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Connor, 27, reading and reviewing blog. He/They.

[aspiringbearrambles]

My name is Connor, I'm a historian with a life-long love of books. I always end up having a lot of thoughts about books and other media but I want to start actually writing and sharing those thoughts more.

Firmly Against Generative AI

Interests: Florida history, queer history and studies, Golden Kamuy, Trigun/Trigun Maximum, T. Kingfisher's Sworn Soldier series, Twin Peaks

Currently Reading: The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr, American Scare: Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives by Robert W Fieseler, Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How it Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton

Find me elsewhere on:

STORYGRAPH @ strappingbear

[aspiringbearrambles]

They should make a Iron Lung novelization and Jordan Peele should make a NOPE novelization bc I want more of both of those stories and their characters.

[aspiringbearrambles]

My local library started adding a "money you saved by using your library" section on their recipts and its genuinely so awesome. Instead of spending $44 on books I don't know whether will actually work for the research I need I got them for free.

[tepkunset]

I feel like simply calling JK Rowling a transphobe isn't strong enough anymore. Like. This is not your grandpa calling you by your deadname at a restaurant kind of transphobic. This is her wanting to eradicate all trans people (with an extra special hatred towards trans women specifically). This is her trying just that by personally funding transphobic hate groups with millions to push around laws in the UK. It is not hyperbolic to call her a dangerous, genocidal maniac.

It's not about cancelling a problematic writer. It's about literally trying to save lives by denying her as much money and power as possible.

[aspiringbearrambles]

Bingo Board by @2026-book-bingo

January reading summary!

Title: Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir, Kayano Shigaru Dates Read: Jan 8, 2026 - Jan 22, 2026 Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kayano Shigaru's memoir is a beautiful work of memory and a man's efforts to give voice to his people. Kayano's work is not an exhaustive work on the Ainu, but feels like listening to the man tell the story himself, with the whirlwind of emotions to match. Reading furthered my interest in continuing to learn about the indigenous people of what-is-now Japan and the rest of the world, as well as wish to travel to Hokkaido for myself.

Title: A Lady For A Duke, Alexis Hall Dates read: Jan 8th, 2026 - Jan 27th, 2026 Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"It wasn't possible to love him. I could barely make sense of myself." - A Lady for a Duke, pg. 93

Romance tends to be something I avoid, and to a certain degree historical romance hasn’t interested me. That said, I had a lot of fun with A Lady for a Duke; both Viola and Gracewood were fun, interesting characters whose relationship was touching, not only between themselves, but between them and the secondary characters like Viola's sister-in-law Lady Louise and Gracewood's young sister Miranda. That said, the pacing can be rough, and the conflict in the third act seems to come out of nowhere and be resolved just as swiftly.

[aspiringbearrambles]

Title: Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir

Author, Release Date: Kayano Shigaru, translated by Kyoko and Lili Selden; 1994

Genre(s): History, Memoir, Indigenous

Dates Read: Jan 8, 2026 - Jan 22, 2026

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A beautiful, introspective, and at times sobering piece, Our Land Was A Forest: An Ainu Memoir offers a stark look into the history and culture of the Ainu as well as the impact of encroachment and forced assimilation by the Japanese. 

By the time Kayano Shigaru was born in the Nibutani village on Ainu Mosir (currently known as the island of Hokkaido) in 1926, Japanese colonization was already underway, having begun centuries ago in the fifteenth century and intensified during the Meiji era when the Yamato Japanese were encouraged into settlements on the already inhabited island. While not a straightforward history, Kayano’s descriptions of his childhood, listening to the uwepekere of his grandmother, fishing and hunting with his father, provide the reader with a look into the cultural and spiritual practices of the Ainu. So to do the troubles; the author is unflinching in describing the account of his grandfather and other Ainu who were forced into labor for the shamo (Japanese) retainer-landowners under threat of violence. Provided with no lodgings and forced to make their own after being walked miles to the work-site, men, women, and children (Kayano’s grandfather, Totkaram was twelve, while his grandmother and Totkaram’s future wife, Tekatte was only eight) were beaten awake “when the morning stars still glimmered” and forced to work until “they could no longer see the ground at night.” Work-related deaths, sickness, and pure and simple malnutrition as the workers were provided with a single meal bowl or rice or watered down rice porridge for a day’s work led to a decimation of the Ainu’s population at the time. 

As the years go on, continued discrimination and efforts by the Japanese government affected Kayano’s life, particularly poverty as they work to barely be able to care for their families, forced off ancestral lands onto the fringes for the sake of Japanese agriculture, and, in one moment that particularly highlights the inequality present, Kayano’s father is arrested and jailed for fishing salmon, a key part of the Ainu diet and culture. Despite the fact that indiscriminate methods of salmon fishing by the Japanese did far greater harm to salmon populations than the Ainu practices, which followed the laws of nature and only took that which could provide for the day, Kayano felt that the shamo were blaming the Ainu for the problems they themselves created. It is clear, in retrospect, that this moment was key in helping the author recognize the role and injustice of Japanese imperialism on the Ainu. To ban the Ainu from fishing salmon was essentially telling them to die. So too was the banning of bear and deer hunting, to force the Ainu to farm on inferior land “provided” by the Japanese, and to steal and plunder the mountains and forests. Even to one such as Kayano, who acknowledges that he does not know the “usual methods by which strong countries invade weaker ones,” the Japanese had invaded Ainu Mosir, “a peaceful land for humans.”

