Summer is definitely here, and June has been an absolute scorcher. The heat here in Louisiana has been unbearable. Within seconds of stepping outside, I am drenched in sweat. So, I’ve been staying inside with my books and my pets with the AC and fans blasting. My rare ventures outside have been dominated by doctor’s appointments, CT scans, and bloodwork. Luckily, all of the tests have come back relatively normal, which means no new cancer. Yay for continued remission! Reading, doctor’s visits, and housework have dominated my June, along with anxiously waiting to see where my wife ends up getting a new job. Without further ado, here is my monthly wrap-up for June 2024!
I’m so glad that May is finally over. I’ve been in a funky mood and have had some things going on that have been eating up time that I’d rather spend on reading or blogging. I had a few doctor appointments and needed to have a colonoscopy done for the first time. It was definitely not the most pleasant of experiences. Luckily, they found nothing serious, which means I get to have even more tests to investigate potential causes of my symptoms. Yay! /s I am grateful for the thoroughness, though. It is honestly strange how differently I’m treated now that I’ve had a rare cancer. Every single symptom is investigated with multiple tests to make sure there’s not some other weird thing going on. I feel so special. lol.
My wife has continued her job search, and everything just feels like it is in limbo. We will likely be moving somewhere new before the end of the year, but I have no idea where we’ll be yet. It has me on edge, and I’m just ready to know what’s going to happen so I can start planning. On the bright side, I found out IKEA finally delivers to our home, which means I could purchase some bookshelves I’ve wanted from there for a long time. I spent a week building them and still need to work on getting the base boards re-installed. I actually have extra space on my shelves for the first time in forever. I’m sure it won’t last long. 🙂
April felt like a bit of a slog despite also seeming to fly by. It has rained SO MUCH. There were some points where I wondered if it would ever stop raining. lol. Everything is so saturated, and now May is off to a wet start, too. On the bright side, I haven’t needed to use my sprinklers. So, I guess it isn’t all bad. My wife has been looking for a new job, and it seems like we will probably be moving in the near future. I’m actually quite excited at the prospect of being somewhere new, but I dread needing to move all our stuff, especially the mountain of books I’ve acquired. Has this stopped me from buying more books? No. 🤣 Speaking of books, let’s get to the point of this post and jump into what I managed to read in April!
I’m not really sure what happened to the month of March. It just flew by! The weather was finally not horrible, and I managed to get some landscaping work done. I pulled weeds and planted some new rose bushes. I also had lots to do around the house, including getting some new faucets installed and making sure our air conditioner is ready for the brutal summer ahead. I also had a couple of medical follow-up appointments that all went fine. All in all, it was a pretty productive month. Most importantly, I read a bunch of books… So, let’s jump into talking about them.
February is always pretty busy for me because everyone in my family, including me, has a birthday during the month. So, I spent a lot of time at birthday celebrations and baking cakes. It was a pretty great month and seemed to fly by.
Queer characters have gotten more and more visibility in media, and it’s about time, too. But they can still be hard to find, especially if you’re in a relatively unknown part of the rainbow like nonbinary or aromantic/asexual. So, these are my favorite sci-fi/fantasy books with queer rep to make that search just a little bit easier.
This list is very incomplete, as they are simply books that I have read and that I have personally enjoyed. Also—hi! I’m not the Biblio Nerd Chris, but a different Chris. I’m C. M. Alongi, sci-fi/fantasy author and content creator. I’m turning my (queer) urban fantasy TikTok series CaFae Latte into a book, and Chris was kind enough to let me take over his blog for the day to talk about other queer fantasy stories.
Now a note on definitions: when I say “queer” sci-fi/fantasy, I mean the book has a major or main LGBTQ+ character. They’re not pushed off to the wings for token parts, they are doing stuff “on screen” so to speak for at least 60% of the story. And they’re queer canonically, none of that baiting bullshit. However, the story itself may not necessarily be about the “queer experience,” so to speak. It may focus entirely on surviving a Civil War-Era zombie apocalypse, and the major character just happen to be bisexual while doing it.
