Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

June is Pride Month!!  I'm ready to fly my Pride flag and read some books!  I might even go to our local Pride parade this year, if the weather is nice and my back says yes.  I have plenty of rainbow tie dye T-shirts to choose from to wear.  But if my kids are any example, young people are moving away from the all-inclusive rainbow Pride flag that I love so much.  They prefer the specific identity flags (just google "identity flags" and you'll see all of them ... so many!)


First, we've got three Challenge categories that fit perfectly in Pride month, and I haven't filled any of them yet:

My sapphic book is going to be The Price of Salt, which is a book that has been at the TOP of my TBR for a few years now, but I own a copy which means it's perpetually de-prioritized in favor of library books.  Time to finally read it!!  

My ace book is The Love Hypothesis, which I received for Christmas and has been patiently waiting for me to finally read.

My gender identity book is going to be Stone Butch Blues, which is available for FREE online thanks to a final request on the part of the author, here:  https://www.lesliefeinberg.net/
And here is information about why: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/03/10/...


I've got a whole pile of poetry books lined up for June, I'll read as many as I can:
Magnified by Minnie Bruce Pratt
Names: Poems by Marilyn Hacker
Mules of Love by Ellen Bass
Against Silence: Poems by Frank Bidart
Homie by Danez Smith


Graphic novels:
Gender Queer. Maybe.  It's on hold at the library, so we'll see if I get it.
Blue Is the Warmest Color- I keep thinking I've already read this, and then realizing I haven't.  Time to fix that.
Heartstopper - maybe.  I have been LOVING the Netflix series - but in the past I've had bad luck with webcomics, which is why I've never read this.  Is it good?


Other books I will try to read this month:
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi - the author identifies as nonbinary transgender.  The book sounds like it's a male/female romance, so I'm not sure how I feel about reading this for Pride Month specifically.  
Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth
NOTE: I chose these two YA books by following the cute "what should I read next?" graphic on this page:  https://notesbyj.com/ya-books-to-read...


I'm not sure what my audiobook will be.  I'll see what I'm in the mood for, and what's available on Libby.  My short list:
Plain Bad Heroines - god it's so LONG.  But I loved her first book so I still really want to read this.  But it's SO LONG.  Maybe I'll try the audioboook, but it's read by Xe Sands, whom I did not love when I listened to Echo Wife.
Girl, Woman, Other
Like a Love Story
The Gravity of Us (with TWELVE different narrators!)
False Hearts
Under the Rainbow (with ELEVEN different narrators!)
Romance in Marseille
The Paying Guests
The Little Stranger



Goodreads has got you covered if you're still looking for books to read.
New LGBTQ romances: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...
New in 2021 LGBTQ books: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...

Nadine in NY wrote: "My gender identity book is going to be Stone Butch Blues, which is available for FREE online thanks to a final request on the part of the author"

Thanks for this reminder, Nadine! I need to bookmark Stone Butch Blues for sure.

Blue is the Warmest Color was excellent! Quite a few people (myself included) had issues with the film, but the graphic novel is fantastic.

June plans:
More Craig Schaefer books
Dreaming the Eagle
The Jasmine Throne
House of Whispers, Vol. 1: The Power Divided
Wild Beauty
Discount Armageddon
The Navigator's Touch
and hopefully Lara Elena Donnelly's newest, Base Notes

And I'm hoping for more Malinda Lo books too!

Ashley Marie wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "My gender identity book is going to be Stone Butch Blues, which is available for FREE online thanks to a final request on the part of the author"

Thanks for this reminder, Nad..."


The Jasmine Throne is another book I'm excited to read, but it's SOOO LONG!

One of my favorite books this year was:


Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans through Homoerotic Possibilities

It's kind of a research book but very short and worth the read. It talks about a few fandoms though I wish it had gotten into more in detail, especially with fandoms that were the most obvious (ie. Supergirl & Lena Luthor. And Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles).

*****

P.S. if anyone has any nonfiction, let me know.

Ron wrote: "if anyone has any nonfiction, let me know...."


You read a lot of nonfiction, maybe you can recommend some more books to us!

I don't read as much nf, and mostly what I've read are memoirs, or more focused on feminism than LGBT issues. (eg Minnie Bruce Pratt, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, etc)

I'll be reading Stone Butch Blues and that's probably enough non fiction for me in one month! (CORRECTION: this book is autobiographical FICTION)

I really want to read S/He by Minnie Bruce Pratt but I probably won't have time this month. It's probably a good companion read for Stone Butch Blues, so I'll try to get to it in the next few months.

Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation looks good - has anyone read this?

The Stonewall Reader looks interesting, too.