Kayano, particularly in his adolescence as he becomes more responsible for the care of his family and becomes dedicated to becoming a forester to provide for them, became detached from his heritage. The final third of Our Land Was a Forest recounts how Kayano Shigaru found it again, in part out of frustration and distrust with shamo scholars who took folk tools, ancestral bones, and even blood from the Ainu in the name of research only meager compensation. It was this, as well as the reckoning with the question of what would happen to the Ainu people and their culture should things continue, that lead to Kayano’s own pursuit of collecting Ainu folk utensils, artifacts, and stories. This would eventually lead to greater focus on the preservation and education of Ainu culture with Kayano not only at the forefront, but with a focus on the continuation of the culture’s preservation, the betterment of the people, and particularly the continued teaching of the Ainu language to new generations. 

Kayano Shigaru’s prose flows as if one is not reading off a page, but sitting in an audience with the man. Even through the potential awkwardness of translation, the emotion of Kayano Shigaru’s memoir rings clear- the love of his home, the deeply earned resentment and frustration with the Japanese government and companies which were eager to reap the benefits of Ainu land, but hemmed and hawed over when asked to donate some of that ill-gotten wealth for the creation of the Nibutani Museum of Ainu Cultural Resources (now part of the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum), and the grief over that which couldn’t be saved. It is a beautiful memoir, and one which I find resonates with similar stories of the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. Again and again, it is impossible for one educated and with a good conscience to ignore the parallels between indigenous peoples affected by imperialism all over the world, a fact that Kayano recognized himself in his work. “Inevitability” is something that needs to be avoided when discussing history, but it’s difficult to imagine that without Kayano Shigaru’s efforts, though the Ainu are still in a precarious social and legal position and the language is currently considered critically endangered, things would be far worse. Ultimately, while Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir is not an all-encompassing work (and does not claim itself to be), I feel that it is a fine starting point for anyone wishing to learn more about the Ainu and their plight.

[2026-book-bingo]

2026 book bingo is here!

explanations of each prompt are below the cut.

join @madame-ellunas-moonlit-readings book bingo discord server here!

and play along on storygraph here, thanks to @obi-wann-cannoli!

helpful tips:

Only books finished in 2026 count for the sheet. You can start planning in December of 2025 and even start reading if you want but you better wait until January to finish that book before you cross it off your sheet.

The bingo is designed to be played in such a way that every book you read will only be counted for one square. Even if you read a great science fiction manga with a bright pink cover that’s twice your age and comes highly recommended by your librarian, the idea is to pick just one square to cross off, not all five. The goal of this game isn't to fill the board with as few books as possible; it's to expand your reading habits with lots of unique books.

In general, there are two guiding principles behind these prompts: having fun and trying new things. Hopefully those can go together as much as possible! 

If you're stressing about whether something does it doesn't qualify, or worrying about how fast you read, or sad that you might not clear the whole board or get a bingo, remember #1: this is for fun. 

If you're finding yourself reluctant to look too much outside of your usual kind of reading and try something new, remember #2: this is a good opportunity to read some stuff you might not ever read otherwise. Even if you don't find a brand new fave, at least give it a chance.  

Rereading books is fine, but I would personally recommend that rereads are not the majority of your squares in order to follow guiding principle #2.

Fanfic does not qualify, sorry. 

Novellas are fine.

Audiobooks are fine. 

Reading comics/graphic novels/manga for any of the prompts is fine. Please don't feel you can only count them for the square that's dedicated to them.

This applies to almost every square. There's no limit on how many translated books, banned books, pink-covered books, etc, that you can read. (Frankly I would love to see an all-pink board.)

The only exception is the TTRPG space. Feel free to try out more games, because there are a lot of great ones, but please don't use them for more than the designated space.

I don't use prompts like “queer author,” “disabled author,” “author of color,” etc, because I find it can quickly become rather tokenizing. However, I do strongly encourage participants to be mindful of whose perspectives they are reading, and be cognizant of who’s underrepresented in their literary life. With all the love in my heart, there were a lot of extremely white boards last year. When’s the last time you read a book by a Black woman? A nonbinary author? An author who lives and writes in the Global South? The point of these questions isn’t to make you feel shame over your current reading habits, but to encourage awareness of the way that prevalent societal prejudices may shape your reading without you consciously noticing. 

Feel free to incorporate your own extra goals to help structure any efforts to read more diversely. For instance, BookTuber thisstoryaintover set up a 2026 reading challenge that includes reading at least one book by an author of color for every book by a white author. This may be a helpful idea for you to keep in mind if you're hoping to have a diverse book bingo, or you could go all out and try to fill the sheet with only books by authors of color (or queer authors, non-American authors, etc).

Also: you can stack any other reading bingos or challenges with this! I know that I couldn’t stop you anyway, but I just want to be clear that that’s fine with me! I'd love to see any other bingo sheets or challenges you take part in this year so I can steal ideas lmao.

If you have any questions about how to classify a book and the explanations below aren't helping, feel free to check in! My inbox is open for bingo questions all year!