Cool? Cool. Let’s get started! In no particular order:
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
Sapphic, bisexual, and asexual rep Young Adult fantasy/horror
Three girls become superheroes to fight a flesh-eating, woman-hunting, shapeshifting monster. …that’s it. It’s great. Trigger warning for this one, as there are themes of domestic violence. However, I think it’s handled quite well, especially when it comes to the struggle of breaking the cycle of abuse.
Witchmark Trilogy by C. L. Polk
Gay (m/m), lesbian, sapphic, and nonbinary rep New Adult epic fantasy
Most of us have heard of Polk’s bestseller Midnight Bargain. I haven’t read that one, but I have read her Witchmark Trilogy, and oh boy, is it good. I can’t go into depth because of spoilers, but basically we have a fantasy-version of Edwardian/Victorian England where magic is considered too dangerous. Those born with magic are locked away in asylums…if they’re poor. The rich, of course, run the place, hiding in plain sight. If you’re born rich with storm magic, awesome. If not, then you’re essentially chained/enslaved to storm magic-users so they can use you as a battery pack. The protagonist of book one fakes his death to escape such a situation.
Also themes of domestic violence in this one, too. And classism.
Dread Nation and its sequel Deathless Divide, by Justina Ireland
Bisexual (sapphic), aromantic, and asexual rep Young Adult alternative history
This one’s great if you want queer people of color—specifically Black. Dread Nation takes place twenty years after zombies first rise during the Battle of Gettysburg. Slavery is gone, but the Reconstruction Era isn’t exactly known for great tolerance (it is, in fact, when the KKK was formed).
The main character Jane is a young black woman who’s training to be a zombie-fighting specialist, which white women can hire as bodyguards. But she realizes very quickly that something rotten is going on in her city and sets out to find it. Hopefully without become undead in the process.
Her frenemy Katherine is, to date, the best representation of an aroace character I’ve ever seen.
The Mermaids of Eriana Kwai Trilogy by Tiana Warner
Sapphic rep YA fantasy
This is basically lesbian Romeo & Juliet, but with flesh-eating mermaids. And also some indigenous rep—although the island and culture is largely fictional.
The island, home to a small human community, is slowly starving as mermaids fish out the waters—and also kill anyone who gets too close to shore. Every year, the island sends out a ship full of young men to kill as many mermaids as possible. Few ever return, largely because the mermaids have a siren-song effect that hypnotizes men. Until finally the island’s like, “Fine! We’ll go woke and send out girls!”
Only problem: one of those girls falls in love with a mermaid.
Warner also has a few other fantasy and contemporary stories out there, most if not all of them sapphic.
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
Sapphic rep YA/NA science fiction
…I have a lot of sapphic reps, don’t I? Ironically, I’m not a lesbian. I’m aroace. But I’m also a woman, which means I tend to be drawn toward stories with major femme characters. Sorry, not sorry.
Anywhoo: this one takes place on a tidally locked planet. That is, a planet where one side permanently faces the sun while the other faces away, leaving a single thin habitable layer in between. The main character explores three cities: a tyrannical one that tries to execute her for stealing a few bucks, a laissez-fare one that’s all party all the time (but no law and order, and certainly no support for its poorer population), and the alien-run City in the Middle of the Night.
This one’s really hard to describe, mostly because the prose is so unique and also so good.
The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V. E. Schwab
Bisexual/pansexual rep Adult fantasy romance
I hesitate to add this to the list, simply because while both main characters are plainly stated as bi (or maybe pan? Hard to tell sometimes), all of the more explicit parts are cishet. Having said that, it’s a really good book, you’re still bi/pan even if you’re in a “straight” relationship, and rules are dumb.
This one took over TikTok and Instagram for a little bit, and for good reason. The main character, Addie, was born in 18th Century France. Why is she running around 21st Century New York? Well, she made a deal with a basically-devil who made her immortal. Only problem: nobody remembers her. If they walk out of the room, they instantly forget ever meeting her. She is unable to leave her mark, not in people’s memories, or paper, or stone, nothing.
Until one day Addie meets a man who remembers her.
This is another “yeah, the plot and characters are great, but oh my god the P R O S E!”
Everything by Rick Riordan starting from Magnus Chase and the Trials of Apollo series
Bi/pansexual, asexual, aromantic, gay, sapphic, transgender/genderfluid, and probably some others that I’m forgetting Young Adult urban fantasy
You know who this is.
Heart of Iron by C. M. Alongi
Nonbinary, bisexual, sapphic, aromantic, and asexual rep New Adult urban fantasy
Jennifer Charles (JC) is fresh out of prison and rehab, hoping to turn their life around and stay out of trouble. And they seem to be in luck, as they land a baking job at CaFae Latte, owned by the mysterious and powerful fairy known to her community as Violet.
However, JC soon learns that their dark, trauma-filled past has nothing on Violet’s, and soon, her enemies capture her with the intention of dragging her back to the Fae Realm for capital punishment. And to make matters worse, they frame JC for the crime, forcing them to team up with the knife-happy Cyrus and the witch Nicole to save their reputation and chance at a new life.
Of course, Violet’s no sitting damsel, and spends much of her time reminding her captors of why she was one called the Iron Witch, or “she with a heart of iron.”
But they all have a bigger problem: this book isn’t out yet! In fact, it hasn’t even been edited. I am self-publishing this novel, and to make sure I deliver a quality product (with full edits, audiobook narration and production, decent cover art, etc.), I am running a Kickstarter to raise the funds needed to do so. Check out the link here:
The start of another year has come and gone. January was a bit of wild month, with deep freezes that lasted for days and rainstorms that seemed to never end. Seriously, it rained every day for a week straight. I thought I’d never see sunshine again. lol. We survived the weather without any damage, though, and I’m grateful to have avoided burst pipes, which so many in my area experienced. In general, it was a pretty good month despite the weather, and I managed to get quite a bit of reading done, mostly because I never wanted to go outside. 🙂
I’ve been in a mood for the last month and a half or so, and it left me with no motivation for blogging. So, October’s wrap-up never got finished, which means this long overdue post will include stuff from October and November. I’m not sure if the gloomier weather has soured my mood or if the meh feelings are just a result of a mild depressive episode. Whatever the cause, it has made it so much harder to get things done. I’m feeling a bit better now and had a great Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Hopefully, things will continue to improve since I have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas.
The only stuff I’ve wanted to do over the last couple of months was sleep and read, and I did plenty of both of them. I managed to read some great books, which is one of the only things keeping me sane and feeling somewhat productive. I’ll stop my moody rambling now and get to the good stuff, all the things I’ve read since September…
September was a bit of a mess. I had quite a few doctor’s appointments, including my annual scans to check for cancer recurrence. I’m always anxious when it is time for the scans, but I was a little more nervous than usual because I’ve been experiencing some worsening shortness of breath for the last few months. They did some other tests, and it turns out that my remaining lung is just struggling with asthma. So, I’m on some new medicine and remain cancer free, which is great news.
The second half of the month was dominated by my wife’s contract negotiation with her employer, which was such a frustrating process. For a while, we thought she might not be working after the end of September, which would mean losing our health insurance. It was all annoying and somewhat worrying, but my diligent savings the last few years meant we’d be okay either way for quite a while. In the end, they couldn’t come to an agreement on terms to renew her contract, but she has a year to find something else before they eliminate her position, which is a much better outcome than we’d expected.
All this to say, the anxiety derailed my reading plans a bit. It was still a solid month, though. I just didn’t make as much progress on my remaining annual goals as I’d have liked.
