• Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: August Read

    23 July, 2019

    It’s time to make this official on our blog!! The choice did take us a while, because honestly, we had a lot of good candidates… But guys, we know what book our book club will be reading in August!!

    As per the poll on twitter, which you guys voted in for days, we chose a fantasy book. And as per our preferences & also a belief that a hype our books doesn’t just appear out of this air, it has to be created by readers – we chose to read an F/F book.

    First, though, let me remind you guys how we plan on doing this. We have a twitter account that we encourage you all to follow – Reads Rainbow Book Club. We’ll be using that to chat about the book, adding the hashtag #readarainbow. (Get it? Because it’s gay? Yeah, you get it.) At the end of August, we will post our reviews of the book & tell you what we plan on reading in September.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Neurodiverse Characters

    20 July, 2019

    This rec list comes from a request I got on twitter for LGBT books with neurodiverse characters. Obviously, neurodiversity covers an enormous spectrum, so I’m in no way attempting to cover all that (and if you look at the list, you can probably see where there are gaps, i.e. rep that isn’t anxiety, depression, PTSD, because sure those are the most common disorders but there’s a lot more out there).

    What I’m attempting to give you here is a handful of recs (ownvoices where possible, elsewise covered respectfully) to start you off. And, as ever, I would happily take recs from you in return. (Also I have extended the rec list to feature 12 books instead of the usual 10 just so I can broaden the variety here.)

    P.S. I’m only giving the rep for the neurodiverse LGBT character(s) in the book, even if there are more LGBT or neurodiverse characters in all. If that makes sense.

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  • All Reviews,  Literature

    Blog Tour: This is How You Lose the Time War

    18 July, 2019

    We’re so excited to be part of a blog tour for This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone! This beautiful little epistolary novel is out today, and is definitely one you’re going to want to pick up (like, now, please pick it up right now). If you’ve been looking for an f/f book with that kind of intense and all-consuming romance you only ever see with m/m or m/f couples? Well, how can you say no to this?

    So, scroll down, read my review, and then head on over to the other blogs to see how they felt.

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    Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

    And thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more.

    Except discovery of their bond would be death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

    This is How You Lose the Time War

    Amal el-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

    Rating: 5/5 🌈
    Published: 18th July 2019
    Goodreads
    Rep: wlw mcs

    But hunger is a many-splendoured thing: it needn’t be conceived in limbic terms, in biology. Hunger, Red – to sate a hunger or to stoke it, to feel hunger as a furnace, to trace its edges like teeth – is this a thing you, singly, know? Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out?

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: LGBT Retellings (Fairy Tales)

    11 July, 2019

    I mentioned on twitter the other day that I was thinking of making a post like this and everyone was very into the idea. I mean, what’s better than taking a classic story we all know & putting a gay spin on it, right?

    I put a parenthesis in the title of this rec list and there’s a very simple reason for it: there are going to be two more in the “series”! One for classic books (think Peter Pan or Sherlock Holmes) and one for mythologies (in a very broad meaning of the word). So look out for those!

    Before we start, let me make an honorary mention of Ash by Malinda Lo, the lesbian retelling of Cinderella. It’s not on the list itself because I can’t rec you a book you all already know, can I? But just in case you forgot for a second…

    And now, let’s go boldly into the world of LGBT fairy tales!

    See also: LGBT retellings of folklore, fairy tales, classic books & books about historical figures
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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Poetry Collections (I)

    9 July, 2019

    The title says it’s part one & that makes it seem like what should follow is “of many”, but please don’t expect this to be like a regular series. It’s more that I couldn’t decide on just ten collections and then Charlotte made me realise: I don’t have to!

    So there will be more parts to this, because poetry is most of what I’m reading these days. Just, it’s gonna take time.

    Some of the collections I’m gonna rec are definitely obvious choices. If you know me at all, I’m sure you can guess at least one of them. But hey, we call books classics for a reason, right?

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  • All Recommended,  Music,  Music Recs

    Music Recs: Pride Month Special

    27 June, 2019

    We don’t talk about music a lot on our blog, but I guess when we do, it’s with a bang! Which is to say, I’m here today with a list of 60 LGBT artists. And yes, I say artists, not just songs – each and every one of them is an out member of our community. (Well, there are a few bands and some of them only have a lead singer who matches that description, but you know!)

