Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known by George M. Johnson
Voting ended onJun 13
Book summaries below:
How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones
From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power.
“People don’t just happen,” writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ‘I’ it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ‘I am no longer yours.’ ”
Haunted and haunting, Jones’s memoir tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.
Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one of a kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.
Nonfiction, memoir
Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known by George M. Johnson
From the New York Times–bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue comes an empowering set of essays about Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance.
In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer – and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.
Interspersed with personal narrative, powerful poetry, and illustrations by award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, Flamboyants looks to the past for understanding as to how Black and Queer culture has defined the present and will continue to impact the future. With candid prose and an unflinching lens towards truth and hope, George M. Johnson brings young adult readers an inspiring collection of biographies that will encourage teens today to be unabashed in their layered identities.
We've got six new releases on our radar this week! Which ones do you want to check out?
Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho
HarperCollins
It’s Black Friday—and the apocalypse is on sale!
Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper’s life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can’t remember and the person he’s sure he’s supposed to be.
Jasper spends his days working as a checkout clerk at the Here for You discount mart, where a hell portal in aisle nine means danger every shift. But at least at the mart he can be near his crush, Kyle Kuan, a junior member of the monster-fighting Vanguard, though Kyle really seems to hate Jasper for reasons he doesn’t remember or understand.
But when Jasper and Kyle learn they both share a frightening vision of the impending apocalypse, they’re forced to team up and uncover the uncomfortable truth about the hell portals and the demons that haunt the world. Because the true monsters are not always what they seem, the past is not always what we wish, and like it or not, on Black Friday, all hell will break loose starting in aisle nine. Perfect for fans of Grasshopper Jungle or The Last of Us comes Aisle Nine, the debut young adult novel from rising YA star Ian X. Cho.
A Constellation of Minor Bears by Jen Ferguson
Heartdrum
Award-winning author Jen Ferguson has written a powerful story about teens grappling with balancing resentment with enduring friendship—and how to move forward with a life that’s not what they’d imagined.
Before that awful Saturday, Molly used to be inseparable from her brother, Hank, and his best friend, Tray. The indoor climbing accident that left Hank with a traumatic brain injury filled Molly with anger.
While she knows the accident wasn’t Tray’s fault, she will never forgive him for being there and failing to stop the damage. But she can’t forgive herself for not being there either.
Determined to go on the trio’s post-graduation hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, even without Hank, Molly packs her bag. But when her parents put Tray in charge of looking out for her, she is stuck backpacking with the person who incites her easy anger.
Despite all her planning, the trail she’ll walk has a few more twists and turns ahead. . . .
Faeries Never Lie: Tales to Revel In edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker
Feiwel & Friends
Faeries Never Lie, the next young adult collection in the Untold Legends series edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, is filled with fourteen short stories to revel in, that center faeries of varying genders and cultures!
There’s something to be said for starting your first day in faerie boarding school, for chasing a faerie through Chang’an during the Tang Dynasty, for searching for the missing part of your throuple who may have run away with a faerie prince, for descending into madness after spending countless nights plagued by the same faerie dream—and much more.
Fly into this revelry filled with tricksters, lovers, monsters, and the like, in this exciting collection for those who love faeries and those who are experiencing them for the first time!
Edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, Faeries Never Lie features short stories from beloved authors Nafiza Azad, Holly Black, Dhonielle Clayton, Christine Day, Chloe Gong, Tessa Gratton, Kwame Mbalia, Ryan La Sala, L.L. McKinney, Anna-Marie McLemore, Kaitlyn Sage Patterson, Rory Power.
Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known written by George M. Johnson & illustrated by Charly Palmer
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
From the New York Times–bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue comes an empowering set of essays about Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance.
In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer – and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.
Interspersed with personal narrative, powerful poetry, and illustrations by award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, Flamboyants looks to the past for understanding as to how Black and Queer culture has defined the present and will continue to impact the future. With candid prose and an unflinching lens towards truth and hope, George M. Johnson brings young adult readers an inspiring collection of biographies that will encourage teens today to be unabashed in their layered identities.
The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's by Hanna Alkaf
Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women.
Unfortunately, there is also the screaming.
When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected—along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation.
Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her.
Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams.
Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim…
Payal Mehta's Romance Revenge Plot by Preeti Chhibber
Kokila
This laugh-out-loud debut romance introduces perfectly imperfect Payal Mehta, whose plan to get her long-time crush to finally notice her is destined for success, but only if she ignores her budding feelings for her archnemesis...
Payal Mehta has had a crush on popular, athletic, all-around perfect Jonathan Slate ever since he smiled at her in freshman–year Spanish class. At a party during spring break of her junior year, Payal finally works up the courage to ask Jon to hang out. However, her romantic plans are derailed when he vomits on her Keds. Twice. But when Jon offers to take her out to lunch as an apology, Payal is convinced this is the start of their love story.
