I am currently leisurely making my way through Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan, and I can’t think of a better summer read. It’s a friends-to-lovers-to-enemies?-to-lovers? F/F YA romance with an ice cream truck road trip. Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating with my reading mood, and it’s been overcast for the last few days. Oh well. It’s summer in my mind!
Today, I want to highlight the organization Equality Florida, which has filed a lawsuit against the recent “Don’t Say Gay” bill. You can find out more on their website and you can support them at their donation page.
Queer Books with Sprayed Edges
A trend in the bookish world lately has been sprayed and stenciled edges. While these aren’t new, the idea of having a fancy version of a new book with sprayed edges (such as from a book box), doing it yourself, or getting someone else to do it for you is a recent phenomenon.
Unfortunately, these are gorgeous and I want to collect them all. So far, I’ve been able to hold off, but I know it’s only a matter of time before I start collecting them, which is going to be brutal on my bank account. Let me spread that pain around by showing you a few queer books available with beautiful sprayed edge designs.
 |
You can get this copy of The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake, which is a queer dark academia fantasy, with a purple and sparkly celestial sprayed edge for $59
 |
Fans of Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (M/M historical fiction) won’t be able to resist this intricate edge design. $70 for the paperback or $85 for the hardcover.
 |
This constellation sprayed edge design on The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab (bisexual fantasy) matches the cover so well! $52
 |
This sprayed edge design on Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall (M/M romance) blends so perfectly with the cover! $45
 |
The cover of A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee (sapphic YA Treasure Island retelling) is already gorgeous, but these edges take it over the top. $40
All the Links Fit to Click
- Teachers are already getting fired, resigning & speaking out against Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill
- Pansexual Visibility Day was Tuesday, but it’s always a good time for read pansexual books
- Love and Piracy: On the Importance of Queer Romantic Fantasy (Yes, this is mostly about Our Flag Means Death.)
- Here’s the trailer for Love, Victor season 3! I will definitely be watching.
- Seven Seas is launching two new labels: Seven Seas BL (Boys’ Love) and Seven Seas GL (Girls’ Love). (Side note: Seven Seas employees recently formed a union and are negotiating for better working conditions.)
- 14 Sapphic Superheroes to Save Your Day
- What We Do In the Dark by Michelle Hart was reviewed in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Review of Books
- Solo Dance by Li Kotomi was reviewed at Autostraddle
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
LGBTQ Book Riot Posts
- Barnes & Noble Being Sued in Virginia Beach Over GENDER QUEER, COURT OF MIST AND FURY
- You Need To Talk About The Sex Parts in Banned Books
- Nobuko Yoshiya: 1920s Revolutionary Lesbian Novelist
- Sometimes I Choose to Read Books About Straight People
- Who Was Sappho? Her Life, Legacy, And More
- The Hypocrisy of Disney+ Content Ratings And Its Treatment of LOVE, VICTOR
New Releases This Week
A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (Trans Woman Historical Romance)
Viola used her presumed death at Waterloo to reinvent herself as the person she’s always known herself to be. But that meant walking away from everything, including her best friend, Gracewood, who is still mourning his friend’s death. When they meet again, Viola tries to help Gracewood return to his old self, but along the way, those old feelings of friendship transform into something new…
Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster by Andrea Mosqueda (Bi YA Contemporary)
If that title isn’t already enough to convince you to pick this up, you and I have very different taste in books. Maggie Gonzalez needs to find a date to her sister’s quinceañera, but her problem is an overabundance of options: should she ask her on-again off-again ex-boyfriend? Amanda, her best friend and longtime crush? Or the intriguing new girl in town? No matter what she chooses, her life is about to get very messy.
Queer Ducks (And Other Animals): The Natural World of Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer and illustrated by Jules Zuckerberg (Queer YA Nonfiction)
Sexuality is complicated and diverse, and that’s true in human and non-human animals. In Queer Ducks, Schrefer discusses the range of sexual behaviors in the animal world, focusing on one species at a time. They’re also accompanied by cartoon explainers!
We Had To Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets (Sapphic Fiction)
All the Things We Don’t Talk About by Amy Feltman (Non-binary, Queer Fiction)
Tell Me Everything by Laura Kay (Sapphic Fiction)
 |
Solo Dance by Li Kotomi, translated by Arthur Reiji Morris (Queer Literary Fiction)
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi (Bisexual M/F Romance)
Crimes of Passion by Jack Harbon, Narrated by Kevin Free and Ron Butler (M/M Romance)
Only on the Weekends by Dean Atta (M/M YA Contemporary)
Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes (M/M YA Contemporary)
 |
Beauty and the Besharam by Lillie Vale (Bisexual M/F YA Contemporary)
Primal Animals by Julia Lynn Rubin (Sapphic YA Horror)
Fight + Flight by Jules Machias (Sapphic Middle Grade Contemporary)
Bye Bye, Binary by Eric Geron and Charlene Chua (Gender Board Book)
This Body I Wore: A Memoir by Diana Goetsch (Trans Woman Memoir)
Brace for Impact: A Memoir by Gabe Montesanti (Queer Memoir)
That’s it for me this week! Until next time, you can find me at my bi and lesbian book blog, the Lesbrary, as well as on Twitter @danikaellis. You can also hear me on All the Books or you can read my Book Riot posts.
Happy reading!
Danika