Today’s rec list is one which was requested sometime in December on Twitter (and yes, we’re just getting round to it. We are a slow-moving operation). But we’re finally here! In this post you will find 10 books, each featuring a BIPOC bi mc. So get yourself a cuppa and have a look see!
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Film & TV Recs: LGBT Documentaries
I don’t know if you guys are aware, but the LGBT History Month is celebrated at different times in different countries. And in the UK it’s in February. Which I figured is a perfect reason for me to recommend you some documentaries. It’s actually always a good time to learn something about our history.
Like Larry Kramer said, “we are entitled to our history. We are entitled to know who these people were. I don’t think you can be a people until you have a history”.
There will most definitely be a part two to this rec list, since it’s in no way comprehensive, but still: below you will find ten titles I have seen (or found) recently. Enjoy, and happy learning! (And of course, sadly, a general tw of homophobia, transphobia, violence for almost all of those titles.)
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Book Recs: Scribd, Intermediate Mode
So, you’ve opened up Scribd. The choices are overwhelming. You’ve read everything Anna suggested on their previous post. But where do you go from here?
Not to worry because today it’s my turn to provide you with 50* books that you can read on Scribd! I’ve done the digging so you don’t have to! So whether you’re looking for YA or adult, classics or poetry, sapphic, achillean or trans/nonbinary rep, hopefully there’s something here for you.
A little disclaimer first though: I myself haven’t read all of these books (some of what I initially included has been taken off since, thanks for that Scribd!), but they are all, if not read, then ones I want to read sometime soon.
*You may not actually have access to all 50 of these books, since Scribd can vary in availability depending on country.
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Book Recs: Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum
In desperation, two days ago, I asked for a rec list theme. The response I got was the theme of pirates, or the sea in general. Now, I’ve not read that many pirate books (not that I would feel able to rec, at least), so I went with the latter.
So, if you’ve been listening to sea shanties non-stop for however long, in this list you’ll be able to find yourself a book that they’re the perfect soundtrack to.
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Book Recs: Warm LGBT Hug Books
We asked what rec lists you guys would like to see & got this gorgeous request that maybe, possibly we have almost fought over. Just maybe.
So anyway, the request was: “wholesome books full of queer characters if possible, essentially just books that feel like a big queer warm hug because I cannot handle reading anything else”. You would fight to recommend people books like that, too, wouldn’t you? Enjoy then!
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Film, TV & Other Media Recs: Best of 2020
Since we added a section about movies, shows and other media to our monthly wrap-ups, we of course also had to let you guys know which of the titles we loved most.
And if you paid attention to said wrap-ups, you probably noticed that Charlotte doesn’t watch as much stuff as I do (Charlotte is definitely the Reader part of this blogging duo). That’s the reason why my section is longer than Charlotte’s. And why The Half of It, And Then We Danced, and Schitt’s Creek are not among my choices – I loved them too, a lot, but it was either let Charlotte pick them or agree to this post being just five titles for each of us.
Anyway, below are 25 great stories we have watched (or listened to) in 2020. Enjoy!
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Book Recs: Best of 2020
Buckle in, guys, this is gonna be a monster of a post! To give you some context for just how giant our list of favourite reads of this year is: we only listed three books each from 2018 & five books each from 2019.
But this time? We had to divide our list into 3 categories: backlist books, books released in 2020 & books to be released in 2021. We also cheated for the last two categories and added a group of books that both of us loved, so we didn’t have to fight over them. Also all the groups are 5 books long, apart from the group of 2021 ARCs which is uhh… 16 books long.
So yes, in total here are 41 books we read this year and loved the most! Enjoy!
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Book Recs: Gender in SFF
A while back, Anna asked for rec list suggestions and one of the ones that came up was nonbinary SFF. Now, they passed that onto me, since that’s not really their ballpark, and I sort of changed the rules ever so slightly. Instead of solely nonbinary rep (although most of the books here are still that), I’ve just gone for SFF that actually considers gender in its worldbuilding.
It’s a smaller category than you might think, sadly. But because it’s Christmas (or another winter holiday of your choice), I’ve lengthened this post from the usual 10 books to include a couple more.
So, enjoy!
