@MarkOnArt@mindly.socialOMG, I'm glad I finally read The Song of Achilles. It was beautifully written and by the ending I was just fully in tears. I'm sure my eyes are still red.
Recent searches
Search options
#queerbooks
1 post1 participant0 posts today
@MarkOnArt@mindly.social
BOOK CLUB: in person or online!
You can attend both if you wish! In person at 3PM at Rainy Day Paperback Saturday Feb 15th at 3PM or Online via text chat on Bethel Pride's Discord on Friday & Saturday. for online, drop in and leave your thoughts when able and respond to other folks: https://discord.gg/aJjNAeHQ
Alexis Hall's transgender Regency romance, A Lady For A Duke!
@MarkOnArt@mindly.socialLatest episode of A Jaded Gay Podcast is fascinating if you're into queer history. And now I have the authors book series is on my radar. The detail he knows about the era they are set in is rich.
My instructor at GrubStreet has a novel coming out. "For readers of All the Light We Cannot See and In Memoriam, a moving and deeply humane story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis then the Allies while protecting the ones he loves." Check out "The Lilac People" by Milo Todd. https://www.counterpointpress.com/books/the-lilac-people/ #Trans #QueerBooks #Bookstodon #LGBTQ #HistoricalFiction
Counterpoint Press · The Lilac PeopleFor readers of All the Light We Cannot See and In Memoriam, a moving and deeply humane story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis then the …
The Queer Your eReader event by Divination Hollow has begun, and only today, you can grab some queer books for FREE, including This Is How Immortals Die!
#Bookstodon #Books #QueerBooks #SapphicBooks #LGBTQBooks #Romancelandia
It’s that kind of friendship. Friends who are ride or die. There are so few books that prioritize platonic friendships that fulfill important parts of ourselves. If you’re looking for a fun, cozy sci-fi where friendship matters more than anything full of queer characters then sign up for my free short story (link in bio) to receive updates, and free ARCs, for *The Scavengers and the Stray*.
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceI Want That Twink OBLITERATED – This is a hilarious anthology of queer and camp pulp short stories. I came across this as I was previously writing some pulp trans scifi in a similar vein to some of these, notably the story "Dotch Masher and the Planet 'MM'" but also a few others in here. The styles and genres vary so it can be hit-and-miss depending on your tastes of course but I adored the camp silliness of many of them. It's maybe a bit biased towards cis dudes compared to most of my reading - as you'd expect from the title - but there is still a diversity of characters within. If you're looking for an OTT and slightly horny gay anthology, ripped from the 50s but without the ingrained bigotry of the era, then this is a good call.
Oh no! TERF doesn't want to buy my books about a trans woman living her best life! How sad.
Anyways, if you do want to read about a trans woman and her queer friends enjoying life and enacting vengeance, you’ll get 25% off the ebooks with code BADREVIEWS.
https://www.whitehartfiction.co.uk/products/complete-vigilauntie
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceThese Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart (Izzy Wasserstein) – This is a cyberpunk noir novella about a trans woman who returns to her anarchist commune in the decaying remnants of Kansas City. Dora is as unwelcome as her parting shots were when she stormed out years ago, but now she's the only one who can solve the murder of her ex. Caught between two warring pharmaceutical companies, Dora faces shadows of her past.
I thought this was a lot of fun and really had a good noir vibe to Dora's perspective. Given it's quite short, I think there was an opportunity to add a little more to make her a little more well-rounded, flesh out the supporting characters a bit and add more dynamics to the commune (as much as I feel this with every novella, I'm starting to like the simplicity that comes with brevity). I did nevertheless enjoy it and it was paced well for its length. Avoiding spoilers here, but I also liked the trans take on a particular old sci-fi trope and how it played into a good discussion about the nature of identity.
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceThe Spirit Bares Its Teeth (Andrew Joseph White) – In an alternate 1883, The Veil between the living and the dead thinned and purple-eyed mediums speak with the dead under the auspices of the Royal Speaker Society. That is, male purple-eyed mediums; women born with those spiritual eyes are barred from spirit work and are treated as nothing more than breeding stock for the Speakers regardless of their age.
