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Join us on Storygraph today and take on the queer reading challenge!

real quick today cause I'm very low on time before I have to go vend

1. What are you currently reading?

• Lout of Count's Family vol. 5 by Yu Ryeo-Han: both my other Libby novels are due sooner. I started this anyway.
• The Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh-Chin: chipped away a bit more over the weekend, expect to read more today (I've been bringing it vending, when I don't want to use my phone cause I need the charge to last, so I leave myself no choice but to read the thing I'm meh about. It's not even that it's bad, I'm just not finding it very engaging. The last couple chapters were actually more interesting to me, tho, so I'm hoping that keeps up.)

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• The Apothecary Diaries light novel vol. 1 by Natsu Hyuuga: I enjoyed it enough to keep going, at least. I think of the three versions I've encountered (manga and anime being the other two) I liked this one the best.
• 我和我对家 by PEPA: I finished it! I finished it! Reading the censored version continued to be hilarious but I do think that by the end a casual reader could have figured out they're in love, lmao.
• I Ship My Rival x Me manhua vol. 1 and 2 by PEPA: I think immediately turned around and started rereading the manhua again, for all the couples feels that got censored out of the book.
• BL Metamorphosis vol. 5 by Kaori Tsurutani: I was kinda disappointed in the conclusion. It felt rushed, and there was no payoff on what the younger half of the friendship would do. Like, she started doing art. Is she gonna continue? Do they stay in touch? It felt weak, even the few plotlines that were introduced had virtually no pay-off.
• Girl Friends vol. 1 by Milk Morinaga: by far my least favorite of the Morinaga titles I've read so far.
• I am NOT Starfire by Mariko Tamaki: eh, it was fine I guess
• Kase-san and Yamada vol. 1 by Hiromi Takashima: I thought this was a vol. 1 considering. it says it's a vol. 1. But it's actually volume 6. Still, it was followable... and I didn't like it much, Kase-san is weirdly controlling and jealous in ways that weren't in anyway acknowledged and were treated as okay.
• Dandadan vol. 4: Yukinobu Tatsu: the crack continues. Not that I expected it to end.

3. What will you read next?

Novels: I have Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle and A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett on Libby and have to read them before they run out of time, so.

Physical Library Loans: The Backstagers vol. 1 to 3 by James Tynion IV and others

Libby: After Hours by Yuhta Nishio and Heavy Vinyl: Y2K-O by Carly Usdin are both due in under a week, so at minimum those. I have a lot of Libby loans rn, a bunch of holds came through at the same time, so I expect to try to get through a lot of them as I have the time.

We’ve put together our second-annual Queer Holiday Book list! You can view last year’s list (with some overlap and some different books) here. This year’s list leans a bit on Christmas, but there are non-Christmas-focused books, and there’s more in last year’s list. Whatever holiday or holidays you celebrate in December, we hope you have a good one (or more)! The contributors to the list are: Nina Waters, Shannon, Shadaras, Rhosyn Goodfellow, and Linnea Peterson.

The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch

Nicholas “Coal” Claus used to love Christmas. Until his father, the reigning Santa, turned the holiday into a PR façade. Coal will do anything to escape the spectacle, including getting tangled in a drunken, supremely hot make- out session with a beautiful man behind a seedy bar one night.

But the heir to Christmas is soon commanded to do his duty: he will marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess and his brother’s not-so-secret crush. A situation that has disaster written all over it.

Things go from bad to worse when a rival arrives to challenge Coal for the princess’s hand…and Coal comes face-to-face with his mysterious behind-the-bar hottie: Hex, the Prince of Halloween.

It’s a fake competition between two holiday princes who can’t keep their hands off each other over a marriage of convenience that no one wants. And it all leads to one of the sweetest, sexiest, messiest, most delightfully unforgettable love stories of the year.

To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh

Serendipity, WA is filled with Christmas cheer, beautiful mountain views, and trans man Will’s feminist Wiccan family. Home for the holidays, he avoids their clumsy attempts at support by hiding in the local coffee shop and flirting with Bea, a friend from high school.

