Categories
Our Queerest Shelves

TEST: Queer Memoirs To Read for Disability Pride Month

It’s July, which means it’s Disability Pride Month! I’m hoping to highlight a few different subcategories of queer books by disabled authors this month, so feel free to let me know if there’s a title or subcategory of queer books by disabled authors you’d like to see in upcoming July newsletters!

Today I wanted to highlight Sins Invalid, a disability justice performance project that centers people of color and queer people. I read Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid by Shayda Kafai and was blown away, so definitely take a minute to poke around their website and see some of the videos of their performances. You can support them on their donation page.

Bookish Goods

sticker of a blue dragon reading books with the text "in a world of bookworms be a book dragon"

Book Dragon Sticker by Etsy Shop

This is fake (the link doesn’t match) just for test purposes.

New Releases

the cover of Florida Woman

Florida Woman by Deb Rogers (Sapphic Fiction)

Through a combination of bad decisions and unfortunate circumstances, Jamie has become a Florida Woman headline. Luckily, she has landed a pretty sweet community service job instead of jail time, helping at a macaque sanctuary. The women working there are a tight-knit group, and Jamie desperately wants to fit in (and maybe kiss one of them). But then she starts hearing the monkeys scream at night. Underneath the idyllic facade of the sanctuary, some secrets are being kept…

You can hear me talk about in more depth on this week’s All the Books episode!

the cover of Keya Das's Second Act

Keya Das’s Second Act by Sopan Deb (Lesbian Secondary Characters Fiction)

Normally, I wouldn’t include a book that doesn’t have a queer main character, but considering the plot revolves around the queer secondary characters, I’m counting it — kind of like Everything Everywhere All At Once, which you should definitely see if you haven’t already. I cried the whole half hour.

Keya Das’s Second Act follows Shantanu Das, who is in his 50s and has a lot of regrets. The biggest one is that he didn’t accept his teenage daughter Keya when she came out as gay, and now it’s too late. She’s passed away. Then, in his attic, he finds an unfinished manuscript Keya and her girlfriend, Pamela, were working on. He decides to pay homage to Keya’s memory by putting on the play himself — but first, he has to get Pamela’s permission.

the cover of Gender Queer: A Memoir Deluxe Edition

Gender Queer: A Memoir, Deluxe Edition by Maia Kobabe and Phoebe Kobabe (Nonbinary Asexual Graphic Memoir) (Rerelease)

Gender Queer has been getting a lot of press in recent years for challenges against it, but what it should be known for is how many people it has helped both feel seen themselves and to better understand others. This new addition includes a foreword by ND Stevenson, creator of Lumberjanes, Nimona, and Netflix’s She-Ra. It also has a new afterward from the author.

Jazzed by by Jill Dearman (Sapphic Historical Crime Fiction)

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (Lesbian YA Contemporary) (Paperback rerelease)

the new cover of Taproot

The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen by Gary Eldon Peter (Gay YA Contemporary)

Taproot by Keezy Young (M/M YA Fantasy Graphic Novel) (Reissue)

My Love Mix-Up!, Vol. 4 by Wataru Hinekure and Aruko (M/M Manga)

Go For It Again, Nakamura!! (Go For It, Nakamura! Vol 2) by Syundei (M/M Manga)

For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.

All the Links Fit to Click

Queer Memoirs To Read for Disability Pride Month

It’s Disability Pride Month! Of course, it’s always a good time to diversify your reading, which means including disabled authors and authors of color as well as queer and trans authors, but this is a good excuse to add more books by disabled authors to your TBR. Here are a couple of memoirs to get you started.

It’s Disability Pride Month! Of course, it’s always a good time to diversify your reading, which means including disabled authors and authors of color as well as queer and trans authors, but this is a good excuse to add more books by disabled authors to your TBR. Here are a couple of memoirs to get you started.

the cover of Exile and Pride

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation by Eli Clare

First published in 1999, Exile and Pride is a groundbreaking work at the intersection of queer and disability studies. This blends memoir and essays as Clare discusses his experiences as a genderqueer writer and activist with cerebral palsy, focusing on the body as a site of power, resistance, and oppression.

the cover of Dirty River

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Dirty River follows Piepzna-Samarasinha as a young brown, queer, disabled femme as they ran from the U.S. to Canada. It’s a vulnerable and resilient story about survival, and you can see Piepzna-Samarasinha’s poetry background in the sharp and precise wording. I also highly recommend her books Bodymap (poetry) and Care Work (nonfiction).

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