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Book Recs: YA Contemporary That Isn’t About Coming Out
Books which features coming out scenes are all very well and good — we do, after all, need to see a wide range of those and there are areas where that story still hasn’t been told — but sometimes you just want to read a book where the fact that the main character is gay is wholly incidental to the story. That is, not a coming out story, nor really a romance.
So, here are 10 books which (hopefully) suit that remit. Yes, some do feature romances, but they aren’t romance books, in the sense that it’s central to the story. (Oh, and they’re all contemporary, because it doesn’t really make sense to make my task easier by including other genres, since obviously they wouldn’t have coming out scenes.)
But anyway. On with the list.
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Film & TV Recs: LGBT Romcoms
Okay, before we start: yes, there’s only one movie with trans rep and it’s a short feature at that. I know. (I made the list 11 titles long instead of the usual 10 to counterbalance that.) I was going to include Boy Meets Girl (which features a trans actress in the main role, in case you didn’t know), but frankly I have very mixed feelings about that movie. It feels a lot like a film for cis audience and not at all for trans people, and I really, really don’t understand why they didn’t go the sapphic route all the way.
I will tell you about an upcoming romcom with a trans main character played by a trans actress, though! Right now it’s called Re-Live: A Tale of an American Island Cheerleader and it stars Rain Valdez in the main role. Look out for that in 2021!
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Music Recs: Make The Yuletide Gay
Happy holigays! Last year around this time I made a rec list of Christmas movies, so I figured this year it’s time for music. Especially since so many great songs came out recently!
The whole mix that I’m putting at the end of this post is almost 50 songs long. Which means I didn’t put them all on the post itself, but instead focused on my absolute favourites of 2020 alone.
I didn’t want to simply put the soundtrack of Happiest Season on my mix and call it a day (yes, it’s all by LGBT artists!), so I looked far and wide for more songs for you guys! My other goal was to make this mix as full of original songs as possible, and I mostly succeeded there.
In any case, believe me, you do want to check out the mix too, for even more holiday gay cheer!
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Reads Rainbow Awards 2020: The Results
It’s finally time! The results are in! Six weeks of voting and over 1000 votes cast, and we finally have the winners right here.
Last year, we included the top five (or more, since there were a lot of ties) in each category but this year, we can have a distinct top three in every category bar one, so that’s what we’ve gone with. However, if you do want to know how the numbers worked out, there’ll be a link below to the results (as of tomorrow, probably, thanks to internet connectivity and slow computer issues).
See the breakdown of results here!
Otherwise, happy scrolling!
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Book Recs: It’s About the Yearning
I had absolutely no idea what rec list to make for today so, in a sort of democracy I suppose, I got people on twitter to choose between this, butch lesbians and yes this book is gay. (Don’t worry, the latter two will be coming, although maybe not so soon.)
We all know that yearning is a massive part of the best LGBT lit, at what we all yearn (lol) for. So, here are ten of my favourites that just hit that sweet spot.
Yes, there are some upcoming books on this list, I can’t be held accountable for it though.
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Film & TV Recs: Gay Comedies
I don’t know about you guys, but most of the gay movies I end up watching are dramas and if there’s anything funny about them, it’s like one scene. So it got me thinking: where are the comedies? And I’m talking actually hilarious stuff. Not romcoms (that is going to be another rec list in the near future!), not slice-of-life with a few joke thrown in. Comedies.
I put one TV show on this list, just for some variety. In all fairness, I was initially going to include Schitt’s Creek, but I figured everyone knows about that absolute gem so there’s really no point.
And yes, I’m painfully aware there’s no trans rep on this list, hence the title, but finding good comedies with trans characters played by trans actors proved beyond my powers. If you know any, please let me know, so I can make a list just for them!
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Book Recs: Bi MCs and M/F Romance (I)
Today’s list, brought to you late this evening, is one I touted doing a few months’ back, which got added to my (long) list of post ideas and which I am just now finally getting around to. So, here we are. Ten books featuring bi MCs in m/f romances. And, because when I started listing all the books I knew, the list got steadily longer and longer (if we include those I still need to read), this will have multiple parts to come.
One little note before we start: this list includes bi MCs with POVs only. That is, a bi love interest, despite the fact they are a pretty major character, would not get included. For this list alone, obviously.
