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i think i focus translated books for women in translation month. does anyone have recs for translated (to english) genre fiction written by women? i feel like i rarely see genre fiction translated outside of manga and light novels.

not danmei or baihe since i know plenty of those already

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Anyone got recs for books written by black trans women? Disappointed in myself that I could only name two on that last post

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Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

This is sort of a short story collection- it's one novella bookended by three short stories- centered on transfemininity and the violence of transmisogyny.

Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones is a hormone based gender apocalypse in which a trans woman is at constant risk of being hunted down by anyone who realizes that she is a trans woman, which makes it feel very much in conversation with Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt, though it's been long enough since I read that one that I can't draw many more direct parallels, but I will say I liked this story more than Manhunt. Its split timeline before and after the spread of the infection allows for both the hyperbolic display of transmisogyny in the scapegoating trans woman for the spread of the disease to explore the demonization of trans women on a larger than life scope and the realistic depiction of normal, everyday transmisogyny prior to the outbreak. The standout scene, perhaps of the entire book, but certainly of this story is one in which pre-outbreak, our protagonist goes on a date with a trans man who rants about how trans women cast themselves as such perpetual victims that they create a self fulfilling prophecy and needlessly traumatize themselves, and our narrator in her head rolls through the countless microaggressions she faces that constantly suffocate her with the fact that most people do not see her as a full human being, but that they are all specifically such small issues that if she tries to explain, her date will think she's making a mountain out of a molehill and lump her in with exactly what he's complaining about.

The Chaser is narrated by a cis boy attending a Quaker boarding school who begins a tryst with his roommate, Robbie- who I will use she/her for, the book uses he/him, but she is quite clearly a closeted girl- before trying to distance himself from Robbie, leading to her harassing and spreading rumors about him that leave him isolated and on the path to expulsion. I think this story can be read two different ways, either that our narrator is an unreliable narrator lying to us and telling us that Robbie is an evil seductress who plotted his downfall as revenge for his not wanting her, having our narrator actively evoking transmisogynistic stereotypes to incur sympathy and make himself look innocent of his own harassment and assault of Robbie, or that it is meant to hold a mirror and say "What if the demonization and constant scrutiny looking to make you out as an evil pervert happened to cis people?"

The titular Stag Dance was the story I was least compelled by, which is a shame since it makes up the bulk of the book. A group of loggers are illegally working in the woods over winter when their boss suggests a stag dance to lift their spirits in which some of the men will agree to play the role of women so they can fuck each other without it being gay, but our main character and possibly her rival Lisen (whose gender situation is a bit unclear to me, I'm uncertain if she is meant to be another trans woman or just a femme man- I use she because that is how the narrator refers to her by the end) become more invested in their roles in the dance than anyone expected- especially for our big, burly protagonist- and oscillate between supporting one another and tearing each other down. There's a lot being explored here in terms of gender and passing and solidarity or lack thereof and the way you lose social privilege if you get just a bit too feminine, but it's also a Spooky Woods story, and ever since I saw a Native blogger point out how suffocatingly white the very concept of Spooky Woods stories are, I can't enjoy them anymore. And thinking about that in regards to this story made me realize how overwhelmingly white the entire book is. I did at least enjoy the solidly working class representation in this story, as well as its overarching gender and misogyny themes, but it did really drag.

The final story, The Masker, centers on Krys, a self identified cross dresser attending a meet up in Vegas where she meets both Sally, a cynical older trans woman who tries to take control of her life and out her because she believes it will help Krys in the long run, and Felix, a cross dresser and chaser who wants who essentially wants to be Krys' sugar daddy for the weekend and have her obey his orders. Sally and Felix hate each other and force Krys to choose between them while getting the police involved. I'm gonna have to sit on this one for a while before I know how I feel about it. It's obviously centered on examining the "you don't have to transition, you can just be a feminine man!" bullshit thing TME people do and the idea of transness being a fetish, with minor themes of the internal policing of others' identities and actual policing and the discrimination and brutality inherent to cops' interaction with trans women. But I'm not quite sure how I feel about the way it all comes together.

