#juliet takes a breath

[lavendershowcase]

Queer Hispanic Stories for Hispanic Heritage Month

Summaries and notes under cut

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that’s going to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. She’s interning with the author of her favorite book: Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff. Will Juliet be able to figure out her life over the course of one magical summer? Is that even possible? Or is she running away from all the problems that seem too big to handle? With more questions than answers, Juliet takes on Portland, Harlowe, and most importantly, herself.

Winner of 2017 Silver IPPY Award for best LGBTQ Fiction, selected by the ALA for the Amelia Bloomer List in 2017

The Prince and the Coyote by David Bowles, illustrated by Amanda Mijangos*

Fifteen-year old crown prince Acolmiztli wants nothing more than to see his city-state of Tetzcoco thrive. A singer, poet, and burgeoning philosophical mind, he has big plans about infrastructure projects and cultural initiatives that will bring honor to his family and help his people flourish. But the two sides of his family, the kingdoms of Mexico and Acolhuacan, have been at war his entire life – after his father risked the wrath of the Tepanec emperor to win his mother’s love. When a power struggle leaves his father dead and his mother and siblings in exile, Acolmiztli must run for his life, seeking refuge in the wilderness. After a coyote helps him find his way in the wild, he takes on a new name – Nezahualcoyotl, or “fasting coyote” (“Neza” for short). Biding his time until he can form new alliances and reconnect with his family, Neza goes undercover, and falls in love with a commoner girl, Sekalli. Can Neza survive his plotting uncles’ scheme to wipe out his line for good? Will the empire he dreams of in Tetzcoco ever come to life? And is he willing to risk the lives of those he loves in the process? This action-packed tale blends prose and poetry – including translations of surviving poems by Nezahualcoytl himself, translated from classical Nahuatl by the author. And the book is packed with queer rep: queer love stories, and a thoughtful exploration of pre-columbian understandings of gender that defy the contemporary Western gender binary.

Pura Belpré honoree, Kirkus Best of the Year, Bookpage top 10 Book of 2023

*Personally recommended by me

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

It’s 1980 in New York City, and nowhere is the city’s glamour and energy better reflected than in the burgeoning Harlem ball scene, where seventeen-year-old Angel first comes into her own. Burned by her traumatic past, Angel is new to the drag world, new to ball culture, and has a yearning inside of her to help create family for those without. When she falls in love with Hector, a beautiful young man who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, the two decide to form the House of Xtravaganza, the first-ever all-Latino house in the Harlem ball circuit. But when Hector dies of AIDS-related complications, Angel must bear the responsibility of tending to their house alone. As mother of the house, Angel recruits Venus, a whip-fast trans girl who dreams of finding a rich man to take care of her; Juanito, a quiet boy who loves fabrics and design; and Daniel, a butch queen who accidentally saves Venus’s life. The Xtravaganzas must learn to navigate sex work, addiction, and persistent abuse, leaning on each other as bulwarks against a world that resists them. All are ambitious, resilient, and determined to control their own fates, even as they hurtle toward devastating consequences. 

Born Both: An Intersex Life by Hida Viloria

My name is Hida Viloria. I was raised as a girl but discovered at a young age that my body looked different. Having endured an often turbulent home life as a kid, there were many times when I felt scared and alone, especially given my attraction to girls. But unlike most people in the first world who are born intersex–meaning they have genitals, reproductive organs, hormones, and/or chromosomal patterns that do not fit standard definitions of male or female–I grew up in the body I was born with because my parents did not have my sex characteristics surgically altered at birth. It wasn’t until I was twenty-six and encountered the term intersex in a San Francisco newspaper that I finally had a name for my difference. That’s when I began to explore what it means to live in the space between genders–to be both and neither. I tried living as a feminine woman, an androgynous person, and even for a brief period of time as a man. Good friends would not recognize me, and gay men would hit on me. My gender fluidity was exciting, and in many ways freeing–but it could also be isolating. I had to know if there were other intersex people like me, but when I finally found an intersex community to connect with I was shocked, and then deeply upset, to learn that most of the people I met had been scarred, both physically and psychologically, by infant surgeries and hormone treatments meant to “correct” their bodies. Realizing that the invisibility of intersex people in society facilitated these practices, I made it my mission to bring an end to it–and became one of the first people to voluntarily come out as intersex at a national and then international level. Born Both is the story of my lifelong journey toward finding love and embracing my authentic identity in a world that insists on categorizing people into either/or, and of my decades-long fight for human rights and equality for intersex people everywhere.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella “Especially Heinous,” Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgängers, ghosts, and girls-with-bells-for-eyes.

Finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction, Winner of the National Book Critics Circle's 2017 John Leonard Prize, Winner of the 2017 Bard Fiction Prize, Finalist for the 2017 Kirkus Prize, Finalist for the 2017 PEN/Robert Bingham Award

[read-alert]

Can anyone who's read Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera tell me if the cissexism involved in rooting your feminism in the whole pussy power shtick gets examined? Trying to decide whether or not to dnf it

[artemismatchalatte]

Looking for a good read about or by sapphic women or gay/bi men?

Look no further! I gave all these books 4 or 5 stars when I read them. 

Lesbian and bisexual women (subject and author): 

Two or three things I know for sure by Dorothy Allison (lesbian memoir)

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata (graphic novel, lesbian memoir)

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donahue (historic fiction, bisexual woman and lesbian wlw relationship)

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabi Rivera (ya contemporary, lesbian mc)

Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg (historic fiction, butch/femme wlw)

Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden (ya lesbian classic)

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (historic fiction, lesbian classic)

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (historic fiction, bisexual woman and lesbian wlw relationship)

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney (graphic novel, memoir- even though it’s mainly about bipolar disorder mostly she is bisexual and it’s mentioned in the novel)

Lesbian or Bisexual Woman author (not necessarily an LGBT subject): 

Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and A Room of One’s Own all by Virginia Woolf (bisexual author)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (bisexual author)

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (lesbian author)

The Yellow Wallpaper (and other stories) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (bisexual author)

The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn (bisexual author)

Passing by Nella Larsen (bisexual author)

Transgender Topics: 

Female Husbands: A Trans History by Jen Manion (LGBT history- only concerns relationships between historic AFAB couples and AFAB people who lived as men for many reasons- wider career opportunities and being able to marry a woman were the two most common reasons cited across all stories chronicled) 

Gay Men and Bisexual Men (subject and/or author): 

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (historic fiction, Greek Myths)

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin (gay author, essays on race in America)

Boy meets Boy by David Leviathan (ya contemporary mlm romance)

If We were Villains by M. L. Rio  (ya, dark academia, mystery)

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (historic fiction, bisexual mlm, ya) The two sequels also have more lgbt characters. 

[slaughter-books]

Day 25: JOMPBPC: Book Pile

A book pile of 6 brightly coloured and diverse books! Aren't they beautiful?! 💞

[dykrophone]

THEY REALLY SAID DO YOU WANT TO SPLIT THAT COOKIE KDFJGHDFJKGHDFKJH

[small-strong-bookish-butch]

Rereading books that I loved as a teenager is like: this book feels like home and a warm hug but I can also see the plot and point of it now, like, immediately

(Rereading Juliet Takes A Breath; I originally read it when I was like, 18? and I was beginning to unlearn gender essentialism and all that. And reading it now, when I'm 25, I'm like "oh my GOD, Harlowe has SUCKED from the BEGINNING")

[queer-book-society]

Title: Juliet Takes a Breath

Author(s): Gabby Rivera

Description: Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that’s going to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. She’s interning with the author of her favorite book: Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff. Will Juliet be able to figure out her life over the course of one magical summer? Is that even possible? Or is she running away from all the problems that seem too big to handle?

[sapphic-book-tournament]

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera-

Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that’s going to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. She’s interning with the author of her favorite book: Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff.

Will Juliet be able to figure out her life over the course of one magical summer? Is that even possible? Or is she running away from all the problems that seem too big to handle?

With more questions than answers, Juliet takes on Portland, Harlowe, and most importantly, herself.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

[psychelocktango]

I'm begging all BIPOC sapphic people or BIPOC queer people who date women to read Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera. There's also a graphic novel and Audiobook. And for my fellow trans and gender diverse people, the opening sounds suspicious but it's later used to show why overly focusing on "pussy power" doesn't make someone a good ally.

The best part of the story is that it teaches you how to not take that as a sign that you are a bad and evil person. But there is an entire community of other women and people who have been through this and understand. With a competent partner you don't just have to be chill about racism and avoid mentioning it because it "ruins the vibe." People who understand that constructive criticism is a part of life and it doesn't mean you hate something or are arguing.

That allyship isn't just white people flipping out and making situations worse. And plenty of other people have a problem with this behavior; it's not just you. You aren't a bad person for talking about it.

There are so many of us who have gone through this kind of nonsense. Wanting to talk about the racism that affects our daily lives is not something "unfair." White people can and will claim to "set a boundary" when they are stonewalling you; learn the difference. Because the only defense we have against being tokenized is community. This book is a way to understand that, And if you're new to being queer it talks about a lot of that stuff too.

Tw: opening has some catcalling that escalates, but she leaves the situation unharmed.