And as always, please please please tag this blog with any progress you're making, pictures of your sheets, or miscellaneous thoughts about your reading. I'd love to see :)

prompt explainers:

1. Short Story Collection: A collection of stories, which are short! They can be any genre you can think of, and many authors will in fact play with a number of different genres in the course of a single collection. Or, if you’d rather sample work from many authors, you can pick up a short story anthology. Some collections I’d recommend are Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties, ZZ Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, and Julia Armfield’s salt slow. 

2. Microhistory: As a literary term, “microhistory” is used to refer to a nonfiction book that zooms in on the history of a single thing. A good example would be Jamie Loftus’ book Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, which traces the evolution of the hot dog as a staple of American culture. if you don’t like hot dogs then there are also microhistories of butter, hair removal, vibrators, candy, jewelry, cleanliness, colors, cannibalism, salt, and almost anything else that you can think of. if it exists, there’s a historian who’s obsessed with it! You can find lists of suggestions here, here, and here, but don’t overthink it too hard. as long as you’re looking at a surprisingly specific history, you’re on the right track.  

3. Librarian/Bookseller Recommendation: Why not ask for a recommendation from the people who think about books for a living? One of my favorite ways to discover new books is by asking an employee what book they’ve enjoyed lately every time I visit a new indie bookstore while traveling. Personally I strongly recommend striking up a conversation in person, but if that’s a big nope for you, then many libraries and bookstores also list staff picks on their website. You can also try the Indie Next List, a list of recommendations from indie booksellers across the US. 

4. Non-European Fantasy: Any fantasy book you like, so long as it’s explicitly pulling modelled on a non-European culture. That could be an alternate world fantasy, such as Tomi Adeyemi’s Yorbua-inspired Children of Blood and Bone, Tasha Suri’s Jasmine Throne, based on ancient India, or Fonda Lee’s Jade City, inspired by post-WW2 China. You could also look for a fantasy set in the modern world, like Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth, which is steeped in Apache culture, or Zen Cho’s Black Water Sister, which is full of ghosts and spirits in modern Malaysia. 

5. Main Character Isn’t Human: This book could be any genre, as long as it meets that one requirement. The MC could be a robot, a dog, an alien, or an elf, so long as they aren’t human. Maybe you’ll check out Martha Wells’ much-loved Murderbot Diaries, or take a walk through LA with the mountain lion star of Henry Hoke’s Open Throat. For the nonfiction enjoyers out there, you could check out Dr. Moiya McTier’s The Milky Way, which is narrated from the perspective of the galaxy itself.

6. 2025 Award Winner: You know, any book that won an award in 2025. It doesn’t matter what award; any prize will qualify! You can see recipients of some major awards here, or check out some others: the Lambda Literary Awards for LGBTQ+ works, the Ignyte Awards for speculative work by authors of color, the Romance Novelists’ Association’s awards for the best romance novels of the year, or the Transfeminine Review’s Reader’s Choice Awards for books by and about transfemmes. Hell, if you really need to scrape the bottom of the barrel, even Goodreads has awards. Go find yourself a winner! 

7. Independently Published or Self Published: Did you guys know that just five publishing companies (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette Book Group) are responsible for 80% of books published in the US each year, and 25% of books globally? Check out their many, many publishing imprints here to see just how much of the market they have cornered. For 2026, I encourage everyone to break away from the Big Five and see what some small presses and independent authors are putting out! If you need some ideas about where to start, check out this list of over 250 independent publishers, complete with notes on what kind of books they put out!

8. College or University Setting: A book set (primarily) at a college or a university! That’s the only rule! Institutions of higher learning, dramatic as they are, span every genre, leaving you endless options: check out Ali Hazelwood’s collegiate athlete romance The Deep End, Tracy Deonn’s Arthurian urban fantasy Legendborn, Elaine Hsieh Chou’s grad school satire Disorientation, the magical 1830s Oxford of R.F. Kuang’s Babel, or the OG of dark academia herself, Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

9. Literary Fiction: At Writer’s Digest, Michael Woodson describes literary fiction as “less of a genre than a category,” which “focuses on style, character, and theme over plot.” My recommendations include Raven Leilani’s Luster, The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi, and Melissa Broder’s Milk Fed, and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. You can catch some more recommendations in these linked videos from thisstoryaintover and What Rae Reads.   

10. Blurb Buddies: This is one of my favorite additions to this year's book bingo, because it’s totally impossible to plan for. To find your blurb buddy, pick any other book you're reading for 2026 Book Bingo and find a blurb on the cover. (For those who may be unfamiliar, blurbs are those little quotes that hype the book up, often written by people whose books that are vaguely similar.) Find a blurb from an author you've never read, and go read one of their books. That's your blurb buddy!

11. A Book About Music: There are countless ways for a book to be about music. Maybe you want to read the biography of your favorite messy band, or the history of a particular genre. Or maybe you would prefer a magical, musical mystery set in New Orleans, like in Alex Jennings’ The Ballad of Perilous Graves, or country singers falling in love, as in Regina Black’s August Lane. Heck, maybe you actually want to read a giant coffee table book with the lyrics to every Beyoncé song cover to cover. What counts as “about” music is up to you; all I’m asking is that it plays some kind of central role in whatever you read. Find the song in your bookish heart!

