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    Book Recs: Adult Sci Fi (II)

    It’s been a while since we did one of these, right? What with our beginning of the year focus on releases lists, plus work taking up a lot of time (and energy!), rec lists have been sort of on the backburner. But not any longer! Since there’s been so much incredible sci fi being released in the past few years, what better time to do a part two to an adult sci fi rec list I first made, oh, only 4 years ago now. Part one of this rec list be found here.

    But before we start, I’m sure everyone is aware of the genocidal campaign that’s been conducted on Gaza for the past 6 months. If you have a bit of spare income and are looking for places to donate let us direct you to a few: you can find verified gofundmes to donate to here and here, you can donate to UNRWA directly, or to the Crips for eSims for Gaza campaign, or you can purchase your own eSims (tutorials here and here), or to organisations directly in Gaza, or you can donate to Anera. On top of this, you can also keep lobbying the people in power, and protesting, and just generally disrupting everyday life.

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    Book Releases: 2024 Books With Non-Cis Protagonists

    It’s been years of this, so you already know: there are only books with major trans rep here, which is to say with main characters or love interests (or actually important side characters). I like to think that choice is self-explanatory. (And as always, if you catch any mistakes, please leave a comment!)

    Also, a lot of those titles are (or will be) 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.)

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    Book Recs: Epic Fantasy

    Closing in on the end of March and, finally, our first rec list of the year! Completely by accident, this follows on from our last one of cosy fantasy with something that’s almost entirely the opposite. Epic fantasy, in my mind, is characterised by lots of POVs, a story that spans multiple continents or countries, and also just a feeling. The stories feel epic, like a saga. So, with luck, these 10 books fit that remit!

    A lot of these 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.)

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    Book Releases: 2023 Books With Non-Cis Protagonists

    This post, like all the previous ones, only features books with trans rep in the form of a main character, a love interest, or a truly major side character. The goal is to give you something you can cherish, not just an afterthought. The term ‘non-cis’ in the title is used as a little umbrella. (And as always, if you catch any mistakes, please leave a comment!)

    Also, a lot of those titles are (or will be) 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.)

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    Book Releases: 2022 Books With Non-Cis Protagonists

    It’s the fourth year in a row of me making a list of trans & nonbinary books, so I’m lowkey hopeful we all know the drill by now. The post itself is titled “non-cis books” to make sure it’s true for all the books included in it (especially novels with Indigenous gender identities, or simply sci-fi ones with no labels). And also because that’s what I used in my first post…

    This post only allows rep in the form of a main character, a love interest, or a truly major side character (usually a parent or someone like that). So you can be sure it’s not small or insignificant.

    If you know of any books I’ve missed or caught any mistakes I’ve made, please leave a comment! And as always, books by LGBT authors have a rainbow emoji next to the title.

    Also, 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.)

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    Book Recs: Trans & Nonbinary Adult Fantasy

    The final part of my impromptu adult fantasy rec list series is upon us! This one was, compared to the rest, pretty difficult to put together, if only because I hamstrung myself by doing almost this same rec list earlier in the year, and didn’t want to copy too many from that to here (that post was gender in SFF). You can see where I succeeded and failed in that, but I still hope I’ve given you enough different recs here that you’ll find something new and exciting.

    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.)

    And if you want to check out the other posts in this series, you can find them below:

    Lesbian | Gay | Bi/Pan

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    Book Releases: 2019 Books With Non-Cis Protagonists

    Here’s another compilation post about trans & nonbinary books that all came out in one year. This time the year is 2019. Sometimes you just gotta go back in time, right?

    Like always, I decided to only feature books with main characters or love interests who aren’t cis. (Or really important side characters, like parents). Of course, it’s not just YA, there are adult books on this list as well. And it absolutely is not all one genre.

    For this post in particular, I’m sure I have missed some books. Please leave a comment, if you know of any books I should add! And as always, books by LGBT authors have a rainbow emoji next to the title.