Enter 16yo Silas, to be married off by the end of the year. Despite having those valuable purple eyes, Silas isn't a perfect daughter, or even a daughter. A lifetime of being bullied into masking his autism, his transness and his proficiency in surgery has left him desperate to escape. But when his attempt to flee is uncovered, he is thrown into a brutal asylum for women suffering from a vague "Veil sickness". There, the spirits of women murdered within its walls beg for help, and for Silas to run before it is too late.
Despite the fantastical elements, all of this tracks very closely to the brutal Victorian practices on surgery and mental health. Despite a lot of horror around beatings and vivisection, I felt most chilled by the constant thread of helplessness. The helplessness that comes from never being believed simply for who you are, of having everyone you could turn to being complicit in your horror, and being constantly weighed down by a lifetime of abuse for who you are.
I felt deeply for Silas and the women imprisoned there and the book expertly conveys Silas' internal doubts and fears. I felt trapped alongside him which perhaps also shows how deeply personal some of these themes can be.
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceA Psalm for the Wild-Built (Becky Chambers) – Becky Chambers makes me cry again, this time in a hope punk novella about existence and purpose. Long ago, humanity's Factory Age ended when robots suddenly gained consciousness and decided to leave. Humanity respected their agency and choice, allowing them to leave into the wilderness and legend while restructuring human civilization into a sustainable, solarpunk society.
Sibling Dex is a tea monk, going from town to town offering people their ear, their counsel and the perfect cup of tea to soothe their worries. But Dex themself feels an emptiness and pain; they feel guilty for not being happy in a life which - on the face of it - gives them everything it should. This inner conflict they keep from those they help really resonated with me from the very start.
Hoping to find an answer in anything but their routine, Dex goes off track into the wilderness. There, they bump into the first robot to meet a human in centuries, Mosscap. Through its wide-eyed excitement at learning about humanity again, seeks an answer to a query the robots have about humans: what do people need? In such a short space, Chambers beautifully cuts through to our inner conflict and need for purpose and how to simply find joy in simply existing.
The only question I have now is: why didn't the bookshop have the 2nd of the duology in stock today? It's a crime, I say!
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceA Restless Truth (Freya Marske) – An Edwardian murder mystery set aboard a ship crossing the Atlantic while a magical MacGuffin goes missing. As Maud is thrown into tracking down the killer and retrieving the MacGuffin, she is thrown into the arms of a scandalous magical actress.
This follows on from A Marvellous Light, but with a different location and cast. To be honest I forgot large chunks of the first one but followed just fine. While Marvellous Light focused a lot more on romance between Robin and Edwin than the broader plot, this also focuses on Maud and Victoria. Although I feel it held its pacing for the plot a little better as they slowly unravelled the mystery trapped at sea for the voyage. Oddly enough keeping it in a tin can seemed to help the world building a bit more than the first.
I certainly enjoyed the constant ribbing at the endless spectre of societal scandal (excellent pillow talk with “I should have looked into this debauchery business years ago”), the history of the secretive magical women’s Forsythia Club and the relationships between most of the main characters. That said, I found the villains of the plot to be incredibly lacklustre and unmenacing which undercut a fair bit of drama along with the stakes being quite hypothetical.
Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates today!
Don't forget to open the last door of the Sapphic Book Advent Calendar!
We're wrapping up our event with:
25 book giveaways
5 free ebooks
4 books on sale
Head over to my website and open door 25: https://jae-fiction.com/sapphic-book-advent-calendar/
Celebrate the Holidays with Sapphic Sci-Fi and Fantasy by Molly J. Bragg
All eBooks on sale for $3.99 at https://desertpalmpress.com until January 1st
Fiction, especially young adult, is such a powerful teacher. So when it comes to some of the Big Important Things, it needs to show examples of how to do it right. I've recently read/watched two that had great examples of how to support a friend struggling with mental stuffs -- but the authors handled them very differently. (1/3)
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceLoka (S.B. Divya) – The sequel to Meru, about humans being limited in their activities due to their destructive past by their genetically engineered offshoots (the Alloys), follows Akshaya - the human-Alloy hybrid daughter of the characters from the first book.
Akshaya was always destined to live on Meru, her parent's dream for a human colony free from Alloy interference and an atmosphere perfectly suited for people like her - with sickle-cell. But as Akshaya comes of age, she resents the imposed destiny of living on a lifeless world and embarks on the Anthro Challenge - a circumnavigation of Earth only reliant on old human technology - to prove she's strong enough to stay on Earth.