My daughter had to read The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives for school last year, and she recommended it to me, and it's sitting right next to me, but a book about a kid who is set on fire by another kid sounds so depressing that I haven't been able to pick it up!!

Obviously there's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic - this book was in the news a lot when it first came out. I read a lot of comics and I'd been reading Alison Bechdel's stuff for years, since way back when I first discovered Dykes to Watch Out For, so I immediately picked this one up, but I think she's a new discovery for a lot of people (and they are maybe having that "a ha" moment when they finally learn who the Bechdel test is named for?)

I read a lot of poetry, and this volume of autobiographical poems REALLY hit me hard in the late 80s (back then AIDS was a death sentence, this book may hit differently today): Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies for Rog by Paul Monette. I was so moved by this book, I went and found another book by Monette: Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. A good companion read would be And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. This may not be what people want to read today.

Drat! It's June again, which means *once again* I will say I'm going to read Proxy, and probably won't. I already checked it out from the library, so it's here staring at me (from under a pile of other books that are also staring at me).

I also have every intention of reading Both Can Be True for the gender identity prompt. That is also here staring at me.

Those are the only 2 I'm going to attempt to read this month, but I also have the sapphic book still to read and want to read Tipping the Velvet for that one, but I'm not going to commit to it this month.

Juliet Takes a Breath is another one that's been lingering for me. Does anyone know if it includes Spanish? I still need a 2 language book.

Ron, I regularly recommend Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America. Most of the book is about her murder, but she was a lesbian (which I didn't know before reading the book). Her and her girlfriend trying to find a community where they could live in peace and the prejudice they faced is also detailed in the book. Plus, her murder didn't quite play out they way she is popularly remembered.

Jennifer W wrote: "Drat! It's June again, which means *once again* I will say I'm going to read Proxy, and probably won't. I already checked it out from the library, so it's here staring at me (from u..."




LOL that's me with The Price of Salt. This will be the year I read it!!! Maybe.

I read Juliet Takes a Breath and I know there's a big dinner scene with her family in the beginning of the book, so odds are good somebody says something in Spanish.


I've only read two books by Sarah Waters - Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith - and they were both EXCELLENT. They start off kind of slow but I was quickly sucked in each time. Eventually I'll get around to reading the rest of her books.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Jennifer W wrote: "Drat! It's June again, which means *once again* I will say I'm going to read Proxy, and probably won't. I already checked it out from the library, so it's here st..."

Lol! So many books, so little time.

Is that family dinner a party?? I also need that one still! :) Or perhaps I should just go check it out and add it to the staring pile.

Nadine in NY wrote: "June is Pride Month!!  I'm ready to fly my Pride flag and read some books!  I might even go to our local Pride parade this year, if the weather is nice and my back says yes.  I have plenty of rainb..."

Great choices! I admit I envy you a bit, getting to read Gender Queer and Blue Is the Warmest Color for the first time. They are both superb!

Jennifer W wrote: "Is that family dinner a party?? I also need that one still! :) Or perhaps I should just go check it out and add it to the staring pile...."


It's not a party, it's just a family dinner before she leaves for her summer job on the other coast. I'm pretty sure there are parties when she gets to her summer job - she interns as a publicist or something for an author and there are book promo parties. I think.

Lilith wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "June is Pride Month!!  I'm ready to fly my Pride flag and read some books!  I might even go to our local Pride parade this year, if the weather is nice and my back says yes.  I..."



Good to know!!! I just got Blue from the library, I'll make sure to read it before my loan is up.

I don't typically plan out my reading like this but I do have some books on my list that I will try to get through in June.

by Ashley Woodfolk for my book published in 2022.

by Elizabeth Acevedo for my onomatopoeia title.

by Adam Silvera for my BookTok recommendation.

by Morgan Rogers for my sapphic novel.

by Jordan Ifuekofor a character on the ACE spectrum.

Might get to:

by Jeff Garvin

by Laurell K. Hamilton. Anita Blake is gender and species fluid. This is for my twin cities book.

I am reading Detransition, Baby

Sigh... I have an addiction. I went to the library with my daughter yesterday and came home with 2 more Pride books.

A picture book, Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, which I read last night. I can see why parents would have a problem with this in schools (it's been banned) if you're scared of a DRESS.... (rolls eyes)

And a YA book, Ziggy, Stardust and Me, which will probably also get added to the staring pile.

I've downloaded Base Notes for my Kindle and I'm already in love with Redemption Song. And I just requested a new release, Maya Deane's Wrath Goddess Sing, from the library, which should be available next week.

I started Future Feeling which is interesting so far and also finally tackling A Little Life.

