#the henna wars

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

Some books by Asian authors to read this may!

Edit: thank you @linkedsoul for letting me know that I misused the term AAPI in the original post. I’m very sorry about that, and have changed the title to accurately reflect what this list is.

[augustraine]

Does anyone have good wlw book recs?? Specifically with one of them at least being masc? I'm so sick of going on tiktok looking for books where it's just two fem white women. 😭 I want more then the same 5 books yk??

[lunaathorne]

every sapphic book i love → the henna wars by adiba jaigirdar

of course muslims can be gay. how can anyone think otherwise? The two aren’t mutually exclusive. I’m living, breathing proof.

[kazbrekkerskane]

for the record: feel free to vote even if you are not a lesbian

obligatory I know it's 'wlw' or whatever but I'm calling it lesbian. shut up

if you haven't read any of these I strongly encourage you to do so!!!

rb and share for a larger sample size pls :)

[poetlcs]

books read in 2023. the henna wars by adiba jaigirdar

“What I want more than anything else in the world is to feel like being myself isn’t something that should be hidden and a secret.”

[slaughter-books]

Day 8: JOMPBPC: Empowered Women Empower Women

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🩷

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

❤️🧡 INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN DAY 🤍🩷

QOTD: Who is your favourite fictional lesbian?

I am an absolute sucker for Jane Su from One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. She’s just 🔥

I also love all the lesbian main characters from the books featured in this post! I’ve gone and made the lesbian flag out of lesbian books and tbh I need more lesbian books with a white spine just so they can all be the same size next time I attempt this 😂

When googling to double check I had the days right, google told me “International Lesbian Day is mainly celebrated in Australia and New Zealand” which barely feels international but anyway! The more you know!

Happy International Lesbian Day to all my lovely lesbians 😘

[instagram]

Books pictured:

❤️ Not Just Gal Pals by

🧡 Novel Problems by

🤍 Devotion by

🩷 The Henna Wars by

💜 Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

[glowingmushroom0]

Top Ten TBR for August

1. The Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (currently reading)

Back in December, I was re-watching a bunch of Zhao’s videos on YouTube and in one of them she was promoting her novel Iron Widow. While I’ve never been too into mecha-novels in sci-fi, I decided to give this one a try! I’ve been finding the mechanics of the mechs really interesting, and I find Zetian a very engaging character. It also helps that Zhao explains some of the history of the real-life Wu Zetian in two of her YouTube videos. I still haven’t finished the book, but I am pretty close to finishing it.

2. Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic by Brendan Blaber (currently re-reading)

This novel is a part of the Epithet Erased series on JelloApocalypse’s YouTube channel, which also includes several trailers for this novel and a part of chapter 1 of the novel’s audiobook. I remember seeing the original show on YouTube when it was coming out and it’s a really fun series! This part of the novel focuses on the story of Molly Blyndeff, a twelve-year-old with an epithet, a power that depends on whatever word the epithet is based off of. The story focuses on Molly’s relationship with her older sister Lorelai, and how her friends support her and try to help her as she tries to stop her sister from expanding her dream world within their family’s toy store. I’m actually listening to the audiobook while writing this post! I really recommend the audiobook version of this novel, the voice actors did an excellent job!

3. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austen

I actually was recommended this book a couple of years ago by an aunt and a cousin of mine. I had gone to a Catholic school and they both knew I was pan (I still haven’t come out to them as agender though, but that’s because I don’t see or talk to them very often). However, what actually convinced me to try the book was an old friend group that started a book club, and this was their first book. I still haven’t read it because I didn’t end up making it to the meetings, but I am interested in reading it.

4. The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

This novel I was interested in more from the author than the subject matter, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested at all. I first read Jaigirdar’s Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to read more of her works! That’s when I learned that this was her debut novel, and I wanted to compare the two. Plus, I will always find some joy from learning about different art forms through writing in novels. The most I know about henna so far is from a friend of mine who had another friend who wanted to practice henna on them. Because of that, I’d like to learn more about how Jaigirdar depicts henna artists.

5. A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation by Jacoby Ballard

I actually found this book at a book exchange that was at an LGBTQ+ friendly event. My friend and I are both interested in this book because we’re both into learning about different kinds of religion and how to express different kinds of spirituality. From what I’ve looked over with the book it talks about how queer people create their own spaces within Buddhism and yoga.

6. So This is Ever After by F. T. Lukens

I’ll go more in-depth with this particular choice in the next book, however the main reasons why I was interested in this novel is because I had already gotten a book from this author that I was pretty interested in. And after looking through another book of Lukens’s (or Lukens’), they also seemed to be really interested in fantasy, especially magic. I also thought it was an interesting idea that the story takes place after the typical “ever after” of defeating an evil king.