Each story in this collection is a deeply thought provoking examination of transmisogyny that I do absolutely recommend reading and sitting with, but it is also a bit difficult to move past how white it is as a collection, for which I am knocking off half a star. 4.5⭐️

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Queer Palestinian Books for Pride Month 🍉

Just a reminder: we do exist. ♥️

Please consider sharing this post, whether to show your support for Palestine, to boost awareness of these books (remember, reading is revolutionary), or to show your audience that you offer a safe space. I know it may seem small, but it makes a difference. Trust me. ♥️

Have you read any of these queer Palestinian books? If not, which would you consider reading first? ❓

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obsessed with mass market paperbacks. their pleasing rectangular proportions. how they fit badly in a hoodie pocket so you can drag them around everywhere with you like a temporary little buddy. the way they fit in your hand because they're MADE for human hands and not as bookshelf decoration. the way the pages feel when you riffle them gently with your thumb. How pristine and crisp they look when you get them and how creased and folded they look when you're done, even if you try to be nice to them. how that wear is okay, how that's correct actually, because they're made with the philosophy that books aren't meant to be PRETTY, they're meant to be read. that little ripple new ones get on the left side from where you hold them when you're reading, the way the ripple only goes as far as you've read, because u change stories by reading as they are changing you. how you can find thousands of these creased and folded and loved little dudes in every thrift store and used book shop and neighborhood library and you can instantly see the ones that someone carried around in a backpack for weeks or read to pieces or gave up on halfway through because they wear being read like fresh snow wears footprints. I love these poorly made, subpar little rectangles so much. truly the people's books.

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August TBR!

Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyễn

No Fear Shakespeare: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

With a Star in My Hand: Rubén Darío, Poetry Hero by Margarita Engle

The Songbird and the Rambutan Tree by Lucille Abendanon

The Fifty Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Mark A Altman and Edward Gross

The Field Guide by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (reread)

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History ed by Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P Johnson by Tourmaline

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

Danilo Was Here by Tamika Burgess

Star Trek Discovery: Somewhere to Belong by Dayton Ward

Don't Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo

One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller

Perla by Caro De Robertis

On Fragile Waves by E Lily Yu

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (reread)

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection Vol 2 ed by Hope Nicholson

The Most Beautiful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang and Khoa Le

Star Trek Vol 5 by Mike Johnson et al

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor Volume 4: The School of Death by Robbie Morrison et al

Teen Titans Volume 5: Life and Death by Geoff Johns et al

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King et al

Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite by Barry Deutsch

Girl Haven by Lilah Sturges and Meaghan Carter

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Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

This is another Discworld novel in which Teppic, heir to the throne of Djelibeybi, has spent his youth in Ankh-Morpork training to be an assassin before his father dies and he is called home to become the new Pharoah. Despite his father's wishes, the priests insist on the construction of a new pyramid, which creates a critical mass of quantum magical power and throws the kingdom into chaos.

I can't tell if I've accidentally saved all the worst Discworld books for last or if I've spend so long making my way through the series that my own personal politics have become too radical to tolerate the white Britishness of it all any longer. Because, Terry, bestie. Writing satire to scathingly mock tradition and ingrained cultural practices is all well and good when it's your own culture that you actually understand, but when you do it to North Africa, you just look racist. In fact, don't just look it; it is just racist. Also imbuing pyramids and camels with inherent magical powers isn't all that far off from Ancient Alien racist bullshit. And mocking the concept of an animal headed god of death while playing your cultural conception of Death completely straight, and having the entire theme being centered on the main character leaving behind his "barbaric" background to instead adopt "civilized" British culture, and a British of all fucking people author going "Ewwwww, Egyptian monarchs intermarry?" Even if I give Pratchett the benefit of the doubt and assume he was trying to make fun of how weird people get about Egypt, then he still utterly failed that goal and was just himself weird about Egypt.