Over chalupas and burritos at Taco Bell, Payal's best jokes are landing as planned. Jon is basically choking on his Coke—and then it happens. "Do you have a boyfriend?" Payal is (finally) about to get the guy. And then he tries to set her up with his Indian friend. Payal's best friends, Neil Patel and Divya Bhatt, are just as mad about the microaggression as Payal is, but they think she’s a little too hung up on him.
Determined to teach Jon a lesson by making him fall for her, Payal ropes in her archnemesis, Philip Kim, to help by ceding creative control over their psych project. It’s the perfect plan. Minus Philip’s snarky, annoying quips and lack of faith in its success. But as Payal lies to the people she loves, hides the too-Indian parts of herself in front of her crush, and learns that maybe Philip isn't the worst, she starts to wonder if what she's been looking for has been scowling at her all along...
Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution by Susan Stryker
Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known by George M. Johnson
Voting ended onJun 6
Book summaries below:
Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution by Susan Stryker
Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-'70s to 1990-the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the '90s and '00s.
Transgender History includes informative sidebars highlighting quotes from major texts and speeches in transgender history and brief biographies of key players, plus excerpts from transgender memoirs and discussion of treatments of transgenderism in popular culture.
Nonfiction, history
Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known by George M. Johnson
From the New York Times–bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue comes an empowering set of essays about Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance.
In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer – and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.
Interspersed with personal narrative, powerful poetry, and illustrations by award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, Flamboyants looks to the past for understanding as to how Black and Queer culture has defined the present and will continue to impact the future. With candid prose and an unflinching lens towards truth and hope, George M. Johnson brings young adult readers an inspiring collection of biographies that will encourage teens today to be unabashed in their layered identities.
🌱𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐨 - 𝐏𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐩𝐮𝐦 Flamboyán dorado, Flamboyánt amarillo, Árbol Llama amarilla, Poinciana amarilla, Acacia ferrugínea, Acacia africana, Copperpod y otros nombres. Su Nombre Científico es Peltophorum pterocarpum y pertenece a la familia Fabaceae. Es nativo del sur tropical de Asia y norte de Australia. . <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Mas info sobre 🔬📚☘️𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨 𝐂𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐨 & 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐨 𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨🇩🇴 > Link en BIO 💚 @eco.dominicana.gps 🔥 <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> . Es un árbol que puede alcanzar desde 15 a 25 metros de altura. Presenta una copa densa de forma redondeada. Los tallos y ramas están cubiertos con un pelo rojo de apariencia oxidado. . Su sistema de raíces es profundo. Su tronco es recto y cilíndrico, con un diámetro que varía entre 0.50 y 1 metro. Ramifica a poca distancia del suelo y su corteza es grisácea. Las hojas son del tipo bipinnadas, con apariencia de helecho y con muchos folíolos pequeños color verde oscuro por el lado derecho y verde claro por el envés. . 🍃La floración ocurre en las axilas o en el terminal de las ramas. Unas flores amarillas, preciosas, cubren todo el follaje. Son racimos largos de unos 40 centímetros de longitud de forma piramidal. Las flores tienen estambres anaranjados y cada flor tiene pétalos arrugados con una marca de color marrón rojizo en el centro. Son fragantes, sobre todo de noche. . El fruto es una legumbre o vaina plana, alargada y comprimida, de color cobrizo cuando está maduro y contiene entre una y cuatro semillas. Una de las características de este árbol es la gran cantidad de vainas color cobrizo que sobresalen por todos los extremos de las ramas, luego que ha pasado la floración. . En República Dominicana se siembra con fines ornamentales en parques y jardines. . 🌱 🌿 ☘️ 🍀🌲🌲🌲🌲 #flamboyant #flamboyan #flamboyán #flamboyants #republicadominicana #republicadominicana🇩🇴 #dominicanrepublic #viverosrd #farmandgardenrd #agriculturard #agricultoresrd #agronomosrd #agrord #plantasdominicanas #floradominicana #floresdominicanas (at Santo Domingo Norte) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-mnEJkDjLy/?igshid=1y2gtw3u8wzng
#flamboyants have started and we are having a #heatwave Sitting queueing for petrol (my favourite past time) and longing for a swim. (at Mount Pleasant, Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4H8xpSFgjT/?igshid=1wg15o1w26a1w
Went to see if the #jacarandas were out on #miltonstreet by #parirenyatwahospital but it's still too early. Although the #bauhinias are still flowering and on Lawson, the #flamboyants are already starting. #sunshinecity #alwayssomethinginflower #harare #treesofharare (at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2_nurtFjFH/?igshid=13n7xp3iesov5
🌲 Árvore / #arvore com 🌸🌺🌸 #flores / #flamboyants, sempre❗em 🔝 busca do maravilhoso, eterno e infinito... céu❗, céu sempre❗- eternamente❗- sempre❗, no horário de almoço de quinta, 📆 28/3/2019, na 🏣 Cidade de #Santos, Estado de São Paulo (SP), 🇧🇷 #Brasil. (em Santos City 013) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvpFMvEHkyO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16q6v1fvvxruv
