I’ve just finished reading this and it’s amazing, set in the mid 50s in LA, during the Red Scare, it’s the story of Lily Hu a Chinese American girl, who at the age of 17 begins developing romantic feelings for her classmate Kath Miller, while they both sneak out to a lesbian bar to catch the drag king shows. It deals with issues such as racism, cultural differences, and becoming aware and embracing your sexuality in a time which was a lot less tolerant than today. Highly recommended

I really want to start the Adaptation series but I want to start it with someone else to be able to discuss it! I am down to start a book club where we can message about the book maybe even zoom call if time zones work but I don’t want more than 10 people or scheduling it gets messy! Would love to read books that represent bisexuality so message me if you’re interested m!

Heeyy, idk if this is the right place to post this so please don't kill me

Does anyone have a copy of the lesbian Cinderella book "Ash," by Malinda Lo? If so, does the book summary thingy on the back mention any gayness? Basically I want to get it from the library, but my homophobic parents wouldn't be thrilled if they could tell it was gay.

By "wouldn't be thrilled" I mean would most likely forbid libraries. *sigh*

Also if any of y'all got spare time, what are some other not obviously gay lgbt books? I'm desperate.

Greetings Reddit! Ellen Kushner, Malinda Lo, Racheline Maltese, Patty Bryant, Joel Derfner and Paul Witcover will be here to talk TREMONTAINE on the evening of May 9!

Our collective story was first released serially online by Serial Box (get it?) and now Season 1 is available in a print edition from Saga Press/Simon & Schuster.

TREMONTAINE: In a city that never was, sex, scandal, and swordplay combine in a melodrama of manners that returns readers to the beloved world of Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint. A dance of betrayal and treachery begins when a Duchess, a scholar, a Duke, a genius, and a visitor from across the sea are brought together by long-buried lies.

Plus, chocolate is very, very important!

Photo confirmation [here] (http://www.ellenkushner.com/ellenkushner-ama-reddit/)

Autostraddle calls it “a paradise of queerness and chocolate,” and the Washington Post says "The real magic is how well six authors can spin together a narrative...The story is a joy, and literally swashbuckling."

You can find TREMONTAINE at your local bookstore or on [Amazon] (https://www.amazon.com/Tremontaine-Ellen-Kushner/dp/1481485598)

[Indiebound] (http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781481485586)

[B&N] (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tremontaine-ellen-kushner/1124023167)

And you can catch Season 2 of TREMONTAINE on [Serial Box] (https://www.serialbox.com/serials/tremontaine) now!

In the meantime, Ask Us Anything about collaborative writing, swordplay, chocolate, or whatever else you can think of! We'll be answering questions live during the evening on Tuesday, May 9.

• That was a lot of fun, but it's late so I'm closing this party down now! Thanks so much to everyone who showed up to take chocolate with us, and to all the Tremontaine writers who took time to contribute their insights *

Hi! I'm Malinda Lo, author of several young adult science fiction and fantasy novels, including most recently Inheritance, the sequel to Adaptation, published by Little, Brown.

Adaptation is an X-Files-inspired scifi thriller about a 17-year-old girl named Reese Holloway who has to uncover what exactly happened to her when she got into a car accident in the middle of nowhere, Nevada, and woke up nearly a month later after being in a medically induced coma. Watch the trailer for Adaptation here. Inheritance picks up minutes after the end of Adaptation, and continues the story of Reese's investigation into a vast government conspiracy involving creepy attacking birds, secret military bases, and the potential existence of extraterrestrials.

All of my novels, including the Adaptation and Inheritance duology, are about lesbian or bisexual main characters, and I write extensively about LGBTQ and diversity issues at my blog and at Diversity in YA, a site I co-founded with author Cindy Pon.

Feel free to ask me anything about my books, LGBTQ YA, diversity in YA, or writing! I will also answer questions about spoilers, but if you ask spoilery questions, please mark that as a SPOILER first thing to alert other readers.

I'll be back around 5 p.m. Pacific/8 p.m. Eastern to answer your questions!

ETA: I'll be here till 6 pm Pacific to answer your questions!

ETA 6 pm Pacific: Thanks for having me, YAwriters! It was great answering your questions. If you have other questions you can always tweet me or ask me stuff on tumblr. See you around the internets!

I just finished this book... struggled to get past the beginning because the enabler dad, although he's mentioned pretty briefly, really got to me, but then I just... picked it up this morning and read it all in one day.

