It’s hard to believe we are already a month into 2023. Reading queer books has definitely been a highlight of my year so far—so THANK YOU to everyone who has participated in the challenge. It was so fun to see all the great books on everyone’s January game cards. Prize picks went out in the mail yesterday. And congrats to Emily, who won the January raffle!
If you’re just joining us, welcome! All the details about the challenge are here.
So, how’s Queer Your Year going for you? What’s the best book you’ve read for the challenge so far? Have you read any books that totally surprised you? Found a book you want to shout about to everyone? What’s on your February TBR? What prompts are you still looking for recs for? Come talk about queer lit!
I'll start with my most surprising read of the year so far: Alexis by Marguerite Yourcenar, translated by Walter Kaiser. I read it for prompt 3: a book published before you were born. It is a beautiful little gem of a French novel, written in 1929, when Yourcenar was only 26! It's written in the form of a letter from Alexis to his wife. He's just left her, because he can no longer lie to himself about his queerness, and he's trying to explain it to her. It just absolutely floored me. It's so complicated and beautiful, the writing is like music, the characters are all so real.
I especially loved that while there is a lot of struggle and pain in the book, Alexis utterly rejects shame. It's a testament to how nuanced queer lit has been for a long time. There have been stories that are about our humanity, and not just our pain, for hundreds of years.
I have become preoccupied with 20th century queer lit, it's kind of all I want to read, so if anyone has any recs or favorites, please send them my way!
Here's a book I loved (I've filed it under #41, historical fic set before 1950, but it works for 34, 37, and 47 too) - When the Angels Left The Old Country. I recommend it if you're a sucker for "nonhuman entities living among the humans and figuring out how to be people" stories, particularly the part where the nonhuman entities are offered the human concept of gender and either go "yes please" or "not for me, thanks."
The one that surprised me was All This Could Be Different. I wasn't excited by the plot description at all but there were so many rave reviews I figured I should give it a shot. At first I was like, okay, this is just what it sounded like, another story about a depressed 20-something finding her people, I'm not sure what everyone was so excited about. But at the moment when Tig gave Sneha the notebook I went "OH, THIS is what's going on here" in a way that's usually reserved for the big twist in a mystery. And the way the last 2/3 of the book felt will stick with me for a good long while. So to anyone who's on the fence about reading it, or halfway through and wondering what the big deal is, yes it is worth it!
I'm going to read Lark Ascending by Silas House for #14, "set in a continent you don't live on." It's set largely in Ireland, in the not-too-distant-dystopian future. The main character, Lark, is a young gay man who leaves America because it has become too dangerous, and once there, he forms a kind of "makeshift family" with a stray dog and a woman whose son is missing. Not sure when I'll get to it as my February TBR is exploding but I'm excited for it.
I was completely blown away by The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg. It’s kind of a combination of queer, trans Atlantis and queer, trans Earthsea. And also it’s own, wonderful thing. It’s high fantasy set in an island country on the brink of natural and magical disaster, a country where names are connected to magic and the culture is so, so very queer and trans.
I counted it for 47. Nonbinary protagonist. It almost works for a book with less than 100 ratings on GoodReads (it has 75 reviews and 125 ratings).
I'll start with my most surprising read of the year so far: Alexis by Marguerite Yourcenar, translated by Walter Kaiser. I read it for prompt 3: a book published before you were born. It is a beautiful little gem of a French novel, written in 1929, when Yourcenar was only 26! It's written in the form of a letter from Alexis to his wife. He's just left her, because he can no longer lie to himself about his queerness, and he's trying to explain it to her. It just absolutely floored me. It's so complicated and beautiful, the writing is like music, the characters are all so real.
I especially loved that while there is a lot of struggle and pain in the book, Alexis utterly rejects shame. It's a testament to how nuanced queer lit has been for a long time. There have been stories that are about our humanity, and not just our pain, for hundreds of years.
I have become preoccupied with 20th century queer lit, it's kind of all I want to read, so if anyone has any recs or favorites, please send them my way!
Here's a book I loved (I've filed it under #41, historical fic set before 1950, but it works for 34, 37, and 47 too) - When the Angels Left The Old Country. I recommend it if you're a sucker for "nonhuman entities living among the humans and figuring out how to be people" stories, particularly the part where the nonhuman entities are offered the human concept of gender and either go "yes please" or "not for me, thanks."
The one that surprised me was All This Could Be Different. I wasn't excited by the plot description at all but there were so many rave reviews I figured I should give it a shot. At first I was like, okay, this is just what it sounded like, another story about a depressed 20-something finding her people, I'm not sure what everyone was so excited about. But at the moment when Tig gave Sneha the notebook I went "OH, THIS is what's going on here" in a way that's usually reserved for the big twist in a mystery. And the way the last 2/3 of the book felt will stick with me for a good long while. So to anyone who's on the fence about reading it, or halfway through and wondering what the big deal is, yes it is worth it!
I'm going to read Lark Ascending by Silas House for #14, "set in a continent you don't live on." It's set largely in Ireland, in the not-too-distant-dystopian future. The main character, Lark, is a young gay man who leaves America because it has become too dangerous, and once there, he forms a kind of "makeshift family" with a stray dog and a woman whose son is missing. Not sure when I'll get to it as my February TBR is exploding but I'm excited for it.
I was completely blown away by The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg. It’s kind of a combination of queer, trans Atlantis and queer, trans Earthsea. And also it’s own, wonderful thing. It’s high fantasy set in an island country on the brink of natural and magical disaster, a country where names are connected to magic and the culture is so, so very queer and trans.
I counted it for 47. Nonbinary protagonist. It almost works for a book with less than 100 ratings on GoodReads (it has 75 reviews and 125 ratings).
Am currently reading Lori L. Lake's Eight Dates. I love her writing. This is a charming book.