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My favorite reads of 2019, including novels, novellas, and graphic novels. What were your favorite books this year?

hi hello here’s a sort of random thing: i really want to start reading more wlw and i know you’re writing a queer book of your own so i thought you’d maybe have some good recs to give for a noob like me? i need some women focused queer media and i trust your judgement so (thanks in advance if you wanna help and also i hope you’re having a great day!!!)

im sorry this took me so long to get back to! the really sad truth is that i don’t read a lot of f/f media just because i’m so very picky and over-sensitive as to what i’m looking for. this is a relatively common thing with queer women, who keep encountering media that hurts them and so end up being very suspicious of media that is supposed to be for them.

so i have! a couple of recs but not as many as i’d like, and there’s sexual violence in two of them, and one of them i haven’t read but has been emphatically gestured at that i would like.

if anyone has recs they’d liked to reblog/reply with, that would be amazing!

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

i really liked this! it listed as a NYT’s bestseller when it debuted, and it’s from the surprisingly woke James Patterson imprint that has a couple of other books i want to look into when i have more time. it’s definitely full of your typical YA Class System Stuff, but not from your typical white/western pov. there’s a really good tension between seeking revenge while also being legitimately terrified of the situation you’ve found yourself in, and the romance is a sweet and central theme to the whole book.

there is some sexual violence and rape in the book, but it’s written from a very female/survivor perspective - it’s not gratuitous, and the book examines how different people react to similar traumas in different ways. the subject is treated thoughtfully and with care, but the nature of the book’s premise meant that it’s a pretty prevalent theme.

The Princess Affair by Nell Stark

honestly i read this in like 2015 and don’t remember anything about it, but i gave it 5 stars on goodreads, and it’s a modern gay princess romance book? give it a shot man that premise is honestly an instant seller for me lol

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey

i remember this book being absolutely worldshaking when i read it, although it is very long and takes a while to get into the groove of things. i’ve always had a thing for books that include boxing as a means of elevating yourself/circumstances which is a wiLDLY specific thing now that i think about it? but this book is about so many things that i couldn’t possibly sum it up. from memory there is some sexual violence in it (directed more at the LI than the protag), or at least the threat of it, but it’s not to the level or extent of being a main theme or anything.

jacqueline carey has a particular skill for making you care about a story/character enough to be willing and eager to follow them through their whole life (the book literally starts with the protag’s mother lol), and this book is no exception. it tells a really touching and haunting story about both family and found family and trying to figure out what the fuck you are when the whole world is against you. like the princess affair i have nO idea how this book holds up like six years after i read it, but it holds a special place in my heart (and there is a sequel!)

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir

this is the one that i have not read but that various queers have been shrieking loudly at me to read for months now! im very excited to get my hands on it! look at this shit!

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As much as i love Gideon and her POV i am obsessed with the idea of Gideon The Ninth from someone else’s point of view like could you IMAGINE being Jeannemary, you’re 14, you’ve never met someone from the ninth house before but you’ve heard stories You meet the Reverend Daughter and she matches every stereotype you’ve heard about You meet Gideon the Ninth and she’s all face paint, black robes, stoic silence and eyes hidden behind sunglasses She beat Magnus in a duel in three moves She sucker-punched the Third cavalier She’s a serious, stone-cold badass You decide to be brave and ask her to flex for you because while you haven’t seen her arms at all you can tell she’s muscular even through her robes She humors you and her biceps are enormous

You don’t realize she can talk at all but Sextus asks her a question and she breaks her silence with “Did you know if you took the first three letters of both your names you’d be Sex Pal?” Turns out she’s just a dorky jock and the exact opposite of everything you’d assumed she was and now she won’t shut up

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gideon the ninth as troubled birds

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harrow:

dulcinea:

isaac:

teacher:

@tazmuir

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wlw spec-fic alignment chart

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“While you were busy being heterosexual, I studied the blade” A Book Rec List

So basically, sword gays.

Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes

Starting off the list strong, Sal absolutely has a sword, and is much much better with her gun, arguably. But she has a sword named Jeff, a wonderful amount of backtalk, a sleeve of tattoos, and is in line for execution. What more do you want.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

This book is a pretty old title but if you’ve ever wanted “fantasy of manners” in the form of mlm fencers????? Look no further this is for you.

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

We all know and love our disaster bi Mia Corvere. And they absolutely do study the blade (among other things) in other words Assassin School Setting. Yes you heard me. If anyone under the sun hasn’t read/heard of these give them a fucking go.

Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames

Lady. Sorcerers. With Swords. Covered in tattoos. Featuring the fantasy romp of your dreams, with some of the best ensemble cast energy you have Ever experienced (also read book 1 which is absent from sword gays sadly but does have an elderly gay wizard that makes Dumbledore absolutely obsolete)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

You know these boys had to be on this list. None other than you’re favorite edition of “they were just friends???!!!!” Achilles and Patroclus are here to fight well and make you cry. Read it!!! Also featuring spears but those are also dope.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The grand finale of this beautiful list. Gideon the Ninth is The Sword Gay and I will die on this hill. Incredible biceps, two-handed longsword wielding, and an absolutely filthy fucking mouth. Did I mention, necromancers in space. This is the part where you go buy this book.