In very brief and kinda clumsy terms, it's a retelling of Cinderella featuring a lesbian romance, but more than about romance, it's about pulling oneself out from depression and abuse and finding the strenght and courage to live. The abusive stepmom is pretty narcissistic and there's some really good exploration of GC/SG dynamics. Some of the scenes of abuse really got to a very vulnerable place in me, as did the process of Ash, the protagonist, slowly learning to come out of her shell and see herself again, and see herself as capable of loving ad worthy of being loved. I found it very powerful and also absolutely beautiful and very sweet. Strongly recommend!

A few people were interested in continuing the story started in Adaptation by Malinda Lo. If you went ahead and read the squeal please use this thread for discussions, and thank you for reading along with us!

>The triangular spaceship hovered motionless in the sky above Reese Holloway’s house, as inscrutable as a black hole. It had seemed like a good idea when they were inside: to tell the truth about what happened to them at Area 51. It didn’t seem like such a good idea now.

>Reese and David are not normal teens—not since they were adapted with alien DNA by the Imria, an extraterrestrial race that has been secretly visiting Earth for decades. Now everyone is trying to get to them: the government, the Imria, and a mysterious corporation that would do anything for the upper hand against the aliens.

>Beyond the web of conspiracies, Reese can’t reconcile her love for David with her feelings for her ex-girlfriend Amber, an Imrian. But her choice between two worlds will play a critical role in determining the future of humanity, the Imria’s place in it, and the inheritance she and David will bring to the universe.

>In this gripping sequel to Adaptation, Malinda Lo brings a thoughtful exploration of adolescence, sexuality, and “the other” to a science fiction thriller that is impossible to put down

-taken from goodreads

Thank you for reading along with us. Here is the place to voice your thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Please be civil, have fun, and enjoy.

Adaptation by Malinda Lo

>Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

>Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

>Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

>Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

-description taken from goodreads.com

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10744752-adaptation

http://www.amazon.com/Adaptation-Malinda-Lo/dp/B00EBFGUKY

Did the relationship at the end seem a little forced to anyone else? Reese seemed to be way more into Amber than she ever seemed into David.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's contest! There were many great books released last year which were nominated in our Best of 2021 contest. Here are the winners for the Best Books of 2021!

Just a quick note regarding the voting. We've locked the individual voting threads but that doesn't stop people from upvoting/downvoting so if you check them the upvotes won't necessarily match up with these winners depending on when you look. But, the results announced here do match what the results were at the time the threads were locked.

Best Debut of 2021

Hey everyone! Happy New Year! This is my first official post in this group.

Recently, the cover for Malinda Lo's "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" mesmerized me. I think it's wonderful. ♥️

What are some of your favorites?

This month's book was Conversations With Friends, by Sally Rooney.

I hope everyone was able to finish the novel in time - please note that there will be spoilers!

I'll start with my thoughts on the book and then put some questions to spark discussion - but feel free to discuss anything about the novel that you'd like! Nothing is off limits but please be respectful of people who may disagree with you and be sensitive when discussing aspects of the novel that may be controversial or upsetting.

What I liked:

The novel had a clever way of slowly revealing things about Frances without her knowing them about herself - her father's alcoholism and abuse, her crippling depression and anxiety, her issues with money.

Having also read Normal People, I've gotta say I'm a bit worried about Sally Rooney - she's suspiciously good at writing women who are crippled by their self loathing in the same way that Taylor Swift is suspiciously good at writing about being in love with women.

I'd also be curious about how other people who have read both think about Marianne having a cameo - I personally found it a bit distracting, a bit like breaking the fourth wall.

What I didn't like:

Maybe I'm just more interested in women generally, but I found the Frances/Bobbi relationship infinitely more interesting than her affair with Nick, and I wanted more time devoted to it.

When I was writing notes as I read the book I found myself writing "I WANT TO SHAKE HER" and then just underlining it again and again every few chapters. I think I had a similar issue with this book as I did with Rebecca - I feel like the depiction of the protagonist's anxiety was very well done, but that didn't make it very enjoyable to read.

I found her narration incredibly stifling, it will be interesting to watch the TV show and see if the plot is more enjoyable when it is more detached from Frances' point of view. There was just something so frustrating about enduring a perspective so detached from reality.

I also found the self harm pretty confronting, although, as with most things I didn't like about the novel, that is more about personal preference than being something objectively wrong with the book.

