#saphhic books

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

Please check here for the list of queued and polled books before submitting a title.

Submission rules:

Check the above list to make sure the work isn't already queued. The queue is extensive.

Include both the title and author.

For submissions of more than three works, please separate each work onto its own line.

If you're submitting comics, please submit an omnibus edition, not individual issues.

Short story collections are welcome provided most of the stories are queer.

Feel free to submit as many titles as you'd like. No genre, language, or reading level restrictions.

If you notice that I've missed tagging queer rep in a poll results post, please comment and let me know what to add! I read a lot of queer books, but sadly have not read all of them.

Voting rules:

We're keeping this simple—have you read this queer book, yes or no? Choose whatever you feel best reflects whether you read the book or not.

More have you... poll blogs:

@haveyoureadthisscifibook @haveyoureadthisfantasybook @haveyoureadthisbook-poll @haveyoureadthismgyabook @haveyoureadthistransbook @have-you-read-this-short-fiction @haveyouseenthisqueerfilm

Please consider reblogging the polls to get more eyes on them!

If you like what I do here, you can find my kofi here should you wish to support my queer reading habit.

[flying-elliska]

Anyway ! Better late than never but here's my favorite stuff I read in 2022 :

- Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo. Without a doubt my favorite read of the year. Somehow it manages to be heartbreaking, tender and uplifting all at once. The writing is beautifully evocative, the details chosen so clever, and I found the main character painfully relatable. It illuminates a type of experience, that of a young Chinese American lesbian in 1950s San Francisco, that has generally fallen through the cracks of history - it's a celebration of the fact that queer people have existed, everywhere through time and space, and have found ways to be happy even though it was scary and hard and they couldn't tell anyone. And it also illustrates the complex intersections between her different identities - the struggle of her immigrant family to build a life in the US during the Red Scare, the racism she experiences in queer spaces, how she struggles to make a future for herself as a woman interested in science, etc, in a way that feels very important and builds on each other. Also, it's a wonderful tribute to queer spaces and how life saving they must have been, the wonder of discovery, having to rely on crumbs of info and representation, how dangerous and uncertain it all was, just, ugh. Reading this made me think of my 17 year old self who would repeatedly go through the street of the only lesbian bar in town on purpose without daring to go in for years. It's like !!!! That specific mix of longing and anxiety and anticipation. Things have gotten so much better, and yet. Ugh. Anyway, the sense of place and geography in this book is brilliant. Also the romance is very sweet, and the end, if frustratingly open ended, took my breath away. Anyway there is a reason why it got so popular and it's one of the best sapphic books I've read - also YA at its best, easy to read uplifting coming of age story that is also well written and doesn't set aside complexity, richness of historical detail or psychological nuance. Destined to be a classic honestly.

- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston ; already reviewed this one but for me this was the perfect fun enjoyable queer summer romance with an interesting plot and cool characters and vibes. Perfect for what it was honestly.

- Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand ; also popular for a reason ; clever and inventive and inspiring YA, with a great uplifting kick the patriarchy solidarity between girls + Buffy vibes. Good ace rep and I just found the main couple really compelling, especially Val, the privileged queen bee with the family secretly cursed to serve a horrible monster that takes over their bodies and forces them to commit atrocities, how she's honestly kind of an evil bitch at times and is allowed that moral ambiguity but also gets to be brave and heartbreaking and lovable and redeemed in the end and also empathized with as a victim of abuse, and it's like !!!! This is exactly the treatment that male characters get so often and female characters were denied for a long time. Main couple feels like the meme where the popular shallow girl and the 'not like other girls' edgy loner girl are actually falling in love and also, real people instead of cliches. I feel like the author could have done a bit more with the atmosphere but overall it was great and I would have been obsessed with this book as a teenager.

- A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske : gay Regency fantasy romance, what's not to love? Fascinating characters and cool magic system and just a joy to read. My main caveat is that I read it in the beginning of the year and I don't remember much of it but I did remember having a blast reading it.

