My Collections

I don’t have the right words because most of it has already been said better than I could, but I do have a book recommendation which I believe is my love language. A book that everyone should read is “Real Queer America” by Samantha Allen. I read it back in February of this year and I was ashamed to have had it sit on my shelf since 2019. In “Real Queer America”, Samantha Allen, a transgender woman and journalist road trips throughout red states meeting up with queer and trans folks she is revisiting and/or meeting for the first time. She makes stops in Utah, Indiana, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Here is one of my favorite quotes that I hope will resonate with you. Blaming folks in red states does not help anyone when we live in a broken system. If you’re longing for community like I am, this book does a wonderful job of showing how important community truly is and shall open the eyes of folks who are quick to judge and ridicule folks living in red states. “We LGBT people are already everywhere. We are born at the same unstoppable pace in every state —North, South, red, blue and to every household, religious or not. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 7 percent of millennials and as a thirty something, I fall in the upper end of that age bracket -now identify as LGBT. And not every LGBT person born into a conservative part of America wants to get out.” – Samantha Allen, Real Queer America As @i.queer put it best “Don’t blame each other, blame the system. Don’t fight each other, fight the system.” Real Queer America is now one of my favorite nonfiction works I’ve had the pleasure of reading and it fits perfectly this month for #NonFictionNovember and it’s also #TransAwarenessMonth. Go purchase it from @librofm, @bookshop_org or even request it (and/or place an order) at your local library. As always, I will continue to be visible as a trans man in Pennsylvania and of course, uplifting queer and trans books. Community liberation will help us all. We are not free until ALL of us are free. #RealQueerAmerica
one sentence reviews of every book I read in january #lgbtq #books #bookish #LTKGiftGuide #LTKMostLoved
LAST, NOW, NEXT It’s the last week of June & #TheAmazingReadathon, so here’s a reading update! Last: Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens, narrated by Elena Rey — A queer Western with sapphic love, a brothel with queer women, and survival. This was *everything*!! The audiobook made the book more immersive. I will say, it’s definitely a book I need to reread because there’s definitely things I missed 😅 Now: Chlorine by Jade Song, narrated by Catherine Ho and Imani Parks — I’m about 40% in and loving it. It is a heavy read. This is a literary horror following Ren, a competitive swimmer who is also a mermaid. It shows the horrors of what young athletes go through with pressure & ab*se from their coach + the inappropriate relations. On the flip side, there’s the POV from Cathy, a girl who is infatuated with Ren, but doesn’t know Ren has the same feelings. Audiobook is great! Next: Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle — I actually did start this but haven’t had the proper time to devote to it. Hoping to use it to check off the “Creepy Queers” space for #QueerLitRead 🏳️‍🌈 Q: What are your Last, Now, Next reads? 📖 [ID: An image of three books lying on a wooden floor. See caption for book titles. End ID.] #QueerBooks #QueerLit #QueerBooksta #TransBookstagrammer
Book Recs
one sentence reviews of every book I read in january #lgbtq #books #bookish #LTKGiftGuide #LTKMostLoved
LAST, NOW, NEXT It’s the last week of June & #TheAmazingReadathon, so here’s a reading update! Last: Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens, narrated by Elena Rey — A queer Western with sapphic love, a brothel with queer women, and survival. This was *everything*!! The audiobook made the book more immersive. I will say, it’s definitely a book I need to reread because there’s definitely things I missed 😅 Now: Chlorine by Jade Song, narrated by Catherine Ho and Imani Parks — I’m about 40% in and loving it. It is a heavy read. This is a literary horror following Ren, a competitive swimmer who is also a mermaid. It shows the horrors of what young athletes go through with pressure & ab*se from their coach + the inappropriate relations. On the flip side, there’s the POV from Cathy, a girl who is infatuated with Ren, but doesn’t know Ren has the same feelings. Audiobook is great! Next: Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle — I actually did start this but haven’t had the proper time to devote to it. Hoping to use it to check off the “Creepy Queers” space for #QueerLitRead 🏳️‍🌈 Q: What are your Last, Now, Next reads? 📖 [ID: An image of three books lying on a wooden floor. See caption for book titles. End ID.] #QueerBooks #QueerLit #QueerBooksta #TransBookstagrammer
My Queer Lit Readathon looked different this round since I was coming off of a sickness and trying to wrap up my Spotify wrapped reading vlog. One book I’m glad I read for the readathon was Pretty by KB Brookins. Written in poems and prose, KB chronicles their life as a transmasc nonbinary person whose upbringing brought challenges and hardships. They discuss being adopted, how toxic religion hurt them on the journey to exploring their sexuality and gender identity. This is not a light book by any means (please see content warnings: SA, transphobia, religious bigotry, gender dysphoria, being adopted, homophobia) but I appreciated getting to know KB and their views as a transmasc person. They had so many important conversations that I enjoy reading about as a trans man specifically how AFAB and transmasc people confront masculinity, plus how feminism tends to leave transmasc/trans men out of activism and discussions. Highly recommend this to any transmasc person! You can see my full reaction over on YouTube! Link in bio or comment VIDEO for a link. Thanks to the folks @queer_lit for putting on another great round. I can’t wait for 2025! Image description: A series of two slides. The first slide is a photo of Pretty by KB Brookins lying on a gold plate on a Christmas themed book sleeve next to a blue cup of coffee. The props lay on a white sheet. Slide two is a graphic with a rainbow gradient background showing the Queer Lit Readathon bingo board with spaces filled with the books Alex read for the readathon including “Your Driver is Waiting by Priya Guns” and Pretty by KB Brookins. End of image description. #QueerBooks
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