In the same vein, I wanted a more conclusive ending, and it frustrated me that so much was left up in the air - although to be honest the only ending th

Looking for a novel or memoir written by someone of South Korean descent about living in North America (preferably). Could also be happy with books set in South Korea but would prefer a book that dissects things like anti-Asian racism, culture clash, immigration struggles (that sort of thing) in North America. If it’s set in Canada that’s even better but the USA works, too.

Kind of like Last Night At The Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo or Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (doesn’t have to be historical fiction) but South Korean/Korean-American/Korean-Canadian instead of Chinese-American/Chinese.

The annual library awards were this morning and there were so many great winners!

This year's honor books are:

• Starfish by Lisa Flipps
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
• Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
• Revolution in Our Time by Kekla Magoon

The winner of the 2022 Printz award (and like three other awards!) is Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley!

Have you read any of them? What are your thoughts?
I know the big shock for librarians and teachers was Starfish being considered YA as it's very much a middle-grade book. But considering it wasn't considered at all in those categories, I'm glad it got some recognition somewhere.

Hi everybody! So I gave myself a reading challenge based off the 50 states: For each state I'll be reading a work by an author born in said state, a poet (all native Americans poets. I couldn't find poets for a few states tho so I instead went with a native american historical nonfiction for the states I couldn't find), a fiction, a nonfiction, a historical Nonfiction, and a young adult novel. So in total I'll be reading 6 books for each state. It took me a good while to find all the books I wanted for each category but I've finally done it!! That being said, I had the thought that it might be fun to get another category going- suggestions or favorites from everybody on here. So would everybody give me their suggestions of their favorite books set in each state, or just books that you think would fit perfect with this challenge, please and thank you!! I added my list below. It's a long one!

Alabama     Author: William March- The Bad Seed     Poet: Janet McAdams- 7 Boxes for the Country After     Fiction: The Well and the Mine- Gin Phillips     Nonfiction: All Over but the Shoutin- Rick Bragg     Historical: Alabama Scoundrels- Kelly Kazek & Wil Elrick     Young adult: The Drowned Forest- Kristopher Reisz

Alaska     Author: Eowyn Ivey- The Snow Child     Poet: Joan Naviyuk Kane- Milk Black Carbon     Fiction: Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival- Velma Wallis     Nonfiction: Shadows on the Koyukuk- Sidney Huntington     Historical: Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder, and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic 1913- McKay Jenkins     Young adult: The Call of the Wild- Jack London

Arizona     Author: Jeanette Walls- The Glass Castle     Poet: Ofelia Zepeda- When It Rains     Fiction: The Blessing Way- Tony Hillerman     Nonfiction: The Land of the Open Graves- Jason De León     Historical: Down the Great Unknown- Edward Dolnick     Young adult: Saving Lucas Biggs- Marisa de los Santo & David Teague

Arkansas     Author: Donald Harington- The Choiring of the Trees     Poet: Sy Hoahwah- Velroy and the Madischie Mafia     Fiction: The Bird Eater- Ania Ahlborn     Nonfiction: Daughter of the White River- Denise Parkinson     Historical: On the Laps of Gods- Robert Whitaker     Young adult: Summer of my German Soldier- Bette Greene

California     Author: John Steinbeck- The Pearl     Poet: Various- Red Indian Road West     Fiction: Mildred Pierce- James M. Cain     Nonfiction: Fast Times at Ri

Hello to any fellow queer readers! Here is a list of books featuring LGBTQ+ romance for you all to enjoy. <3

MLM/NBLM:

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver

Maurice by E.M. Forster

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Something Like Summer by Jay Bell

The Temperature of Me and You by Brian Zepka

The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

WLW:

Crier's War by Nina Varela

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

The Secret of You and Me by Melissa Lenhardt

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri

Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen

Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan

For those who may not be aware, Powell’s “City of Books” in Portland Oregon is absolutely incredible. It takes up a full city block, has over 3500 various sections, and some thing like 70,000 sq ft. of space.

I found the following list on a bookmark that was in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy section, and I thought to transcribe it for all of us here, just in case some of these are new to some of us. :) Some are marked as “Young Adult” as well.

Image of one side (Bonus: Jericho looking annoyed I disturbed his nap. 😆)

The list doesn’t give blurbs or any indication of what the stories are about or what sort of LGBTQIA+ representation there is, but it’s at least a starting point, and I loved seeing it prominently displayed in one of the main walkways where people could see it.

