• Book of the Month,  Literature

    Book of the Month: Clap When You Land

    8 April, 2020

    Big news this month, as we’ve decided to scrap the book club (which, really, was just a series of failed buddy reads), and replace it with something new. A Book of the Month feature!

    This, honestly, is in part because of how uncertain everything is right now. We want to use this middling-size platform we have to highlight some upcoming (or backlist at times) books that have, perhaps, gone under the radar (or, simply, people don’t realise are gay).

    So, here’s how it’ll go. Each month we’ll post here and on twitter with information about the book, and order links. And hopefully raise your awareness of another amazing book!

    Related: Don’t forget all releases can be found in our monthly lists here.
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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Mysteries

    20 March, 2020

    I’m a simple reader: give me a good mystery and I will be satisfied. Make it gay and I will be over the freaking moon. And I’ve finally read enough excellent mysteries that I can make a rec list of them!

    I have fairly high standards for mysteries, I’ll admit. I mean, I want something where I could potentially guess the culprit myself for a start. But not too easily. Basically I have to be able to follow along but also have some element of actual mysteriousness. I told you it was high standards.

    But that, of course, means that all the books on this list are especially excellent (not that they wouldn’t be otherwise but. Stringent criteria and all).

    So, onwards.

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  • Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: March Read

    29 February, 2020

    For March’s read, you voted we pick sci-fi. So the chances of Anna not reading a third book club book in a row have immediately skyrocketed.

    We ended up picking a very recent release from an author we have both liked the short stories of for March’s read. Hopefully, that means we’ll both read the book for the first time in about 3 months.

    So take a look to see what we selected.

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  • Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: February Read

    26 January, 2020

    February brings us both Black History Month (and associated readathons) and #FFFeb. So, obviously, it made most sense for us to pick an f/f book with Black MCs, by a Black author.

    And also we heard this one would make us cry, and who doesn’t want a good cry over a book.

    So, without further ado, the book.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Tor Novellas

    21 January, 2020

    At the beginning of December, I decided (foolishly) to aim to have read 400 books in 2019 (being, at the time, only on about 325). I made it, exhaustedly sure, but I made it. And I did so by reading a lot of novellas on tor.com.

    So, obviously, armed with that knowledge, I had to make a rec list. There are only my favourite 10 on here, but I also made a longer thread on twitter, with every single one I read over that time.

    So enjoy!

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Sapphic Mystery/Thrillers (II)

    10 January, 2020

    I’m back with another sapphic rec list and just in time for #FFFeb! (If you haven’t heard, I’m running a month of only reading sapphic books on twitter and you’re welcome to join! More info is here.) Since mystery is my favourite genre (and Mahana @ Sapphic Library told me to do thrillers), this rec list is, unsurprisingly, full of mystery and thrillers.

    To note first though, a fair few books on here are upcoming, so I have occasionally only been able to find limited information about them. So, apologies if I have made a mistake anywhere.

    As ever, all the previous posts are here.

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  • Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: January Read

    28 December, 2019

    It’s approaching the end of December which means it’s time to announce our book club read for January! As ever, we got you to vote on twitter and you picked the genre of… (drum roll please) ROMANCE!

    Read on to find out which book we selected! And look out for our reviews* of December’s read sometime next month.

    *Disclaimer: we may not actually have read it by that point… oops.

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  • All Recommended,  Film & TV Recs,  Film & TV Shows

    Film & TV Recs: Gay Christmas Movies

    26 December, 2019

    This winter both Charlotte and I wanted to rec you some holiday stories. Charlotte went for novellas and you can find her post here. I decided to rec you Christmas movies. Only… I knew there aren’t many, but I didn’t realise there are actually three and two of them are unwatchable…

    If you’re looking for a list of those netflix-like movies of switched princesses and time-travelling knights and princes falling for regular people, but Make It Gay… If you’re hoping for that, this list isn’t for you, because movies like that still don’t exist for us.

    But if you’re looking for some pretty cool movies with a christmasy theme in one way or another, you may just find something for yourself here. At the very least, you’ll find canon rep.

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  • All Reviews,  Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: The Disasters

    11 November, 2019

    Took us a hot second to write down the reviews, but come on guys, it just be like that sometimes… The important thing is that we’re here and we’re ready to talk about the book! Hopefully you have read it with us and we can actually have some fun chatting!

    And don’t forget: for November we chose three novellas! They’re so short, you have no excuse not to read at least one of them!

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Sapphic YA Contemporary (I)

    8 November, 2019

    I’m back with another f/f rec list today! This time, I’m reccing YA contemporary novels. Contemporary, because that’s what you voted for. YA because I decided (or rather, Anna told me) to split the rec lists by age (adult/NA/YA). And because I always* do what Anna says, that’s what’s happening.

    (*this is not true.)

    Because there is (comparably) a lot of f/f YA contemporary, I’m starting off part one of this lot of rec lists focusing on that which is less well-known (and maybe one or two five upcoming releases I’m incredibly excited for, just to whet your appetite). I’m also including ones which, while they do not have an f/f relationship, do have a sapphic mc.

    As ever, all the previous posts are here.

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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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  • 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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  • Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: October Read

    30 September, 2019

    This month, we asked something different in choosing our read. Instead of genre, we wanted to know a trope you wanted to read. (And also because Anna wanted to read contemporary because they’re picky about genre like that.)

    And the trope you picked was found family. At which point, me and Anna realised we don’t actually know any contemporary found family books that we haven’t yet read, so we ended up instead going for sci fi.

    But this is all just an incredibly rambly way of saying, we have picked our October book, and are very excited for you to join in!

    Also, don’t forget to take part in our Orientation twitter chat happening tomorrow at 4pm GMT if you read the book!

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