Hi friends! It’s been about three weeks since my last post “5 Books that Helped Me Reimagine the Craft of Fiction Writing,” which had garnered some views and new Twitter followings. I suspect it has to do with Grace D. Li’s lovely quote-retweeting 💖:
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2021 Review
Happy New Year everyone! It’s been a while since I posted anything that isn’t a book review (I also just found some drafts of monthly wrap-ups that I never finished), but here we are in 2022 and I think it is a wonderful time to start talking about 2021 like it is ancient history.
Table of Contents
Life Update
So what happened in my life 2021?
For those of you who are new here, hi, I’m a full-time PhD student studying space physics (part-time researcher), part-time teaching assistant, and I am trying to run both this blog and a bookstagram account. The past year had mostly been me preparing for one of the biggest exams of my PhD career—the qualifying exam. Basically, you present your research for half an hour, and then a panel of committee members would quiz you on your research and background knowledge for an hour. I took mine in November and got my results in December: I passed! Now, I’m officially allowed to continue with my studies and call myself a PhD candidate.
Another exciting thing is that I have a short story to be released in SJ Whitby’s Cute Mutants anthology AWAKENINGS!
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Queer Books I Read When I Was Baby Gay
Hi lovelies! 💖 I’m finally done with my classes for the school year about a month ago, so, uh, I’m back now! It’s been a while since I posted my last non-review post—February Wrap-Up, and I had promised to catch up with all your posts. There has been some progress but I am still working on it. Please believe me that I am trying. 😭
Can you believe it’s Pride Month already? I swear yesterday was still 2020 but simultaneously it’s been a lifetime. Happy Pride! Your resident queer blogger (me) is still somewhat burnt-out, but I hope you are all doing great, or at least, better than I am.
In case you don’t know, I am a panromantic grey-ace genderqueer person! That is quite a mouthful so I usually just say I’m queer. I am also sapphic and, I guess, somewhat genderfluid. You know how life is sometimes confusing? Yes, that is me with my identities.
I’ve been wanting to write this post for a very long time, but nowadays, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to focus. Which is why I had an empty draft of this since April and am only now posting. Just in time for June though!
This post is by no means a recommendation list. My resources were limited when I started reading queer books in high school almost 10 years ago (YIKES). Ironically, my first book with LGBTQ+ main characters wasn’t even targeted at queer readers.
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Blog Tour: The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver
The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver
- Publisher: PUSH
- Release Date: June 1, 2021
- Genre: Young Adult
- Page Count: 235 pages
preorder links on author’s website! | content warnings on author’s website | author’s playlist on Spotify
Hi, I am Hsinju (she/they/他), a queer Taiwanese book reviewer and blogger currently residing in Illinois. Today (May 26th, 2021) is the first day of Hear Our Voices Book Tours for Mason Deaver’s sophomore novel The Ghosts We Keep, a story about the nonbinary, gay 16-year-old Liam “Lee” Cooper (he/they) struggling with the death of their older brother Ethan.
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Cute Mutants Book Tag
In honor of my friend SJ Whitby’s Cute Mutants Vol 4: The Sisterhood of Evil Mutants release TODAY, I am excited to share this book tag originated by El/Art (@inkandplasma), Andee (@mousereads), and Finn (@evidentlyb). You can read El’s original post here.
Also, if you haven’t read the series already, I highly recommend giving it a try. You can read my review of Cute Mutants Vol 1: Mutant Pride here.
