A library is infinity under a roof

Mostly books and stuff to read. adult.

[vellich0rd]

Some of the books I read in 2024 that had the greatest impact

[random-brushstrokes]

Igor Razdrogin - Book Bazar (1975)

[lolmemez]

True neutral crew. 🔖

[littledeviantsworld-deactivated]

bilf (book i'd like to finish)

[dollwithkaleidoscopeeyes]

Utterly obsessed with these Shakespeare playbook covers from the late 1960s by Paul Hogarth

[ordenna-deactivated20181024]

this book is worth more than a dozen restaurants that grow their own microgreens on the roof

[toadstoolgardens]

READ THIS ON INTERNET ARCHIVE!! Or if you prefer a physical copy it’s on Thriftbooks for $6

Accessible Gardening for People with Physical Disabilities: A Guide to Methods, Tools, and Plants by Janeen R. Adil (1994)

and here’s another that was recommended: The Able Gardener: Overcoming Barriers of Age and Physical Limitations by Kathleen Yeomans, R.N. (1993)

[rainbowcrate]

🌈 Hey Rainbow Readers! Our next list is queer historical fiction! This is for readers who loved books like Last Night at the Telegraph by Malinda Lo, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, and The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave! For this list, we defined historical fiction as set in a real place, during a culturally recognizable time. All books are set before 1990. Historical novels capture the details of the time period as accurately as possible for authenticity, including social norms, manners, customs, and traditions.

We have several fun genre lists heading your way this month. All of these lists will feature between 10-20 books and all books on it will have under 5,000 Goodreads ratings, with a handful on each being under 1,000! Our goal is to introduce you to new books you might have never seen otherwise. These will be a mix of indie and traditional books; and range in age category!

Do you have any others you would add to this list? Authors please feel free to self-promote your queer historical fiction books in the comments!

Books listed above their respective graphic.

ID: A post of four slides. Slide 1: The graphic is a cream paper background with ink splotches in the top left and right corners. At the bottom is a stamp of a chateau in black ink.  In black font it reads “Queer historical fiction to read for pride”. At the bottom of the graphic it says @rainbowcratebookbox in all caps and white font over a black ink smudge. Slides 2-4: the same background but in the place of the title text are five book covers in two rows, the top has two covers while the bottom has three covers. At the bottom of the graphic it says @rainbowcratebookbox in all caps and white font over a black ink smudge. End ID. 

The Reckless Kind by Carly Heath

Valiant Ladies by Melissa Grey

The Nightland Express by J.M Lee

Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken by Nita Tyndall

My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa

A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adrianna Herrera

Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor

To Be A Girl by Alexandra Hamer

The Scandalous Letters of V & J by Felicia Davin

A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin

Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore

The Doctor’s Discretion by E.E. Ottoman

[vellich0rd]

Of course you should also read Sarah Waters. Her three big works, Fingersmith, Affinity, and Tipping the Velvet are all delightful, important reads. I also *highly* recommend Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison it is one of my favorite queer reads.

[treeroutes]

botanical horror related books that i am absolutely going to read (ie. the tbr list that no one asked for) :

Otto, Eric C. Green Speculations: Science Fiction and Transformative Environmentalism. Ohio State University Press, 2012.

Meeker, Natania, and Antónia Szabari. Radical Botany: Plants and Speculative Fiction. 1st ed. Fordham University Press, 2020.

Dauncey, E. A., and Sonny Larsson. Plants That Kill: A Natural History of the World’s Most Poisonous Plants, 2018.

Bishop, Katherine E., David Higgins, and Jerry Määttä. Plants in Science Fiction: Speculative Vegetation. University of Wales Press, 2020.

Tidwell, Christy, and Carter Soles. Fear and Nature: Ecohorror Studies in the Anthropocene. AnthropoScene, 2023.

Parker, Elizabeth. The Forest and the EcoGothic: The Deep Dark Woods in the Popular Imagination. Springer Nature, 2020.

[givemearmstopraywith]

not to be insane but do you have any readings about religious bdsm or things w those vibes? ily <3

hi yes i do! i just finished writing a thesis about this actually

Jeffrey J. Kripal, Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism. (University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 2001) + Jeffrey Kripal, Kali’s Child: The Mystical and Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 1996) + kali's child is not about christianity but it is a fantastic work on eroticism and religion from the hindu perspective (however kripal is white and was trained as a priest, so bear that in mind)

Carter Heyward. Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Poewr and the Love of God. (Harper & Row, 2009)

Jeremy Carrette, "Intense Exchange: Sadomasochism, Theology and the Politics of Late Capitalism." Theology and Sexuality, vol. 11, no. 1 (April 2005), pp. 11-30 

Joseph Rogers, "Do Not Despise the Discipline of the Almighty: God as Leather Daddy and Reading Job through Althaus-Reid." Religions, vol. 8, no. 10.

