i'm curious because i was explaining my dislike of 'you made a fool of death with your beauty' to a friend, and realized it's a book i can talk about extensively. i've seen arguments about how it works as a romance, how it shouldn't be considered one, why the exploration of grief is good, why the exploration of grief is bad... and i honestly love discussing all of those points about it and more, haha. it's gotten to the point that i question my dislike of it, but i think ultimately i disliked the characters and a lot of the execution/messaging, but i consider it to be a great discussion piece.

After a litany of disappointing reads, I am curious as to what YOUR last 5 star read was (within any genre). Feel free to elaborate on why you gave it 5 stars or just stick with the basics!

If you don’t use star ratings, then just whatever your most recent loved/perfect book was would fit as well! 💜

Good morning/afternoon wherever you all are!

Happy Pride to those who celebrate. I consider myself to be more of a straight ace, and was wondering what demi/ace books you all could recommend? I do enjoy some LGBTQ literature, but mostly YA or something with cozy vibes, nothing too graphic- including graphic novels or manga. I prefer no spice to minimal, witty banter, layered characters, and good worldbuilding. Sadly, I haven't seen much of this but plenty of other LGBTQ+ rep.

To give you an idea of what I have enjoyed in the past, I am still currently making my way through The Fox Maidens and I also enjoyed Heartstopper, but was not a fan of She Drives Me Crazy as I found both the main character and her love interest kind of insufferable. I am also still making my way through A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth, which I think is more New Adult than anything and rivals The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series in terms of fantasy worldbuilding, just with more LGBTQ rep. The point is, I would like to see some major Demi/Ace representation as well as maybe some plus size female representation too, if possible. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated 👍🏻

I find really interesting how the author depicts the changes in British tourism from the 70s to nowadays, from tourists who are polite and want to experience the place they visit to tourists who are loud, rude and entitled, who feel the right to find their own culture in the place they visit instead of enjoying the new culture.

JD Vance is publishing a book called Communion on June 16. bell hooks already published a book entitled Communion: the Female Search for Love.

This is the second title he has stolen from bell hooks. His previous book was entitled Hillbilly Elegy, and hooks’ book, published 4 years prior, was Appalachian Elegy. In addition to downright plagiarism, people have pointed out that this is search engine manipulation and keyword appropriation (they love to do that - did you know that anti-choice people are now calling themselves abortion abolitionists??? 🤮) - which ends up censoring Black feminist thought.

There is an effort to put hooks’ Communion on the best seller list on June 16. Yes I will buy the audiobook from Black Walnut Books on libro.fm on June 16 just to spite him.

**I must admit I don’t fully know how best seller lists work and I’ve seen others just calling for people to buy the book in general and request it from the library, not specifically on June 16. Curious if anyone who knows how those lists work can explain why to buy specifically on that day?

***Community-wide read along of hooks’ Communion?

Reading this because I was told it had badly written French words/phrases and 😭😭😭 I don't know if I'm gonna survive reading it💀 it's both hilarious and painful