This book covers areas I wish we saw more of in the first book; how the tamed humans live in the approved, safe areas of Earth and those exile areas at latitudes that are yet to recover from the catastrophe that human ambition wrought. Yet I did feel that their trip across continents and oceans progressed with such speed it missed any opportunities to really learn how these different human communities (those living under Alloy guidance, and those lost in the wilds) really lived; especially culturally.
Instead, it very much focuses on the journey, the various perils they face along the way, and the doubts they have about the challenge as the losses mount. In the background, those following their trek mount movements both in their favour and against both human ambitions like the challenge.
It chimes with the original in being a very human and hopepunk-focused vibe. The beauty and dangers of humans as individuals and a collective. It's a fundamentally optimistic story with some great reflection.
( Meru, the original book here: https://lgbtqia.space/@jaelisp/111115723090898797 )
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceIt’s become a bit of a tradition for me to read some cute sapphic hallmark-esque romcoms over Christmas. It's my way of getting into a cosy vibe as it gets dark. Here are a few I've read over the past few years;
In the Event of Love – after a career snafu, Morgan returns to her home town and falls for her lumberjack ex-gf as she tries to save the tree farm from bigcorp. https://lgbtqia.space/@jaelisp/111574035244812259
Make You Mine This Christmas – fake dating a guy at his countryside mansion to please his parents but then falling for his sister. https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/547595a8-2c2d-4b89-98c1-20fe2dc38e3d
The Christmas Swap – fake dating a guy at his countryside mansion to please his parents but then falling for his sister. Wait, that sounds familiar. But don't worry, it's different! https://lgbtqia.space/@jaelisp/111590366150825387
A Purrfect Gift – a cute novella about two women brought together by a thieving, matchmaking cat. https://lgbtqia.space/@jaelisp/111601364482398345
The Nightmare Before Kissmas – The Prince of Christmas falls in love with the Prince of Halloween and launches a coup against capitalism. https://lgbtqia.space/@jaelisp/113534223943214171
Otherworldly – demigods, romance, and a quest for immortality (not strictly *christmas*, but wintry). https://lgbtqia.space/@jaelisp/113520887110176981
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceFYI, Common Press, London, have a book launch for I Want That Twink Obliterated on 13 December: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/23777/i-want-that-twink-obliterated-an-outrageous-book-event
(I'm sad that I'm out of town then, I want one!)
OutSavvyI WANT THAT TWINK OBLITERATED! : An outrageous book event Tickets - London - OutSavvyJoin us this Friday the 13th of December for a good old time. Twinks live among us. Loving, lying, sashaying, betraying. Storming the tower of Belzarian the Sorcerer, wandering the eldritch streets of Shoggothtown, and seizing power on Bavarrón Eleven. Since the dawn of time, a cry has rung out across the stars… I WANT THAT TWINK OBLITERATED. For too long, queer voices have been kept at the margins of pulp science fiction and fantasy. Now, seventeen brave authors have taken up their pens to right that wrong and push the boundaries of excess, masculinity, and good taste.About the EditorsTrip Galey (he/him) is a writer, a doctor of the academic persuasion, and a researcher of all things pursuant to bargains, exchanges, and compacts of a faery nature. He is ⅓ of the founding team at Bona Books, ½ of multiple writing partnerships, and 100% geek. Mostly harmless. His debut novel, A Market of Dreams and Destiny, was shortlisted for the 2024 Mythopoeic Award for Best Adult Novel. Find him at TripGaley.com or join Patreon.com/TripGaley.Robert Berg (he/him) is a London-based writer, critic, editor, copywriter, and proofreader. His reviews have appeared in the British-Fantasy-Award-winning, Hugo-Award-nominated Speculative Fiction 2012 anthology. In his other incarnation as amateur Jim Henson expert, he is also the founder of HensonBlog.com. It is unclear whether he is more man or Muppet.C.L. McCartney (he/him) is a writer and editor of fantasy, science fiction and—somewhat to his surprise—queer horror. His most recent short fiction can be found in the anthology The Crawling Moon (Neon Hemlock, 2024). He is Managing Director of Bona Books and the final ⅓ of its founding triumvirate. About some of the authors: James BennettJames Bennett (he/him) is a British writer raised in Sussex and