    I had to make some decisions regarding the way of presenting all this beauty to you. First of all, I divided those sixty artists into three groups of wlw, mlm & those who are not cis. (I was gonna go with “trans/nonbinary”, but there are also genderfluid, gender nonconforming artists, even a Two-Spirit one, so I figured I need a pretty broad umbrella term here). Obviously, there are some intersections within those groups, but I wanted even numbers… And lastly, I linked them all to my favourite album/single of theirs on Spotify, so I could put covers & make it all look pretty.

    So! Take a quiz and figure out who should you listen to!* Or just scroll through them all.

    Take the quiz!

    *Charlotte made me specify that when I say “dancing alone in your room” in the quiz, what I mean is dancing slowly with your eyes closed, the sound of rain coming through the window & maybe by the end of it you won’t be as tired anymore.

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  • All Reviews,  Book Club,  Literature

    Buddy Read: Girl Made of Stars

    22 June, 2019

    Week three of our little, proud project is upon us and this time we were reading a book with a bisexual protagonist. Cool fact about this book is that the MC actually uses the label, it shows up multiple times and there’s actual on page representation. Feels good, feels organic. (It’s also another book by Ashley Herring Blake where that happens!)

    That being said, if you count me and Anna individually, we’re currently going 1 in 4 for how good our buddy reads are. So, to say we’re really hoping the last book improves on that is an understatement…

    Read on to find out which one of us actually enjoyed this week’s book!

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  • 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 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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  • 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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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Superheroes

    26 May, 2019

    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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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Adult Lit (II)

    12 May, 2019

    This is part two of that really long adult lit rec list I promised you. Part one can be found here, and all the parts will be in this tag (eventually).

    You might notice as this list goes on, some genres will have fewer recs. That’s just because there’s not a lot in those genres that I’ve been able to find (as of yet!).

    Key:

    lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
    gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
    bisexual characters: 💎
    trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
    LGBT authors: 🌈

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Adult Lit (I)

    4 May, 2019

    The other day I was scrolling through twitter and I saw someone make a comment that they didn’t see any rec lists of adult LGBT books. Which. Once you say it, becomes obvious, really. There are a lot of lists of YA LGBT books. In fact, those are the ones me and Anna find easiest to confirm the rep in for you. Adult books? That’s hard. Often, those are the ones where we find ourselves spending 10 minutes just trying to find a confirmation that it is LGBT, let alone how.

    So this is (probably only part one of) a list of all the adult LGBT lit we can find (read, unread, and pre-release). Where possible, we’ve added in rep as usual, but for that we’re mostly reliant on Goodreads reviewers (and you know how vague they can be). But. These are 50 confirmed LGBT novels. Sorted by genre (10 of each).

    Enjoy!

    Key:

    lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
    gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
    bisexual characters: 💎
    trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
    LGBT authors: 🌈

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Books Set at Boarding Schools

    2 May, 2019

    First rec list published at my new flat! Because oh yeah, by the way, guys! I moved last Saturday. I’m still settling in, which is most obvious by the state of my bookcase – I just put books on it to get them out of boxes, but order? Never heard of her.

    Anyway. Back to why we are actually here. Books set at boarding schools! I feel like it’s one of those Hot Tropes that y’all really like, so I hope my selection won’t disappoint. Frankly, though, I’m treating it a little bit loosely, by which I mean there are also books set at a university or books that take place at a boarding school only for a while. Generally speaking, there’s some kind of dorm situation in each book, though. So I think we’re good. Let’s go.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Lesbian Authors

    26 April, 2019

    April 26th is the International Lesbian Visibility Day! And what’s a better way to celebrate that than having a lesbian talk about other lesbians? (Possibly getting said lesbian a girlfriend but shh…)

    I was actually talking with Charlotte about what we should post for this occasion and at first we just wanted to go with books with lesbian protags. But then we realised… As many sapphic books as we’re getting lately, still not a lot of them uses the word “lesbian” on page. And I’m not gonna lie, I would really love for us to finally get over that and stop treating lesbian as a dirty word or whatever is happening here.

    But yes, this is why y’all are getting a rec list of books written by lesbians. We gotta stick together, right? I’m also changing the format of our rec lists for this one, because I want to highlight authors more than anything else. I’ll be putting one book per a lesbian here, but that’s not to say I think it’s the only one you should read!

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