Cavetown, Falling In Love with a Girl | Mary Oliver, Dogfish | Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere | Zack Villere, Fear of Intimacy | Roy Croft, I Love You | Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater | Michael Spence, First Love in Two Dimensions | Tanizawa Tomofumi, Reaching You | Rebecca Sugar, Time Adventure

excerpts from my spirit burns through this body by akwaeke emezi

Nobody does body horror or stories about misunderstood monsters quite like a trans person

inspired by EMILIO SANDOZ from The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

god is made of hunger and i am made of dreams, katie maria / karmazid / flesh undone, aditi nagrath / power politics; what is it., margaret atwood / sacred-portal / the book of hours, rainer maria rilke / freshwater, akwaeke emezi / holy heart of jesus and the five wounds of christ’s love, 1521

from Content Warning: Everything

Books by Black Authors for Black History Month!

I wanted to share a list of books I love and books that I'm looking forward to reading that are by Black authors in acknowledgement of Black History Month. I feel like a lot of my fellow readers (especially my fellow white readers) always go into a, kind of, reading slump in February and I don't know if that's because the month of January is just ten years long that February feels like a hangover or if it's because they feel the desire to read books by Black authors but then the majority of what is marketed is usually books that are steeped in trauma or nonfiction books. And, like, yeah, nonfiction books are so important but when they're the only kind of book marketed it can make finding the other kinds of books that much harder but I believe that if you read the fun books and the happy books and the fantasy books it will make you want to seek out the nonfiction resources. I'm blabbering so long story short, I thought I would make a little list to do some of the legwork for my fellow readers to find stories that they can check out.

I used GoodReads links (and one StoryGraph) link, you can choose who to purchase from yourself (although I will suggest BookShop.org as your purchase does go towards indie bookstores, I also really like the Libby App which is just your library and it works with your Kindle/Nook/Kobo/iPad). All authors that I have included in this are American or have strong ties to the USA which is why I did not include authors such as Bolu Babalola, Talia Hibbert, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie but I do highly recommend checking them out if you haven't because they do write gorgeously.

Kennedy Ryan has an extensive backlog and beautiful writing, beautiful prose. She had a book called Before I Let Go (Skyland #1) come out in November 2022, it is a second chance romance between a married couple. It has been on my shelf forever, the cover is beautiful and I've heard nothing but truthfully incredible things. I have listened to snippets of the audiobook but keep putting off getting the actual audiobook because Kennedy is the kind of author I want to read the grammar, syntax, wording of everything from. This book actually got optioned to be adapted into a television show and there's a second Skyland book coming out in March called This Could Be Us that has the ARC readers going wild.

Jasmine Guillory is one of my favorite authors. She is a Bay Area native and has a law degree from Stanford. Not only do I think that she writes beautifully but I cannot even describe to you the way that I kick my little feet and twirl my hair. I feel like my favorite of hers changes. Up until a few weeks ago, I would've told you that Olivia Monroe in Party of Two was my favorite Jasmine girly but I listened to Royal Holiday to kick off my reading for January and Vivian Forest is such a beautiful character. She's a 56 year old Black woman who is a veteran social worker who thinks it's too late for her on several fronts and then she gets swept off her feet while on a vacation with her daughter AND THE ROYAL FAMILY. What?! I also think that Jasmine writes, like.... character appropriate sex scenes if that makes sense. Like, Vivian's scenes are more reserved than Olivia's were, Vivian's more closed door than Olivia's were. She also has a Beauty and the Beast inspired book called By The Book and I kept texting my friend the entire way through and then made her buy a copy so she could text me right back with all her thoughts. Amazing. I love her.

You want cozy fantasy romance with monsters and happy Black women being loved by their hot monster lovers? Kimberly Lemming has GOT YOU COVERED.

Plugging my new author friend P.J. Leigh and her book Olawu. She actually responded to my request for some indie author recs on Threads and sent me a copy of Olawu that will be here on Friday and I'm so excited. She describes it as: "Set in precolonial East Africa with romance, action, sisterhood, found family, and a feisty but flawed female lead." I cannot wait to dig into this one.

Another author who messaged me is indie author Quiana Glide. Her bio is that she is an unabashed fangirl and her books feature pregnancy trope, cosplay, professional wrestlers and cafe owners solving murders. Her books sound fucking great and they are available on Kindle Unlimited for my KU girlies (gender neutral).

Celestine Martin messaged me as well and she writes paranormal romance with Black witches, emo mermen and fae princes. I tripped over myself running to my Libby app to place a hold on the audiobook.

25 to Love! by Joye Johnson is another one available on Kindle Unlimited for my KU girlies (gender neutral). The synopsis is: "TV's hottest dating show is '25 to Love!'. To nab a guy from her past, Lola signs on as the token girl of color. All's fair in love and ratings--can a week on TV get Lola closer to the one that got away?" You know what I love? Second chance romances, besties, that's right.