Thus concludes perhaps the most on-brand list of book recs I could ever compile. Enjoy.

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Book recs 2019

I read a lot of really good books this year! Some of them I’ve already posted about here and there, but others I haven’t, and it seemed like a good time to make a list:

Charlie Jane Anders, The City in the Middle of the Night. On a desolate frozen planet, human existence is confined to two very different cities. When reluctant revolutionary Sophie is forced into exile, she doesn’t expect to survive, and only the the planet’s native wildlife can help her. A really beautiful book with a wonderful protagonist, aliens, broken hearts, and radical empathy.

Tana French, In the Woods. I’m just adding myself to the chorus here, praising French’s gorgeous, evocative prose and overall atmosphere of creeping dread.

Rebecca Roanhorse, Trail of Lightning. Post-apocalyptic sf/fantasy adventure, but the protagonist is Navajo/Dine, and so is the apocalypse surrounding her. It’s a fun trip through Native lore. (first of a series, the sequel is out but I haven’t read it yet)

Ann Leckie, The Raven Tower. I loved this book; it’s so different from her other books but also amazing. A fascinating exploration of divinity and language, wrapped up in a retelling of Hamlet. This book is too hard to describe, but I so recommend it.

S. A. Chakraborty, City of Brass and Kingdom of Copper. Egyptian street hustler Nahri accidentally summons a djinni and finds herself whisked to the hidden city of djinn, where she has a much bigger (and more dangerous) role in politics than she ever dreamed. These two books are packed full of politics and machinations. with tons of intrigue; the characters make terrible choices all the time, but often for understandable and relatable reasons. I’m really looking forward to the forthcoming sequel.

Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver. I feel like Novik’s novels keep getting better. This one plays with a whole lot of fairy-tale tropes; Miryem is a Jewish girl who takes over her father’s lending business and her reputation for “spinning silver into gold” gets the attention of the fey creatures who surround her. But that’s not all; the story expands to include a humble farming family, a duke’s plain daughter, demons, princes, and an ever-encroaching winter. A great book, though be warned that there are abusive situations in it.

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose the Time War. I know I’ve gushed about this elsewhere. It’s a time-traveling f/f enemies-to-lovers story in beautiful, weird epistolary prose! It’s not that long! Go get it!

Max Gladstone, The Empress of Forever. Tech genius Vivian Liao finds herself in a far future dominated by the terrifying Empress of Forever. Do you like found families? Do you like queer women? Do you like character growth? Do you like ragtag misfits banding together against authority? If you do, this is a book for you!

Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth. The heirs of the empire’s Nine Houses of necromancers, plus their cavalier bodyguards, are thrown into a locked country house to solve puzzles. Then the murders begin. Plus, protagonist Gideon (one of the great snarky protagonist voices of all time) wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. Necromancy, duels, intrigue, snark, enemies-to-friends(?). People do in fact die in this book. Also first in a series.

Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, eds. The Mythic Dream. A collection of myth retellings from a wide, diverse group of some of the best sf/f authors today. Highly recommended.

Yoon Ha Lee, Hexarchate Stories. I am a fan of Lee’s Machineries of Empire series (please go read Ninefox Gambit!). This collection has short stories scattered through the series’ timeline and giving nice snapshots of Jedao, Cheris, and other characters. Also has a new novella that functions as a sequel to the trilogy, which I enjoyed a lot.

Arkady Martine, A Memory Called Empire. Wow, I love this book. Mahit Dzmare is the new ambassador from her small, independent mining station to the vast and mighty Teixcalaanli Empire, only to discover that her predecessor is mysteriously dead, and the implanted memories she has from him aren’t working correctly. What was he up to? Can she find out without getting killed herself? The plot and characters are compelling, but the book is also a long meditation on empire, cultural hegemony, and marginalization. Such a great read, I’m also really looking forward to the sequel to this one.

Naomi Kritzer, Catfishing on Catnet. Steph has always moved around a lot, so her friends are mostly on Catnet, her favorite social media site. But she doesn’t know that the site is run by a well-meaning AI, or that her questions about her past are about to make her world a lot more dangerous. On the one hand a near-future thriller about AIs, automation, and the surveillance state, on the other hand a wonderful exploration of queer teen romance and friendship. So good, and highly recommended!

tazmuir

romancing the bone: a gideon the ninth fst

For my birthday in 2018, my two first readers just sent me an email with the subject heading, “We have very good taste.”

This FST is quite possibly the most serious, transformative and thoughtful transformative work ever presented to any canon, ever.

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