12. Not Originally Published in English: I really hope it goes without saying that great books are published in every language. It’s totally fine to fulfill this prompt by reading a book that has since been translated into English–I know that’s what I’ll be doing, since that’s the only language I can read–as long as it was originally published in any other language on Earth. A couple of my favorite authors in translation are Mariana Enriquez (translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell) and Sayaka Murata (translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori). You can get more ideas from the International Booker Prize, which is awarded annually to books translated into English. 

13. Pink Cover: The cover has to be pink. Or at least mostly pink. That’s it!

14. Read + Play a TTRPG: You know what takes a hell of a lot of skill to write? Tabletop roleplaying games. You should read one–and, even better, you should play one. And don’t feel restrained to the most well-known games, either–Monster of the Week, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Call of Cthulhu are cool, but they’re hardly the only games out there. If you’re not in the mood to learn a lot of rules, why not check out a game like Lasers and Feelings or Time To Drop, or the many hacks of both games? You could play Dread, which uses a Jenga tower in place of dice or any other tools, or Let These Mermaids Touch Your Dick Maybe, which requires sticky hands and a dildo to play. No friends? No problem! Try a journaling game like Who Killed God?, Apothecaria, or Thousand Year Old Vampire. You could even give some fellow Tumblrinas a little love by playing games like @that-house’s Oh Fuck, The Killer! or @takataapui’s it is a beautiful day on the marae and you are a baby pūkeko. Hell, if you really want to be a suckup you could even buy Imagine Queer Worlds, the game I co-authored, which uses a deck of cards to help you brainstorm news norms for sexuality and gender in fictional settings. 

15. Twice Your Age (At Least): This one will be a little bit personalized to every person who participates, since I’m making the very bold assumption that we’re not all the same age. I will personally need to find a book that’s (at least) 58 years old, which means that the MOST RECENTLY it can be published is 1968, but your cutoff date will likely be different. If you want to go way into the past and play it safe with something like Shakespeare or the Odyssey, that’s absolutely fine, or you could challenge yourself to find something from your exact cutoff year. Either is great, and that’s why the “at least” is there.

16. Historical Fantasy: For our purposes, this is going to be fantasy that takes place in the real world, during real historical events, with a dash of the fantastical mixed in. Think of Leslyle Penelope’s The Monsters We Defy, which brings spirits and curses to 1920s Washington, D.C.; Shannon Chakraborty’s Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, where 12th century pirates clash with monsters and magic; or Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon, which adds (get this) dragons to the Napoleonic Wars. Once again: real history, fake magic. You got this! 

17. 2026 Debut Author: You know, an author who’s publishing their first book ever in 2026. Show them some support! No idea how to go about finding debut authors? 2026debuts.com has you covered. 

18. Challenged or Banned: If you care enough about books to participate in this bingo and you happen to live in the US, you probably know that we’re still mired by attempts to ban or restrict access to books from school and public libraries across the country. Some of the most frequently targeted books are those that deal heavily with trans and gay identities, racial inequality, and depictions of sexuality. In recent years, the three most challenged books in the United States were George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, Mariam Kobabe’s Gender Queer, and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. I recommend learning a little about what’s being challenged in your area, especially since book bans don’t only happen in America, but if you’re unable to find anything specific to where you live, this list of books banned in Texas schools will give you over 2000 options to pick from.  

19. Cultural Nonfiction: This isn’t strictly an existing genre name, so I’ve kind of invented it for the sake of this bingo. Basically, here’s what I want you to do: find a work of nonfiction about a culture that you’re not part of–it could be folks of a different nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, you name it. Any group that’s different from you in some way! If you, like me, are not a gay man, you might enjoy Jeremy Atherton Lin’s Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, following the history and significance of gay bars. Or, if you happen not to be Black and disabled, you may want to check out Sami Schalk’s Black Disability Politics, a history of ways that Black activists have incorporated rights for disabled people into the fight for racial justice. If you aren’t Filipino, I can recommend Anthony Christian Ocampo’s The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. I’m trying not to predict my own bingo reading too much this year, but I think I’ll probably be checking out Gregory D. Smithers’ Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America.

20: Gothic Fiction: This is self-indulgent, because I’m getting waaaay into Gothic fiction right now and I want to bring you with me. Gothic fiction is distinct from horror but has a lot in common with it–some of the earliest examples are Frankenstein, Dracula, and Carmilla, after all. This is a genre that doesn’t necessarily need real monsters, but is still obsessed with haunting, fear, and, often, the secret horrors hidden in very specific locations: think of Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, the beautiful Manderly from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, or the grief-filled 124 Bluestone Road in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Contemporary Gothic novels are also alive and well, including Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, Isabel Cañas’ The Possession of Alba Díaz, and  M.M. Olivas’ Sundown in San Ojuela. 

21. Read It + Do It: Have you ever been so inspired by reading about someone else describing an activity they love that you decided to try it yourself? The goal of this space is exactly what it sounds like: read about something in someone else’s words, then do it. It could be as straightforward as following the instructions for a recipe or a crochet project; that’s totally allowed! Or you could, say, start walking more after reading Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust, get inspired by Jamaica Kincaid’s My Garden (Book) to grow your own plants, or let Christian Cooper’s Better Living Through Birding get you in the habit of identifying birds you see. You don’t need to be good at the thing or make it a lifelong habit, but at least try it once!