I make no guarantees about any of the novels listed here, I just wanted to transcribe them for sharing. :) Many of these are new to me, so i’m also putting them on my TBR list :D

Babel 17 Samuel R. Delany
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers
Karen Memory Elizabeth Bear
Necrotech KC Alexander
The Stars Are Legion Kameron Hurley
Bone Dance Emma Bull
Every Heart a Doorway Seaman McGuire
Mirror Empire Kameron Hurley
The Female Man Joanna Russ
River of Teeth Sarah Grailey
Blackfish City Sam J Miller
The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K Le Guin
Ammonite Nicola Griffith
All the Birds in the Sky Charlie Jane Anders
The Prey of the Gods Nicky Drayden
Ancillary Justice Anne Leckie
The Wrong Stars Tim Pratt
An Unkindness of Ghosts River Solomon

THE FOLLOWING ARE MARKED YOUNG ADULT:
Proxy Alex Young
Coda Emma Trevayne
Adaptation Malinda Lo
Not Your Sidekick CB Lee
A Darkly Beating Heart Lindsay Smith
Stranger Rachel Manila Brown

I guess the concept didn't work

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

Alot of great jokes get posted here! However just because you have a joke, doesn't mean it's a dad joke.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT NSFW, THIS IS ABOUT LONG JOKES, BLONDE JOKES, SEXUAL JOKES, KNOCK KNOCK JOKES, POLITICAL JOKES, ETC BEING POSTED IN A DAD JOKE SUB

Try telling these sexual jokes that get posted here, to your kid and see how your spouse likes it.. if that goes well, Try telling one of your friends kid about your sex life being like Coca cola, first it was normal, than light and now zero , and see if the parents are OK with you telling their kid the "dad joke"

I'm not even referencing the NSFW, I'm saying Dad jokes are corny, and sometimes painful, not sexual

So check out r/jokes for all types of jokes

r/unclejokes for dirty jokes

r/3amjokes for real weird and alot of OC

r/cleandadjokes If your really sick of seeing not dad jokes in r/dadjokes

Punchline !

Edit: this is not a post about NSFW , This is about jokes, knock knock jokes, blonde jokes, political jokes etc being posted in a dad joke sub

Edit 2: don't touch the thermostat

Do your worst!

How the hell am I suppose to know when it’s raining in Sweden?

Happy New Year!

Our January book for Gaylor Bookclub is Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo.

Check out the December discussion post if you missed it!

This month's book was Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer, by Chely Wright.

I hope everyone was able to finish the novel in time - please note that there will be spoilers!

I'll start with my thoughts on the book and then put some questions to spark discussion - but feel free to discuss anything about the novel that you'd like! Nothing is off limits but please be respectful of people who may disagree with you and be sensitive when discussing aspects of the novel that may be controversial or upsetting.

What I liked:

I really appreciated her honest depiction of what it felt like for her growing up gay. We rarely get such detailed and unsanitised looks at how it feels to grow up with such complicated and confusing feelings. I also appreciated her honesty about how this had affected her mental health. I found the book, and her life, extremely fascinating.

As a Gaylor it was also really interesting to get a glimpse of a lot of what we assume about the entertainment industry and how it feels to be closeted in the public eye.

What I didn't like:

It may be why I rarely read memoirs, but I couldn't help but spend a good portion of the book wondering how true her perception of people and events were, and wanting to hear both sides of some stories.

I'm also not sure if I believe all of her depictions of her relationships with men - I'm sure some were true but it would not surprise me if she may have had PR relationships which she is pretending are true to protect herself and the men involved, and not reveal too much of that side of the industry.

I also really struggled with the intensely pro-military sections, which, as someone who is not keen on the US military, made me a bit uncomfortable to read and seemed to take up a good chunk of the novel.

Taylor Swift connections:

I think this kind of goes without saying on a Gaylor sub, but obviously her depiction of being a closeted woman in the country music scene really connected with a lot of what we assume about Taylor's life.

