This Pride, I wanted to put out a post every day celebrating bi and lesbian books: some of them new, some old favourites, and some updated versions of posts I've done before. I really enjoyed putting these together, and it's given me new encouragement to keep regularly putting out articles and lists! I also made graphics for pretty much every post, which was a challenge for me, but I'm happy with how they turned out.
In case you missed it, here all the posts that went up in June, minus the usual reviews and link round ups:
- Happy Pride! Here is Every Bi & Lesbian Book I've Read and Loved: Every single one of the (more than a hundred) queer women books that I recommend, organized by category and linked to their reviews!
- Black Bi & Lesbian Book Recommendations: 14 of my favourite sapphic books by Black authors and why I love them, with resources to find more, and a long list of the ones on my TBR
- The Lesbrary Goodreads Project: 150+ Lists of Sapphic Books to Blow Up Your TBR: My giant list of lists, including asexual f/f romances, lesbian Jewish sleuths, Queer Women Road Trip Books and Lesbian Retellings
- 10 Mind-Blowing Bi and Lesbian Books: Just a good old-fashioned list of some of the sapphic books that blew me away with their brilliance.
- 40 Bi and Lesbian Comics to Add to Your Pride TBR: My favourite sapphic comics/graphic novels and why I love them! They also have links to my full reviews, and I included a list of some of the bi and lesbian comics on my TBR
- How to Spot a Queer Book in the Wild: How can you pick out queer books when browsing a bookstore, library, or book sale? It's easy enough if you have a list, but how can you spot them in the wild? Here are my tips, honed from many years of searching.
- Queer Book Blogs You Need to Read: The websites that I rely on to discover new LGBTQ books, including what kinds of representation they focus on and which genres they cover the most.
- 100 Must-Read Bisexual and Lesbian Books: A starter guide to the 100 sapphic books I consider essential, organized by genre.
- Why We Need Queer Escapist Lit: An essay on the importance of queer escapist stories, including science fiction and fantasy books.
- 25+ Happy Sapphic Books to Make You Feel Warm & Fuzzy: Sometimes you want a queer book that has no tragedy or heartbreak-nothing but cotton candy and rainbows. These books may have a touch of conflict, but they're fundamentally optimistic and light.
- Bosom Friends: The Gay Anne of Green Gables Scandal: My essay about why I definitely think Anne is bisexual (even if LM Montgomery was homophobic), and a brief history of Gay Anne of Green Gables outrage, including the Anne Made Me Gay cabaret.
- Trans Sapphic Books: 25 bi and lesbian books with trans women main characters, including literary fiction, YA, fantasy, sci fi, and comics.
- Reading Black Joy: F/F Romances by Black Authors: Covers and blurbs of F/F romances by Black authors, with a few bonus bisexual M/F romances at the end.
- Top 20 Lesbian Mystery Novels: Megan Casey, who runs the Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel website, gives her very informed opinion of the top 20 best lesbian mysteries.
- The Sapphic Fantastic: Bi and Lesbian Fantasy Books: My favourite 18 bi and lesbian fantasy books and why I love them! They're also linked to my full reviews.
- Where to Start Reading Lesbian Gothic: Carmella shares 10 books that act as a primer for the genre, and why they should top your TBR list!
- Celebrate Pride with Rainbow Book Covers! Would it even be Pride without an explosion of rainbows? Here are a bunch of books with Pridetastic rainbow covers, including YA, kids', and nonfiction titles (and the blurbs, in case the covers intrigue you!)
- Do Queer Books Still Need a Happy Ending? This one is a video I did for Book Riot exploring whether all queer books need a happy ending, and how that might be complicated.
- 11 Literally Perfect Sapphic Novels: My favourite bi and lesbian books! These are the ones I've rated 5 stars, and why I think they're absolutely perfect.
- 10 Poetry Collections by Black Queer Women: Meagan shares 10 poetry books by queer Black women authors, and why you should pick them up!
- Let's Talk About Racism in Lesbian Publishing: A recap of the latest iteration of the conversation about racism in lesbian publishing and events, specifically GCLS. Including tweets Black authors of f/f fiction speaking out and others to add to your TBR, as well as some of the steps that lesbian/LGBTQ publishing can take to address systemic racism in their organizations.
- 8 Books with Established F/F Relationships from the Start: Sometimes you want to read about two people slowly circling around each other until they get together in the last pages, and sometimes you want to read a book where there is already a happy F/F couple! Here are 8 books that begin with the couples already together.
- What Charles and Anti-Charles Reveals About Goodreads Homophobia: A Goodreads user named Charles 1 stars thousands of LGBTQ books, especially F/F titles, including ones that are not yet released (and don't have ARCs). Who is this person? Why are they doing it? And why is Goodreads allowing it?
- 6 of the Best Sapphic Shakespeare Retellings: Since Shakespeare was bisexual, and his plays are already filled with crossdressing and other queer shenanigans, why not re-imagine his stories as explicitly queer? These 6 books do!
- Lesbian Poetry: Because it Didn't End with Sappho: Excerpts of lesbian poetry, recommendations of lesbian poetry collections, and resources to find even more!
- Coming Out Later In Life: Books About Coming Out as Bi or Lesbian at 30+: Not everyone comes out as a teen! Here are 15 books about characters that come out in their 30s or later.
- Black Sapphic 2020 Releases: Has there ever been a better time to support queer books by Black authors than Pride month 2020? Of course, you should be reading these all year round, so here are some bi and lesbian Black new releases to buy or pre-order now. Check out the embedded videos for other LGBTQ titles by Black authors out this year.
And that wraps it up for Pride 2020! (Though, fun fact, Pride in my city actually takes place in July, so this has just been a warm up for me!) I won't be able to keep up a post every day, but I do hope to be putting out more regular long-form content.
What articles would you like to see from the Lesbrary?