This is the book I wish I had read before I dated a white person; to know that needing support around racism and holding a white person accountable is not abusive. Now I know how to screen people I consider dating. How to set standards in friendships and relationships. Better friends are out there, better people are out there. Don't settle for people just because you've been told your whole life that you're too much.

[friendofhayley]

Friendofhayley's Top Books of 2022 Pt. 1 LGBTQIA+ Fiction

This Book Rec is on LGBTQ+ books (realistic fiction edition). It includes 5 books. Let's go!!

"There are so many forms of Asian-parent tough love, where parents say and do mean things only because they want the best for us. Is all of that “tough love” abusive? What distinguishes tough-love parenting from abuse? After all, Mom did say she’s afraid of what other people might say about me. Even though she is mostly afraid that people might think she’s a bad parent, isn’t the fact that she’s worried about me a good thing?"

I'll Be the One by Lyla Lee | F/M both bisexual!!

This book follows Skye, a Korean-American bisexual girl in high school who wants to be the next K-Pop star. Her dancing is incredible but the biggest barrier to everyone else is her body. As someone is half-Korean and considered plus-size in that culture, this book definitely felt like something I've always wanted. It hurt but I definitely understood every character's intentions and I loved every second of it. (Even the painful parts. Do we all have mommy issues??) I will definitely read this again whenever I'm feeling down after hearing another Ajumma comment on my body.

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley | Sapphic Relationship

This book follows 2 girls: the daughter of the head Civil Rights leader in town and the daughter of his rival. Sarah is the leader of the small group of black students to start integration at Jefferson High. This story was ambitious and carried itself well which is mainly why it's a top book for me. Intersectionality is so important and this author emphasized race but also heavily included the LGBTQIA+ struggles as well in that lens. However, the author is white, so take it with a grain of salt.

"What if this—this rule that says what I did in the back room that day is a terrible sin—what if that’s just a rule some old white man made up, too?"

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera | Latinx Lesbians

Juliet goes on an internship to peek outside the closet by studying under a white cis feminist. She discovers the communities she belongs to and the drama they have, along with finding herself. I loved the queer joy in this book and the warm acceptance Juliet found everywhere in every pocket of the BIPOC community in all the corners of America. You can tell I love intersectionality.

"My God is Black. It’s queer. It’s a symphony of masculine and feminine. It’s Audre Lorde and Sleater-Kinney. My God and my understanding of God are centered on who I am as a person and what I need to continue my connection to the divine,” Maxine explained. She took a long breath. “It’s everyone’s job to come up with a theodicy. One that has room for every inch of who they are and the person they evolve into.”

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta | biracial gay man

This book is a metaphor for a biracial gay boy growing up while feeling like an outsider in two different worlds. The story is told in prose, yet it cuts you to the core. I absolutely loved this book and how it told this story. It's hard to even put into words how amazing it was. The characters were real and incredible, especially the drag queens.

"If you’re happy in the closet for the time being, play dress-up until you find the right outfit."

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel | dykes & co

This book was an absolute delight. It has all the comic strips of this story showing the life of dykes (and their chosen families) from 1983 to 2003. It was literally queer joy seeing these characters grow from post-grad to settling down (or definitely not), finding themselves, and supporting each other.

[desdasiwrites]

If it’s a phase, so what? If it’s your whole life, who cares? You’re destined to evolve and understand yourself in ways you never imagined before. And you’ve got our blood running through your beautiful veins, so no matter what, you’ve been blessed with the spirit of women who know how to love.

– Gabby Rivera, Juliet Takes a Breath

[fatblknfree]

oh hell yeah. we shouting out round brown girlies. this book is gonna be phenomenal i already know !

AND it’s queer!!!

[youmaycallmeasha]

[cheesy09]

[CN] Upcoming Kiro Date Preview

🌸 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for content that hasn't been released on the EN server yet! 🌸

The world will witness my eternal glory.

From now on, there will be no separation between us.

🌟 Kiro's Fateful Date Blurb

The sun forgives every sin;

The stars will tell everyone their secrets;

And the moon only sighs;

Those who think they can do anything,

Wait for the day when the sun will never come again,

You will see your truest self in the darkness.

P.S. The live 2D version of this card's evolution commissioned by Papergames really gives one the impression that this date will end in tragedy 😭 It's got sad music, Kiro crying and everything. And the blurb for this date does not help either. Ngl, I live for this angst, but man... my emotions might not be able to survive this.

In case anyone is curious, you can watch the live 2D version here: link

What Kiro says is "Don't forget me. You're not allowed to ever forget me." 😭

[slaughter-books]

Day 15: JOMPBPC: Love Yo' Self

[montygatorguy]

hello everyone i know it’s a school night and i need to sleep but i was watching &j in study hall and i need yall to see justin just being very silly in this clip