7. In Deeper Waters by F. T. Lukens

Now this is the novel that I originally found F.T. Lukens from, and the main reason why I was interested in reading this novel is because I love pirates. I also found myself hooked from just the summary of the novel. When people say a character is mysterious, I don’t really know if they’re going to be mysterious until they appear in the story. However, the summary does show how mysterious Athlen can be, considering he’s introduced as a prisoner on a burning ship. So, I’m interested in learning more about Athlen just from the summary.

8. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This novel has a bit more controversial reason for why I want to read it. I originally got this book because it was popular, and I was vaguely interested, but then I started hearing about debates on whether this is good MLM (men-loving-men, not multi-level-marketing) representation. However, I then had another friend that’s a part of the queer community that read the book and he liked it. So I wanted to read the book to figure out my own opinion on the novel. Plus I thought it would be a good time to read it since the novel’s getting it’s own show soon. 

9. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Trans (But Were Afraid to Ask) by Brynn Tannehill

This book is less for me and more for family reasons. I’m not going to go into too much detail for privacy reasons, but a lot of my family still don’t quite understand much about what it exactly means to be transgender, especially not someone who’s under the non-binary umbrella. So I wanted to read this book and see if it’d be a good fit for some of my family members who do read.

10. Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques by Evan Skolnick

This book is more for my own learning and future career. My specific dream job is to create a video game story, which would go into scriptwriting. However, most of the creative writing advice and tips I’ve gotten were either for fiction in general, or for short stories and poetry. This book might be able to teach more about scriptwriting, but also how to develop scripts for video games.

[remusfinglupin]

January Wrap-Up

- Alone With You in the Ether: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- 10 Things That Never Happened: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- The Atlas Complex: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- The Ghostkeeper: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- Gwen & Art Are Not In Love: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- Every Time You Hear That Song: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- The Only Girl in Town: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- The Henna Wars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

- Playing For Keeps: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

Some lesbian books for international lesbian day!

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole - 1/2 MCs is a lesbian

The Orc and Her Bride by Lila Gwynn - 1/2 MCs is a lesbian

Tell Me How It Ends by Quinton Li - MC is a lesbian (confirmed by author, pretty clear in book, not explicitly stated yet)

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant - there’s a large cast of characters, one major SC / love interest is a lesbian

Like Other Girls by Britta Lundin - MC is a lesbian

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar- MC is a lesbian

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban - I’m pretty sure both MCs are lesbians? At least one is

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo - MC is a lesbian

Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer - pretty sure at least one major character is a lesbian

[heavenlysprings]

nobody asked for this, but i wanted to share it regardless! here are the 22 books i read in 2022, it was a tough year but a good book was always there to pick me right up! so, here we go!

started of the year strong with some sapphic readings

and around this time the heartstopper tv show was coming out, so everyone could feel the hype !!!

i tried following the osemanverse but i was having a hard time focusing, so a good rwrb re-read helped clear my head. also read boyfriend material, surprisingly funny! i was really excited for the sequel

i'm not a big fan of reading in spanish, but una perfecta confusión (originally on wattpad, of all places) was actually pretty decent and cute, at times i cringed but the overall message and community built by the author are so wholesome<3

as you can see, i discovered tj klune's magnificent storytelling... and following a five-star reading with a disappointing sequel left me pretty bummed... leading to a reader's block

but then BANG, i picked up i wish you all the best, a book i DNFed back when it just came out (hah). i gave it another go and immediately fell in love with it. and the rwrb collector's edition came out and OBVIOUSLY i just HAD TO REREAD IT. i finished off the year with homefield advantage, i was loving the first half but then the second half.. one of the mc frustrated me SO. MUCH. she was a walking red flag and i just wanted to bridecarry jack (the other mc) out of the book and into a better story...

but it was a good reading year after all! AND NOW... 🥁🥁🥁

my beloved top 3!!!!! god, these books are so fucking good and i can't put into words how much i love them. special mention to under the whispering door, which made me BAWL MY EYES OUT

if you reached the end of this long post, thanks for reading and i wish you all the best (hah) in 2023!

[wlwsuperheroine]

If you’re a fan of sapphic kamala khan I can recommend to you 2 books that I’m %98 sure you’ll love

[sapphic-book-tournament]

Part 1 of Round 1 starts tomorrow. I hope everyone is excited as I am. It's a bit much but I wanted to include all the recommendations that I got to make everyone happy.

[queen-of-angst]

yesterday this girl (who is muslim btw) on my bus found out about the book The Henna Wars (which is imo a great book), a queer YA romcom about two muslim girls, and she goes, "WHAT?"

then she finds out about Adiba Jaigirdar, who identifies as queer, and she goes, "EWWW, she's a queer muslim!" likes it's some sort of scandal that actually do queer muslims exist (even if the qur'an is against homosexuality)

and i turn back and give her the dirtiest. fucking. stare. ever.

[the-final-sentence]

But because it’s the kind of moment I could never have dreamed of having in a million years.

Adiba Jaigirdar, from The Henna Wars