#Sasha LaPointe

[postmodernismruinedme]

"I no longer wish to be called resilient. Call me reckless, impatient, and emotional. Even Indigenous. Call me anything other than survivor. I am so many more things than brave."

- Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe, Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk

[lgbtqreads]

January 2023 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction Hana Lee’s debut MAGEBIKE COURIER, a cross-cultural fantasy pitched as Mad Max: Fury Road with magic and sapphic romance, about a messenger between star-crossed royals who finds herself embroiled in a high-speed chase across the perilous desert wastelands when the princess she works for decides to escape an unwanted betrothal, to Amara Hoshijo at Saga Press, in a two-book deal, for…

[jerxiong]

Completed: "Thunder Song: Essays" by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (Counterpoint Press, 2024) *audiobook version*

I checked out this book via Libby, and the audiobook was about 6 hours long. It took me two loans to finish since I don't usually listen to audiobooks unless I'm driving, using public transit, or doing chores.

Thoughts: I'm genuinely surprised and delighted that I finished this collection despite not having a physical or text e-book! I've never been great at listening to audiobooks since my mind tend to wander, but the topics and storytelling of this collection kept me curious.

My favorite essays:

Swan Creek: explores the aftermath of a miscarriage and rethinking motherhood

First Salmon Ceremony: explores forgoing one's cultural food for a vegan diet and reconciling the two

An Indigenous Queer Love Story: explores love after being told by her ex-husband that she "learned to love the wrong way" by looking at relationships the women in her family have had and her own history with different partners

All the essays reckon with colonialism in one way or another, which is an important theme to me, but these essays especially resonated with me as I'm currently contemplating motherhood, a vegetarian diet for my health and for the environment, and my curiosity about queerness and, really, about how we as humans love.

I look forward to Sasha's future works as I really appreciate her perspective, experiences, and words.

[missedstations]

"Pony" - Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

I carried a jar big and fragile glass in my hands asking strangers for money along the Nooksack I was barefoot I was ten I was saving to buy a pony because the salmonberries weren't good enough the wool blankets weren't good enough for me to be a real Indian like the ones in the movies I was going to need to buy a pony and paint it ride off into war on it or become part of it like The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses or whatever I wasn't sure what I would do with it just that it wasn't a canoe or a longhouse it was something living something Indian

[librarycards]

hello everyone, and welcome to quarter 2 of my favorites of 2024 list! if you're new, hi, i do book recs all the time, but have been doing them quarterly for recent reads for the last couple years. (I also have a free newsletter where i recommend media every month.)

this was an amazing 3 months for books and i had to make a bunch of very tough choices. very excited to share the results (in no particular order) with you!

Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe, Thunder Song

Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

Jeff VanderMeer, Dead Astronauts

Evelyn Berry, Grief Slut

Seth Dickinson, The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Claire Oshetsky, Poor Deer

Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

Sharon M. Draper, Out of My Heart

Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, & Mike Merryman-Lotze, eds, Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire

as always, i tagged people who expressed interest/who i think may be interested, but feel free to post yours (or not) any time and then tag me, mutuals or not. i love seeing what people are reading. you can also find me on goodreads (and my soon-to-be-populated storygraph that so far only has my book on it haha).

tagging!

@discworldwitches @osmanthusoolong @lesbianlizzybennet @sawasawako @fluoresensitive

@sadhoc @campgender @capricornpropaganda @lostrosegarden @trans-axolotl

@flameswallower @mxunsmiley @heavenlyyshecomes @myalgias @gracebriarwoodwrites

@rebel-gets-wise @r00tvegetables @ghost-shepherdess @liefdesbriefjes @felgueirosa

@mr-saavik @nahitsjustme @podcastlesbian @fatehbaz @punkkwix

@materialisnt @oddmerit @growtiredofpublicvulnerability @passerea @closet-keys

@abstractlesbian @querxus @thepixiediaries @boykeats @candiedsmokedsalmon and anyone who wants to!!

[aaknopf]

A poem of girlhood and after by Indigenous New Zealander Tayi Tibble, whose second collection, Rangikura, comes out in America today. In the dictionary of Māori language, hōmiromiro is defined as “a white-breasted North Island tomtit…a little black-and-white bird with a large head and short tail.” It is often used to refer to someone with a tomtit’s keen vision—that is, a sharp eye for detail.