If the main theme isn't supposed to be mocking mummy mania- which again, if it is, it's a complete failure- then I suppose it is about being able to move forward and change instead of being bogged down in traditions. But choosing to have that be the theme of, at least as far as I've read, the only Discworld book with a protagonist of color says some really fucked up things about Pratchett's views of other cultures. I can't have fun with any of the magic stuff happening when it's weighed down by the racism. Really bad showing for this series. 1⭐️

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Two more after July! I wrote a fic for the @startrekswimsuitspecial zine, which is probably not quite how the prompt was intended, but oh well, and Accidental Demons by Clare Edge was recommended to me when I asked for a fun book for Disability Pride Month. I've also got the first book in the Spiderwick Chronicles on my August TBR, so I should blackout the board soon!

February update to @batmanisagatewaydrug 's bingo: I got bingo!

I've changed out some of the ones I had in January with some that fit the prompt better, and checked off a couple new prompts!

Literary Fiction- These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere

Sequel- Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

20th Century Speculative Fiction- Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler

Fantasy- To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

Graphic Novel/Comic/Manga- The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado and DaNi

Animal on the Cover- For Laika: The Dog Who Learned the Names of the Stars by Kai Cheng Thom and Kai Yun Ching

Set in a Country You Have Never Visited- Banana Heart Summer by Merlinda Bobis

Science Fiction- Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Memoir- Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between by Amrou Al-Kadhi

Essay Collection- Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

2024 Award Winner- Girlmode by Magdalene Visaggio and Paulina Ganucheau

Nonfiction: Learn Something New- Ten Myths About Israel by Illan Pappé

Social Justice and Activism- A Short History of Trans Misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson

Romance Novel- Second Night Stand by Karelia and Fay Stetz-Waters

Horror- Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Published in the Aughts- Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire by Angela Davis

Historical Fiction- The Black God's Drums by P Djèlí Clark

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Update after July! I really need to read some red books

New books are Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West; Gender Euphoria ed by Laura Kate Dale; Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar; Where Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger; Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C Parker; Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel; and I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Connor

Filled out what I've already read so far in the year for @elumish 's reading challenge! I technically could include a couple more, but I'm trying to meet the hard mode prompts for now. I've already gotten a bisexual red book (To Shape a Dragon's Breath) and a purple ace book (Paper Planes)!

Titles under the cut!

Brooms by Jasmine Walls and Teo DuVall

The Flicker by HE Edgmon

The World We Make by NK Jemisin

The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado and DaNi

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata

A Short History of Trans Misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson

Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between by Amrou Al-Kadhi

Rabbit Chase by Elizabeth LaPensée and KC Oster translated by Aarin Dokum

The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All Volume 1 by Sumiko Arai translated by Ajani Oloye

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

Fierce Like a Firestorm by Lana Popović

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris

Daughter of Danray by Natalia Hernandez

Paper Planes by Jennie Wood and Dozerdraws

Stars in Their Eyes by Jessica Walton and Aśka

Bluff by Danez Smith

Death's Country by RM Romero

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July wrap up! My favorite of the month was Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel

Gender Euphoria ed by Laura Kate Dale- 4⭐️

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor- 4⭐️

Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel- 5⭐️

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (reread)- 4⭐️

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar- 2.5⭐️

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma- 3⭐️

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters by Mike Grell et al- 1.5⭐️

Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West- 2.5⭐️

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C Parker- 2.5⭐️

The Unbroken by CL Clark (reread)- 4.5⭐️

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi- 4⭐️

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green- 4⭐️

I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Connor- 4⭐️

Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino- 4⭐️

Teen Titans Volume 4: The Future is Now by Geoff Johns et al- 3⭐️

Star Trek Volume 4 by Mike Johnson et al- 2⭐️

Ink Girls by Marieke Nijkamp and Sylvia Bi- 3⭐️

The Faithless by CL Clark- 4⭐️

Accidental Demons by Clare Edge- 4⭐️

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor Volume 3: Hyperion- 3.5⭐️

