Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A Memoir That Explores Queerness

Hmmmm...the only reason I hesitate is that no one book is coming to my mind right now! However, I love the prompt! Oh, wait! Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde! I have been wanting to read that!!

There is one Goodreads listopia which should help:
"Lesbian Memoirs"

Nonfiction folks rejoice!! 😁

Listopia is HERE

I can recommend We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir, which was a Canada Reads contender a few years ago.

I guess maybe I can use the one I was going to use for non-binary here. (He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures has been one of my favorite reads of 2023. I would definitely class it as an essay-style memoir, and Sabrina Imbler delves into both their sexuality and gender identity in detail. I read a review that described it as if your cool queer friend was telling you stories about their life while you watched Planet Earth and tbh I can't describe it better than that.

Also would recommend Pretty Baby, Hijab Butch Blues, and seconding We Have Always Been Here!

Hi @Lynn, this year there are actually only 5 advanced prompts. Everything through prompt #45 is regular, and then there are advanced prompts #1-5 (so #46-50 if you're numbering them together with the regular prompts). Just mentioning it in case people are having trouble finding the threads for these prompts since they're not in other folder!

Here's a link to the challenge on Popsugar's website illustrating this: https://www.popsugar.com/entertainmen...

I love how much of a variety there is for this book.

I'm most likely going to go with High School

I'm going to read Pageboy, which I've had on hold at the library since July.

I think Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz may fit.

Cindy wrote: "I think Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz may fit."

Yes, this one would fit! I thought it was well-written.

Haley wrote: "How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures has been one of my favorite reads of 2023. I would definitely class it as an essay-style memoir, and Sabrina Imbler delves int..."

I really hope a UK publisher picks this up, I am not a big fan of memoirs but this sounds like something I could be interested in.

I do have The Gender Games: The Problem with Men and Women, from Someone Who Has Been Both on my TBR but I'm not sure if it's a memoir.

How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived is such a fun, delightful memoir. Highly recommend the audiobook read by Leslie Jordan.

RuPaul's upcoming memoir The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir is probably what I'm going to land on.

Irene wrote: "Hi @Lynn, this year there are actually only 5 advanced prompts. Everything through prompt #45 is regular, and then there are advanced prompts #1-5 (so #46-50 if you're numbering them together with ..."
Yes. Sorry. I never even looked at the actual website listing! Nadine straightened me out though! 😁

Originally I was going to go with the Tegan and Sara memoir, but then I decided to go a different route.

I'm doing a Diverse reading challenge and I wanted to see if some of the prompts would overlap. I ended up finding a couple books that would also work here:

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder

A Generous Spirit: Selected Works by Beth Brant

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Another one I have no idea about but could I do it loosely if the author of the autobiography is queer?

Denise wrote: "I'm going to read Pageboy, which I've had on hold at the library since July."

Me too. I've been in the queue for at least for three months now and still 22 weeks to got.

Last year I read Rita Mae Brown's Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser for the celebrity memoir. She's entertaining, and it's clear she mined her own life for some of her early books. She talks about being an out lesbian author in the 1970s.

I'm reading Girlhood, a collection of essays that includes exploring her identity, by Melissa Febos

“Strong Female Character” by Fern Brady. It’s mainly about her being autistic, but it does explore her being bisexual.

Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family by Garrard Conley deals with his heart-crushing attempt at "ex-gay" therapy.

The Confession is by James McGreevey, who resigned as governor of New Jersey when his affair with a man was outed (along with giving his boyfriend a cushy government job that he couldn't get a security clearance for).

Sophie Santos – The One You Want to Marry

This was easy because I chose the book for another challenge's prompt of, 'memoir by a celebrity you're not a fan of.' No need for anyone to get knickers in a twist. I don't hate the woman at all, because I hadn't even heard of her until I picked her book. Even now, all that I know is that she's some kind of celeb and LGBT+.

Thus the choice.

I read Untamed by Glennon Doyle for this one! She came out as queer later in life.

I just finished Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson, which I chose to read for this category. But I wouldn't say it was a good fit - sure the author is a lesbian, and this is her memoir, and she mentions being a lesbian, but she doesn't exactly "explore queerness" in her memoir.

I read We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir. 5 Stars. I enjoyed it.

I was going to go with Beyond Magenta: Transgender and Nonbinary Teens Speak Out, but then I recently stumbled on Tig Notaro's I'm Just a Person. I love her deadpan humor, so I might have to go with that... decisions decisions....

Finished

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am reading The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel. She is one of my favourite writers of all time. The blurb describes it as 'a profound graphic memoir of Bechdel's lifelong love affair with exercise, set against a hilarious chronicle of fitness fads in our times'. She is a prominent queer author and The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For is my favourite book by Bechdel.

I went with All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson:
http://www.lauraruthloomis.com/whats-...

Finished Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished Born Both: An Intersex Life by Hida Viloria. For the most part, I liked it but had a couple of dislikes. First, I know the author is an activist for the intersex community, but I felt it was a little long, and a bit repetitive, and secondly, it was in present tense, which I HATE.

I didn't read it for this prompt, but Thunder Song: Essays could fit.

I read Girlhood by Melissa Febos