I'm close to finishing reading Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby. She is an autistic Australian lesbian comedian. Her Netflix special "Nanette" is amazing and heartbreaking. I will be seeing her perform on Saturday, so that should be a good intro to Pride Month for me. I can't find a prompt for it.

I'm planning to read:
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith for #5 sapphic book
Loveless by Alice Oseman for #22 ace spectrum
Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin for #37 gender identity
Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino [picture book]
A Family Is a Family Is a Family by Sara O'Leary [picture book]

Happy Pride Month!

Goodreads and Chrome seem to be in a fight on my computer, so I haven't been able to post. I switched over to Edge, and I think this will now work.

I'm currently reading The Binding, which I'm finding very interesting.

However, I failed to get holds in for this month, so I'm not sure what else I'll be getting to.

I have or am fairly certain I'll get:
Under the Whispering Door
Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir
The Last Place You Look

I hope to get at least some of (but looks like that may be wishful thinking):
The Space Between Worlds
Detransition, Baby
Gender Queer
Heartstopper: Volume One
Written in the Stars
Cinderella Is Dead
Ash

I might just need to look for some others.

Happy Pride Month!
For those of you who were not sure about Heartstopper: Please read it! It is absolutely fantastic and probably my favourite love story of all time.
I´ll definitely reread it this month.

For anyone looking for non-fiction, I just read about Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise

Nadine in NY wrote: "Heartstopper - maybe. I have been LOVING the Netflix series - but in the past I've had bad luck with webcomics, which is why I've never read this. Is it good?"

The series does some things differently, but if you love the series I think you will like the graphic novels. I adore them, they bring me joy.



If you do audio, The Stonewall Reader uses the original audio recordings when possible, which is extra cool.

Here's my "a little bit more than halfway" status:

I have had mixed results with my choices this month! That's always the risk when trying new authors, right?

books I've finished:
The Price of Salt - my Sapphic book, I've been wanting to read this for years, Highsmith is one of my favorite authors, and I'm really glad I finally made time to read this. But it was rather slow for the first 2/3 so I was a little disappointed. Cassandra Campbell did a great job reading the audiobook. 3 stars

Blue Is the Warmest Color - I strongly did not like this, I had major issues with the ending. 1 star

Speak No Evil - I listened to this audiobook, and I liked it A LOT, until the ending. 3 stars (the average between the 5 star beginning and 1 star resolution)

The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth - this was very cute. It turned out to be an accidental buddy read with my daughter! I bought this for her for Christmas, and then completely forgot about it. She started reading it and mentioned some things that happened in the first chapters. So when I picked up my library copy and started reading it, I was thinking "hmmm this sounds JUST like what Lily was talking about!" and sure enough, it's the same book!! I didn't LOVE the ending, though - I thought this was a romance, but it's more of a coming-of-age book. 4 stars

Gender Queer - this was a very engaging graphic novel memoir with appealing art. I chose this for "about gender identity" but I ended up checking off "ace spectrum" instead (because I'm using another book I'm currently reading for "gender identity"). 4 stars

Magnified by Minnie Bruce Pratt - this book of poems was okay. I remember reading Pratt's essays wayyyyy back in the 80s and I liked her writing, so I was glad to revisit her as a poet, but it didn't blow me away. 3 stars

Names: Poems by Marilyn Hacker - these poems did NOTHING for me. I have never felt less connected to a collection of poetry. I'm not saying it's "bad," I'm sure it's excellent poetry, but I didn't like it. 1 star




books I'm currently reading:
Stone Butch Blues - this is going slow, I try to read a few chapters a day, but some days I just don't want to. This is a very slow book, and a lot of awful stuff happens to the protagonist, which makes it an unpleasant reading experience. I will use this book for "about gender identity."

Homie by Danez Smith - just started this collection of poetry! So far so good!!


book I will read next:
I just finished Gender Queer last night, so now I have to choose what to read next:
The Guncle
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Cinderella Is Dead
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
Plain Bad Heroines

This is a hard choice, because I pretty much want to read all of these equally! I've read the first chapter of Guncle so I may pick that one up again, and Fool will probably have no renewals at the library, which bumps it up to the top of the pile, although really what I want is some sappy escapist YA fiction, which means Cinderella looks good right now.

Finished David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music . Definitely not one of the best LGBTQ+ books I've read.

Just read Bingo Love by Tee Franklin and others. A very cute graphic novel. A five star read that I would recommend. It fits the sapphic prompt perfectly.

Well I didn't get many books read for PRIDE month like I would have wanted to.

I finished:
Hot Dog Girl This was cute. I read it because in March I had read Some Girls Do and really liked it.

Then I also inadvertently read another book that qualified...Seoulmates. I was reading this for my duology and realized after that it worked for PRIDE month as well since at least three of the MC's best friends are on the "spectrum" and are prominent enough in the book for this to work.

I also started reading I Wish You All the Best and I am really liking it so far. It is about a nonbinary teen who gets kicked out of their parents home. (That's all I know about it so far.)

My end of the month wrap-up. I never read as many books as I think I will read!!!

Books I read in the first half of the month (see above):

The Price of Salt
Blue Is the Warmest Color
Speak No Evil
The Falling in Love Montage
Gender Queer
Magnified
Names: Poems



the rest of the books I finished this month:
Stone Butch Blues - this is a classic, and I'm glad I read it, but what a slog this book was.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty - I loved Emezi's first two novels, and I liked their YA novel okay, but THIS was such a disappointment. Emezi's idea of romance does not synch with my idea of romance. The protagonist is just burning down her life without a care for who she hurts in the process, and justifying it because she "deserves" this particular happiness now because she experienced trauma and sadness in the past.


currently reading:
Homie poems by Danez Smith - this is vibrant and full of vim and vigor! but I am not the intended audience, so most of the poems don't "speak" to me.

The Guncle - I'm really enjoying this! He's kind of relentless with the self-deprecating humor, but I'm good with that.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club - I started this, but then I started Guncle too, and I got sucked into Guncle so I haven't gotten very far with Telegraph.



Even though I didn't love all the books I read for Pride, I'm really glad that I read them. I read two classics that I've been wanting to read for a long time (Salt & Stone Butch), I read a 2022 publication that I'd been very excited for (Fool), I read some "buzzy" books I've been curious about for a while because I see them recommended often, and I read three books of poetry.

This month I read the following books with 2SLGBTQIA+ characters and/or authors:

Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative - 5 stars! <3
High-Risk Homosexual - 5 stars
How to Love a Jamaican - 5 stars
Yerba Buena - 4 stars
Elatsoe - 3.5 stars (I was surprised how minimal the Ace aspects were)
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty Yikes, not for me! One star for the cover, one for the food descriptions, and one for the fact that it wasn't the author's fault I can't stand romance and I entered the giveaway for this (and won) without checking that since I want to read more by the author. The reading experience was painful. Lesson learned on reading full descriptions before entering giveaways...

Lauren wrote: "You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty Yikes, not for me! ..."



LOL I love romance novels and this book didn't work for me, either! I know some people loved it, and that's great, but whoa not me.

I managed quite a few this year.

The Thirty Names of Night- 4 stars
The Death of Vivek Oji- 4 stars
Fevered Star- 4 stars
A Little Life- 4 stars
A Desolation Called Peace- 4 stars
Take a Hint, Dani Brown- 4 stars
Future Feeling- 3 stars
The Atlas Six- 3 stars
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil- 3 stars

Really disappointed to hear about You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty since I really enjoyed The Death of Vivek Oji, Will lower my expectations.

Jen K wrote: "Really disappointed to hear about You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty since I really enjoyed The Death of Vivek Oji, Will lower my expectations...."



Lowered expectations always help!! you may find yourself blown away by the beauty and lush descriptions!

David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music

I wasn't a big fan of this one. Thought it would be cool and it was to an extent but the dates were all over the place so it made it hard to follow.

I didn't get through NEARLY the books I'd wanted to this month, but it was a hectic time to say the least.

Redemption Song was fantastic and I'm working on book 3, The Living End, now.
Base Notes was a DNF and a disappointment.
I started The Jasmine Throne and I'll probably get back to properly reading it in July.

I really feel like I ran out of days this month! This might be my worst Pride reading month ever. Bad bisexual reader, bad.

Well everyone who guessed I once again would NOT read Proxyduring Pride month gets an internet brownie! (not cookie, we've got enough of those and I still can't figure out if they're good or bad... ha ha, dorky tech joke!). Maybe next year... lol

Nadine in NY wrote: "Lauren wrote: "You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty Yikes, not for me! ..."



LOL I love romance novels and this book didn't work for me, either! I know some people loved it, and that's great..."

Ha, yeah, I saw your comments in the check-in, and while I enjoyed the food descriptions (and don't enjoy romance in general), it sounds like we had a similar experience. I'll definitely read other books by the author, but this one was pretty painful to get through.

I did better than I usually do. It helped that I was filling prompts.

I finished:
Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby - I got pneumonia and didn't get to see her performance after all. Very sad.
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith for the sapphic prompt
Loveless by Alice Oseman for the ace spectrum prompt
Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin for the gender identity prompt
Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino [picture book]
A Family Is a Family Is a Family by Sara O'Leary [picture book]

All four-star reads, although Price of Salt probably is more of a 3.5 because of its extremely slow start.