• All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Lesbian Lit

    23 April, 2021

    This is a rec list I keep promising and then never coming through on, but finally, finally, I’ve got my act together. If you’ve followed me on twitter, you’ll know I regularly complain about lesbians in (generally YA) lit never using the word lesbian about themselves. I even wrote a whole post about just that.

    But I never offered you the books I know that do use the word lesbian (of which, I’m finding, I know depressingly few). So, these are they (with the exception of one, which I had to get Anna to tell me how to rec). If you’re looking for more, there are some in this thread.

    Before we start, I just need to make clear how I’m deciding on these books. First and foremost, each book has to feature a lesbian character who claims the word lesbian for themselves. Not someone else calling them a lesbian, not random mentions of lesbianism but the mc never says “I’m a lesbian”. Yes, I’m being a bit strict in cases, but I want to offer you ten books where the mc claims the label in a positive context.

    I have also tried to keep only to YA books, but I had to sneak one adult in there to make up numbers.

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

    Film & TV Recs: New Adult LGBT Stories

    14 March, 2021

    Sounds weird to use terms associated more with literature, but really, when I say “new adult characters” what I mean is characters in their early or mid 20s. Young people trying to figure adult life out.

    I ended up with 11 titles, and because I cheated and am claiming the last one only half fits the theme & that’s why it can stay. I was also tempted to put And Then We Danced and God’s Own Country on here, but eventually figured you all must know about them already.

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    Book Recs: Scribd, Intermediate Mode

    11 February, 2021

    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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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Gender in SFF

    24 December, 2020

    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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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: YA Contemporary That Isn’t About Coming Out

    18 December, 2020

    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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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Books With Less Than 400 Goodreads Ratings (II)

    10 November, 2020

    It’s been a good few months since I did a post like this, and since I hit…uh…500 books so far this year, I figure I’ve read enough more books to do a second post. So, here we are! Once again, there is a wide range of books on this post, so hopefully you find something you’ll enjoy.

    If you want to know what I recced in the first post, take a peek here.

    And, once again, the books on this list, where possible, are not ones that only have fewer than 400* ratings by dint of being published recently (i.e. within the last month, I figure).

    *Although by some strange coincidence, none of these actually have over 204 ratings…

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

    Film & TV Recs: Movies with two QPOC leads

    26 October, 2020

    I’m sure y’all noticed that weird trend in Hollywood where if one half of a gay couple is POC, the other, without fail, is white. Yeah, we can have some diversity, but just not too much.

    So that’s why this rec list came to be. Here you will find ten gay and lesbian movies where both the main character and the love interest are QPOC. Turns out, it’s not impossible to achieve!

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    Book Recs: Middle Grade

    28 September, 2020

    Have you ever picked up a gay middle grade book, in the hopes of something lighter to read in between YA or adult books, and suddenly found yourself bawling over it, because there’s something about MG that just hits and yet is so hopeful?

    If you haven’t, you’re missing out.

    So, in the interests of helping you not miss out any more, I have compiled a rec list of MG books for you to cry over*.

    *Disclaimer: you might not actually cry. I don’t know.

    Because I haven’t read huge amounts of LGBT MG myself, here you’ll find 6 books I’d rec, and 4 upcoming releases I can’t wait to read.

    Enjoy!

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Sapphic Science Fiction (I)

    24 September, 2020

    After a last minute switcheroo, today’s rec list is a long-awaited continuation of all those other sapphic rec lists (all the previous posts are here) which you have probably forgotten about. On request, this iteration is the first of (hopefully) many sapphic science fiction rec posts!

    Same disclaimer as in that adult sci fi rec list (in which I apparently recced most of these books anyway…huh) applies: I really like hard sci fi, but I know that that’s not the case for everyone, so there are soft sci fi recs in here too (although by some strange coincidence, most of these recs take place in space…proof space is gay I think).

    And, because I like fun, 5 of the books on this list are upcoming! (Okay, 6, but does it really count when that 6th is out in 5 days?).

    So have a gander!

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Urban Fantasy (II)

    8 September, 2020

    …or urbanish, since most of these turned out to be historical fantasies. But that still counts, in my opinion.

    But anyway! Today’s rec list is a continuation of a previous one, because I’ve done high fantasy, I did adult fantasy, and Anna did (some) YA fantasy. So where else to turn to next, but (back) to urban fantasy. So. Without further ado, let’s start!

    P.S. you can see what I recced in the first of these posts here.

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    Book Recs: Arthuriana

    27 August, 2020

    A little while back, I touted the possibility on twitter of doing a rec list of Arthurian retellings, but gay (obviously). Now, I thought this would be a pretty niche rec list, but apparently not, which is why I’m here today with 10 gay retellings of Arthurian legend.

    First things first, I haven’t read any of these myself, and a fair few are upcoming because, as it turns out, gay Arthurian retellings aren’t that big a market (shamefully, let’s be real). So I have dispensed “why should I read it” sections, since all I can really say is it’s gay, it’s Arthuriana, why aren’t you as excited as I am already.

    One last thing before we start though. You will probably notice one book in particular missing and I just want to say, before people start mentioning it in the comments, I do know about it. I didn’t get along with it. That’s why it’s not on this list.

    P.S. if you want more than this post, I made a list on Goodreads of everything I could find.

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    Book Recs: Books With Less Than 400 Goodreads Ratings (I)

    12 July, 2020

    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 of the Month,  Literature

    Book of the Month: Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir

    3 July, 2020

    It’s a new month, which means a new book of the month! As ever, there were so many potential books to choose from, so, if you want to see what we sadly couldn’t choose, keep an eye out for our August releases post later in the month.

    That said, here is what we did choose. And hopefully it’s introducing you to a whole new book!

    Related: Don’t forget all releases can be found in our monthly lists here.
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