22. Science Fiction: For anyone brand new here, allow me to offer you a Wikipedia definition of science fiction: “Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is the genre of speculative fiction that imagines advanced and futuristic scientific or technological progress. The elements of science fiction have evolved over time: from space exploration, extraterrestrial life, time travel, and robotics; to parallel universes, dystopian societies, and biological manipulations; and, most lately, to information technology, transhumanism (and posthumanism), and environmental challenges. Science fiction often specifically explores human responses to the consequences of these types of projected or imagined scientific advances.” For your own reading, you could check out anything from the low-tech dystopia of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower to the high-tech near-utopia of Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, from the political sci-fi/fantasy blending epic of Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow to the contemporary horrors of Jessamine Chan’s The School for Good Mothers. 

23. Manga, Comic, or Graphic Novel: The world is your oyster here, kiddo. There’s a big, big world out there outside of superhero comics (although Cliff Chiang’s Catwoman: Lonely City is great), so if that doesn’t float your boat then let’s get looking elsewhere! There’s a manga, comic, or graphic novel out there to suit every possible taste. As always, I heartily recommend Ryoko Kui’s Dungeon Meshi–all fourteen volumes. 

24. Romance: Per the Romance Writers of America, a book has two central requirements to qualify it as a romance novel: a main plot that involves characters falling in love and figuring out how to make their relationship work, and an ending that is “emotionally satisfying and optimistic”--that is, a happily ever after (HEA). A book that just happens to contain a romance subplot won’t do, and neither will one where the characters are torn apart at the last minute for a tragic ending. ROMANCE. Some widely-loved titles from the last few years are Akwaeke Emezi’s You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, Tia Williams’ A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, and Emily Henry’s Funny Story. You might also have fun browsing the micro collections curated by the romance podcast Fated Mates, which includes collections of books basketball romances, books with heroes who have spectacular mustaches, and one simply titled “Asian Romances That Fuck.” 

25. Writer Bio/Memoir: Listen, I know what you’re going to say: “Obviously if someone’s written a memoir, then they’re a writer.” So let me clarify that this is specifically about people who are (or were) known for writing, who then wrote a memoir or had a biography written about them. They don’t need to be famous, but they do need to be some kind of writer–an author, an essayist, a poet, a journalist, a playwright, a ghostwriter–by trade. Think of bios like Susana M. Morris’ Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler and Caroline Fraser’s Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, or memoirs like Jesmyn Ward’s The Men We Reaped and Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me. 

[may12324]

Books and comics with Butch/Masc protagonists or Love interests 🧡

I asked on IG for book recs, and these are the ones I got! Well, including a lil promo of my comic. In any case, I figured I would make a graphic for them. I love seeing recs laid out all nice.

[iwilleatyourenglish]

something i have always found really weird is when english texts italicize words from other languages.

i remember reading a book as a kid and the author continually italicizing the word tamales

[iwilleatyourenglish]

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[rainbowcrate]

🌈 What's COMING OUT (pun intended) this January? Which books are you excited for? Which books are you adding to your TBR? Any other queer releases you know of?

Check out our fully linked version on our website! We will also update these posts if we find more releases for January.

🌈 What's COMING OUT (pun intended) this January? Which books are you excited for? Which books are you adding to your TBR? Any other queer re

We do our best to screen books for AI usage and do not include books with covers that are made by generative AI, or books written by generative AI. If there was a mistake, please let us know.

Note: Some dates may have changed. We haven’t read all of these books, so please check reviews for more details on queer identities represented and The StoryGraph for content warnings!

1

Queer Books of Late Victorian Print Culture by Frederick D. King

Lenchitudes: Sapphic Representation in Contemporary Mexican Narrative by Alejandra Márquez

Mourning and Mobilization in the Americas by Lydia Huerta Moreno

Extant by Jenny L Davis

Lambent by T.D. Cloud

Devil's Gambit (The King's Fool Mysteries) by Jeri Westerson

2

Cleat Chaser (Extra Innings) by Aimee Rivkin

Pinned Down (Forbidden Goals Book 9) by Rebecca Rathe

Evan (The Wild Edges Book 2) by Lark Taylor

Pumped (Gymbos Book 2) by K.M. Neuhold

Between the Pipes (The Games We Play Season 2) by Kate Bauer

Welcome to Luminance (Luminance Vol 0.5) by Avery Storm

5

I Was Married to a Horse, and Other Tales of an Accidental Anthropologist by John Borneman

Stillness and Survival: A Life Between Trauma, Glitter, and the Echo of My Own Voice by Jacob Anthony Rose

Vengeance (An Amagi Chronicles Novel) by Beck Grey

6

After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine Vol. 1 by Liu Gou Hua

Ace of Hearts: Lessons in Love from an Asexual Girl by Cooklin

Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration by Alex Powell

Fugitive Anthropology: Embodying Activist Research by Shanya Cordis

Direct Nailing (Brannon Boys Book 3) by Katherine McIntyre

Cruel Summer (The Taylors Version Book 2) by Elizabeth Eulberg

Jackson Alone by Jose Ando, Kalau Almony (Translator)

