Happy Friday! Sugar Honey Iced Tea, friends! It’s September! What is this new devilry? I swear it feels like the summer just started. Now iCal is telling me I only have four months left to read all the books and I can’t stop talking without using exclamation points! . This is a hybrid post of my August wrap-up and September TBR. Pictured is my bullet journal with my reading tracker layout for August and also featured are some of the books I’ll be reading for September. . For my last wrap-up, instead of a rating system, I did categories and they worked out really well, so I’ll try them again. . Epic adventures that owned me at every page: -Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames -The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley (Book 2 of the Unhewn Throne) . Elemental fantasies are my jam and these did not disappoint: -Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser -The Waking Land by Callie Bates . Heard these were good and that I’d like them and turns out I LOVE THEM: -Stalking Jack the Ripper by Keri Maniscalo -Etiquette and Espionage: Book the First in the Finishing School series by Gail Carrier -Curtsies and Conspiracies: Book the Second in the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger . Diverse reads done well—funny and poignant: -Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde -You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner -The Hammer of Thor: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2 . Fun summer read: -The Heartbreakers by Ali Novak . The jury is still out on this series: Empire of Night (Age of Legends #2) by Kelley Armstrong (I’m reading book 3 for September.) . What was your favorite read(s) in August? What are you looking forward to read in September? What are your plans for the weekend? . #readingwrapup #bookwrapup #igreads #bookstagrammer #becauseofreading #yalovin #bookdragon #readerlife #ownvoices #diversereads #readproud #lgbtreads #booklover #bookflatlay #booksofinstagram #youngadultlit #fantasyfirsts #fantasybooks #fantasyreads #bujojunkie #washiaddict #notebookaddict #leuchtturm1917
Who were some of your favorite characters from shows or books, etc. growing up? . I was a child of the 80’s and one of my favorite characters was Wonder Woman. I would tie my mom’s scarves around my head and wrists so that I could dodge bullets. Last year I was thrilled when the movie and Leigh Bardugo’s Wonderwoman Warbringer came out. They both captured the spirit of Diana so well. . What I really enjoyed about Leigh Bardugo’s Diana was her compassion, intelligence and her sense of duty to the Amazons. I also enjoyed the positive portrayal of friendship between Diana and Alia—we need more models of females valuing and respecting each other! . Some challenges: . #authorappreciationmarch Adventure-Diana and Alia travel from Themyscaria to New York and then to Greece! . #avengethebooks Comic book-Wonder Woman Warbringer was inspired by the comic book! . #bookishrandomthings Diverse books-I was so pleased to see so many diverse characters! Alia and Jason are half-black, half-Greek. Nim is Indian and gay. Theo is Brazillian. . Special thanks to Steph @bookish.photog who told me that the Wonder Woman sword was at Target! . Have a great Friday! . #leighbardugo #wonderwomanwarbringer #dcionsseries #funkopop #ireadya #yareads #diversereads #weneeddiversebooks #diversebooks #readproud #readersofig #booksofig #readerlife #momswhowrite #booknerdmommy
What’s something you do for self care? (Reading and binging shows is not what I meant!😉) January was about reflection and coming up with a plan for self care because I’m really bad at it. 🤦🏽♀️ My goal in February is to put my plan in action and try out what works and what doesn’t. . One thing that I really enjoy is taking long walks at our local nature center. If you saw my stories this morning, I shared glimpses of what it’s like. As I mentioned before I really enjoy going on these walks, but I also am very good at making up excuses not to go! No more of that! If I can’t make it out, then I’ll find another self care activity that I enjoy. No more making excuses! This year will be more of looking for opportunities! 💪🏽 . And yes I brought some books with me on my walk. 💁🏽♀️ Featured here are just a couple of my February reads! I’ll do a January wrap-up and a more comprehensive February TBR in another post, but I wanted to share a couple books that I’m really excited for! The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag @molly_ostertag and Binti the Night Masquerade (Book 3) by Nnedi Okorafor @nnediokorafor have been on my TBR for a while now. I’m a few pages into Witch Boy and I’m in love! I finished Binti 2 earlier this week and I’m so glad Binti 3 came out last month because that cliffhanger had me like 😯😧😩! . What’s on your February TBR? . #maketodayawesome #selfcarematters #imtrying #thewitchboy #mollyostertag #binti #nnediokorafor #booksleeves #bookbeau #middlegradebooks #readproud #lgbtqreads #scifireads #diversereads #diversebooks #scifibooks #fantasyreads #whattoreadnext #booknerdmommy #readersgonnaread
For #grimdragon challenge, Favorite background characters: Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare from the Dark Artifices series. It was actually hard picking a book for this prompt because I have so many favorite background characters! . Lord of Shadows is the second book in the Dark Artifices series that’s part of the Mortal Instruments/Shadowhunters series. It takes place at the Los Angeles Institute where the Blackthorn family lives. I have to admit, I was not sure if I would enjoy the series without Jace, Clary, Alec, Magnus, Isabel, and Simon, but it turns out that I like it a lot. I love the Blackthorn family and Emma too. . AVERT YOUR EYES. A SPOILER AHEAD. . . . In Lord of Shadows, my favorites (besides Mark Blackthorn) are Kit Herondale (Yes! There’s a Herondale in this story!), Ti and Livvy Blackthorn—Julian’s twin brother and sister. IMO, these three are gaining the Golden Trio status for this series. I really like the dynamic that’s developing between them. Again, I'm still reading SO NO SPOILERS, but I'm getting a Ti and Kit vibe but also Kit and Livvy vibe too. I'm really invested to see how these three fare together. . I’m actually still reading Lord of Shadows, so PLEASE NO SPOILERS, but who are your favorite background characters from the Dark Artifices series? If you don’t read this series, what other background characters are your favorite(s)? . Featured here: Costco edition of Lord of Shadows that came with the exclusive poster of Emma and the Shadowhunter rune pin and character postcards for preordering Lord of Shadows. You can swipe through to see close-ups of the artwork and pin. . So happy it’s Saturday! I hope your day is going well. I think I’m in the minority in this, but I’m actually a little sad my kids are going back to school next week. I love summer break and having them home! What are you up to? . #lordofshadows #thedarkartifices #cassandraclare #shadowhunters #themortalinstruments #markblackthorn #juilianblackthorn #emmacarstairs #simonandshuster #costcobooks #bookflatlay #readersofig #booksofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #booksarelife #readabook #readeveryday #readreadread #readallthebooks #diversereads #readproud #lgbtreads
This is my final #readproud book for the month of June, and it was so much better than I thought it would be. Is anybody else old enough to remember the movie Kissing Jessica Stein? Don’t go looking it up or anything; you’ll be disappointed. It came out back in the early 2000s and was the first queer movie I saw in a movie theater. Imagine a half-empty room of angry Midwestern lesbians watching the protagonist decide she’s straight after all, and you’ll get the idea. So this book is, in many ways, like that movie. The title, and everything else about it, had me expecting a really disappointing depiction of bi-curiosity (ending, of course, in a dismissal of bisexuality). Imagine my delighted surprise, upon finding that this is a very sensitively written and mature exploration of sexual identity that fixes everything that was wrong with the worst lesbian date movie of 2001. It’s also, in my cynical opinion, a very realistic (if not positive) look at polyamory, if that’s a thing that interests you.