- Cultish, Amanda Montell : Cults have been a hyperfixation of mine for a long time, for reasons that range from intellectual/writerly interest in what it says about human behavior and group dynamics, wanting to understand how power abuse works and generally processing some fucked up shit I've experienced and witnessed growing up. And there is a lot of sensationalist, dehumanizing stuff out there, so I liked the book's more compassionate and humanistic approach. People on the whole don't join cults because they're isolated wackos or mentally weak or instable or desperate ; in fact cults tend to go for the strong willed, determined idealists who want to see the best in people and have a lot to gain in joining a movement that promises change and real action for a better world. (Unfortunately this is why a lot of cult victims are oppressed minorities). They prey on people's innate need for group belonging and meaning in an atomized world that offers little, using manipulative mechanisms of language that slowly shift your reality away from you. Far from outlandish, these mechanisms are already used at a lesser degree by a lot of big mainstream institutions and religion, and are everywhere in ads and on social media (I especially liked the bit about how MLMs function like capitalistic cults whose protestant/prosperity gospel ideology is deeply tied into our current system, which is why they've been allowed to proliferate so well). And yeah honestly i think recognizing those techniques in order to be immune to them should be basic education. Also I liked the point that a lot of what makes people vulnerable to cults are also often very useful important qualities in other settings so you can't set them aside entirely. So a very interesting book, even though it's still pop science so it gets judgmental and imprecise in places.

- Getting to Yes, Fisher and Ury : lmao this is not a very tumblr book but this is a book about principled negociation, e.g how it's not being a domineering asshole that makes you a good negotiator but instead you can get to the best outcomes by being methodical, empathetic, knowing exactly when and where to stand your ground and when to be generous, setting good boundaries and communication and showing the example by being fair without being taken advantage of. Obvs very useful in a pro setting but I think in general this is a very affirming book if you're the quiet, shy type who struggles with self-confidence. Like, you don't have to be an obnoxious immoral backstabby asshole to get what you want, you really don't.

Overall this was not a good reading year, with 18 books read down from 34 in 2021 - mostly because there were some months where I completely forgot to read. But, I did have a lot of fun reading and I still think that's the most important. Also I read more queer love stories than straight ones, which I am very happy with and definitely want to continue with.

My main goals for 2023 are to read more and especially all the books sitting unread on my shelves (you know the issue.) I want to get into more intellectually challenging stuff and balance it out with lighter reads, esp. queer adult romance and fantasy. I'd like to write more reviews here again. And yeah I want to keep having fun most of all.

[dreamy-loser]

𝒾𝓃𝒹𝒾𝑔𝑜 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓏𝓊𝓇𝑒 / 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝓁𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝒹𝑒

[poetic-pandemonium]

"You are the knife I turn inside myself; that is love. That, my dear, is love."

- Franz Kafka

[constance-mcentee]

Book Report: “A Tale of Two Florists”

Image Description: The cover art for A Tale of Two Florists by Brenna Bailey. The overall background is a peach color and there are sunflowers along the top of the image, above the title. Two elderly women stand somewhat side-by-side. One has gray hair, green glasses, and wears a teal-blue dress with yellow stars on it. The other woman is a bit shorter, with white hair, a dark blue shirt and black pants. Both are holding bouquets of flowers.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024

One of the frustrating things about being a queer in my 50s is that most queer romance novels I’ve found so far revolve around characters younger than me, usually in their 20s and 30s. Well, I just finished A Tale of Two Florists by Brenna Bailey, and this time the couple were in their 70s. So, still not my precise age group but different from what I had been reading previously.

Generally I’m not the biggest fan of enemies-to-lovers, and that trope figures prominently in the story.  While I’m still not sold on that trope in particular, I am absolutely sold on Bailey’s Juniper Creek Golden Years concept and will be reading the other books in that series.