Lost in the Cloud Vol. 2 by Kim Pas

The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé Vol. 4 by Fumito

Let Me See the Real You, Senpai! Vol. 2 by Yuho Okita

Go for It, Nakamura-Kun!! Vol. 2 by Syundei

Through Gates of Garnet & Gold (Wayward Children Book 11) by Seanan McGuire

Playing for Keeps by Alexandria Bellefleur

Lawyering for Liberation: A Toolbox for Movement Lawyers by Ameca Reali

I Don't Think I'm Straight by Isabella Dorta

Pink Candy Kiss, Vol. 4 by Ami Uozumi

Cinemas of Bisexual Transgression by Jacob Engelberg

Co-Motion: Re-Thinking Power, Subjects, and Feminist and Queer Alliances by Paola Bacchetta

Radio Storm Vol. 3 by Team S&S

She Was Monstress Volume Two by Robin Jo Margaret, Amanda & Rory Webb, Joachim Heijndermans, Delilah Sparks, Nico Silver, Caitlin Alise Donovan, Stephanie Jean, Nicole L. Soper Gorden, Maya Maitea

7

Hollywood Glitz & Glamour by Ariella Talix

8

Nash (Honorably Discharged) by Nora Phoenix and E.M. Lindsey

9

Eros by Nicholas Michael Matiz

New Love by Nicholas Michael Matiz

Radical Desires: French Gay Liberation and Anticolonial Critique by Hauke Branding

Rebound Control (Chicago Thunder Book 5) by Jodi Oliver

Queering Women, Peace and Security: Expanding Feminist Approaches to Gender in Peacebuilding by Jamie J. Hagen

Bottle Rocket (The Games We Play Season 2) by B. Ripley

The Selkie's Curse (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy Book 2) by Vivien Nash

A Reckless Indulgence (A Pirate Monster Romance) by Aveda Vice

Maxwell (Paranormal Council Enforcers Book 18) by Taylor Rylan

11

When Death Gives You Lemons by Alice Brooks

Always, Her (Thistle & Threads) by A.J. Knight

12

The Rhythm of Raine at Dawn (Perfect Muse Book 1) by Aricka Alexander

13

I, in the Shadows by Tori Bovalino

Mega Milk by Megan Milks

Hollow by Celina Myers

Coltswood by Jules Revel

Red and the Wolves by Cherry Zong

The Love Book by Gun Brooke

Traveling Toward Forever by Erin Dutton

Queer Print Cultures: Resistance, Subversion and Community by Javier Samper Vendrell & Vance Byrd

A Vow in Vengeance (Immortal Desires Book 1) by Jaclyn Rodriguez

Greta Gets the Girl by Melissa Marr

The Way Out: Justice in the Queer Search for Refuge by Rebecca Buxton & Samuel Max Ritholtz

There's Something Wrong with the Chief: Du Zhu You Bing Vol. 2 by Yang Su

BL Game Rebirth: My New Life as the Hero's Younger Brother Vol. 3 by Yui Hanaka

Divine Ruin: A Sister Holiday Mystery (Sister Holiday Mysteries) by Margot Douaihy

A Yuri Love Story That Begins With Getting Dumped in a Dream Vol. 1 by Hijiki

The Book of Blood and Roses (The Callisto Chronicles Book 1) by Annie Summerlee

Two Left Feet by Kallie Emblidge

For Our Next Song (Glitter Bats Book 2) by Jessica James

Sheer by Vanessa Lawrence

Genderqueer Menopause: Navigating Menopause for Trans, Gender-Nonconforming, Genderfluid, and Other Queer-Bodied Folx by Lasara Firefox Allen

Like in Love with You by Emma R. Alban

You’ll Never Forget Me by Isha Raya

Into the Midnight Wood by Alexandra McCollum

City of Others by Jared Poon

Brady Mason’s Perfect Fit by Nicole Melleby

Love Me to Death Vol. 1 by Toonimated

LGBTQ+ Runaway and Homeless Youth: A Guide to Practice, Policy, and Research by Elaine M. Maccio & Kristin Ferguson

Jean by Madeleine Dunnigan

Is This a Cry for Help? by Emily Austin

Midsummer Count: New and Selected Poems by Robin Becker

Gushing Over Magical Girls Vol. 7 by Akihiro Ononaka

Queering Him by Katherine Wela Bogen

Roses and Champagne Vol. 2 by Zig

Little Wolf in the Storm Vol. 1 by Adik Graves

The Debutante Dilemma by Jane Walsh

Coda by Anna Gram

Secrets Under the Junipers by Suzie Clarke

Brooke Takes Queen by Alaina Erdell

14

Drag Me Home Again (Sleighbell Sprints Series Book 1) by J.E. Joyce

Love Mediation (Conflict Mediation: Not So Normative Book 4) by D.C. Emerson

Blooms & Bickering by Morgan Park

Sleeping Faun (An Autumn & Arcadia Novel) by Nico Silver

15

Slut Lullabies: Stories by Gina Frangello

The Iridescents: Stories by Emrys Donaldson

Beyond Recognition: Transgender Antidiscrimination Law, Rhetoric, & Ethical Responsibility by Laura Jane Collins

