• All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Pride Month Special

    17 June, 2019

    I’m sure all of you at least once experienced this: you go to school, you study history, and then years later, in totally random circumstances, you learn that some historical figure was actually gay. And then you probably cry a little (a lot, if you’re me) and you’re angry & disappointed, because yet again your own history was taken away from you.

    That’s where we come in with this rec list! We put together fifty titles – so not a comprehensive list by any account, but it’s a place to start. To kick-off your historical journey and actually make you realise you do love history, just the one that is actually ours.

    Siken would say that “there are a lot of names in history. / none of them are ours”, but he was only halfway right. We have always existed, we just weren’t always allowed to talk about it.

    This list is divided into 5 historical eras, with a few books that are studies across eras, and then further into what types of books there are. You will find here memoirs, letters, essays, history textbooks… Anything you can think of, it’s probably here!

    Take a quiz to figure out where you should start your LGBT education:

    Take the quiz!

    Or just scroll through the whole list.

    Key:

    memoir or letters 🍃
    biography 🌻
    historical account 🐚
    essays or theory 🌼

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  • All Reviews,  Book Club,  Literature

    Buddy Read: Swimming in the Monsoon Sea

    16 June, 2019

    After the disaster that was our first buddy read, we are back again for take two! It was, you might say, an inauspicious start. Anna didn’t even pick up this book until Saturday morning (hence why the post is delayed until Sunday. Thanks for ruining my carefully organised schedule for this month, Anna). But now, we’re sorted, and ready to review!

    So, read on to find out if this week was better than the last!

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  • Discussions and Guest Posts

    Discussion: The Value of Ownvoices Lit

    14 June, 2019

    This is the first of our two discussion posts for the month. This topic is one that’s close to the ethos of this blog. We started it wanting to promote LGBT lit, but over and above that, ownvoices LGBT lit. Because God knows we get little of that as is (growing, sure, but little in the grand scheme of things). So we wanted to talk a little about the value that it has to us specifically. Ownvoices means something different to everyone, and that’s one of the beautiful things about it.

    Obviously, we all know the value of ownvoices literature in general. Having people tell their own stories gives them an authenticity that you don’t get otherwise. And some stories – especially when it comes to marginalized characters – are just not yours to tell. But for each reader ownvoices books will bring back different memories, touch upon different emotions. Each reader will have different reasons to seek out ownvoices books. That’s what we want to focus on today. You all know we champion ownvoices LGBT books, so let us explain exactly why.

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

    Film and TV Recs: Pride Month Special

    12 June, 2019

    Like we said at the start of the month, we’re making our Pride Month rec lists a little special. We’re adding quizzes to them! If you click the link below, the quiz will help you find a film or TV show that suits your needs. Alternatively, you can scroll through all our recs here.

    Take the quiz!

    Of course, you can be sure that these are all films and shows with happy endings for their LGBT characters (though, if we’re talking ones that haven’t finished yet, we obviously can’t confirm that). But trust us, even when it looks bad in some of them. Trust us. Also, because we haven’t watched all of them, we can’t be sure what content warnings there for them. If there is a * against one, that means we have watched it and there are some CWs, so just comment if you want to know more.

    Finally, the key:

    lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
    gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
    bi or pan characters: 💎
    trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷

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  • Interviews

    Author Interview: Abdi Nazemian

    10 June, 2019

    We told you guys the interviews are going to be a regular feature on the blog and we weren’t kidding! What’s more, we got so many amazing authors on board, there is really no need for us to stop at just two interviews this month! Yes, there will be more in the next couple of weeks!

    Today, though, we’re hosting the wonderful Abdi Nazemian, who found a little time on a busy morning to chat with us! His latest book – Like a Love Story – just released last week, on June 4th, so belated happy book birthday! Naturally, it was a main point of our conversation, but we also talked about the power of character-driven books, the importance of happy endings & how music influences writing. Have fun reading!

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  • All Reviews,  Book Club,  Literature

    Buddy Read: Of Fire and Stars

    8 June, 2019

    We start off our buddy reads with Of Fire and Stars, and the L of LGBT in the form of a lesbian mc. This book has been on both our TBRs for a while, for a number of reasons. (By which I mean reasons we wanted to read it, not reasons why we waited until now. That’s just called having a way too long TBR.)

    It’s a fantasy! With an f/f romance! It’s ownvoices! Given our taste in books, we honestly thought we couldn’t ask for more!

    Read on to see if we were right.

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  • Interviews

    Author Interview: K. A. Doore

    3 June, 2019

    We are so excited to welcome a guest to our blog today! The amazing K. A. Doore very kindly agreed to talk with us about her books and writing and lots of other gay things! To say me and Anna are thrilled about this would be an understatement of the year. We have literally been in a constant state of euphoria in the weeks since we first came up with this idea and a bunch of authors agreed to participate.

    We initially thought this would be just a cool little Pride Month project. But so many wonderful authors were interested in getting involved that we can confidently say: interviews are going to become a more permanent blog fixture. We’re not telling you yet who else we had a pleasure of chatting with, though! Gotta have that element of surprise.

    Well then, without further ado, let’s go!

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  • Book Club,  Literature

    Pride Month Buddy Reads

    23 May, 2019

    Pride month is coming up and me and Anna have some really exciting stuff for you just to celebrate! Once the month gets underway, we’ll make a whole post about exactly what it is that we have planned, but first, throughout June we’re planning on doing a series of buddy reads. Four, to be exact, one for each week of the month (and also centered around L, G, B, and T! Though, technically our T is non-binary instead of trans – we put them all to vote so).

    The plan is to read the books and then make a discussion post for each, where we write small reviews and then ask you guys what you thought, as well. Because we want to open these buddy reads up to all of you! We want to celebrate and have fun together! You can pick any of the books to read and join in at any time. The dates for each week are what we’re kind of aiming for, but undoubtedly there’ll be some overspill.

    There were polls on twitter so you had a chance to decide what we will be reading next month. All the books we proposed are ownvoices ones, since you guys know how important that is to both of us. And your choices are as follows…

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