pride month (part 4)
It’s funny when I think about starting my pride month project, because I think the day I started organising books was also during the last weekend where I had any weekend at all. It has been a very hectic month. Also, it has been a bit of a horrifying month to be a person in the world. It feels odd to be posting about books with everything that is going on.
But I want to finish up this project, which has been motivated me to carve out a bit of time each day to read (even if I am often in the process of falling asleep).
The outcome of this project is that, by the end of the year, I want to have read all the books I put on this list. I like a goal (especially a book-related goal). A great part of doing this has been making more of a conscious effort to seek out diverse LGBTQIA+ voices. Now I’m going to read their stories.
June 22 (Sunday)
NANGMAY dream MANA gather DJURALI grow, edited by Alison Whittaker and Steven Lindsay Ross. This is a collection of poetry by Australian First Nations LGBTQIA+ poets, writers and storytellers. I have been dipping in and out of it, and I love it. This part of a poem by Ellen van Neerven snagged my attention today:
“I think I am going to do
the quiet work
of loving myself
before it is too late”
June 23 (Monday)
Feast While You Can by Mikaela Clements and Onjuli Datta. I am very keen to read this. It has been making its way to the top of my list. I haven’t been in the mood for anything with horror vibes, as soon as I am…this has my name on it. The cover is so, so gorgeous.
June 24 (Tuesday)
The Deep by Rivers Solomon. This novella was inspired by the song “The Deep” by clipping. (the group consisting of Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes). You can listen to it here. I didn’t actually know that about this book until I looked it up to post a link. I really like clipping., so this is a delightful fact. I actually hoped I’d get to read this over the weekend, but that…did not happen.
June 25 (Wednesday)
Don’t Let The Forest In by CG Drews. I am becoming repetitive in continually confessing that various books are on my TBR. In good news, I have actually read a couple of books this month, so things are moving up the TBR. I have been intrigued by this book since I saw the cover. I don’t read much YA, but I am very interested in this story (and the illustrations).
June 26 (Thursday)
In a strange coincidence/moment of serendipity, one of my best friends messaged me over the weekend to say she was reading Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove. I’d finished it a couple of days earlier, because the ridiculously compelling cover made me pick it up after I’d promised myself that I would not buy any more books. Because honestly, LOOK AT THAT COVER.
June 27 (Friday)
Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly. I am reading this at the moment, and enjoying it so much. I was immediately completely immersed in Greta and Valdin’s world, and the way Rebecca K Reilly breadcrumbs little details as the story chugs along is incredible. I should really read more fiction set in New Zealand, I am also loving the setting. I have a theory about something and I can’t wait to see if I’m right.
June 28 (Saturday)
Fair Play: How Sports Shaped The Gender Debates by Katie Barnes. I have absolutely not had the energy to read this book this month, but I’m glad it arrived (in a parcel with a stack of other, less serious queer books), and I am going to start dipping into it.
June 29 (Sunday)
When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley. I have the hardcover version of this and it feels like such a treat. I had a little peak in at the illustrations, and have been resisting the temptation to look at the more closely. I have this feeling it is going to get me right in the feels.
June 30 (Monday)
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. This Is How You Lose The Time War is one of my favourite books (I am such a sucker for an epistolary novel). It was also a book I did not intend to buy, which somehow made its way into my hand and up to the counter. I might have resisted it if it wasn’t a beautiful hardcover version with lovely illustrations. Maybe. Probably not.
So there we are! Thirty books for pride month, and I’ll let you know how that reading project goes. As always, send me your favourite queer book recommendations.
Darcy xx