    See also: trans & nonbinary books of 2021 and of 2020; 100+ books by trans & nonbinary authors; twitter’s favourite trans books.

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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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    Book Releases: 2021 Books With Non-Cis Protagonists

    I didn’t want to just use an umbrella term, which is why this post isn’t titled “2021 Trans Books”, although it might have worked too. But let’s go with “non-cis” as something broader, since there will be books on this list with agender characters, genderqueer, genderfluid, sci-fi novels with approach to gender like we don’t have here & now.

    Like in my post of last year, I decided to only include books featuring main characters falling into any of those non-cis categories. I allowed myself also love interests or parents, or really major side characters. But on the whole, the idea was to have an actual rep, not a trans character mentioned in passing on page 275.

    I’m sure I have missed some books and will update the post a few times throughout the year. Please leave a comment, if you know of any books I didn’t put in yet! And as always, books by LGBT authors have a rainbow emoji next to the title.

    See also: trans books of 2020 and trans books of 2019
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    Book Recs: Adult Sci Fi

    When I wrote up the schedule for this month’s posts, I was initially planning for this rec list to be a continuation of that sapphic series. But, at the eleventh hour, I changed my mind, and went with adult sci fi recs.

    Sci fi is, in all honesty, one of my favourite genres. And particularly sci fi that leans towards being hard rather than soft (as such, if you don’t like hard sci fi, you may not find a whole lot on this list for you, for which I apologise). And when that sci fi is gay? It just makes it all the better.

    So, here are ten of my absolute faves.

    See also: Adult LGBT Fantasy Books
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    Book Recs: Books With Less Than 400 Goodreads Ratings (I)

    A bit of a different post for you today in that it’s not really got a theme as such. Instead I went for books that I’d rec that have fewer than 400 ratings (criminally) on Goodreads (as voted for on twitter, actually).

    There is a somewhat…eclectic mix here, for sure. But I hope it’s such that you will be able to find something you’re interested in, no matter what you’re looking for.

    Oh, and I tried my best to include books that didn’t have so few ratings just because they had only recently been released.

    So check it out!

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    Book Recs: Twitter’s Favourite Trans Books

    The other day I asked people on Twitter to give me their 5 favourite trans books. Now, I’m using trans here as an umbrella term to include all non-cis identities, so you will find recs with nonbinary characters, genderqueer characters and more.

    And let me just say, the responses were great and I managed to compile a list of so many gems! And a lot of them seem to be rather overlooked, which is just another bonus & very good news to people starved for rep, who have already read all the popular titles.

    Of course, as always on this blog, books by LGBT authors are marked with a 🌈 emoji. Please let me know if I got something wrong, so I can correct it!

    See also: 100+ books by trans & nonbinary authors
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    Book Recs: LGBT Retellings (Myths)

    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.)

    See also: LGBT retellings of folklore, fairy tales, classic books & books about historical figures
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    Book Recs: Superheroes

    Look me in the eyes and answer one single question: is there anything better than gay superheroes?

    No! The correct answer is no & I’m glad we all agree on that. It also means that I compiled a list of ten books with LGBT superheroes just for you guys. And a quick note – only two of those are comics! This is not to say that comics are anything less than, which is an absurd notion & one I absolutely do not want associated with me or this blog. But I wanted to showcase that superheroes are more than beautiful comics and can have their stories told through novels as well!

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    Book Recs: High Fantasy

    Have you ever noticed how a lot of fantasy with LGBT characters tends to be urban fantasy? Obviously, that’s no bad thing, but sometimes you just want to read about LGBT characters in high fantasy settings. (Or, let’s be real, you want to read high fantasy settings without the casual homophobia, but apparently that’s too hard for some people to write. Not that I’m bitter, but.) Because it’s fantasy, so why shouldn’t we be there too?

    So here are ten high fantasy books with LGBT mains. Brief disclaimer before I begin: there are three books on here I haven’t read, but people I trust have reviewed them highly (and also I plan to read them asap).

    Related: LGBT High Fantasy, part two