Hi bookish friends!
How are you all? It’s been a long six days of unpacking and settling in to our new home, but as of today we have two very exciting things:
an oven clean enough to cook in
an internet connection!
I’ve also rebuilt our bookcase and unpacked most of our books, which I’ll be sharing later in this post – it felt more like home the second I could see my books again.
My last post was from part way through The Reading Rush. This was my first year taking part, and I want to take a moment to acknowledge here that I will not be participating in this particular readathon in the future. I do not agree with the hosts’ actions (e.g. choosing a book by a black woman as the group read only to not prioritise it and laughing about not having read it in a livestream) and am concerned by their delays in attempting to apologise.
On a more positive note, I would participate in the Transathon again in a heartbeat! Thank you again to Ocean (@oceansofnovels) for hosting it. In July, I read the following books by/about trans and nonbinary people:
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (nonbinary author, multiple trans characters. Links: The Storygraph, Goodreads)
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson (nonbinary author. Links: The Storygraph, Goodreads)
Gumballs by Erin Nations (written and drawn by a trans man. Links: The Storygraph, Goodreads)
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders (written by a trans woman. Links: The Storygraph, Goodreads)
The Deep by Rivers Solomon (nobinary author, nonbinary characters. Links: The Storygraph, Goodreads)
Nevada by Imogen Binnie (written by a trans woman, multiple trans characters. Links: The Storygraph. Goodreads)
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (nonbinary author, trans side character. Links: The Storygraph, Goodreads)
Peter Darling by S.A. Chant (nonbinary author, trans MC. Please note that the author has changed their pen-name since publication and now uses they/them pronouns. Links: The Storygraph, Goodreads)
I also started to read my eARC of Queers Who Don’t Quit, a collection of short stories edited by G. Benson. It’s full of #ownvoices rep, with lots of trans and nonbinary authors and characters! I’ll post a detailed review once I’ve finished it. (Links: The Storygraph, Goodreads)
Most of these books are available to buy from Hive.co.uk* – my favourite site for buying books, since it directly supports independent bookstores and has free UK shipping!
*Please note that I earn a small percentage of commission from any sales made through this link. Any money I do make from this will be added to my book budget!
Our Main Bookcase
We were using this shelving unit for craft supplies in our old house, but I really like how it looks filled with books in the new lounge. The small square spaces are ideal for grouping our books!
The majority of my book collection is digital, especially since we unhauled a bunch of books recently. I’ve collected about 100 audiobooks across multiple apps over the last 7 years – it’s been my primary method for reading fiction for most of that period! I also borrow audiobooks from my libraries through Libby/Overdrive where possible.
If I particularly enjoy specific audiobooks I generally look in charity shops or book sales for physical copies, or add them to my wishlists. Surprisingly, I only have two of the books below on audio – I wonder if you can guess which?
Eight of the books in these photos were ones I received through Queer Book Box – if you follow me on social media I’m sure you know already how much I genuinely love QBB! All of their books are sourced from Gay’s the Word – a famous indie LGBT bookstore in London, which you might recognise from the movie Pride (2014). I can’t wait to receive the first All Out Box this month! You can get £5 off your first Queer Book Box with my referral link if you want to try it.
Here is a quick tour of how I’ve organised the top row of shelves on our main bookcase for now. We’ll be adding some extra decorations soon (and hopefully more books too!)
1) BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ Nonfiction
This is a mix of books I have read, one I’m reading currently, and some on my TBR.
From left to right: “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?” by Jeanette Winterson; “Easier Ways to Say I Love You” by Lucy Fry; “We Have Always Been Here” by Samra Habib; “Gentleman Jack” by Angela Steidele; “Maggie & Me” by Damian Barr; “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo; “Your Silence Will Not Protect You” by Audre Lorde; and “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Remi Eddo-Lodge.
2) Trans & Nonbinary Representation
The Deep would be on this shelf, but I convinced my fiancee to pick it up last night. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi is hard hitting, but one of my favourite books nonetheless. I won this proof copy of The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall in a YALC giveaway and can’t wait to read it!
From left to right: “Troubling the Line: Trans & Genderqueer Poetry & Poetics” edited by Tolbert and Peterson; “Robins in the Night” by Dajo Jago; “Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl” by Andrea Lawlor; “Freshwater” by Akwaeke Emezi; “The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea” by Maggie Tokuda-Hall; and “Trumpet” by Jackie Kay.
3) Sapphic representation
I’ve read most of these already – I posted a review of Girl, Serpent, Thorn last month. I preordered Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron from The Portal Bookshop, and read it within 48 hours of it arriving earlier this week!
From Left to Right: “Girl, Serpent, Thorn” by Melissa Bashardoust; “Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me” by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell; “Carmilla” by Sheridan Le Fanu; “English Animals” by Laura Kaye; “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers; “A Closed and Common Orbit” by Becky Chambers; “Cinderella is Dead” by Kalynn Bayron; “Our Own Private Universe” by Robin Talley; “Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” by Jeanette Winterson; and “Girl Meets Boy” by Ali Smith.
4) Fiction books on my TBR
Which one should I read next?
From left to right: “There There” by Tommy Orange; “Lanny” by Max Porter; “Crimson” by Niviaq Korneliussen; “The Circle” by Elfgren & Strandberg; and “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead.
The lower rows of shelves mostly contain fantasy series, poetry, nonfiction, childrens’ books, and board games. If you’d like to see them, I’m sure there will be a picture of the whole bookcase on my Instagram very soon!
Some of our other books will be kept upstairs; there’s a shelf on the wall of the main bedroom which is ideal for our mental health and self help collection, and we’re planning to buy a little bookcase to go in “the hobby room” (a little box room upstairs) for craft books. Let me know if you’d be interested in seeing more of those!
Before I sign off for the night, thank you all for subscribing to me here, on Twitter, and on Instagram. It’s been genuinely lovely to get to know some of you and your book habits through my first ever Twitter giveaway this week!
Happy reading,
Maisie Rose x