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Hey hi hello, everyone!
If I owe you a text or email back, please have mercy on me — I’m (happily) buried under an avalanche of queer romance novels in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, and my god, there are so! many!! I’ve long since lost sight of my coffee table, they’re rapidly encroaching on my couch, and they’re creeping up under my desk in stalagmite-like stacks. It’s a superb problem to have, so I’ve recruited my brave friend Caroline to help me make a dent in them; should we make a bracket of the queer romances we read, just for funsies?
Okiedokie, let’s make like Tom of Finland and cruise. This week on Rainbow Reading, we’ve got:
Shelf Care: Reviews, Essays, and other Things of Note
- Happy book birthday to I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself ! This debut novel is an elegy with an edge, and a gutsy, ferocious ode to the families we build and protect in a world that doesn’t love them the way we do. I love it beyond all possible comprehension – keep your eyes peeled for my full review here on Autostraddle dot com!
- Sarah Neilson is a hall-of-fame superb interviewer – check out this conversation with Marisa in Shondaland!
- Check out an excerpt for yourself here!
- Here are some glowing reviews from them., BookPage, and the Los Angeles Times!
- Here are some more rad interviews with The Rumpus and the Chicago Review of Books!
- We’re also SO EXCITED about next week’s launch of Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.! Lamya wrote this gorgeous piece for Autostraddle back in 2015, and now this debut memoir is being heralded as “A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust with my whole heart.” by Glennon Doyle Melton. Congratulations and happy launch day, Lamya!
- Alison Rumfitt’s Tell Me I’m Worthless was one of the most memorable books of the year for me when it came out in the UK from the badass folks over at Cipher Press, and i’m so stoked that the fine folks at Tor are bringing this rad book to the States!
- Esther reviewed it here on Autostraddle!
- Publishers Weekly called it “a triumph of transgressive queer horror”
- Booklist called it “easily one of the strongest horror debuts in recent memory”
- if you’ve been looking for a book to fill the Manhunt-shaped hole in your heart, this one’s for you!
- Get ready for gay frat slasher horror mayhem in The Pledge! (This is gonna be my palate-refresher when the romances get too sweet for me – whoever decided to release this in February, I’d like to give you a smooch on the forehead!)
- Coverage of the ongoing HarperCollins Union strike has been gathering more attention – let’s keep the pressure up!
- Rye White wrote an op-ed here about solidarity between book workers and authors, and how we as a larger literary community can keep supporting the cause
- The strike was also discussed on NPR and is summed up well in this piece from Fast Co.
- Here’s a badass interview with some of the striking workers!
- Have you preordered Amelia Possanza’s Lesbian Love Story yet? Are you sure? Go double-check, because you won’t want to miss this.
- This week’s Trashwina Banter award for best blurb in my inbox goes, hands-down, to Some Desperate Glory, a space opera and “high-octane queer coming of age story about a young woman deprogramming from her fascist upbringing” – Caro, the book’s publicist at Tor, had me hooked when she told me that “There are space battles; there’s a sweet little alien; there are twists, turns, and impossibly high stakes; and the protagonist is the absolute worst (and I would challenge you to duel if you ever said one bad thing about her)”. I burn, I pine, I perish!!!
- I’d remembered reading Sarah Viren’s viral essay about what happened when she and her wife were the victims of dramatically-false anonymous abuse allegations, and now Viren has built her viral essay into a powerful braided memoir about her adolescent experience with a charismatic philosophy professor who tested the limits of skepticism, her wife’s ordeal, and what it means to identify and document the truth. To Name The Bigger Lie is out in June!
- Trashwina Banter Oh Wow That’s A Gorgeous Cover Award – I’m so into the painting they chose for The Humble Lover! White’s work has been praised for his “thoughtful and ”narrative virtuosity and high-octane erudition” and in this book he takes on sex, desire, and aging with elegance and humor.
- Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You, which we shouted out in Rainbow Reading last year when it first came out, is out in paperback next week!
- Siren Queen is coming out in paperback this June! Nghi Vo conjured pre-Code golden age Hollywood so deliciously — this book is dreamy and I can’t wait to reread it!
“The clouds parted, the heavens opened up, and here was a treasure trove of lesbian romances featuring my absolute favorite tropes: ice queens and age gaps. … If you have ever known the joy and the pain of being totally head-over-heels invested in a slow burn, incomplete fanfic, then The Fixer is for you, I promise.” — Christina, on The Fixer by Lee Winter
Rounding Up Some Romance
We’ve shouted out a bunch of romance novels in recent columns, and there’s plenty more cool ones on the way, so I’ve gathered them here in one place for ya!
- WE’RE IN A BOOK! Autostraddle shout-outs abound in Just As You Are, Camille Kellogg’s debut romcom about a group of queer friends working at a magazine. When you tell me it features a “butch 4 gender-confused mess” you know I’m going to drop everything to read it.
- That Summer Feeling is one to look forward to – it comes out this summer, and tells the story of a divorced woman who goes to adult sleepaway camp, bumps into a man from her past, and … catches feelings for his sister. What a fun premise!
- The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen: Bridgerton meets Poldark in this historical romance!
- As You Walk On By : promposal-gone-wrong turns into cathartic and transformative houseparty-gone-right!
- Friday I’m In Love: a sweet-sixteen inspired coming out party and a loving homage to the great classic rom-coms!
- Something Wild and Wonderful: Nature gays fall in love while hiking the PCT!
- The Queering: A queer romance novelist coming out in her 70s stands up to homophobia to pay homage to her lost lover!
- Sizzle Reel: bisexual chaos in Hollywood!
- Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute: sweet bi friends-to-enemies-to-lovers!
- Sorry, Bro: she’s trying to find a nice Armenian guy, but her Armenian community group leads her to a nice Armenian girl instead!
- Behind The Scenes: Gay ASMR, hot lesbian filmmaker, pugs!
- Love and Lattes: put-upon wedding planner finds love in a cat cafe!
Autocorrect: Books content from the last couple weeks at Autostraddle!
As ever, as always: we’ve had some absolutely banging books coverage here at Autostraddle over the last two weeks:
- Stef reviewed Michelin mushroom memoir Fieldwork!
- Dani reviewed poetry collection Judas Goat by Gabrielle Bates!
- Casey reviewed charming YA romance Six Times We Almost (And One Time We Did)!
- Christina reviewed slow-burn adult romance The Fixer! (Am I about to marathon this entire series?? Christina, get back here, what have you done to me)
- Esther reviewed Alison Rumfitt’s Tell Me I’m Worthless!
- Casey’s latest quiz picked out which queer book in translation you should read next!
- Heather reviewed Seasparrow, the latest installment in Kristin Cashore’s Graceling series!
That’s all she wrote, folks! If you’re a queer writer, particularly an early-career queer writer: I’d love to hear about the cool things you’re up to so that I can share links to your published essays, book reviews, short stories, poems, and longform features on LGBTQ+ topics! Please email me links for consideration at yashwina@autostraddle.com with the subject line “Rainbow Reading Submission” — I’m an avid browser-tab-collector, and I especially want to hear from you if you’ve just landed your first publication or first major byline.
