Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Content warnings: biphobia, racism, police violence Forever is Now by Mariama J. Lockington tells the story of Sadie, a Black teenage girl with anxiety that develops into agoraphobia after a truly terrible day. Her girlfriend breaks up with her and they witness an incidence ofRead More
The Song the World Needs: Thunder Song by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! This was one of my five star predictions for the year, and I’m happy to say it lived up to that expectation. Thunder Song is a collection of essays about being a queer Indigenous women in the U.S. today. It begins with LaPointe talkingRead More
You Need to Read Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I’m embarrassed to admit I only just read this for the first time. I’ve read every other Malinda Lo book. I’ve had a copy since it first came out—in fact, I’ve owned two copies, because I also spent $100 on a signed hardcover (itRead More
Messy Roots: a Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Messy Roots is Laura Gao’s memoir of her childhood and coming of age, first in Wuhan, China, then an early move to Texas, and finally through her choices of college in Pennsylvania and a job in the Bay area. As a Chinese American immigrant,Read More
Creating Utopia in Love After the End edited by Joshua Whitehead
“Tomorrow will be kinder,” I whisper as I am swept into the rushing river of my dreams. —”The Ark of the Turtle’s Back” by jaye simpson Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction, edited by Joshua Whitehead, is a follow up to the anthology Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time. TheseRead More
A House Haunted by Fascism: Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I feel so conflicted about Tell Me I’m Worthless, because it’s one the most thought-provoking and memorable horror books I’ve ever read. The sections I liked were captivating, and in the first chapter, this felt like a new favourite book. But there were alsoRead More
A Genre-Bending Haunted Bookstore Story: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I kept hearing people rave about this book when it was new. I heard it was a cozy read about someone working in a bookstore haunted by the ghost of a customer. So imagine my surprise when the book begins with the main characterRead More
A Genre-Defying Queer Black Memoir: The Black Period by Hafizah Augustus Geter
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! In 2023, I was a judge for the Nonfiction category of the Lambda Literary Awards. One of the books I read—the one that ended up winning for the category—was The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin. This is a brilliant, expansive book thatRead More
A Māori and Coast Salish Reimagining: Tauhou by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I am a white settler living on the territory of Lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking Peoples, and I’ve been looking to read more Indigenous books this year, especially ones by local authors. So when I saw this book, I had to pick it up. It’s by an author of Māori and W̱SÁNEĆ descent, and it reimaginesRead More
GBBO, but Sapphic and Bangladeshi: The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Adiba Jaigirdar, author of The Henna Wars and Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, has become known for her compulsively readable teen romances centering queer Bangladeshi-Irish characters. Her newest novel, The Dos and Donuts of Love, tackles fatphobia, racism, and familial expectations, this time on the set of a nationally televised baking competition. Seventeen-year-old ShireenRead More