Wednesday 7 June 2017

Pride Month Books

June is LGBTQ Pride Month! In honor of pride month, I have decided to talk about LGBTQ books that I have read, want to read, and are currently reading.




LGBTQ Books That I Have Read


Switch   Captive Prince (Captive Prince, #1) 


Symptoms of Being Human

 If You Could Be Mine   Pink

Captive Prince is a gay romance that I won off of Goodreads! I really enjoyed it. Switch features a bisexual boy dealing with biphobia in his community. If You Could Be Mine is a bittersweet story of two girls in love in Iran, and Pink features a bisexual girl in an Australian setting. Symptoms of Being Human is my favourite out of all of these because it's about a genderfluid person, and there are so few books about us genderfluid folks! 

LGBTQ Books That I Want to Read

 Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out  Seven Ways We Lie

 Brooklyn, Burning   Carry On

 Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda  Two Boys Kissing

There are lots of LGBTQ books that I want to read as well! A few of them include Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, Seven Ways We Lie, Brooklyn Burning, Carry On, Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, and Two Boys Kissing. There are sooooo many more that I want to read, but this post would never end if I listed them all! 


LGBTQ Books That I Am Currently Reading

 Mask of Shadows (Untitled, #1)   Unnatural (Archangel Academy, #1)

I'm reading two LGBTQ books at the moment, Mask of Shadows and Unnatural. Mask of Shadows is from Netgalley while Unnatural is from the thrift store! I am so excited to be reading Mask of Shadows because there are so few books with genderfluid people in them, and to read a fantasy book with a genderfluid protagonist is super awesome! 
Thoughts

I guess I just have some general thoughts to share on LGBTQ books! I'm really glad to see more and more books featuring LGBTQ characters being released every year. Whether they are main characters or side characters, I always get excited! 

I also like that there seem to be books that don't focus on coming out. While books about this are still awesome, I love to read about LGBTQ people just existing in daily life, whether that be in a contemporary setting or in a magical fantasy world. On that note, I've seen some comments and reviews about Mask of Shadows, my current read, concerning the fact that the focus of the book isn't the character's gender identity. They just happen to exist as a genderfluid person. Some readers have said that they don't see a point to having a genderfluid character if this isn't essential to the plot, and that they think the genderfluid part is kind of ridiculous (um, ouch?). People seem to lack the understanding that genderfluid people....casually exist.....like everyone else.....and every second of every day isn't focused on our genders! Gasp! And so our genders don't have to "add" to the plot. Does every book with a female protagonist have to be about 'girl power'? No? Then why should all representation of nonbinary people have to be all about that one aspect of the character? Just some food for thought. 

On the other hand, that's not to say that books that don't feature LGBTQ people are bad! I love many books that star cisgender, heterosexual people. However, as an LGBTQ person, I like to see characters like myself in novels and stories. 

So, that's it for this post! Tell me about your favourite LGBTQ books, whether they be fiction or nonfiction. Are you currently reading any LGBTQ books? Have you read or want to read any of the books that I've mentioned today? 

Happy Pride Month!