South Africa. His short fiction has appeared internationally, and he's been twice shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award, first in 2017 for his acclaimed debut CHASING EMBERS and again in 2023 for his short story 'MORTA', which appeared in the well-received THE BOOK OF QUEER SAINTS. His latest fiction can be found in The Dark magazine, BFS Horizons and Occult Detective magazine. A short story collection PREACHING TO THE PERVERTED should see the light of day in 2024. James lives in the South of Spain where he's working on a new novel.John BerkeleyJohn Berkeley (he/him) is a queer British writer and Classics (archaeology) PhD raised in Cambridgeshire and now living in Berkshire, where he spends his time writing speculative fiction novels and short fiction. Dusk and Dawn in the Grand Bazaar is his first published work. Others are on their way.Aliette de BodardAliette de Bodard (she/her) writes speculative fiction: she has won three Nebula Awards, an Ignyte Award, a Locus Award, and six British Science Fiction Association Awards. She is the author of A FIRE BORN OF EXILE, a sapphic Count of Monte Cristo in space (Gollancz/JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc., 2023), and of OF CHARMS, GHOSTS AND GRIEVANCES (JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc, 2022 BSFA Award winner), a fantasy of manners and murders set in an alternate 19th Century Vietnamese court. She lives in Paris.Christopher CaldwellChristopher Caldwell (he/him or they/them) is a queer Black American living in Glasgow, Scotland with his partner, podcaster Alice Caldwell-Kelly. He is a recipient of the Octavia E. Butler memorial scholarship. His work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, FIYAH, Strange Horizons, and New Suns 2.Kieran CraftKieran Craft (he/him) is a writer from Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand). He is the playwright behind gay Irish romance Four Nights in the Green Barrow Pub, and now spends his time writing queer science fiction and fantasy stories, when he’s not teaching high schoolers English, or watching multi-hour video essays on niche topics.Julie DanversJulie Danvers (she/hers) is a queer Chicagoan who writes spec fiction that usually starts out as horror and ends up as a comedy of errors. She is the author of a whopping seven Mills & Boon novels, each one more melodramatic than the last. As penance for her literary crimes, she also writes short fiction, some of which has appeared in The Arcanist, Sundial Magazine, and Pulp Modern Flash.Rien GrayRien Gray is a queer, nonbinary, and intersex author of sapphic romance, fantasy, and horror. They are the author of the award-winning Fatal Fidelity series starring a nonbinary assassin, and currently writing a trans and lesbian-centered Arthuriana romantasy series, which starts with VALERIN THE FAIR. Their short fiction is published in the Opulent Syntax, Shredded, Unreal Sex, BRUTE, and Heckin' Lewd anthologies. They live in Chicago.Brent C. LambertBrent C. Lambert (he/him) is a Black, queer man who heavily believes in the transformative power of speculative fiction across media formats. As a founding member of FIYAH Literary Magazine, he turned that belief into action and became part of a Hugo Award winning team. He resides in San Diego.Bailey MaybrayBailey Maybray (he/him) is a queer, Bostonian sci-fi and fantasy writer who drinks too much mango green tea for his own good. He creates strange and wonderful worlds with bizarre, often-queer perspectives, from cyborg alien octopi to robotic play directors. Find him @bailey_maybray on X (formerly Twitter).Ng Yi-ShengNg Yi-Sheng (he/him) is a Singaporean writer, researcher and activist with a keen interest in Asian history and myth. He’s been published in Clarkesworld and Strange Horizons—check out his Pushcart-nominated essay “A Spicepunk Manifesto” and his BSFA-longlisted “A Not-So-Swiftly Tilting Planet”— and is author of the speculative fiction collection Lion City (winner of the Singapore Literature Prize). Additionally, he served as editor of A Mosque in the Jungle: Classic Ghost Stories by Othman Wok and EXHALE: an Anthology of Queer Singapore Voices. His website is ngyisheng.com, and he tweets and Instagrams at @yishkabob.Anthony OliveiraAnthony Oliveira AKA @meakoopa is a multiple National Magazine and GLAAD award-winning author, film programmer, pop culture critic, and PhD living in Toronto. His work is in a myriad of genres, often incorporating queer themes, and spans comics, prose, journalism, and academic research.Caleb RoehrigCaleb Roehrig (he/him) is a former actor and television producer who currently divides his time between Chicago and Helsinki. An expert at