#queer bookshop

[fanzines]

The Common Press radical queer bookshop in East London is raising money to stay open. Please donate here to support it. This indie, intersectional queer bookshop stocks 7,000+ books, including queer fiction, queer zines / indie mags, queer parenting manuals, poetry, guides to queer relationships and polyamory + much more. It’s a sanctuary for storytelling and queer culture, and has become an essential third space for the LGBTQIA+ community in East London (it also serves a range of amazing coffee and drinks / snacks). Please donate to its crowdfunder if you can or visit…

The Common Press bookshop & café 118 Bethnal Green Road Shoreditch London E2 6DG United Kingdom Closest station: Shoreditch High Street (2 min walk). Find it on the map.

[thistle-nightshade]

Book recs for trans awareness week

[movingnortharchive]

Light leaks in the bookshop | Category Is Books, Glasgow, October 2023

📸: Konica Pop AF + Kodak Ultramax

[penfight]

The shop will close from Jan 27th (this monday) so I can finish packing up, move, set up the new studio and take a bit of time to rest & refresh.

In the meantime - sale is still ongoing PLUS till monday only, get 10% extra off everything with the code JAN10 📚❤️ penfightdistro.com

[vampiricfungi]

I love my local queer bookstore Category Is Books, I love living in the Southside ♡

[qnewsau]

'Before Mardi Gras' shares insight into fighting for LGBTQIA+ freedom today

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/before-mardi-gras-shares-insight-into-fighting-for-lgbtq-freedom-today/

'Before Mardi Gras' shares insight into fighting for LGBTQIA+ freedom today

Historian Graham Willett’s new book recounts LGBTQIA+ activism before Mardi Gras, sharing an influence on fighting for LGBTQ+ freedom today.

The past doesn’t change, no matter how much we look at it.

Before Mardi Gras is the history of that first, too-often forgotten, decade that made everything that followed possible.

“Before Mardi Gras is the first eight chapters of a book I published in 2000, called Living Out Loud.” Graham Willett told us,

“I started to feel that we’ve forgotten so much and history has been overshadowed by Mardi Gras.”

“So it was worth reprinting that part.”

LGBTIQ+ people were standing up and speaking out for freedom, equality, and liberation long before 1978.

Starting in 1969 with demonstrations, lobbying, leaflets and newspapers, radio programs and more.

“Without that decade before 1978, Mardi Gras wouldn’t have happened,” Willett said,

“None of what we achieved would have happened.”

Supplied

There’s no one way to advocate.

“In 1969 and 1970, a handful of people said, ‘this wasn’t good enough’ and ‘something must be done’.

“In different ways, people were taking up the issue regarding the changing of laws and attitudes around the country.

“All this laid the foundations for that quite an impressive day of the first Mardi Gras that turned into a riot.

“It was only because the cops went crazy that people felt like they had to come back again next year.”

Looking back on that time, many of the issues we face today still hold true.

We argue that we aren’t the problem, it’s society, and that laws and regulations, professional attitudes and public opinion are what must change.

“Even back then, there were lots of different ways of tackling the problem,” Willett tells us,

“People would protest and demonstrate, throwing eggs at people, and then put on nice clothes to talk to politicians, clergymen and doctors.”

“The idea that there are different ways of tackling the problems that are presented is still true today.

“When the first anti-trans demos were directed at trans story time, we organised counter demos.

“When the enemy took to the streets, we took to the streets.

“But we were also talking, and there is still a lot of advocacy going on, too.

“The two ways of working are both really important.

“It’s partly what worked in the 70s when people came out.

“It wasn’t necessarily going to be a bad experience. And the courage to come out inspires others to do so as well.”

Source: Phillip Potter -CAMP Demo 1971

Decades later, have things changed?

Before Mardi Gras looks at the political movements ten years before that riot in Oxford Street.

“Sometimes the past doesn’t change no matter how much we look at it, but it always remains relevant,” Willett said,

“It can offer an understanding of that period, throwing light on our own time.”

“Activism and advocacy lead to people standing up and refusing to let the police push them around.

“Which led to a campaign to force the police to be accountable for what they have done.

“The success of that decade was when the first law reform decriminalization took place in Canberra.

In 1975, the annual conferences of activists started trying to inspire groups to come together.

“Whether gay trade unionists, gay teachers or student groups.

“Getting together and deciding to do stuff is important.

“It’s not enough to hit the send button on your Facebook likes and dislikes.”

You can read about Lesbian and Gay Activism in Australia from 1969 – 1978 in Before Mardi Gras.

Available at all good bookstores.

Supplied

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[tampire]

Crowley Edition

[dorkvania]

Always Here Bookstore is having a grand re-opening in a new location this weekend

It's a queer & trans worker-owned bookstore here in Portland

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket Tournament: Round 1C

Book summaries below:

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

Fantasy, cozy fantasy, romance, secondary world, adult

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more...

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before. Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.

Torn by their allegiances--to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves--the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.

And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.

Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.

Fantasy, romance, paranormal, series, adult

[drchucktingle]

TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR BURY YOUR GAYS TOUR IN LOS ANGELES. last show of the tour is at DYNASTY TYPEWRITER and hosted by NORTH FIGUEROA BOOKSHOP come trot for a sunday matinee and prove love is real GET YOUR DANG TICKET NOW

[eli-zab3th]

"Being open about who you are can be a little scary, but I think that after you’ve explored your first dungeon, or been hounded through a forest by an unknown threat, you begin to worry less about the approval of others and more about whether you remembered to bring a torch."

- Once Upon a Tome, Oliver Darkshire

[movingnortharchive]

K at the queer bookshop | Category Is Books, Glasgow, October 2023

📸: Konica Pop AF + Kodak Ultramax

[penfight]

Here's a lil pile of books going out today for trans day of nice book.

We've gifted 230 books to trans people now! That leaves just 138 unfulfilled requests - we're going to close the scheme at the end of the month (till we run it again next year) so if you've been meaning to buy a book as a gift to a trans person, this is your last chance!

Take a look at the requests on our website today.

[franticvampirereads]

This was so cozy and warm that I didn’t want it to ever end! I loved the sleepy little beach town, the bookshop, the bakery, just… everything about this book made my heart so happy. Getting to see a younger Viv finding her footing in the world and planting the seeds for a far off dream was one of those things that really made this book shine. I loved getting to see Viv defying expectations and making friends and falling in love. This is the kind of book that you can curl up with a cup of tea and a snack and just get lost with in its pages for hours. Bookshops & Bonedust is getting a solid four and half stars!