Witch Hat Atelier Volume 1 by Kamome Shirahama- 4.5⭐️

No 6 Volume 9 by Atsuko Asano and Hinoki Kino- 2.5⭐️

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (reread)- 4.5⭐️

The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All Volume 2 by Sumiko Arai- 4.5⭐️

It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood- 2.5⭐️

Fight + Flight by Jules Machias- 3⭐️

Where Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger- 4⭐️

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The school year is starting soon, so let's learn some stuff, I will be running a reading bingo of nonfiction books

One book per slot and this runs from August of 2025 through to May of 2026, books read during Summer 2025 (June and July) will qualify as well. You can review the books you read or not, and you can @ me with updates if you want to share with more people

Note: I have stolen this idea from @batmanisagatewaydrug but made it nonfiction.

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Unfortunately also means that now the only thing I can read in between customers until the next time I'm able to get to the library is ebooks, and the managers get way more mad about having your phone out than a book out

DNFed both the books I picked up from the library today, so I have actually cleared my monthly TBR for the first time in a long time

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DNFed both the books I picked up from the library today, so I have actually cleared my monthly TBR for the first time in a long time

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Where Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger

This is a horror graphic novel in which a new therapist works with her first client, a schizophrenic whose night terrors seem too real. When her patient goes missing, Amal searches for her and ends up in the world of The King in Yellow.

So I definitely think it was a mistake to read this without having read The King in Yellow. It was very strange and I'm not sure how much of that is from this book itself and how much is from The King in Yellow. I also find it difficult to comment on the metatextual narrative on account of this.

However, in addition to all it's doing with The King and Yellow, the central focus is Amal's failings as a therapist in not listening to Yasmin and conceptualizing her as a full person, but rather as a list of symptoms to be treated, as a way to further her own security that she is separate from and therefore needn't directly empathize with a Crazy Person. Which is a form of ableism that deeply impacts all levels of society, including those in the medical fields who should be the most open to helping us. The conclusion with Yasmin in the strange realm they end up in also feels like a commentary both on what I just mentioned and the fact that I've seen several people who experience psychosis say that the most helpful thing to do during an episode is not to tell them that it isn't real, but to listen to the real fear they are experiencing and work with that.

I feel very unequipped to fully review this book due to my lack of familiarity with either the existing work it is clearly in conversation with and with schizophrenia. A lot of it has undoubtedly gone over my head. But I did enjoy the exploration of this particular brand of ableism and the discussion of how horror can uniquely explore systems of marginalization despite and in some ways because of the genre's history of bias. 4⭐️

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Fight + Flight by Jules Machias

This is a middle grade contemporary following Avery, an active and a little rebellious kid who was recently diagnosed with hEDS and is terrified about losing control of her body and her life, and Sarah, a shy and quiet girl who has begun experiencing panic attacks after her aunt died and her cousin/best friend moved away so now she is terrified she will lose everyone she loves. When their school does a realistic active shooter drill with no warning so the students and teachers think it's real, Sarah and Avery both feel compelled to take action to make sure it never happens again- Sarah by starting a petition and Avery by getting revenge on their principle.

I liked this; it's not gonna be a favorite book by any means, but it tackled a lot of complex topics for its age range, which made it very interesting. Avery's journey of desperately scrambling for any semblance of control over her life, even if it's control of something that actively makes her life worse, explores an aspect of humanity that often gets ignored in favor of simply dismissing the person acting out as a fundamentally flawed person. It's also paralleled with Sarah, who is incredibly passive out of fear and spends the novel learning that she does need to take control of some things. Having the girls' journeys in tandem helps prevent the novel from feeling like it's saying that you should just get over either behavior; it's about balance and it is difficult to find that balance.