Find Look Both Ways here.
What’s it about?
Brooklyn (from Manhattan, wow that joke gets old) is the daughter of a famous family of performing artists, including a beloved Broadway star. She’s not a very enthusiastic performer herself, but she’s managed to be accepted to a prestigious summer theater program in upstate New York. She’s determined to awaken her inner actor while she’s there, to prove herself worthy of her star-studded family. She’s immediately relegated to tech crew, though, and spends most of the summer trailing after her outrageously talented new friends, including Zoe, her beautiful, entrancing roommate. Who’s bisexual. With a boyfriend. Who has given Zoe permission to date girls on the side. Dun dun dunnnnn.
How is it?
I found it completely charming. I honestly can’t think of a problem I had with it, either from a stylistic or plotty perspective. I even (and this is big for me) found the in-book musical numbers worth reading. Brooklyn is a wonderful, maturing, self-aware character and I love her to bits. Zoe is very well-developed, and seeing her change in Brooklyn’s estimation over the course of their relationship was exceptionally realistic. I felt like I was dating her myself. There are a lot of additional characters here I really loved, too, and the world-building of the theater camp was very compelling. I realize I’m talking about it like a fantasy novel, but theater camp is about as foreign to me as a fantasy world, so, yeah.
How are queer readers going to feel about it, assuming they like this sort of thing?
So, there will be a few reactions of note that I’d bank on. Lesbians looking for a lesbian relationship are going to be disappointed. Folks looking for a happy poly ending are going to be disappointed. Bisexuals/pansexuals/other people who aren’t going into the novel looking for validation of their own sexual identity, though, will likely really love this book.
What makes this work so well is Cherry’s insistence that sexuality is not general, it’s specific. Brooklyn is exploring her bisexuality, but she’s doing it with the wrong person in the wrong circumstances. When she breaks up with Zoe, it’s not for a boy, and it’s not because Zoe is a girl, it’s because, while Brooklyn loves Zoe, she’s not sexually attracted to her. She leaves open the possibility that she might be sexually attracted to another girl in the future. She freely and ecstatically acknowledges her romantic attraction to Zoe. Zoe’s just not the girl for her.
The way Zoe’s poly relationship with her boyfriend Carlos is handled is, in my experience, painfully realistic. She means well. He means well. It really isn’t working for anyone, least of all Brooklyn. Everyone’s a good and caring person, no one is a sleazebag, and not everyone is built for polyamory.
There is zero discrimination. No terrible things happen to queer characters. There’s underage drinking and some slightly uncomfortable sexual pressure while characters are drunk, but everyone’s boundaries are respected. Everyone is out and very open about their sexuality, with no negative repercussions. Brooklyn’s mom has dated women in the past and is actually disappointed that things don’t work out with Zoe. But just like Brooklyn has to discover her own creative talents apart from her family, her sexual identity is her own, and everyone comes to respect that. It’s a lovely summer read and for those who aren’t turned off by the not-quite-HEA ending, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Preview: When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
Hi everyone. Just to get it out of the way, When the Moon Was Ours is probably going to land in my top 5 books of 2016. That’s in spite of the fact that it is super not up my alley, genre-wise: it’s just so powerfully good, and so gorgeous, and tells such a specific queer & trans story without ever trying to do the shitty universally-relatable thing….UGH. GOD. Pre-order it, please. Hell, I have the arc, and I’m about to pre-order a copy because I want McLemore to have my money. I’m reviewing it super early for #readproud (btw, guess how many ARCs in my giant ARC pile are by authors of color? TWO. And it’s not for lack of looking, god damn it publishers), but I’ll reblog this closer to its October publication date.
Okay, on with the actual review. WHOOPS a representative of the publisher nicely asked me to hold this review until the fall. The cat’s out of the bag, but I’m pulling this now and will post it again in October.
I'm reading Juliet Takes a Breath for the #gayYAReadalong this weekend. Join us on Twitter and follow @thegayYA. I'll be sharing my thoughts and impressions today and tomorrow. #ReadProud #bookstagram #booknerd #bookblogger #reading #diversebooks #books #bookworm #library #womenofcolor #poc #bibliophile #gabbyrivera #juliettakesabreath #instaread #instabook
