#f/Contemporary

[jamieflemingsimpson]

Silence, 2023

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

i was also thinking that as i get older i am less automatically impressed by literary prose, partly because i recognize it more and more as a genre of its own and just doing the things it does doesn’t wow me, but then i was trying to remember if i’d ever been in my younger days wowed by a book i wasn’t sure i’d stand by now and the answer is no but i do remember reading various novels and being like “that was ok.” so maybe i have just always been a hater. i do though need publishers to stop choosing blurbs that hype up the language of a book bc it’s like almost guaranteed to make me a little more hostile than i would quite honestly prefer to be.

[up-in-flames-writing]

In lieu of Stuff Your Kindle day, can we talk about the issue of how the m/m genre of books, romance or not, is almost entirely dominated by women? Can we talk about how the most recognisable gay couples in media are written by women? Can we talk about how queer men can't even write about ourselves, how we are only allowed to exist when it's from the point of view of a straight woman sexualising us?

Can we talk about that? Or am I going to get called misogynistic for pointing out the disparity between who gets the writing deals, & who gets their books turned into movies, & whose shit gets popular versus whose doesn't? Can we talk about how m/m fiction is only allowed when it appeals to a cishet gaze, or is that too much for tumblr to take?

Can we also talk about how trans queer men are even more hated by publishing? Can we talk about how we get shit from both sides? Can we talk about how books about the experiences of being a queer man, written by queer men, never get the same recognition as books written by women on this subject (barring academia which has its own problems)?

Can we talk about that? Can we?

[profiterole-reads]

Cat's Eye(s)

Cat's Eyes is the French live-action adaptation of the Japanese heist anime Cat's Eye.

I've always been a huge fan of Cat's Eye, so I had to give a try to the French adaptation, based on the dubbed version, even though the trailer looked awful. lol The first two episodes were actually quite fun (taking into account that I'm an easy audience).

It's a little more adult (more dangerous and more sexy) than the original, but they added a reason that actually makes sense as to why the sisters need to rob their father's paintings.

There are a few POC and some Japanese paintings, but unfortunately no Japanese French actors. They changed a major male character into a woman (played by Carole Bouquet). My favourite addition is that there are now SAPPHICS! <3

It currently airs in France, Belgium and Switzerland, but Amazon Prime Video is a partner, so it might become available in other countries.

[garethschweitzer]

Robin F Williams

[miamaimania]

Shades of Grey: A Symphony in Monochrome by Yaroslav F.

[queerromancerecs]

Role Playing

Title Role Playing

Author Cathy Yardley

Summary:

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal–he’ll be more social if she does the same–she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to face–after a rocky, shocking start–the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

Genre: romance

Ship type: m/f (male character is bi and demisexual)

Why you like it: It’s nice to read a romance featuring older characters.  Finding love in late 40s/early 50s is different than romance for 20 somethings and it is nice to see that reflected.  I also love the demisexual rep.   

Content tags homophobic/biphobic family members, family drama, aging parents needing care, minor injury                                                         

Link to buy 

(image description: a woman and a man casually embracing on a big couch. she is in socks and holding a mug. he’s in flannel. on the table in front of them are bowls of food and DnD miniatures)

[misscromwellsmonocle]

Offering by Daniel F. Gerhartz (*1965)

[lesondupapillon]

Je n'ai pas pris de billet pour la vie,

J'ai raté la porte du sentiment

/ Fernando Pessoa

[faridbellal]

[alexios-tjoyas-fructuosus]

Visions de Nosferatu / ma contribution pour un livre-CD, avec Emmanuelle Parrenin, Quentin Rollet, Jérôme Lorichon, Caroline Sury, Marie-Pierre Brunel & Foolz (Bisou Records, avril 2024)

Visions of Nosferatu / my contribution for a CD-book, with Emmanuelle Parrenin, Quentin Rollet, Jérôme Lorichon, Caroline Sury, Marie-Pierre Brunel & Foolz (Bisou Records, April 2024)

[skf-fineart]

MB&F A futuristic and unusual limited edition yellow gold-plated brass spider-shaped clock with 8-day power reserve, made in 500 pieces, ARACHNOPHOBIA GOLD, circa 2015

[profiterole-reads]

Drive-Away Dolls

I've just seen Drive-Away Dolls on the big screen (France was late releasing it and my local cinema even more so) and it was a lot of fun! Two lesbians go on a road trip without knowing that there's a severed head in the trunk of the car they've leased.

Note that this movie has a lot of sex: it's rated R in the US and even has a little warning in France (we're not afraid of sex here), so don't plan on watching it with family members. lol It's a mix between the thriller Bound (1996, f/f) and the trippy movie Kaboom (2010, bisexual male protagonist, m/f and m/m). Apparently, we're entitled to a film like this only every 14 years.

Marian is my favourite character because she's clearly demisexual, and probably autistic as well. <3

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

첫 사랑니 (Rum Pum Pum Pum) • 미행 (그림자; Shadow) • Pretty Girl • Kick • 시그널 (Signal) • Step • Goodbye Summer • Airplane • Toy • 여우 같은 내 친구 (No More) • Snapshot • Ending Page

Spotify ♪ YouTube

[queerromancerecs]

One Last Stop

One Last Stop

Casey McQuiston

Summary: (from Goodreads): For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures. But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train. Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Genre: Romance, a little fantasy

Ship type: f/f

Why you like it: It is funny, with a very lovable cast, who feel very real and relatable. While the romance is sweet, the combination of that plus the found family plot makes this one of my favorite comfort reads. Everyone loves McQuiston's Red, White, and Royal Blue, but I think One LastStop is far superior.                                                                       

https://read.macmillan.com/lp/one-last-stop/

(img description: book cover shows a subway platform in soft pinks and purples, with one woman in the train at the open doors wearing jeans and a leather jacket and another woman walking past, perhaps gazing longingly at the woman on the train)

[jamieflemingsimpson]

It is what it is, 2023