Some quotes that felt extremely relevant to Taylor:

>"He was nice, handsome, and had a good job. We ate dinners, watched movies, and spent time together for a few months. I felt nothing - absolutely nothing." - *Alexa, play The Way I Loved You*
>
>
>
>*"Some people in entertainment do that - date someone to throw people off track so others won't know they're gay. It'

Hi everybody! So I gave myself a reading challenge based off the 50 states: For each state I'll be reading a work by an author born in said state, a poet (all native Americans poets. I couldn't find poets for a few states tho so I instead went with a native american historical nonfiction for the states I couldn't find), a fiction, a nonfiction, a historical Nonfiction, and a young adult novel. So in total I'll be reading 6 books for each state. It took me a good while to find all the books I wanted for each category but I've finally done it!! That being said, I had the thought that it might be fun to get another category going- suggestions or favorites from everybody on here. So would everybody give me their suggestions of their favorite books set in each state, or just books that you think would fit perfect with this challenge, please and thank you!! I added my list below. It's a long one!

Alabama     Author: William March- The Bad Seed     Poet: Janet McAdams- 7 Boxes for the Country After     Fiction: The Well and the Mine- Gin Phillips     Nonfiction: All Over but the Shoutin- Rick Bragg     Historical: Alabama Scoundrels- Kelly Kazek & Wil Elrick     Young adult: The Drowned Forest- Kristopher Reisz

Alaska     Author: Eowyn Ivey- The Snow Child     Poet: Joan Naviyuk Kane- Milk Black Carbon     Fiction: Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival- Velma Wallis     Nonfiction: Shadows on the Koyukuk- Sidney Huntington     Historical: Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder, and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic 1913- McKay Jenkins     Young adult: The Call of the Wild- Jack London

Arizona     Author: Jeanette Walls- The Glass Castle     Poet: Ofelia Zepeda- When It Rains     Fiction: The Blessing Way- Tony Hillerman     Nonfiction: The Land of the Open Graves- Jason De León     Historical: Down the Great Unknown- Edward Dolnick     Young adult: Saving Lucas Biggs- Marisa de los Santo & David Teague

Arkansas     Author: Donald Harington- The Choiring of the Trees     Poet: Sy Hoahwah- Velroy and the Madischie Mafia     Fiction: The Bird Eater- Ania Ahlborn     Nonfiction: Daughter of the White River- Denise Parkinson     Historical: On the Laps of Gods- Robert Whitaker     Young adult: Summer of my German Soldier- Bette Greene

California     Author: John Steinbeck- The Pearl     Poet: Various- Red Indian Road West     Fiction: Mildred Pierce- James M. Cain     Nonfiction: Fast Times at Ri

Hi everybody! So I gave myself a reading challenge based off the 50 states: For each state I'll be reading a work by an author born in said state, a poet (all native Americans poets. I couldn't find poets for a few states tho so I instead went with a native american historical nonfiction for the states I couldn't find), a fiction, a nonfiction, a historical Nonfiction, and a young adult novel. So in total I'll be reading 6 books for each state. It took me a good while to find all the books I wanted for each category but I've finally done it!! That being said, I had the thought that it might be fun to get another category going- suggestions or favorites from everybody on here. So would everybody give me their suggestions of their favorite books set in each state, or just books that you think would fit perfect with this challenge, please and thank you!! I added my list below. It's a long one!

Alabama     Author: William March- The Bad Seed     Poet: Janet McAdams- 7 Boxes for the Country After     Fiction: The Well and the Mine- Gin Phillips     Nonfiction: All Over but the Shoutin- Rick Bragg     Historical: Alabama Scoundrels- Kelly Kazek & Wil Elrick     Young adult: The Drowned Forest- Kristopher Reisz

Alaska     Author: Eowyn Ivey- The Snow Child     Poet: Joan Naviyuk Kane- Milk Black Carbon     Fiction: Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival- Velma Wallis     Nonfiction: Shadows on the Koyukuk- Sidney Huntington     Historical: Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder, and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic 1913- McKay Jenkins     Young adult: The Call of the Wild- Jack London

Arizona     Author: Jeanette Walls- The Glass Castle     Poet: Ofelia Zepeda- When It Rains     Fiction: The Blessing Way- Tony Hillerman     Nonfiction: The Land of the Open Graves- Jason De León     Historical: Down the Great Unknown- Edward Dolnick     Young adult: Saving Lucas Biggs- Marisa de los Santo & David Teague

Arkansas     Author: Donald Harington- The Choiring of the Trees     Poet: Sy Hoahwah- Velroy and the Madischie Mafia     Fiction: The Bird Eater- Ania Ahlborn     Nonfiction: Daughter of the White River- Denise Parkinson     Historical: On the Laps of Gods- Robert Whitaker     Young adult: Summer of my German Soldier- Bette Greene