Hōmiromiro

I used to dream about a two-headed goldfish. I took it for an omen. I smashed a milk bottle open

on a boiling road and watched a three-legged dog lick it up and in the process I became not myself but a single shard of glass and thought finally

I had starved myself skinny enough to slip into the splits of the universe but once I did I realised that the universe was no place for a young thing to be and there is always a lot more starving to be had.

When I was a girl I thought

I was Daisy Buchanan. I read on the train. I made voluminous eyes.

Once I walked in front of a bus and it exploded into a million monarch butterflies then I was ecstatic!

As a girl, I could only fathom

time as rose petals falling down my oesophagus. It tickled and it frightened me. I ran around choking for attention.

I had projections of myself at 100 my neck weathered and adorned like the boards of a home being eaten by the earth.

When I was a girl I would lie

on the side of that road in the last lick of sun and wait for the rabbits to come saluting the sky of orange dust

and then I would shoot them into outer space.

For many years I watched them bouncing on the moon. But then I stopped caring and so I stopped looking.

More on this book and author:

Learn more about Rangikura by Tayi Tibble.

Browse other books by Tayi Tibble and follow her on Instagram @paniaofthekeef.

Hear Tayi Tibble and Harryette Mullen read from their new poetry collections at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles, CA on April 10 at 8:00 PM. Tayi Tibble will be joined by Sasha LaPointe in Washington for a series of readings and conversations at Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle on April 13 at 7:00 PM, at King's Books in Tacoma on April 14 at 1:00 PM, at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in Bainbridge on April 15 at 7:00 PM, and at Third Place Books in Seattle, Lake Forest Park, on April 16 at 7:00 PM. Tayi and Sasha will also be at Broadway Books in Portland, OR, on April 17 at 6:00 PM. Tayi will be at the LA Times Book Festival signing books at the ALTA booth (Booth 111) on April 20 at 11:00 AM.

Visit our Tumblr to peruse poems, audio recordings, and broadsides in the Knopf poem-a-day series.

To share the poem-a-day experience with friends, pass along this link.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in March 2024 🌈

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Shift: A Memoir of Identity and Other Illusions - Penny Guisinger 🧡 Tempting Olivia - Clare Ashton 💛 Monilinia - Free Mints 💚 Guillaume - Aurora Dimitre 💙 The Marble Queen - Anna Kopp & Gabrielle Kari 💜 The Baker & the Bard - Fern Haught ❤️ Rainbow! - Sunny & Gloom 🧡 The Safe Zone - Amy Marsden 💛 The Weavers of Alamaxa - Hadeer Elsbai 💙 The No-Girlfriend Rule - Christen Randall 💜 A Different Kind of Brave by Lee Wind 🌈 Cirque du Slay - Rob Osler ❤️ Wizard’s Debt - Niranjan 🧡 One Last Breath - Ginny Myers Sain 💛 Nothing Special - Katie Cook 💚 I Feel Awful, Thanks - Lara Pickle 💙 The Tower - Flora Carr 💜 Be the Sea - Clara Ward ❤️ What Grows in the Dark - Jaq Evans 🧡 Heirs of Bone and Sea - Kay Adams 💛 The Haunting of Velkwood - Gwendolyn Kiste 💙 Thunder Song - Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe 💜 Mona of the Manor - Armistead Maupin 🌈 Like Happiness - Ursula Villarreal-Moura

❤️ Ellipses - Vanessa Lawrence 🧡 Saint, Sorrow, Sinner - Freydís Moon 💛 Blood & Brujas - Mikayla D. Hornedo 💚 Infinity Kings - Adam Silvera 💙 Really Cute People - Markus Harwood-Jones 💜 How You Were Born - Kate Cayley ❤️ These Bodies Between Us - Sarah Van Name 🧡 Icarus - K. Ancrum 💛 The Emperor and the Endless Palace - Justinian Huang 💙 How Not to Date an Angel - Lana Kole 💜 Enemy Colours - R.M. Olson 🌈 Broken Parts Included - Alyson Root

❤️ Who's Afraid of Gender? - Judith Butler 🧡 The Duke’s Cowboy - Andrew Grey 💛 The Secret Something - Emily Wright 💚 Colstead & Andie - Olivia Janae 💙 Play It Again, Ma’am - Sienna Waters 💜 Love Is…? - K.J. Wrights ❤️ Welcome to Forever - Nathan Tavares 🧡 Just Another Epic Love Poem - Parisa Akhbari 💛 The Phoenix Bride - Natasha Siegel 💙 These Letters End in Tears - Musih Tedji Xaviere 💜 Truly Home - J.J. Hale 🌈 Monster Mixer - Robin Jo Margaret

❤️ The House of Hidden Meanings - RuPaul 🧡 Promised to the Queen - Barbara Winkes 💛 A Conclave of Crimson - Nicole Eigener & Beverley Lee 💚 A Hunt of Blood and Iron - Cara Nox 💙 The Fealty of Monsters - Ladz 💜 Ariel Crashes a Train - Olivia A. Cole ❤️ Those Beyond the Wall - Micaiah Johnson 🧡 Dancing Toward Stardust - Julia Underwood 💛 Heir to Dreams & Darkness - Ben Alderson 💙 Comet Cruise - Niska Morrow 💜 Dead Girls Walking - Sami Ellis 🌈 Blackout - Carlos E. Rivera

❤️ Monster Crush - Erin Ellie Franey 🧡 Blessed Water - Margot Douaihy 💛 These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart - Izzy Wasserstein 💚 Kiss of Seduction - Rawnie Sabor 💙 Sunbringer - Hannah Kaner 💜 Evacuation to Love - C.A. Popovich ❤️ Sin - Brooke Matthews 🧡 Falls from Grace - Ruby Landers 💛 Lean in to Love - Catherine Lane 💙 A Small Apocalypse - Laura Chow Reeve 💜 Cascade Failure - L.M. Sagas 🌈 The Mars House - Natasha Pulley

❤️ All This Time - Sage Donnell 🧡 The Romance Lovers Book Club - MA Binfield 💛 View from the Top - Morgan Adams 💚 Number Call - Nagisa Furuya 💙 Crossing Bridges - Chelsey Lynford 💜 The Boyfriend Subscription - Steven Salvatore ❤️ Love the World or Get Killed Trying - Alvina Chamberland 🧡 Synthetic Sea - Franklyn S. Newton 💛 The Prince & His Stolen Groom - J.E. Ridge 💙 Chrysalis and Requiem - Quinton Li 💜 Where Sleeping Girls Lie - Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé 🌈 A Botanical Daughter - Noah Medlock

❤️ Wednesday Nights - by Donna Jay 🧡 The Woods All Black - Lee Mandelo 💛 Song of the Huntress - Lucy Holland 💚 Rainbow Black - Maggie Thrash 💙 Spirits & Sunflowers - A.D. Armistead & Austin Daniel 💜 Floating Hotel - Grace Curtis ❤️ Far From Camelot - Rylee Hale 🧡 This Way to Change - Jezz Chung 💛 Mexican Bird - Luis Lopez-Maldonado 💙 Android Affection: Unveiling - Beau Van Dalen 💜 Welcome to the Damned - Astraea Long 🌈 She Came for Blood - Darva Green

❤️ Cover Story - Rachel Lacey 🧡 The Poisons We Drink - Bethany Baptiste 💛 The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist - Sophie Gonzales 💚 In Walked Trouble - Dana Hawkins 💙 Never Leave, Never Lie - Thea Verdone 💜 Guardian: Zhen Hun - Priest ❤️ All the World Beside - Garrard Conley 🧡 Rainbows, Unicorns, and Triangles - Jessica Kingsley Publishers 💛 The Feast Makers - H.A. Clarke 💙 Synthetic Sea - Franklyn S. Newton 💜 All the Painted Stars - Emma Denny 🌈 A Hard Sell - Jennifer Moffatt

[redgoldsparks]

December 2023 Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 

Despite how much promise there is in the premise of this novel I was ultimately fairly disappointed by it. I'll start with the positives: it's set in a diverse and creative fantasy world with multiple different countries and cultures. It has several queer characters, including one of the four POV characters. It has dragons, even though I think they were severely under-utilized. It is also far too long, and astonishingly, nearly every scene in the book felt rushed. I think it actually had too much plot; if I had been editing this book I would have suggested the author cut one of the POV characters and use the freed-up space to flesh out the queer love story, which was the emotional heart of the book. This book is marketed as adult fantasy, yet whenever a character is in serious danger they are nearly always rescued by a talking animal with super-speed abilities. Choices like this book made the book read younger than I expected. It also suffered, perhaps unfairly, due to the fact I read a book with a much smarter and more interesting use of dragons, human/dragon cultural tensions, and dragon politics earlier this year: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, which I would recommend over Priory any day of the week.

Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe

Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe is a Coast Salish poet and punk who digs deep into the lineage of women in her family searching for connection, strength, and healing. While writing a Master's thesis, LaPointe opened the door to memories of a childhood sexual assault, precarious runaway teen years, and the intergenerational trauma that affected all of her family after the colonization of the Pacific Northwest. The memories that surfaced shattered her life. The path to picking up the pieces was slow, and involved traditional healing ceremonies, friendship, writing, music, and multiple journeys to places where her female ancestors once lived. I found this book very quick and easy to read despite the often heavy subject matter (it also includes a divorce and a miscarriage). Some passages are quite beautiful, but the author was an emotional mess for most of the time period she recounts and behaved in some questionable ways towards many of those around her. It ends on a hopeful note, and I would recommend it, especially to people with connections to the PNW area, while keeping the content warnings in mind.

Golden Fool by Robin Hobb read by Nick Taylor 

I hardly even know how to talk about this book because I loved it so much. It's a rich, nuanced, painfully human follow up to the earlier Farseer trilogy. I am amazed at how deftly Hobb wove the narratives of her characters across three decades of their lives and counting. There's Fitz, the royal bastard and reluctant assassin, who we first met at age six. Now in his mid-thirties, he is finally exploring his magical talents, teaching, learning, and taking more and more misfit young people under his wing. There's Chade, who we first met at a mysterious and wise teacher- now he's a royal advisor, and his hunger for power and influence might yet take him down a very dark path. There's Kettricken, who as a teenage princess was engaged to a stranger, now grown into a powerful queen bent on changing her kingdom for the better. There's the Fool, whose multiple identities are threatening to collapse as more and more of his prophesies come true. And Burrich, Fitz's adopted father figure, who in his anger and grief disowns a son who reminds him too much of his past. All of these characters feel so deeply rooted in their own histories, traumas, choices; I care so deeply about their lives and see so clearly how the twists of fate led them to where they are now. This is seriously one of the best fantasy series I have ever read, and I highly recommend anyone who loves long form fantasy to go back and pick up book one, Assassin's Apprentice.

The Well by Jacob Wyatt and Choo

Lizzy lives with her grandfather on one of many small islands in an world plagued by mist and monsters. Her mother, father, and grandmother all died fighting against the leviathan that used to threaten the seas between the islands; Lizzy has heard the stories, but never knew any of them. Her daily concerns are with goats, the market where she sells their cheese and milk, and her crush on a girl who works the island ferry. Magic doesn't regularly touch her life, except when she foolishly steals three coins from a wishing well, and is then tasked with completing the three wishes that are bound to them. This story has much the feel of a fairy tale with it's orphaned protagonist, three wishes, three tasks, and characters who are often more archetype than fleshed out people. But it manages a sweetly emotional ending and simple but lively and effective illustrations.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles read by Martyn Swain

Set in England during the reign of King George the third, this historical romance delivered a satisfying amount of plot along with the spice. Gareth is the son of a Baronet, but grew up with none of the privilege of that position having been send away from home after the death of his mother during his childhood. He works as a law clerk in London with few connections, no friends, and nothing much to recommend him. He seeks companionship at a tavern that turns a blind eye on the illicit sexual activities of men in the upper rooms. There he meets Kent, a working class man from Romney Marsh, with whom Gareth sparks an intense and intimate connection. Then it falls apart. Gareth is sacked from his job. He fights with Kent. His father dies unexpectedly, and Gareth is summoned to a manor house he hasn't seen in years to take on the responsibilities of a title, including the care of a teenage half-sister and his father's mistress. And by chance, the house Gareth inherits is in Romney Marsh, home of many waterways, pastures, smugglers, and also Kent, his former lover. I enjoyed the dynamic between the two romantic leads, and the crime plot which entangled both of them. If you are interested in R-rated M/M romance with action adventure and danger, I'd definitely recommend this series and also KJ Charles' Will Darling series.

Subtle Blood by KJ Charles read by read by Cornell Collins

A very satisfying installment in the Will Darling adventures! If this is the final book, I am happy with where it's left the characters, but it does also leave the door open for more. If you enjoy spicy M/M romance with a hefty side of action/adventure, this is a great series. It kept me company through a week of holiday cleaning, cooking, and baking, and I think it's my favorite yet from the series.

Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis by Dave Maass & Patrick Lay

This comic is grim, funny, gory, and darkly poetic. It's impossible to read it without an awareness of the history of the script, which is based on a suppressed opera written in 1943 two prisoners at the Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The authors did not live to see their play performed. Maass and Lay have done an impressive job transferring a story meant for the stage into a comic. The stars of the show are the characters of Life and Death who narrative and frame the story of a paranoid dictator in the fictional nation of Atlantis and his reign of terror against his own citizens.

The Cliff by Manon Debaye

This was beautifully illustrated but too sad and violent for me to enjoy reading. It's the story of a dysfunctional middle school friendship between two unhappy girls who make a suicide pact. This story will really hit for some readers but it wasn't for me.

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow 

I really enjoyed this book, even thought I think it's more interesting as a collection of ideas than as a novel. The characters in the first third felt somewhat flat, and the dialog is often delivered in hefty paragraphs with minimal dialog tags. But the story picks up in the second half and by the end I was reading it daily in big chunks. The concepts this book explores are what really shine, especially the idea of walking away from capitalist society and living in self-sustaining communities without formal governments or laws. This novel contains some future technology which we don't currently have today including 3D printers which can print food, clothing, and building pieces for vehicles and housing and also internet interfaces implanted into people's bodies which allow them global network access from anywhere almost all the time. The nation state of Canada also seems to have fallen before the start of this novel, as most of the characters end up walking away from the US into northern Canada to find these alternate communities. I liked seeing Doctorow play out the clash between on faction wanting to run a group house as a meritocracy versus another group committed to allowing all members to work as much or little as they want to or can, for example. The book does not shy away from showing the violent crack down of the existing governments on these alternate communities. There are major character deaths. But the other big theme of the book is exploring the digital scanning and uploading of human consciousnesses to the web allowed people to walk away from death.

[journalofsolitude]

from Rose Quartz: Poems by Sasha taqwšeblu LaPointe

[bookclub4m]

45 New & Forthcoming Indie Press Books by BIPOC Authors 

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Fiction

Weird Black Girls: Stories by Elwin Cotman (AK Press)

False Idols: A Reluctant King Novel by K’Wan (Akashic Books)

Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti (Archipelago Books)

Bad Land by Corinna Chong (Arsenal Pulp Press)

These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere (Catapult)

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher (Catapult)

Cecilia by K-Ming Chang (Coffee House Press)

Fog & Car by Eugene Lim (Coffee House Press)

We’re Safe When We’re Alone by Nghiem Tran (Coffee House Press)

A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter (Counterpoint Press)

Bad Seed by Gabriel Carle, translated by Heather Houde (Feminist Press)

The Default World by Naomi Kanakia (Feminist Press)

The Singularity by Balsam Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel (Feminist Press)

I'll Give You a Reason by Annell López (Feminist Press)

Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa, translated by Jennifer Feeley (Feminist Press)

Outcaste by Sheila James (Goose Lane Editions)

Silken Gazelles by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth (House of Anansi Press)

Dad, I Miss You by Nadia Sammurtok, illustrated by Simji Park (Inhabit Media)

Secrets of the Snakestone by Pia DasGupta (Nosy Crow)

The Burrow by Melanie Cheng (Tin House)

Masquerade by Mike Fu (Tin House)

The World With Its Mouth Open: Stories by Zahid Rafiq (Tin House)

I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall (Soft Skull Press)

Non-Fiction

RAPilates: Body and Mind Conditioning in the Digital Age by Chuck D and Kathy Lopez (Akashic Books)

All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey by Teresa Wong (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee (Catapult)

My Pisces Heart: A Black Immigrant's Search for Home Across Four Continents by Jennifer Neal  (Catapult)

Beyond the Mountains: An Immigrant's Inspiring Journey of Healing and Learning to Dance with the Universe by Deja Vu Prem (Catapult)

Out of the Sierra: A Story of Rarámuri Resistance by Victoria Blanco (Coffee House Press)

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha LaPointe (Counterpoint Press)

Born to Walk: My Journey of Trials and Resilience by Alpha Nkuranga (Goose Lane Editions)

Jinny Yu (At Once/À La Fois) by Jinny Yu (Goose Lane Editions)

Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix by Katherine Cross (LittlePuss Press)

Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home by Chris La Tray (Milkweed Editions)

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments  by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Milkweed Editions)

Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life by Sofia Samatar (Soft Skull Press)

The Story Game by Shze-Hui Tjoa (Tin House)

Black Meme: The History of the Images That Make Us by Legacy Russell (Verso Books)

Poetry

i heard a crow before i was born by Jules Delorme (Goose Lane Editions)

We the Gathered Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word edited by Franny Choi, Bao Phi, Noʻu Revilla, and Terisa Siagatonu (Haymarket Books)

A Map of My Want by Faylita Hicks (Haymarket Books)

[...] by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions)

Comics

A Witch’s Guide to Burning by Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn & Quarterly)

Oba Electroplating Factory by Yoshiharu Tsuge (Drawn & Quarterly)

Lost at Windy River by  Jillian Dolan, Trina Rathgeber and Alina Pete (Orca Books)

[musingsofmonica]

March 2024 Diverse Reads

March 2024 Diverse Reads:

•”The Great Divide” by Cristina Henriquez, March 05, Ecco Press, Literary/Historical/Sagas/Hispanic & Latino

•”Anita de Monte Laughs Last” by Xochitl Gonzalez, March 05, Flatiron Books, Literary/Historical/Coming of Age/Hispanic & Latino/Multiple Timeliness

•”Thunder Song: Essays” by Sasha Lapointe, March 05, Counterpoint, Essays, Anthropology/ Ethnic Studies/Indigenous Studies/Popular Culture/Cultural, Ethnic & Regional/Native American & Aboriginal

•”James” by Percival Everett, March 19, Doubleday Books, Literary/Historical/Satire

•”Parasol Against the Axe” by Helen Oyeyemi, March 05, Riverhead Books, Literary/Magical Realism/Friendship

•”36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem” by Nam Le, March 05, Knopf Publishing Group, Poetry, Asian American/European/English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh

•The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems” by Hala Alyan, March 12, Ecco Press, Poetry, Middle Eastern/Family/Places

•”Ward Toward: Volume 118” by Cindy Juyoung Ok, March 05, Yale University Press, Poetry/Asian/Women/Spaces/Mental Health/Hospitalization/Cultural & Social Themes

•”There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension” by Hanif Abdurraqib, March 26, Random House, Personal Memoir/Ethnic Studies/African American Studies/Basketball

•”You Get What You Pay for: Essays” by Morgan Parker, March 12, One World, Essays/Ethnic Studies/African American Studies/Cultural, Ethnic & Regional/African American & Black

•”Pride and Joy” by Louisa Onomé, March 12, Atria Books, Contemporary/Women/Family Life/African American 

•”Like Happiness” by Ursula Villarreal-Moura, March 26, Celadon Books, Literary/Coming of Age/Feminist/LGBT/Hispanic & Latino

•”Memory Piece” by Lisa Ko, March 19, Riverhead Books, Literary/Women/Asian American

•”The Angel of Indian Lake” by Stephen Graham Jones, March 26, S&S/Saga Press, Horror/Thriller/Suspense/Native American & Aboriginal

•”Women of Good Fortune” by Sophie Wan, March 05, Graydon House, ContemporaryWomen/Crime/Friendship/Feminist/World Literature/Asia/China

•”Victim” by Andrew Boryga, March 12, Doubleday Books, Literary/Satire/Humorous/Black Humor

•”The Emperor and the Endless Palace” by Justinian Huang, March 26, Mira Books, Historical/Fantasy/Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology/Romance/LGBT/Asian American/Cultural Heritage

•”Until August” by Gabriel García Márquez & Anne McLean (Translator), March 12, Knopf Publishing Group, Literary/Women/Family Life/Marriage & Divorce

•”A A Year of Last Things: Poems” by Michael Ondaatje, March 19, Knopf Publishing Group, Poetry/Death, Grief, Loss/Love & Erotica/America/World Heritage

•”Green Frog: Stories” Gina Chung, March 12, Knopf Publishing Group, Short Stories/Family Life/Folktales/Fantasy/American/Korean American

Happy reading!

