minsuni
Min ☀️🪻🐝 ☆ she/her ☆ 25 ☆ pt ☆ i'm your meemaw and i think it's going to be sapphic
40853 points
Galai9 TBR'd a book
1h
Bad in Bed
Ali Hazelwood
An experiment in self-discovery yields intoxicating chemistry in this sizzling new audio-first romance by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood! Billie van Buren’s orderly world comes unraveled when her years-long engagement ends in humiliation. It’s bad enough that the messy break-up disappoints her family and threatens to tear apart her friend group. What Billie—a brilliant but sheltered doctoral student—really didn’t need was for her ex-fiancé to publicly disparage her bedroom skills, leaving her confidence shattered. Dr. Maxwell Austin, a medical fellow, is reckless, charming, and self-assured—everything Billie isn’t. Opposites should attract, but barring the occasional bickering and teasing session, Billie and Max prefer to steer clear of each other. That is, until Billie’s statistics skills bring them together. There’s nothing wrong with professionally collaborating with one’s longtime frenemy. Enlisting his help to become more confident in bed through hands-on practice, though… That’s a whole different matter. As Max helps Billie embrace her own pleasure and challenge her insecurities, their no-strings relationship evolves into something deeper, propelling Billie and Max into uncharted territory. And Billie just might discover that love is her most significant finding yet…
minsuni started reading...
3h
Shady Hollow
Juneau Black
The first book in the Shady Hollow series, in which we are introduced to the village of Shady Hollow, a place where woodland creatures live together in harmony--until a curmudgeonly toad turns up dead and the local reporter has to solve the case. Reporter Vera Vixen is a relative newcomer to Shady Hollow. The fox has a nose for news, so when she catches wind that the death might be a murder, she resolves to get to the bottom of the case, no matter where it leads. As she stirs up still waters, the fox exposes more than one mystery, and discovers that additional lives are in jeopardy. Vera finds more to this town than she ever suspected. It seems someone in the Hollow will do anything to keep her from solving the murder, and soon it will take all of Vera's cunning and quickness to crack the case.
So Many Stars gathers essays from elder bipoc queer people to share their story and their journey as a queer person, going through the hardships they had to face but also the happy moments they found in their life and their community.
This was an incredibly emotional read because of how personal it was. By having these people be the ones to tell their own story, you get to understand more intimately how they felt through different moments in their lives, how the people around them affected them negatively but also how others helped them in the most positive way and became their beacon of light.
It brought me a little to tears how so many of these people felt different, how the people around them looked at them differently and felt the need to assign them to a specific gender or label, when most times they didn’t even have words to express how they felt, only that they just wanted to be themselves - “and I don’t even remember secretly feeling like I wanted to be a boy. I just felt like I wanted to be who I am.”
It broke my heart when they mentioned how they got beat up, were called slurs and put in prison only to say after “That was how it was back then.”, that this was their normal and what queer people had to face on a daily without being able to do much about it, otherwise they could face even worse consequences.
But it also brought me so much joy reading more positive perspectives with how some had accepting families, were able to find people they could trust in and belong to a community that made them happy where they felt accepted and seen and where they were able to find joy in being queer. As important as it is to learn about the prejudice queer people had and still have to face today, it’s equally valuable to also read about queer joy, people being happy in their body and loving who they are.
The structure of the book didn’t work for me and unfortunately that affected a lot my enjoyment in reading this. I do think there is cohesiveness in the way Caro De Robertis chose to put together transcripts all relating to the same topic of discussion in the same chapter, but these segments were all mixed together with even ones by the same person split apart, breaking the flow of their train of thought and, consequently, my own reading. This made the reading a bit confusing, losing track of who was saying what, and blended all their voices together instead of keeping them distinct. I wanted to learn more about these people individually, but with the way this book was written it was hard to piece their history together.
minsuni commented...
4h
even if a little boring at times, I thought overall it was cute! Hope you end up liking it :)
BookBun started reading...
4h
The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love
India Holton
Rival ornithologists hunt through England for a rare magical bird in this historical-fantasy rom-com reminiscent of Indiana Jones but with manners, tea, and helicopter parasols. Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that's beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon. For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She's so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they're professional rivals. When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can't trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.
minsuni finished a book
4h
So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
Caro De Robertis
Award-winning novelist Caro De Robertis offers a first-of-its-kind, deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of queer and trans elders of color, from leading activists to artists to ordinary citizens to tell their stories of breathtaking courage, cultural innovations, and acts of resistance, all in their own words.So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and two spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world, how they pursued their passions, and how they continue to be at the vanguard of social change. This singular project collects the testimonies of over a dozen elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations—who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very voices. Award-winning novelist De Robertis creates a collective coming-of-age story based on hundreds of hours of interviews, offering rare snapshots of ordinary kids growing up, navigating family issues and finding community, coming out and changing how they identify over the years, building movements and weathering the AIDS crisis, and sharing wisdom for future generations. Often narrating experiences that took place before they had the array of language that exists today to self-identify and to describe life beyond the gender binary, this generation lived through remarkable changes in American culture, shaped American culture, and yet rarely takes center stage in the history books. Their stories feel particularly urgent in the current political moment, but also remind readers that their experiences are not new. Young trans and nonbinary people of color today belong to a long lineage. The anecdotes in these pages are riveting, joyful, heartbreaking—so full of life and personality and wisdom, and artfully woven together into one immersive narrative. In De Robertis’s words, So Many Stars shares “behind-the-scenes tales of what it meant—and still means—to create an authentic life, against the odds.”
minsuni commented...
17h
unlikeable characters, heavy themes but balanced with humor and you had fun reading it RAAAHHH SO EXCITED TO READ THIS
Yes. (Yas.)
I ate this book up. The two MCs are unlikeable but just redeeming enough to root for. While the book deals with a lot of heavy themes, there’s a perfect balance with witty and humor. I just really had a lot of fun reading this. I loved being inside the brain of these two characters. I was basically like this 😯😨🤭🫢😳 the whole time. This book was extremely hard to put down!
The type of humor in this book really worked for me! It actually made me laugh quite a few times (which hardly ever happens) without feeling like it was trying to make me laugh.
The only reason it’s not 5 stars is because there was a section where it felt like it dragged a bit. And I wanted more resolution on one character near the end that we didn’t get.
Other than that READ THIS.
Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen
Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen
Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen
Im not feeling it☹️ The first one was funny, at least. This one is just annoyingly horny without much to back it up. I felt so much anticipation in the first one, and now Im just kinda ehhh the whole time.
Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen
Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen
