The Whatnot of TJ

June Reads!



So, first let's get the non-pride read out of the way. 🤣 Started this in May, but finished in June.

This was recced to me by abigail89 and wow. At first, I thought it might be a bit too soon to read about a global pandemic that kills indiscriminately and decimates an entire civilization, but actually... it was kind of nice to see that as horrible as our actual reality was, it could have been SO MUCH WORSE!

Made me think better of us as a whole, which I guess might be one of the points of dystopian fiction, but never before have I read such a true to life parallel, and reading it in the wrong order (i.e. after the fact instead of looking into the future with such things as 1984 and Fahrenheit 54) probably helped.

I'm not sure actually what to think about this book. I read it because of peer-pressure and FOMO, but because it's the first in a series, I can't really engage with the Fandom and try to suss it the hubbub without massive spoilers. I'll definitely keep reading though because I was invested by the end, and because I didn't dislike it as much as this guy! 🤣🤣

As you can see by the next 3 entries, I'm very much back in my Alexis Hall Era. ❤️ I think being in a Discord server dedicated to him helps; his books being re-released helps; he, himself being an inspiration as a writer and person helps; but also, he just writes some crazy-pants, heart-wrenching, cross-genre extravaganzas, so that you'll always find something to inspire or delight.

All that to say, this was a great (and very strange) book that took me forever to read and even longer to really truly embrace and get into. I had started it months ago, when I checked it out from the library. But wasn't in the right head space... but then months later I tried again and re-checked it out. I could tell exactly where I'd left off last time, because my bookmark was still in the book! 🤣🤣

Anyway, if you like Sherlock Holmes but wished there was more time travel and sorcery and that it was science fiction and queer AF, this is the book for you! ❤️❤️

And here is the Hall to read if you wished that Puck from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" followed, and told the story of a lady who is being cursed by a goddess--repeatedly-- and the misunderstood woman who tries to save her without falling in love. Only to have just one of those goals met. ❤️❤️

It too is ridiculous, and I loved it. ❤️

Okay, as much as I loved the previous books of his I'd read this month, and as much as I love the series of books this book is included in, THIS is my favorite. I liked "Glitterland" and I really liked "Waiting for the Flood", but this is the only one where I love each and every character. These are the only characters that I didn't want to stop following around and watching them become who they were destined to be.

And for me, one of the things I like as much (and sometimes more) as the stories he writes, is hearing him talk about the stories he writes and the how's and whys of things, so do yourself a favor and make sure to read the new releases that come with annotations. Sometimes you'll get a 1000 word in defense of Jane Eyre being a feminist Dom icon, and sometimes you get discussions on anal hooks. 😍 It's an adventure!

*sigh*

I kind of want to just leave it at that. It really says it all, This is just such a lovely breath of fresh air, dusting out of the cockles of your soul sort of book.

I mean, technically, this is the first book of the series, but I read them out of order and not a thing was missed or confused. In fact, I think if you changed the name of the main character, this could have been two, not even related books about two separate war-weary Orcs looking for a change and finding it in the warmest hug of found families to exist.

Arthur Less is a mess. He decides to run away from all his failures and lost loves to avoid dealing with them. Only to discover what all of us who do this (it's me, I do this) eventually learn, that the problems and the ghosts of lost love follow you wherever you go. ♥

I really enjoyed this Pultzer Prize winning un-abashedly queer book because it is very much the sort of books I liked to read and thought didn't get written anymore. I mean I've read some commercially and critically acclaimed books that had queer elements, but not to this extent, not where the character being gay was the whole focus, but written for not just the community that it identifies with--if that makes sense? I don't think it does, but I feel I've wasted enough time trying to articulate it that I can't delete and start over at this point. (oooops)

TL;DR--Good book, not a wholly lovable protagonist, but a twist of narrative style that had me intrigued and guessing throughout. ♥

Speaking of award winning fiction--this book won the 2024 Lamda Award for best Gay Fiction and I can ABSOLUTELY see why! It is AMAZING!

I didn't know it had won awards, I didn't know it was well loved by a lot of people who read queer literature, I just thought it was amazing specifically for me. I mean, it just hits SO MANY of the things that I love and have loved for a long time--for one, it reads like a 1950s movie. Like the kids today say, "His Girl Friday but Make it Gay!" It has NYC as a character, newspaper men, strong beautiful women, troublesome, accurate homophobia, idiots in love, just... everything. ♥

And yes, I know there is a sequel, and no, I have not read it yet. I have it on hold at my library and will DEVOUR it as soon as I can. ♥

I was recced a lot of graphic novels from tinkaton last month and these are the two I have read so far and oh my goodness! This was one was just a great story and the art was very lovely and it really set the bar high for what I could expect from the rest of the books I'll be reading. What I liked about this one--besides the study on identity and being your true authentic self, and the unexpected delight of parental acceptance is that both character's issues, wants and needs were addressed and not just a main character and their sidekick/love interest there to further their story. *sigh* Lovely.

This book was just... MAGICAL! Just... it was stories inside stories and all about family and loss and (again) being your true, authentic self. It's also about language barriers and how stories across the divide can bring us together and help us understand ourselves and others better. *sighs again*

Strolling through my library apps "Pride Collection" I realized that I really should be reading some more non-fiction, some more memories and whatnot. I also remembered reading Pete Buttigieg's memoir a long time ago and liking it, but finding it (and him tbh) sort of dry and lacking what one might call a personality. Don't get me wrong, I love Pete. I do. I still long for the day that he runs for president again. But, I knew from following him and his husband on the socials that Chasten has enough personality for both of them.

I was not wrong. This book was delightful. But really, probably only for people who like him and want to know more. Which I guess is what a memoir is for, really.

But then there are memoirs like this ♥. I have loved Harvey Fierstein for a very long time. I first was made aware of him with the movie adaption of his Torch Song Trilogy (I wrote something about how much that movie meant to me (and the queer community), but I can't find it. But, it really was so good. I highly recommend it. And I also saw him in Fiddler on the Roof and his play Casa Valentina, plus I just... love him.

So, listening (yes, he does the narration for the audio book and it is lovely) to him talk about his journey to a queer icon was great, but it was also a beautiful and real look to a time and place in gay history--NYC in the 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. He was there for it all, from Stonewall to the AIDS epidemic, to gay marriage.

At the end of the book, he told the story of how he was outed to his family and it really, truly broke my heart. ♥

For some reason, it was really hard for me to focus on this audiobook in the beginning. I've gotten really good at listening and paying attention, but for some reason I just...idk, drifted off a lot. But then I did really get invested and I'm not sure if I should go back to read the beginning again, but I don't think I really needed to? IDK... I was lovely and I couldn't get the idea that this was some really interesting HP a/u stripped fic. Tell me Edwin Courcey isn't Percy Weasley!! Haha.

Plus, isn't that cover gorgeous?!?! I'm listening to the sequel now and am enjoying it.

Not to spoil you, but Adam Silvera is a dick, a dick who doesn't believe in false advertising in book titles. A dick who continually RIPS MY HEART OUT OF MY CHEST. A dick I can't walk away from. Seriously, I think I might be in a toxic relationship with Mr. Silvera. ♥

So yeah, not much to say except this book will wreck you. But, maybe I'll give you a little bit of the plot of this series, in the attempt to lure you into the abuse as well because Silvera's books always have an interesting concept. From the memory erasing procedure in "More Happy Than Not" to the concept in this series (for yes, there is another book coming out soon, that I will absolutely NOT read!): Deathcast.

Deathcast is a global phenomenon in the original story "They Both Die in the End" and everyone who is going to die in a day, gets a call letting them know that it is their death day. Then they are free to do with that day anything they want. In the original, we met Rufus and Matteo on their Death Day. In this prequel, we get the story of the very first person to get that call, and the boy who he falls in love with on his very last day.

And OH MY GOOOOODNESS, it is A LOT. But, this time I thought I was prepared, I thought I had become numb to the pain of the slow march to death of characters who I probably should never have gotten attached to in the first place. And I was a little bit. But then these two boys, while seeing the city for the first and last time, and meeting people and making differences in people's lives, meet these two boys Rufus and Matteo and I LOST IT!

I guess some deaths you never really get over.