be it race, disability or religion. These posts are only intended as starter packs, mind, and we’re going to try include books that may be less talked about. Ideally, we’ll have read most of the books we’re reccing, but sometimes that might not be the case (in a way, these are as much lists for ourselves as for you!).
And, also, a brief note on “ownvoices” (or however you wish to refer to it): all of the books we rec are (for the most part—there are a handful of exceptions though) by authors who ID as LGBT, although maybe not the specific identity of their characters. The other part of the intersection will more strictly match up with the character’s identity (within reason, i.e. whether the author talks about it specifically in terms of themself).
In the case of this list, we’ve used flag emojis to mark a country of origin (where possible) and a separate emoji (🏹) to mark if the author is a diaspora author.
All of the series: East Asian lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Latine lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit, and neurodiversity & disability in lit.
And, if after reading this you’re looking for more LGBT lit by African authors, let us point you in the direction of this list.
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Book Recs: Standalone Fantasy
After a few days of unintentional downtime (can you tell neither me nor Anna has the slightest clue about self-hosting), we’re back with a rec list of standalone fantasy books. For those times when you don’t want to invest in reading an entire series, but you do want something fantastical.
I’m sure we can all relate.
But anyway. Enough waffling on, because it’s been days since we’ve been able to post. I’m sure you all just want to get straight into it (so to speak).
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Book Recs: Lesbian Adult Fantasy
In keeping with the fact it’s Lesbian Visibility Week this week, today’s rec list is going to be one of solely lesbian adult fantasy recs (as requested by Anna). And I mean specifically lesbian, rather than sapphic in general (of which I have an old list here), so we’re talking characters who are attracted to women, but also are completely not attracted to men (simplistically put).
A couple of disclaimers: firstly, I’m fairly sure I’m right in reading these characters as lesbians. But obviously, since it’s fantasy, you don’t tend to get the word itself used, or even hedged around like in contemporary. As such, these are to-the-best-of-my-knowledge recs. Secondly, yeah, a lot of these are upcoming ones. Turns out I haven’t read all that many sapphic adult fantasies that you can pinpoint as lesbian. Something to work on.
All that aside, though, here are ten books you absolutely need to read. Call it lesbian canon, if you will.
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.)
Since writing this post, I’ve continued these recs as a series, so if you want to check out the other posts in that:
Gay | Bi/Pan | Trans
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Book Recs: Lesbian Lit
This is a rec list I keep promising and then never coming through on, but finally, finally, I’ve got my act together. If you’ve followed me on twitter, you’ll know I regularly complain about lesbians in (generally YA) lit never using the word lesbian about themselves. I even wrote a whole post about just that.
But I never offered you the books I know that do use the word lesbian (of which, I’m finding, I know depressingly few). So, these are they (with the exception of one, which I had to get Anna to tell me how to rec). If you’re looking for more, there are some in this thread.
Before we start, I just need to make clear how I’m deciding on these books. First and foremost, each book has to feature a lesbian character who claims the word lesbian for themselves. Not someone else calling them a lesbian, not random mentions of lesbianism but the mc never says “I’m a lesbian”. Yes, I’m being a bit strict in cases, but I want to offer you ten books where the mc claims the label in a positive context.
I have also tried to keep only to YA books, but I had to sneak one adult in there to make up numbers.
