Books Take You to Far-off Places

My boyfriend and I love books and reading and children's books. We've lately been visiting our local library regularly and borrowing books to read to each other. I love to read aloud, and he has dyslexia and trouble focusing on reading (ADHD) - so we're a pretty great match. We've made this blog to keep track of the books we read and most enjoy. We're both disabled, autistic, polyamorous, and super queer. My name is Khai and I'm 25, James is 26. I'm non-binary and use "they" pronouns. var sc_project=11404011; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_security="ba2a715d"; var scJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://secure." : "http://www."); document.write("");

[lustforlife74]

[90s90s90s]

[delightingintherain]

Beyond II: Urban Fantasy & Post-Apocalypse Edition pdf is here!

Available for purchase on the Beyond Press Gumroad store here. It’s a queer sci-fi and fantasy comic anthology edited by Sfe R. Monster and Taneka Stotts.

I am so in love with everything about it! Each and every story, the forewords, the incredible illustrations…everything! 

(I haven’t been crying at various points reading it, you have!)

If you’re able to, I highly recommend purchasing the pdf and checking it out. 

I’m just so excited about it and I love it so much! I’m really, really lucky to have been able to take part in the kickstarter.

I’m just so in love with this book. All the creators are just beyond incredible. (heh)

[delightingintherain]

There’s a certain sadness that comes from finishing a good book.

Having to leave those characters and that world behind, if only until the next book or the next time you read it.

[alanawilliams]

[heikala]

[come-home]

[booksaredoorways]

Khai, we need to do this soon. Thank u.

[roldam]

[delightingintherain]

You [humans] have this thing you call…boredom? That is the rarest talent in the universe! We heard a song - it went “Twinkle twinkle twinkle little star….” What power! What wondrous power! You can take a billion trillion tons of flaming matter, a furnace of unimaginable strength, and turn it into a little song for children! You build little worlds, little stories, little shells around your minds, and that keeps infinity at bay and allows you to wake up in the morning without screaming!

the hiver to Tiffany Aching, from “A Hat Full of Sky” by Terry Pratchett, pg. 238 (via delightingintherain)

[delightingintherain]

It’s always surprising to be reminded that while you’re watching and thinking about people, all knowing and superior, they’re watching and thinking about you, right back at you.

Tiffany Aching’s musings in “A Hat Full of Sky” by Terry Pratchett, pg. 277 (via delightingintherain)

[delightingintherain]

Joy is to fun what deep sea is to a puddle. It’s a feeling inside that can hardly be contained.

Tiffany Aching’s musings in “A Hat Full of Sky” by Terry Pratchett, pg. 277 (via delightingintherain)

[delightingintherain]

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

Tiffany Aching’s musings in “A Hat Full of Sky” by Terry Pratchett, pg. 277 (via delightingintherain)

[bisexual-books]

Review: Not Quite Narwhal by Jessie Sima

Okay, so there are still no bisexual children’s picture books.  I’m not reviewing this because it is a bisexual children’s picture book.  

But Not a Narwhal, is a book about breaking down binaries.  And frankly is just awesome.  In a world with no bisexual picture books, it can at least thematically give bisexual parents a way to talk to their kids about how life is more than a choice between opposites.  

Kelp is a little unicorn raised by narwhals.  Even though he is clearly different and not always good at narwhal tasks like swimming, his community loves him.  One day he goes to the surface and sees an animals that looks like him on the shore.  He finds a community of unicorns and finds out he is one of them, but still goes back to his loving community in the sea.  Only he is not happy there.  

What I like about this book (and why it functions as a good metaphor for bisexuality) is that the answer isn’t for him to live only with the unicorns or only with the narwhals.  The answer for Kelp is to throw a big party on the beach so narwhals and unicorns can all play together.  The answer isn’t a choice between a binary, it is about making space in the (literal) middle ground.  

Also the art is ungodly adorable, and full of rainbows:

So while we wait for a truly bisexual children’s picture book, this one is a boundary busting delight that can begin to open up bi-friendly conversations between parents and children.

- Sarah 

[discworldtour]

Yes, Mr Bunnsy Has an Adventure was the cause of much discussion amongst the Changelings. What was it for? Was it, as Dangerous Beans believed, a vision of some bright future? had it been made by humans? The shop had been for humans, true, but surely even humans wouldn’t make a book about Ratty Rupert the Rat, who wore a hat, and poison rats under the floorboards at the same time. Would they? How mad would anything have to be to think like that?

– on humans and rats | Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

[discworldtour]

“She’s one of those people like… actors. You know. Acting all the time. Not living in the real world at all. Like it’s all a big story. Dangerous Beans is a bit like that. Highly dangerous person, in my opinion.” “He’s a very kind and thoughtful rat!” “Ah, yes, but the trouble is, see, that he thinks everyone else is like him. People like that are bad news, kid. And our lady friend, she thinks life works like a fairy tale.” “Well, that’s harmless, isn’t it?” said Keith. “Yeah, but in fairy tales, when someone dies… it’s just a word.”

– on fairy tales | Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

[neuroatypically-speaking]

Failure to Communicate now available for pre-order!

(Cover not final)

As one of the only remaining autistics in the universe, Xandri Corelel has faced a lot of hardship, and she’s earned her place as the head of Xeno-Liaisons aboard the first contact ship Carpathia. But her skill at negotiating with alien species is about to be put to the ultimate test.

The Anmerilli, a notoriously reticent and xenophobic people, have invented a powerful weapon that will irrevocably change the face of space combat. Now the Starsystems Alliance has called in Xandri and the crew of the Carpathia to mediate. The Alliance won’t risk the weapon falling into enemy hands, and if Xandri can’t bring the Anmerilli into the fold, the consequences will be dire.

Amidst sabotage, assassination attempts, and rampant cronyism, Xandri struggles to convince the doubtful and ornery Anmerilli. Worse, she’s beginning to suspect that not everyone on her side is really working to make the alliance a success. As tensions rise and tempers threaten to boil over, Xandri must focus all her energy into understanding the one species that has always been beyond her: her own.

——

On Tuesday, February 14th, Failure to Communicate, the first full length novel about Xandri Corelel (protagonist of Testing Pandora) will release. In the meantime, you can pre-order it! (Currently Failure to Communicate is only available digitally. Hard-copy release may come later if there’s interest.)

Looking for a good read? A gift for your favorite autistic? Some solid space opera? Look no further! Failure to Communicate is also a good pick for diversity or #OwnVoices reading lists. 

(Please consider signal boosting for others who might be interested.)

[discworldtour]

“Of course! We’re doing it wrong! Everyone knows you never find the secret passage by looking for it! It’s when you give up and lean against the wall that you inadvertently operate the secret switch!”

– more on secret passages | Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents