Tomorrow, March 31st, is International Transgender Day of Visibility! We’re celebrating a little early in this newsletter. Also, read all the way to the end for pictures of my new pup!
Mercury Stardust, of TikTok fame as the Trans Handy Ma’am, and Jory (@alluringskull) are holding a fundraiser for Point of Pride, which provides financial support for trans healthcare. They’re doing a 30-hour livestream starting today at 4pm Central and ending on the 31st for Trans Day of Visibility! Check it out, and donate if you can!
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Bookish Goods
Trans Pride Bat Plushie by PlushMayhem
How perfect is this trans pride bat? It looks so cuddly! And yes, it’s available in different pride flags, including lesbian, bisexual, asexual, and more. $42
New Releases
Into the Light by Mark Oshiro (Queer YA Thriller)
I’m so excited to read this — while also being apprehensive, because I get the feeling it’s going to devastate me. This is a queer YA horror/thriller about religious trauma, alternating between points of view in different timelines. Manny is a homeless teen, kicked out for being queer, who has decided to gamble on traveling with the Varela family. Eli is part of a secluded religious community. He’s dedicated to the faith — but can’t remember his past. Then a body is discovered, and Eli and Manny’s lives will both never be the same. You can read an excerpt of this on Book Riot!
The Quiet and the Loud by Helena Fox (Queer YA Contemporary)
This is currently #1 on Amazon for “Teen & Young Adult Fiction on Physical & Emotional Abuse,” so looks like we’re going with two heavy reads today. George is a teenager who finds peace on the water – and she needs that escape. Her best friend is pregnant; her estranged father just barged back into her life, bringing back memories she’s suppressed; and smoke is rolling over everything from the spreading wildfires. When she meets the vibrant and joyful Calliope, she finds a new escape — but it’s not long before everything she’s been running from catches up to her.
Welcome Back, Aureole by Takatsu (M/M YA Manga)
For more new releases, check out our New Books newsletter!
Riot Recommendations
Of course, I had to include some trans and nonbinary book recommendations in honor of Trans Day of Visibility this week, but which? Then I decided to take a look at which books people read for the #TransRightsReadathon!
I took a look at about a dozen of the top TikTok videos under that hashtag to see which were mentioned by multiple people. Pet by Akwaeke Emezi was the most popular, with about 4/12 of the most-viewed videos including it.
Other books mentioned multiple times were The Tea Dragon Society, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, Iron Widow, Light From Uncommon Stars, The Sunbearer Trials, Cemetery Boys, and Detransition, Baby.
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
This is definitely the book I saw popping up the most on my For You page during the Trans Rights Readathon! It’s a middle grade book, making it a great quick read for a readathon. It’s also a Stonewall Book Award Winner. Jam is a trans girl growing up in a utopia: all the monsters have been defeated…at least, that’s what everyone claims. When a monstrous figure erupts from her mother’s painting — who Jam names Pet — it claims to be hunting a real monster. This book asks, “how do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?”
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
This book by a nonbinary author is about the relationship between Tien and his mother. They bond — and his mother learns English — through sharing fairy tales, but Tien struggles with how to come out to her. Can he find the words in Vietnamese to say that he’s gay? And if he does, will she accept him?
All the Links Fit to Click
Here are the results of the Trans Rights Readathon, including over 7,000 trans books read and over $200,000 raised!
100-year-old grandmother, WWII widow, and craftivist Grace Linn speaks out against book banning in Flordia school board meeting: “Banning books and burning books are the same…Fear is not liberty.”
Julie Anne Peters, the trailblazing lesbian YA author, has passed away at 71.
Meet my new dog, Scrappy! It’s only been a few days, but I’m obsessed with this cuddlebug. (Was I bamboozled into adopting him because of the rainbow bandana? Perhaps.)
That’s it for me this week! Until next time, you can find me at my sapphic book blog, the Lesbrary. You can also hear me on All the Books or you can read my Book Riot posts.
Happy reading!
Danika