Splinter by Jasper Hyde was another I was recommended. Jasper writes paranormal, LGBTQ+ books. Jasper Hyde is a pen name for Georgina Kiersten who also goes by Rian Fox. The pen name denotes the subgenre that they write. Georgina does go by they/them pronouns and writes plus sized rep and neurodivergent rep too.

Kelly Cain. That's it. That's the tweet. THE EVERHEART BROTHERS SERIES????? If you know anything about me, you know that I have a hearing issue and so I've used audiobooks before but I never really clicked with them or got the hype. Turns out I had boring ass narrators (look I did the audio version of a lot of nonfiction books I had to read about old dead white guys in college so of course I had that feeling). THE EVERHEART BROTHERS AUDIOBOOKS ARE WHAT CHANGED ME. Deanna Anthony, the narrator, is so engaging and I didn't feel like I was listening to an audiobook, I felt like I was sitting across the table at brunch having a gossip session with my bestie. If you read it and you didn't like it, that's fine, but I didn't lie to you and enjoyment of art is subjective but also you're wrong and argue with a wall.

I've been seeing a lot of talk lately about Pride & Protest by Nikki Payne. This is a Pride & Prejudice and one of the reviews says, "If you ever wanted P&P to feel more like watching a swoony, steamy episode of Insecure, this is the book for you."

Currently, I am reading You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. It deals with themes of grief and romance and also bisexual representation. Absolutely beautiful prose. Akwaeke is Nigerian and has been in the USA since college. They are non-binary and go by they/them pronouns.

I also cannot end this list without mentioning Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow. This follows three generations of a southern Black family in the neighborhood of Douglass in Memphis, TN (I was born a couple miles away in Raleigh) . Now, this book does have quite a few trigger warnings that I won't put here but I do encourage you to READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS before you purchase this book as it does deal with some pretty heavy subject matter.

I'm also going to end this by saying to keep an eye out for anything done by my best friend, the person who I have shared so many amazing, beautiful, life changing experiences with ALL OVER THE WORLD for the last fourteen years: Isana Skeete (Isana does not use pronouns). If you look at the GoodReads account for Isana that I linked, you'll see lists made with recommendations of books with queer POC rep and asexuality representation.

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi There are no monsters anymore. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. View the full summary and rep info on wordpress or check it out for free from the Queer Liberation Library!

“but why did you feel you had to kill yourself, baby love?”

i thought it would be a useful sacrifice

habit, or morbid tradition

god and i were in a feud

this world is foul i needed to bathe in my blood

spite and vengeance

no one else would do it

i missed not existing

how can you ask me that

knowing how lonely

i have been

— Akwaeke Emezi, from Content Warning: Everything

image description expanded upon alt text:

A poem by Akwaeke Emezi, as it appears in Content Warning: Everything, that reads:

I THOUGHT I COULD BE WELL

still, how i hunger for hunger miss you like i have a right to hunt you through dappled woods oh, come to my dreams, show me up as the night's fool, a ghost's tongue bellowing grand accusations a forest dies at your voice and i fall burning under a blackened sky how is this allowed the way you've butchered my ground

“I made u all something”

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So stoked to be featured in Google Books' Trans Awareness Week project, along with Akwaeke Emezi, Yoon Ha Lee and Kacen Callender! Trans lit is ON FIRE right now, and I'm grateful to be a part of it.

Alright, some more recommendations for the end of #TransRightsReadathon! Here are some standalones by trans authors I've enjoyed.  These books mostly fall under the sff umbrella except for Confessions of the Fox which is meta-historical fiction.

They are beautiful, heartfelt, creative explorations of humanity, of our drive for connection, self-understanding, love, and survival. So many of these books look at history, personal, and community, aaaand they are filled with complicated, lovable, engaging characters. All of these books gave me something from a soft place to rest to a new way of viewing the world we live in. 

Many of these have trans characters as well, but not all of them. Most of these authors have other books that are also wonderful. Annnd as always there are so many other fabulous books by and about people who are trans.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuistion

An Unkindess of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

ID: a stack of 8 books on a teal background 

ULTIMATE (queer) SFF LIST (in progress)

Rivers Solomon - An unkindness of ghosts, The Deep, Sorrowland 

Akwaeke Emezi - PET, BITTER

Jaqueline Koayanagi - Ascension

Otter Lieffe - Margins and murmurations trilogy

Ursula K. Le Guin - The left hand of darkness

Becky Chambers - To be taught, if fortunate

Octavia Butler - The Xenogenesis series

Chana Porter - The seep

Tamsyn Muir - The locked tomb series

Ray Nyler - The mountain in the sea

Starhawk - The Fifth Sacred Thing

Bitter & Blessing from Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi! love their vibes. highly recommend this book.