Robert E. Shore-Goss, "Queer incarnational bedfellows" in Contemporary Theological Approaches to Sexuality (Routledge, New York: 2017) + all of robert shore-goss's work in general (he was the acting chaplain at avatar, the largest gay leather club in los angeles, for a number of years, and previously trained to be a priest- i adore him and his work)

Susannah Cornwall, "The future of sexuality debates in the Church: shared challenges and opportunities for theological ‘traditionalists’ and ‘revisionists’," Modern Believing vol. 62, no. 1 (January 2021) + cornwall has written extensively about intersex people in theology, i highly recommend her scholarship

Marcella Althaus-Reid, Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics. (Routledge, New York: 2000 + this might be my favourite book on this list and i recommend it to everyone, althaus-reid is an extraordinary thinker and her work in general is worth looking into

Margot Weiss, Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality. Duke University Press (London, 2011) is a book i recommend to anyone who is interested in or exploring bdsm, its a great starter book though not explicitly religious

Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Translated by Mary Dalwood. (City Lights Books, San Francisco: 1986) + bataille in general is a great philosopher, i also recommend Guilty trans. Bruce Boone

When Did We See You Naked? Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse, ed. Jayme R. Reaves, David Tombs, and Rocío Figùeroa (SCM Press, London: 2021) + david tombs is a forerunner in reading the crucifixion as sexual abuse, approaching it from the methodological viewpoint of human rights abuses in latin america. this isn't about bdsm, but it is about sexuality in theology and it provides an incredibly necessary counterpoint to any discussion of power dynamics.

i'm missing a few titles but i'll look through my library and add them when i can.

[uwmspeccoll]

Spotlight: African Folktales

For Black History Month I found another book of folktales (shocker) to share with you all! The fun and exciting part of this job is being able to look into things that one would not normally take the time to explore, and I have been given the opportunity to do nothing but explore and dig into the expansive collection we have in Special Collections (if you aren’t getting interested to come in and take a peek, you should be).

The book I am keen on sharing is The Ox of the Wonderful Horns: And Other African Folktales, a children’s book from our Historical Curriculum Collection, published in New York by Atheneum in 1971. The stories were retold and illustrated by Ashley Frederick Bryan (1923-2022), an American writer and illustrator for children’s books, of which most of his subjects focus on the African-American experience. Bryan’s desire and challenge for the anthology was to “bring the stilted language of the linguists’ narration back to an oral tradition through rhythm and poetic verses.”

This anthology features five tales from Akan-Ashanti, Angolan, South African, and Kaffir myths with various illustrations accompanying us through each story. The illustrations switch between half-page black and white and full-page color that are meant to evoke African wood block motifs that suggest the ochres and reds of African clay dyes and African textile designs; very eye-catching and absorbing!

View another of my posts.

View more Black History Month posts.

– Elizabeth, Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern

[boymiffy]

Hello boymiffy! i wanna get into ursula k le guin! what do you recommend to read :)?

oh helloooo!

ok to start here is a post with great links to online resources such as websites and some of her essays – one of my faves is the carrier bag theory which is also available online

two of my fave of her books are the left hand of darkness (more about gender) and the dispossessed (more a discussion of society and class), which are great – the left hand of darkness is shorter and slightly less discussion of theory so is a greater starter point for her fictional worlds! all of which are available for pdf/epub here

i have not read but have heard good things also about the lathe of heaven if that is something u might be intrested in!

otherwise an easy start to her style of literature are the wizard of earthsea books which you shouldn't stay away from just because they're categorised as kids books !!

if you just look her up on youtube there is the full film of 'the worlds of ursula k le guin' (which i have not seen but looks good) and several of her talks/interviews which are all super interesting

happy reading ^_^

[vellich0rd]

I also really recommend the word for world is forest. it's a short read but a good one.

[mithli-archive]

american leftists seem extremely focused on anti imperialism (good) but rarely- if at all- discuss decolonization in their own fucking country, despite acknowledging that it is a settler colonial state.