I was also surprised by the subplot of Avery coming to reckon with her own privilege and how she holds it over her best friend, Mason, because she's white and he's black. I did not expect that in a book written by a white author, and I think it's handled pretty well. I will say though that I think Mason as a character and the arc he goes through in the background of this book was more interesting than anything going on with Sarah; I think the book would have been better served with him as a POV character if not instead of, then at least alongside Sarah.

I will also say that I do not recommend the audiobook. Sarah is an artist and her chapters are covered in her drawings as a way to communicate her feelings that she can't verbalize, which you can download as a PDF from the publisher's website, but needing to constantly look down at your phone defeats the entire purpose of an audiobook. I would have much rather had image descriptions than having to navigate a separate website, download something, and then still have to feel like I was missing important context if I was listening while commuting or doing chores or otherwise couldn't look at my phone. I eventually gave up and switched to the ebook, which is still formatted weird with the drawings that I'm pretty sure are supposed to be in the margins instead taking up a whole page, but was a lot better. Especially for a book centered on disability, it really sucks that the audiobook isn't actually accessible and leaves out important information.

It was really interesting to see a book targeted at such a young audience explore things like privilege, autonomy and control, and restorative vs punitive justice, all while actively making the clear attempt to make disabled readers feel less alone in their struggles. However, the attempt explore the intersection of race and disability through a side character accidentally highlights how white the book is in that that story was relegated to the background, and I'm actually really mad about the audiobook thing. Your book is meant to help disabled kids and you made zero effort to make it accessible for blind readers? I'd imagine that was more due to the publishers than the author, but it nonetheless really hurts the book. I liked Avery's story, but not enough to make up for the other stuff. 3⭐️, and a low 3 at that; I spent a good while debating between 2.5 and 3.

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It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood

This is a graphic memoir following six months of Thorogood's life as she attempts to cope with her depression.

This is okay. The art and the way Thorogood experiments with different styles to convey different moods and ideas is really fun and interesting, but unfortunately other than that, I didn't really get much more from it than any other autobiographical work about depression. Which feels really mean to say about such an obviously personal work, but I've seen all this commentary on depression, it's contradictory solipsistic nature, the form and function of art, and how they intertwine a million times before, and I don't think Thorogood says anything revelatory about any of it. The best I can say is that if you are experiencing depression, seeing an honest display of it could make you feel less alone, but I feel as if Thorogood would resent that takeaway given how uncomfortable she seems to be with the idea of her work being, or at least being reduced to, relatable.

It's a perfectly solid read and certainly not a bad way to spend the hour and some change you need to read it, but there's nothing particularly special about it outside of the drawings. 2.5⭐️

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The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All Volume 2 by Sumiko Arai translated by Ajani Oloye

This is the second volume in a manga series in which a popular girl crushes on her nerdy, quiet classmate who has a very different persona outside of school at the CD shop where she works and where the two bond over their eclectic taste in music.

This was fun! I was really excited to see Aya and Mitsuki again, and I liked the further exploration of how Mitsuki feels she doesn't and can't fit in in her current environment. I also liked the introduction of Kanna; based on her first appearance, I expected her to take on a sort of villainous role, but she is a balanced and interesting character to add to the cast and highlight more of Mitsuki's life outside of Aya and how her relationships function with those close to her.

The issue I complained about in the first volume where it felt like an incredibly disjointed series of vignettes that did not flow together is mostly resolved in this volume. The first few segments still really felt that way, and I think they would have better fit in the first volume both because of that and because the first one was a direct follow up to the previous segment from the first volume, and it's been long enough since I read that one that I felt lost for the first few pages. However, after that brief section at the beginning, the rest of the volume does stand well enough on its own.

This was super short, so there's not a whole lot to comment on, but I had a lot of fun with it and can't wait to read the next volume! 4.5⭐️