Exposing Colorado (State of Us Book 3) by Bree Wiley

Survival Instinct (Inhuman Natures Book 2) by Marra Moore

The Shapes of Our Screams by TT Madden

The Familialists by TT Madden

Melting Ice (Department of Super Affairs) by E.C. Merrick

16

Echoes & Embers by Nicholas Michael Matiz

Bound by Ink (Scions of Bellhaven Novella) by Ariella Monti

17

God Tokens (Phelen the Cycle Book 1) by Emily Bellman

19

Ski-Crossed Lovers (Love on the Podium) by Allison Temple

20

Soul of a Gentleman Witch by David Ferraro

I Am Their Silence by Jordi Lafebre

Vanquished (The Elder Tree Trilogy Book 3) by Erica Rose Eberhart

Worst-Case Scenario by Ray Stoeve

If All the Stars Go Dark by S. G. Prince

He Craves to Be Teased by His Favorite ASMR Streamer Vol. 1 by Coco Aino

Twin Jades of Jiangdong Vol. 1 by Fei Tian Ye Xiang

Leo Rising: Queer Spaces, Sexuality, and Fame by Archie Bongiovanni

Low Tide in Twilight Vol. 1 by Euja

Steppe by Oksana Vasyakina

A Wild Radiance by Maria Ingrande Mora

A Black Queer History of the United States by C. Riley Snorton & Darius Bost

Our Ex’s Wedding by Taleen Voskuni

George Falls Through Time by Ryan Collett

Better The Devil by Erik J. Brown

When You Come Back to Me (Lost Boys) by Emma Scott

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days by Jessie Sylva

The Typewriter and the Guillotine by Mark Braude

Bending the Rules: Fashion Beyond the Binary by Camille Benda

Hemlock by Melissa Faliveno

Designated Stranger by Gion Davis

I Don't Wish You Well by Jumata Emill

Paying Her Way by Amanda Kabak

One Aladdin Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson

Blood City Rollers: Move It or Bruise It by V P Anderson, Tatiana Hill (Illustrator)

Bytchcraft by Aaron Reese, Bex Glendining (Colorist), Morgan Martinez (Letterer), Lema Carril (Illustrator)

Not Your Founding Father by Nina Sankovitch

Rain Date: Unpredictable Lessons from My Life Forecasting the Weather by Nick Pittman

Chamorrita Song by Danielle P Williams

Now That I Know You by Heart by Amy Hagstrom

Minato's Laundromat Vol. 6 by Yuzu Tsubaki

Semantic Error Vol. 1 by J Soori

Lover Boy Vol. 4 by Zec

Radiance Is Blooming by Y L Wigman

Wish I May (Three Wishes Book 1) by Hannah Murray

Perfect Strangers by J. Rhys

So Dearly Reckless Vol. 1 by Tenma Asahi, Raenoire (Translator), Tsutsuji Takahashi (Illustrator)

21

Kink Curious: A Guide to Exploring Your Kinks, Dispelling Shame, and Staying Safe by Gigi Engle

22

We Call Them Witches by India-Rose Bower

Quiet Spells (Spells for Life & Death Book 2) by Isa Agajanian

Photographing Biblical Modernity: Frank Scholten in British Mandate Palestine 1921-23 by Sary Zananiri

Queer Liberalisms and Marginal Mobilities by Fadi Saleh

Abrasive, Soft and Ecological: Masculinities in North India by Kaustav Chakraborty

Mine, Yours & Ours (Pretty When Vicious Book 1) by Karmen Lee

23

Love After Friday by Nicholas Michael Matiz

Her Whisper so Soft & Bitter (A Curse of Fallen Stars Book 2) by Elsie Hawthorne

Predator & Prey by E.V. Dean

24

Madame Hyde by Thea Belmont

26

Soft Launch (Hazardverse: Sidetracks) by Gregory Ashe

A Good Puck (Love on the Podium Book 2) byRochelle Wolf

27

The Wolf and His King by Finn Longman

Persona by Aoife Josie Clements

Fair Game: Trans Athletes & the Future of Sports by Ellie Roscher & Dr. Ana Baeth

To Ride a Rising Storm (Nampeshiweisit Book 2) by Moniquill Blackgoose

In the Name of Pride (Vows & Valor Book 2) by Courtney & Clarke Collins

Nothing at All by Olivia Tapiero, Kit Schluter (Translator)

Saber-Tooth by Robin Gow

Blue Land: Stories by CD Collins

Freddie and Stella Got Hot by Maggie Horne

Sparking Fire Out of Fate (Forging Silver into Stars Book 3) Brigid Kemmerer

Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen

Les Normaux, Volume Two by Janine Janssen, S. Al Sabado

One Week to Win the Chocolate Maker by Timothy Janovsky

Case File Compendium: Bing an Ben Vol. 7 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

Last First Kiss by Julian Winters

Hold Your Horses (Prickle Island Zoo Book 5) by Ali K. Mulford

Masquerade (Micah Grey Trilogy Book 3) by L. R. Lam

Attention Seeker: A Neurodivergent Comedian's Guide to Thriving with ADHD by Darcy Michael

The Case of the Murdered Muckraker (Harriet Morrow Investigates Book 2) by Rob Osler

Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar by Anahita Karthik

The Great Disillusionment of Nick and Jay by Ryan Douglass

Missing Sam by Thrity Umrigar

Lost Girls of Hollow Lake by Rebekah Faubion

She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, Izidora Angel (Translator)