The beautiful landscapes can’t make up for the the realities of being queer in a small town, and Bea wants out. Will grabs for a prosperity spell, and finds a new way to connect to the magic he’s become estranged from. New romance and optimism get them through the holidays, ready to face their next problems.

Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake

It’s been five years since Charlotte Donovan was ditched at the altar by her ex-fiancée, and she’s doing more than okay. Sure, her single mother never checks in, but she has her strings ensemble, the Rosalind Quartet, and her life in New York is a dream come true. As the holidays draw near, her ensemble mate Sloane persuades Charlotte and the rest of the quartet to spend Christmas with her family in Colorado—it is much cozier and quieter than Manhattan, and it would guarantee more practice time for the quartet’s upcoming tour. But when Charlotte arrives, she discovers that Sloane’s sister Adele also brought a friend home—and that friend is none other than her ex, Brighton.

All Brighton Fairbrook wanted was to have the holliest, jolliest Christmas—and try to forget that her band kicked her out. But instead, she’s stuck pretending like she and her ex are strangers—which proves to be difficult when Sloane and Adele’s mom signs them all up for a series of Christmas dating events. Charlotte and Brighton are soon entrenched in horseback riding and cookie decorating, but Charlotte still won’t talk to her. Brighton can hardly blame her after what she did.

After a few days, however, things start to slip through. Memories. Music. The way they used to play together—Brighton on guitar, Charlotte on her violin—and it all feels painfully familiar. But it’s all in the past and nothing can melt the ice in their hearts…right?

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters…

How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

It all starts when Shani runs into May. Like, literally. With her mom’s Subaru.

Attempted vehicular manslaughter was not part of Shani’s plan. She was supposed to be focusing on her monthlong paleoichthyology internship. She was going to spend all her time thinking about dead fish and not at all about how she was unceremoniously dumped days before winter break.

It could be going better.

But when a dog-walking gig puts her back in May’s path, the fossils she’s meant to be diligently studying are pushed to the side—along with the breakup.

Then they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve. As things start to feel more serious, though, Shani’s hurt over her ex-girlfriend’s rejection comes rushing back. Is she ready to try a committed relationship again, or is she okay with this just being a passing winter fling?

No Better Than Beasts by Z.R. Ellor

The Gogitdan siblings had suffered much to fight for their place in Szpratzian Society. Immigrants from the cursed neighboring kingdom of Kolznechia, they spent their childhood on the street and in workhouses until Vdradir, the eldest, lifted from poverty with the help of a wealthy patron.

Now nineteen, Nabik is a conflicted soldier, forever in the shadow of his older brother. Vdradir has been appointed governor, ruling and grasping for power with a merciless iron fist. And Drakne, their little sister, is a dancer who dreams of peace and comfort and protection. Together, they are as broken and divided as the land they once called home.

When a powerful enemy rises, and signs of war between the Szpratzian empire and Kolznechia begin to spread, the siblings are forced to choose―cling to power and safety or save the remains of their tattered bond? When Rat Kings and Pinewood Princes force them into the Kolznechian woods, the siblings will be forced to fight for their home and humanity with teeth and claw…

Don’t Stop Believing by Gwen Hayes

The Ogre from the Hill: Simon Powell, the town recluse, only comes to town to deliver firewood and get supplies. Two days before Christmas, he sees the new librarian’s car in a ditch and knows he can’t leave him on the road, but it’s too late to take him back to town. He’ll have something he’s never had in his cabin in the ten years that’s he’s lived there…company.

The Book Nerd from the City: Adam Parker moved to the small community to make big changes in his life, but being snowbound with the bearded lumberjack in his rustic cabin was something he’d thought only existed in his fantasies. Simon pushes away anyone who wants to get close to him, but Adam sees what he’s hiding in his heart and he wants it. Badly.

A Christmas to Remember: Adam smells like cinnamon and redemption and Simon aches to run his fingers over the scrape of stubble on his cheeks. To pull him into a kiss. To reignite feelings he’d denied himself for too long. Life is right there, blazing in the eyes of the town librarian. A man who isn’t afraid of him. But he learned long ago that everything he touches gets tainted, and he’ll do anything to keep his darkness away from Adam’s light.

But Adam has something else on his side—he’s been a very good boy this year and all he wants for Christmas is Simon.

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