#Annie on My Mind

[merp-blerp]

Happy Pride to my random niche sapphic ships that never get any canon and/or fanon content about them and always end up my favs (yeah, I’m cursed, what about it?)

[queer-media-tourney]

[contortedmind]

Despite the fact that I watched dead poets society and enjoyed it, I find my opinion about poems remaining the same.

I really HATE poems. Something about them has always seemed so pretentious and people tend to try too hard to make a meaning out of nothing. Recently though, I have found a few poems (some might just be short little writings, I dont know if they count as poems.) that I don't hate.

Here are the favorite poems of someone who despises poetry:

Someone please tell me how to arrange pictures nicely on mobile lmao.

[shorthairedbrownqueer]

Petition to get publishers to release closeted friendly versions of queer books with like puppies on them 🥲🌈

[bluedalahorse]

Vacation - (Stella x Fredrika)

Thank you for your request! I’ve never had a chance to write stedrika before. I thought about their New York trip and decided to have them interact with one of my favorite books by Nancy Garden, hope that’s okay.

Tagging @youngroyals-events because this drabble challenge was their brainchild.

Letters From Annie and Liza (link to AO3)

Read any novel in English this summer. An assignment from another teacher, before Hillerska. Fredrika chooses Annie on My Mind and wonders, later, why it made her chest ache.

Until Stella kisses her.

Fredrika rereads Annie and Liza’s love story en route to New York. A plan takes shape in her mind. A date, copied from the book. It’s the kind of sincerity neither she nor Stella easily expresses.

Her stomach tightens as they enter the Cloisters. What if…?

Then, standing before of the unicorn tapestries, Stella breathes out:

“…so beautiful.”

Maybe they can wear their hearts openly after all.

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[whilereadingandwalking]

First, a quick spoiler: this book is groundbreaking because it was a YA novel featuring two queer girls who get a happy ending. I know, I'm sorry to spoil it, but it's vital. In our age of blossoming queer YA contemporary, it's important to see why Annie on My Mind was so important, and so controversial, given a past where the only gay books permitted were those with unhappy endings.

In this book by Nancy Garden, two girls from across New York City meet at the Met and begin to have feelings that they don't, at first, understand. And when they are caught, their academic careers, friendships, and family relationships are all put at stake. This novel is simple, and to those who grew up with all kinds of queer novels around, it might feel outdated. It reads as historical fiction, with the sheer shockwave the adults in the book feel at finding lesbianism in their elite school. But there's nothing wrong with that, and it's a great book about a time when queerness was ok if it was just experimenting, or secret, or hidden, and where two girls are determined not to let go of each other, no matter the cost. A really good, quick read about coming-of-age queer and finding acceptance within yourself.

Content warnings for outing, homophobia, lesbophobia, ableism.

[shutuplook]

[lovers-instead]

Sapphic YA Book Rec: Good Moon Rising by Nancy Garden

1996 follow-up to Annie on My Mind, this time featuring 2 girls who compete for the lead role in their high school theater department.

Links to download:

Internet Archive (to borrow)

Anna's Archive

LibGen

[groovy-lady]

Woooo I got The Green Witch’s Guide to Herbal Magick: A Handbook of Green Hearthcraft and Plant-Based Spellcraft by Annabel Margaret and I ordered the lesbian novel Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden!! I tried to find Sappho’s poetry, but I’ll have to order that from Amazon.

[mccoppinscrapyard]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge July

Day 18: Well-Loved

My collection of old-school mass-market paperbacks! I got all of them (with the exception of Annie on My Mind) from a local used bookstore.

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Book names + authors under the cut

Annie Kenyon/Liza Winthrop- Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden

Marshall Seo/Benedikt Montagov- These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Rosemary Harper/Sissix Seshkethet- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Jack/August- The Wicker King by K Ancrum

[queer-media-tourney]

[lgbtqreads]

YA eBooks on Sale for Under $4

[quotation--marks]

It is important! I wanted to shout; it was as if she’d suddenly betrayed me - the one person on the board I’d really trusted and who I thought I had understood. I knew she was trying to be fair to everyone, not just to me, but, oh, God, I wanted to stand up and shout: No one had any influence on us! Ms. Stevenson and Ms. Widmer had nothing to do with it. What we did, we did on our own; we love each other! Can’t anyone understand that? Please - can’t someone? We love each other - just us - by ourselves. 

Nancy Garden, Annie on my Mind

[2queer2fiction]

Our first review of "Annie on My Mind" by Nancy Garden is up! Liza Winthrop and Annie Kenyon are 17 and they. have. feelings. Although they have different backgrounds and ambitions, Liza living in a Brownstone and (hopefully) headed to MIT and Annie in the Heights bound for California, the two girls share a close friendship that soon blossoms into love.

We follow them as they experiment with sneaking physical expressions of their love in New York, 1980's. A quick glance around, then a kiss. Navigating first fights and learning how to take other people’s emotions and experiences into account. Learning how to cope with wanting more and hiding feelings in front of loved ones.

Liza and Annie experience quite a bit in Annie on My Mind. From First’s to privilege, suspensions and betrayal, loss and, of course, love. Their journey was a hallmark of my adolescence 20-odd years after it was first published, and 16 years later I can confidently say the story holds up.

Read more