On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield

The Demon of Beausoliel by Mari Costa

See You at the Summit by Jordyn Taylor

Love Makes Mochi (Love in Translation 3) by Stefany Valentine

Funeral Song by Carly Racklin

Love (Literally) Bites (Chaotic Paranormals Book 1) Corina Bair

Roll Over and Die Vol. 7 by Kiki

Kitayama and Minamiya Vol. 1 by Satoh Sugar

Fowl Play (Fangs On Ice) by Rhea Fox

The Flame that Sings (The Eternal Library Book 3) by Cedar McCloud

28

Scoring Chance (The Comebacks Book 2) by A.J. Truman

29

The Reanimator's Fate (The Reanimator Mysteries Book 4) by Kara Jorgensen

Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray

Final Edit (Lights, Camera, Love Book 1) by E.M. Denning

30

Solemn Vows (The Bone Men Book 2) by C.J. Tuma & Quinn Cameron

Secrets We Cradle in the Dark by Ivy Lovell

ID: A post of eighteen slides. The background is made up of a diagonal oriented 6-stripe rainbow for each slide. Slide 1 has a white square which reads "193 queer books coming out in January". The 193 is in matching horizontal rainbow stripes and January is in blue text. Text between the number and month are all caps black font.

Slides 2-17 features a white grid outline with a column on the left that has the release date in white over a blue rectangle and book covers in three rows of 4 book covers each.

Slide 18 features a similar set up but with 1 book displayed. Row 1 has one book cover and three pale blue rectangles. Rows 2 and 3 only have four pale blue rectangles. The column on the left that has the release date in white over a blue rectangle. End ID.

[canagadoodles]

My account is still blocked from searching/tags/etc on my business blog @foundfamilyadventurecrafts so I'm posting this here. There's something very bad happening with Small Business, Tech, and Amazon. What else is new?

Links: Bobo Design Studio for Updates & Submitting Information

Arrows Aim Greenhouse + Chroma Rex are putting together a complaint with WA State Attorney General's Office + Templates for complaints / opt out

Articles:

Amazon's Buy For Me Information Page

Reuters Article

Ars Technica Article

Business Insider Article

[friday-tea]

Hey, that's us and a bunch of our friends! This whole thing SUCKS so bad and we're pissed. We've intentionally not listed our products on Amazon for the 15 years we've been in business. We're ready to join a class action lawsuit and kick some ass.

[aspiringbearrambles]

A Lady for a Duke - Halfway Checkpoint

Positives so far:

I’m fond of the main characters, Viola and Gracewood. It’s really relieving to indulge in a story where the characters are fairly established adults (though I don’t think their specific ages are mentioned, in my mind's eye they are both in their 30s) as opposed to teenagers.

Alexis Hall has managed to write a story in which a character expresses grief (roundaboutly) over another’s transition that doesn’t immediately make me hate that character. Because both Hall and Gracewood acknowledge the grief over who Viola used to be, or who Gracewood thought he knew, as being first and foremost reactionary. Gracewood reacts in the moment with betrayal and lashing out because he has been grieving and he is still struggling, and it is acknowledged as being an innately selfish act. His anger is not over Viola’s “nature,” but instead on the fact he feels hurt that she didn’t trust him with something so important, which in turn makes him and their past friendship feel unimportant. And this is something he begins to realize just on the edge of “too late,” relapsing upon the discovery that Viola and Lady Marleigh have left and waking with a poppy scent and a recognition of his self-centeredness. And Viola does not stand proud and defiant in the face of his insults, his cruelty in assuming it was easy for her. She is grieved by it far more than he is, the decision between a solitude born of freedom and a life that is all she has never known and would have killed her, but as many have to do, stands firm, and waits until she is far away to cry.

Negatives so far:

The writing and pacing at times can drag and be clunky.

“Little Bartholomew,” Viola’s nephew, is something of a victim to the curse of writing small children in a story where they are not the focus. He just barely exists, mostly popping into the narrative to question or point things out bluntly to poke holes in how adults complicate matters, and then promptly disappears. 

This is largely an issue with my relationship with historical fiction in general: Hall does offer some commentary onto the intricacies of navigating class in Gracewood and Viola’s relationship, wherein they grew up with the same expectations and wealth, Viola abandons these to become Viola and thus trades her identity for a lower social class, and Gracewood wears his generational status like a heavy yoke that constricts and protects him in equal turns. However, the world at large, the effects Gracewood’s two years of grief as well as his father’s implied heavy fist has on the people who live on the land they own, is largely overlooked. We are given one chapter in which Gracewood and Viola see the village, see that it is struggling with both the bad seasons and illness, and Gracewood expresses discomfort and frustration with this and resolves to put measures in place to aid them, primarily to make repairs, freeze rent, and provide a doctor to the sick. It’s there narratively as part of Gracewood’s development, showing that not only has he become well enough to start realizing what he has neglected and make an effort to better it, but also to show the reader how Gracewood differs from his father, who is described at multiple points as a cold man who believed deeply in the hierarchy that separated him not only from the servants of Morgencald, but the people who lived on its land. However, like in many stories of the upper classes with their gowns and courting traditions which fascinate readers, the actual people on the lower end, who are subject to these Dukes and Duchesses’ whims and turbulent lifestyles, exist only as either window dressing or a litmus test over who is a “bad” landlord and a “good” landlord.