Monica ✌️

[maevefinnartist]

got any good poetry book recommendations?

depends on what kind of poetry you like but here are some I own/some of my favorites:

"Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems" Lucille Clifton

"Pocket Irish Poetry" Gill & MacMillan

"If They Come For Us" and "When We Were Sisters" Fatimah Asghar

"The Astrakhan Cloak" Nuala Ní Domhnaill

"North" and "Station Island" Seamus Heaney

"Collected Sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay" Harper & Row

"Rose Quartz: Poems" Sasha Taqwšəblu LaPointe

"The Black Unicorn" Audre Lorde

"Second Sight" Paddy Bushe

[litbowl]

From another amazing book released by Milkweed today, Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe's Rose Quartz.

[peachbitters]

Queen of Our World, Adam Willems // Interview with Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe.

The Stranger: Arts and Performance Issue Spring 2024

[desperatecheesecubes]

And we’re into April so my March wrap is here! Part 1 because I read so many things this month :)

Damage (1994) issues 1-4

Dates Read: March 2, March 4, March 15

Review: 4 stars (issue 1) 3 stars (all others)

Thoughts: I’ve read some of Damage’s solo already in my efforts to read through Kyle’s GA run but I decided it was high time I loop back and try to 100% his run. It’s definitely a fun time. Still peeved he isn’t used more. Can’t believe they did a second Damage run and it’s not even about my boy Grant. DC return him to me immediately.

Marble Queen by Anna Kopp and Gabrielle Kart

Dates Read: 5 March-6 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: This was very cute. A fun sapphic story, with good art. It ended on some sequel bait but I don’t know that any has been announced. I will pick it up if it does get announced. The most memorable thing about this is that the first day it dropped it refused to open in any of my kindle apps irregardless of the device or how many times I updated it. So I bought it physically because I really wanted to read it, only for it to work the next fucking day. Infuriating. I will likely rehome the physical copy as it didn’t crack into my higher ratings.

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall

Dates Read: 28 February- 6 March

Review: 5 stars

Thoughts: Holy shit this was so good. A fantasy/sci-fi retelling of Sherlock Holmes and I NEED there to be more books this instant. All the characters were so entertaining and the snark unprecedented. I loved the narrator for the audiobook so much that I proceeded to look up everything he’d done. Did I mention how queer this book is? 1000-% recommend

Superman (2016) 37

Dates Read: 6 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: I keep seeing posts of future Tim coming to fight Bruce so I decided to reread this issue. It is a fun time! I deeply appreciate that the cover has fuck all to do with the story. The only character on this cover that makes an appearance is Clark.

Thunder Song by Sasha LaPointe

Dates Read: 5 March- 9 March

Review: 2 stars

Thoughts: I fucking hated this. I read Sasha’s poetry collection-Rose Quartz- last year and thought it was excellent so I preordered this eagerly but I wish I hadn’t. This isn’t a collection of essays, it’s a confused and misorganized memoir, but she’s literally already published a memoir so???? She was angry about so many things but angry at all the wrong people over them. So many of the experiences she discussed here were so deeply deeply relatable so it was very frustrating to have her constantly inform me that I could never understand any of them. The ability to understand and empathize with each other came free with our fucking humanity. If you are othering people by saying ‘you could never understand this pain’ you are doing yourself a wild disservice. Based on its average Goodreads rating it has found its proper audience but god knows I wasn’t that.

Batman (1940) 443

Dates Read: 9 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: I legitimately don’t remember reading this nor do I have any idea what it was about. Cheerio!

The Fox Maidens by Robin Ha

Dates Read: 10 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: Although this IS sapphic the romance doesn’t happen until the absolute end of the graphic novel. I was really more here for the main character eating bad men. She should have done that more. It was a fun read, even if it could have been gayer. I enjoyed learning more about Korean culture and mythology, I confess that I am not that knowledgeable.

Transitions by Élodie Durand

Dates read: 10 March

Review: 3 stars

thoughts: this book was not at all what I was expecting. It’s an interesting perspective to hear from in the trans conversation: a parent who knows nothing about the community but who finds out their child is part of it. I thought there would be more personal emotions in it but… no not really. A LOT of research though lol.

Women of Good Fortune by Sophie Wan

Dates Read: 9 March-13 March

Review: 4 stars

Thoughts: oh man this was fun. Very in line with Crazy Rich Asians. I loved all the women in this and I also enjoyed the supporting cast. I’ll be keeping an eye on what else Sophie Wan puts out.

Action Comics (2016) 1063

Dates Read: 14 March

Review: 2 stars

Thoughts: This arc was bad and I’m glad it’s over