California     Author: John Steinbeck- The Pearl     Poet: Various- Red Indian Road West     Fiction: Mildred Pierce- James M. Cain     Nonfiction: Fast Times at Ri

Hi everybody! So I gave myself a reading challenge based off the 50 states: For each state I'll be reading a work by an author born in said state, a poet (all native Americans poets. I couldn't find poets for a few states tho so I instead went with a native american historical nonfiction for the states I couldn't find), a fiction, a nonfiction, a historical Nonfiction, and a young adult novel. So in total I'll be reading 6 books for each state. It took me a good while to find all the books I wanted for each category but I've finally done it!! That being said, I had the thought that it might be fun to get another category going- suggestions or favorites from everybody on here. So would everybody give me their suggestions of their favorite books set in each state, or just books that you think would fit perfect with this challenge, please and thank you!! I added my list below. It's a long one!

Alabama     Author: William March- The Bad Seed     Poet: Janet McAdams- 7 Boxes for the Country After     Fiction: The Well and the Mine- Gin Phillips     Nonfiction: All Over but the Shoutin- Rick Bragg     Historical: Alabama Scoundrels- Kelly Kazek & Wil Elrick     Young adult: The Drowned Forest- Kristopher Reisz

Alaska     Author: Eowyn Ivey- The Snow Child     Poet: Joan Naviyuk Kane- Milk Black Carbon     Fiction: Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival- Velma Wallis     Nonfiction: Shadows on the Koyukuk- Sidney Huntington     Historical: Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder, and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic 1913- McKay Jenkins     Young adult: The Call of the Wild- Jack London

Arizona     Author: Jeanette Walls- The Glass Castle     Poet: Ofelia Zepeda- When It Rains     Fiction: The Blessing Way- Tony Hillerman     Nonfiction: The Land of the Open Graves- Jason De León     Historical: Down the Great Unknown- Edward Dolnick     Young adult: Saving Lucas Biggs- Marisa de los Santo & David Teague

Arkansas     Author: Donald Harington- The Choiring of the Trees     Poet: Sy Hoahwah- Velroy and the Madischie Mafia     Fiction: The Bird Eater- Ania Ahlborn     Nonfiction: Daughter of the White River- Denise Parkinson     Historical: On the Laps of Gods- Robert Whitaker     Young adult: Summer of my German Soldier- Bette Greene

California     Author: John Steinbeck- The Pearl     Poet: Various- Red Indian Road West     Fiction: Mildred Pierce- James M. Cain     Nonfiction: Fast Times at Ri

This month's book was The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M Danforth.

I hope everyone was able to finish the novel in time - please note that there will be spoilers!

I'll start with my thoughts on the book and then put some questions to spark discussion - but feel free to discuss anything about the novel that you'd like! Nothing is off limits but please be respectful of people who may disagree with you and be sensitive when discussing aspects of the novel that may be controversial or upsetting.

What I liked:

I really enjoyed this book. I felt that it depicted the complexities of growing up queer in a way that was interesting and honest. So often books leave out the nuance of the experience but this felt spot on (even though the narrator's upbringing and life experience were vastly different to my own) - you could definitely tell that it was written by a queer author. I liked that every character felt fleshed out - I think a weaker novel would have made the antagonists one-note bad guys, but this really captured the tragedy of homophobia - that so often it is perpetuated by people with good intentions, but that those intentions don't negate the immense harm they cause.

I liked Cameron a lot, and loved seeing her growing into herself. She felt like a real person, a good balance of funny and prickly and someone who doesn't always do or think the right things, but is just someone trying their best under less than ideal circumstances.

In addition to being a really good portrayal of queerness, I also thought that the sense of place was beautifully depicted. The town was felt real and specific, laid out in vivid detail. I'm a city girl from Australia but the picture this book painted made me almost nostalgic for a small town I've never been to on the other side of the world.

What I didn't like:

The length might not be for everyone, and it has some upsetting content - but I honestly liked everything.

The movie:

I watched the movie before reading the book, which I think was probably the more enjoyable order to go in. I imagine that I might have been annoyed about how much the movie left out if I had read the book first, but going in with no expectations I really enjoyed the film. I thought it was well cast, and found it more fun than I had expected a film about conversion therapy might be.