I’d borrowed an ebook of A Tale of Two Florists from my local library, and they don’t have the other books in that series yet in any format. The Queer Liberation Library doesn’t seem to have them either.

I guess I’ll just have to buy my own copies.

[grainsofexcellence]

Teaser: Emma studied her mother’s face and her heart froze in her chest, then dropped down into her stomach making it churn with discomfort. Her voice dropped an octave. “What did you do?” https://archiveofourown.org/works/55702492/chapters/149933011 #swanqueen #swen #reginamills #emmaswan

*Thank you Crystal Coulter for the reminders!

[ronweasleys-world]

Any queer fantasy book recs??

Preferably:

.Sapphic

.Third person

.Not dark romance

.Romance subplot

[letusburnthestars]

“She was like water, calm and steady.

But she could penetrate through the biggest of mountains and the heaviest of forests.”

-letusburnthestars

[makemicalromans]

Might just dye my hair pink like Shara Wheeler someday soon

[inkquill256]

I mean, have you ever heard of Villains Don't Date Heros?

It's Sapphic~

[nightkittenwriter]

Amazon Kindle Edition: $7.99

[chemicalarospec]

One single time I saw the take that One Last Stop was only less popular than Red White and Royal Blue because gay men are more popular than lesbians and I still come up with additional reasons, but I have no idea how popular that take is so sometimes I feel ridiculous. (Cuz like not denying mlm gets more attention than wlw but there was wayyyy more at play in the popularity of RW&RB and the less-popularity of One Last Stop)

[oikaas]

Crying over lesbian love because it’s so beautiful

[isaaaa101]

READ THIS BOOK

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

goodreads

Three years ago, the melting of arctic permafrost released a pathogen of unknown origin into the atmosphere, causing a small percentage of people to undergo a transformation that became known as the Hollowing. Those impacted slowly became intolerant to normal food and were only able to gain sustenance by consuming the flesh of other human beings. Those who went without flesh quickly became feral, turning on their friends and family. However, scientists were able to create a synthetic version of human meat that would satisfy the hunger of those impacted by the Hollowing. As a result, humanity slowly began to return to normal, albeit with lasting fear and distrust for the people they'd pejoratively dubbed ghouls. Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine are all ghouls living in Southern California. As a last hurrah before their graduation they decided to attend a musical festival in the desert. They have a cooler filled with hard seltzers and SynFlesh and are ready to party. But on the first night of the festival Val goes feral, and ends up killing and eating a boy. As other festival guests start disappearing around them the girls soon discover someone is drugging ghouls and making them feral. And if they can't figure out how to stop it, and soon, no one at the festival is safe.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this book yet, but I really want to, it sounds interesting.

[grainsofexcellence]

Update for 8 (Rewrite)!

Teaser:

Regina shivered, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. “Are you going to control me again?”

Emma sighed. “After everything that’s happened, I really should.”

The brunette tried to take her hand away but Emma held firm.

“But I really don’t want to. Now you need to tell me.” Emma’s eyes lingered.

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me what the spell requires. The one you are casting.”

Regina’s eyes went wide, her voice catching. “No,”

Emma grabbed Regina’s head with both hands. “I’m trying to help you, let me help you. If this could finally make you happy. I want to do it…”

Regina angrily shook her head. “You can’t. Why would you even want to help me?”

Emma let go. “Because I love you. And I tried not to, but… I can’t stop you. Why not…”

Regina watched the hurt on her wife’s face. Looking for her reaction when the truth was finally revealed, she sat up quickly. “Because… to enact the curse… you have to die.”

[doublefictionaldragon]

I have just finished reading nevermore (all of it that is out so far anyway) and OMG HOW MUCH DO I FUCKING LOVE IT!!!

the plot

the art

THE SAPHHICS

the references to Edgar Allen Poe (that make me want to read all of his books)

the well-written characters (who are so interesting to follow around and actually feel 3D and real)

AAAAAAAHDJDBSJSKDBD

I love it.