writing on planes, his young adult titles include TEACH THE TORCHES TO BURN, LAST SEEN LEAVING, WHITE RABBIT, DEATH PREFERS BLONDES, and THE FELL OF DARK.Adam SassAdam Sass (he/him) began writing in Sharpie on the backs of Starbucks pastry bags. (He’s sorry it distracted him from making your latte.) He’s the author of the buzzy YA novels Surrender Your Sons, The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers, and Your Lonely Nights Are Over, which have been featured in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today. His next, Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts, releases July 2024. He lives in Palm Springs with his husband and dachshunds.Malcolm SchmitzMalcolm Schmitz (he/him) writes about queer autistic joy. His steampunk sapphic scientist short story, “The Captain’s Sphere”, made the Long List for the 2015 Otherwise Award. He’s currently working on a children’s book about a lost trans prince reclaiming his birthright (ask him about the giant mechanical elephants. ) He lives in Ohio with his partner, and spends entirely too much time playing the Sims 2. William C. TracyWilliam C. Tracy (he/him) writes and publishes queer science fiction and fantasy through his indie press Space Wizard Science Fantasy. His largest work is the Dissolutionverse: a space opera with music-based magic. He’s also published Fruits of the Gods, an epic fantasy with seasonal fruit magic, How To Operate Your Body, a nonfiction book about body mechanics and correct posture, and The Biomass Conflux, a sci-fi trilogy with colony ships and a planet covered by a sentient fungus. William is an NC native, has a master’s in mechanical engineering, has trained in Wado-Ryu karate since 2003, and keeps bees.Derrick WebberDerrick Webber (he/him) thrives on the banks of the mighty Fraser River in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is privileged to write and play on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. He pinballs between queer sci-fi, queer rom-coms and queerish YA - shorties to novels. His short fiction has been published twice and his non-fiction, think any big number. He walks a thrilling tightrope between cutting edge and utterly past it.Charlie WinterBased in Australia, Charlie Winter is an academic by day and, by night, still an academic but much more distractible about it. When not performing the inexplicable rituals of academia, he writes fantasy fiction celebrating everyday magic, eco-optimism, and queer identities, out of which he has three short fiction publications.
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceThe Nightmare Before Kissmas (Sara Raasch) – Holidays apparently have royal families so obviously when the Prince of Christmas gets thrust into an arranged marriage with the Princess of Easter by his asshole dad, Santa, he’ll instead fall for the Prince of Halloween and stage an anti-capitalist coup against the commodification of Christmas.
So, I’m back reading queer Christmas romcoms again and this one is a mixed bag I feel. It’s funny and cute but the characters didn’t quite work for me, that might be a lack of tension between the love interests. The world of holiday royals, politicking and paparazzi was different but maybe distractingly crazy if you’re not invested in the chaotic cheese.
Lastly, the broad message about the dominance of Christmas and how it becomes about cheap plastic gifts was good for the large part. But it got a bit focused on telling us how it should be rather than actually living up to it.
So on the whole, a cute romp with some fun themes but I felt like it needed a lot more polish behind its structure and messaging.
Random quote: “I do not BLAST ICE when I orgasm!”
@jaelisp@lgbtqia.spaceOtherworldly (F.T. Lukens) – A small region is stuck in a perpetual winter. Offerings from locals to the goddess to bring spring have gone unanswered. Ellery, no longer believing in the gods, leaves his family’s frozen farm to work in a city diner to help support his family trying to scrape by with greenhouses to grow crops.
When Ellery meets Knox, a runaway familiar from the Other World, his understanding of the world and the perpetual winter is thrown upside down. Ellery helps protects Knox from the shades who seek to drag him back in exchange for finding out the truth about the winter. But as Ellery helps Knox experience more of human life, they both begin to feel more than they bargained for.
This is a very cute YA romance with an enby protagonist, an adorably OTT sapphic couple and contemporary magic with goddesses and underworlds to boot. The characters are lovely even if Ellery has that teenage insufferability sometimes (just stop antagonising demigods for once, please).
