Far from the Rummani’s ancestral home of Palestine, Betty Rummani is born a striking, permanent shade of cobalt blue. That same day, the Rummanis’ centuries-old soap factory is destroyed in an air strike in Nablus. The family matriarch and keeper of all Rummani lore, Aunt Nuha, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history,Read More
Finding a New Favorite YA Contemporary Author: Ophelia After All and You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie
Recently, I got to read Racquel Marie’s debut and sophomore releases: Ophelia After All and You Don’t Have a Shot. While the two books had different focuses, they were both compulsively readable coming-of-age stories, and I think any reader of sapphic contemporary YA will find at least one of them to be up their alley. Though it isn’tRead More
A Witchy Parent Trap: Emma and the Love Spell by Meredith Ireland
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Emma has plans for the perfect summer, and they all involve her best friend (and crush!) Avangeline by her side. However, Avangeline reveals that her parents are getting a divorce, and her mom plans to take her with her to New Orleans! Emma decidesRead More
Identity Crisis via Teleportation: Star Splitter by Matthew J Kirby
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Content warnings: violence, death A note: I listened to the audiobook of Star Splitter. It’s a good one, but may have led to misspellings in this review.Let’s say you lost all memories of the past three days. You’re still you, right? You’re just youRead More
A Literal Love Song: Stars Collide by Rachel Lacey
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link “You’re more than your sexuality. So much more.” After her divorce, pop star sensation Eden Sands’ latest album lacked the spark fans and the industry have expected of her after 20 years. Meanwhile, Anna Moss, her fellow Grammy nominee, is beginning to rise, though people in the industry don’t take her asRead More
Court Intrigue at the Heart of an Interstellar Empire: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is an elegant space opera that artfully ties together themes of empire, identity, and cultural dominance. It makes you consider all of these while drawing you into the characters and the complex political intrigues. The book follows Mahit Dzmare, a newly appointed ambassador to theRead More
Meagan Kimberly reviews Gender Flytrap by Zoe Estelle Hitzel
For National Poetry Month I chose to read this collection I’d picked up from Sundress Publications, an independent press. It’s a fascinating collection of poems about the interconnected nature of gender, sexuality, sex, and identity. The poems’ forms start as stanzas and lines written in fragments, but as the speaker gains a greater sense ofRead More
Sheila reviews Disintegrate/Dissociate by Arielle Twist
I wanted to read something shorter, that I could put down and come back to as my attention comes and goes these days. I was very happy to pick up (or download, whatever) this work of poetry, Disintegrate/Dissociate by Arielle Twist. This isn’t to say that these poems are of a lighter subject manner. ManyRead More
Mallory Lass reviews Everything Grows by Aimee Herman
CW: suicide, homophobia, family trauma, parental character death (remembered) and child abuse Have you ever picked up a book and the whole time you’re reading, it feels like somehow the universe aligned and you were meant to find it, to soak in the words and glide through the pages? Well this is how Aimee Herman’sRead More
Mars Reviews “My Mother Says Drums Are For Boys: True Stories for Gender Rebels” by Rae Theodore
In this short autobiographical essay and poetry collection, Rae Theodore offers a frank and panoramic perspective on growing up butch. The titular term “gender rebel” is entirely accurate here as Theodore recalls a childhood and young adulthood where classic femininity chafed. All the outer accoutrements of fashion and stature were as complicated to her asRead More