[mithli-archive]

im serious about this though. as an urban indian, i definitely cant speak on this as much as a rez indian could. but i know from talking to rez friends i have and from what the american indian movement has screamed for over the years that we need land we can grow on, we need clean water, we need to allow the wildlife that once lived in this land to live here again (meaning you need to listen to us before building those high speed rails you all get so hard over).

you cant drool over the zapatistas while ignoring people in your own country who have a similar goal

[mithli-archive]

silly me I never provided things to read on the topic of decolonization! I’d personally suggest the following as “beginner level” essential reading to understand decolonization:

Discourse on Colonialism (Aimé Césaire) - this is more a focus on colonization, but I feel it’s a necessary read in my opinion as in order to understand decolonization I believe it’s important to first understand colonization.

Wretched of the Earth (Franz Fanon)

Decolonization is Not a Metaphor (Tuck, Yang)

also an “easy to process” read, to understand landback specifically here in Turtle Island, I’d suggest reading The Red Deal (there is a pdf, I don’t mean the article with the same title)

[marxism-transgenderism]

Discourse on Colonialism (PDF, ebook, mobi)

The Wretched of the Earth (PDF, ebook)

Decolonization is Not a Metaphor (PDF)

The Red Deal (PDFs of Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

[thanatos-girl]

Theres 100% a growing attitude among leftists that spend all their time logged on that reading theory is either not worth it or is "elitist" and its incredibly bizarre. The left is not some club you join by watching YouTube videos all day, we're a very large group of people who base our beliefs on complex, fact-based understandings of class analysis and economics, theory exists to clarify these things. Anti-intellectualism in the form of talking like theory is just two old dead white guys is both counter-productive and actively stupid

[thanatos-girl]

Tiktok is not theory, tumblr is not theory, Twitter threads are not theory. Get some short beginner recommendations and start reading, its easier than you think

[graventusk]

Yo i have an incredibly valuable resource for those of us with adhd that would like to commit harder to the good fight and want some theory as guidance! It's called Audible Anarchist, and it's available on Youtube or as a podcast wherever you get podcasts. it has audiobooks of basically the biggest names in the anarchist canon. Conquest of Bread by Kropotkin? yep. Anarchism and Other Essays? yep. Socialism from Below? yep. plus more and more every week!! arm yourself with the knowledge to save our sorry asses folks.!!

[thanatos-girl]

I've gotten a couple additions like this on this post

And like. I'm also adhd, and I don't love marx, but there are other ways to get theory and read it or listen to it and using adhd as a shield to avoid learning how to read theory is not great! I gotta say! But I understand that we aren't always taught how to do that so here's some simple tips and tricks I use for reading theory painlessly

Take notes! In the margins, in a notebook anywhere, but jot stuff down when it comes up

Set aside time! Turn off any distractions, and set a length of time you're going to read for

Don't push yourself too hard! You don't have to read Marx's Capital in a week, take your time with theory and split it into sections to make it easier to start and stop

Find authors who have a writing style you grasp easier! Contrary to popular belief its fine to shop around a little and ask for suggestions from your comrades, find an author that works for you

Read regularly! If you set time aside regularly it becomes more of a habit and gets easier

Be patient with yourself! Its not always easy to understand dense theory, talk to other comrades about it! They can often help you understand more than an explanation video or just muscling through a text will

Seek out physical copies! At the library and with physical copies the distraction of reading online can be drastically reduced

Adhd is a bitch but please don't let it stop you from acquiring a deeper understanding of the world we live in and the world we want to build

[vellich0rd]

Some other tips:

Read history along with theory. It can be easier because you have "characters" to attach to. It might still take awhile (it took me 10 months to read Red Star Over China, and 4 mo to read Blood in the Face) but it can be easier for story driven brains to digest.

A lot of theory comes in smaller pamphlets. State & Revolution, Mao's Red Book, and Sylvia Fedrici's works are easy to digest and really short.

A lot of local libraries have access to JSTOR and other databases which have articles and pamphlets not otherwise accessible, and which are short.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

introducing @brand-directory

a growing directory of all official brand tumblrs. a way to block'em before you even see them to keep their engagement as contained and unseen as possible

submit all the official brand sites you find -- especially if you've seen them via an ad or blazed post

[sindar-princeling]

[aichu-dechu]

[s-n-arly]

Apparently my favorite picture books as a child were written by queer authors.  This brings me joy.

[scentedwonderlandpoetry]

I never read Franz Kafka’s work but it sure does sound like Bad Case of the Stripes

This poor girl turned into a various stripes and then a pill then a house and then became this

All cause she didn’t eat Lima Beans

[wonderstruck]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading