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We've Always Been Queer

The podcast is Books That Burn because the original idea was "books that burn you", discussing fictional depictions of trauma. It's also an intentional reminder of the pile of burning books, you know the photo I mean, the one from WWII. It's a pile of books about queerness, gender, and sexuality. Just in case you don't know, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science) was headed by Magnus Hirschfeld.  It was a resource for gay, intersex, and transgender people, both of knowledge and medical help. It also helped the community with addiction treatment and contraception. It wasn't perfect and some of the ideas they had seem out of date now, the ones we know about anyway. But they were trying to make queer people's lives better, and they were a community resource at a time when people really needed it. Which is all the time, we always need these accesses. And the Nazis burned the whole library. It took days, they had to drag the books ou
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Son by Lois Lowry (The Giver Quartet, #4)

"Son" depicts sacrifice and longing in the context of a mother and son separated by the community from The Giver. Languid and urgent in turns, it brings the quartet together in a very satisfying way, giving the feeling that everyone will continue after.

The mixed feelings I'd had about the second installment (Gathering Blue) are completely wiped away with this one. I wanted more from that book and here I got a whole lot more. The characters grow and change through time in ways that feel consistent with how we met them, while also allowing for change that feels genuine.

Claire's story is very well handled. I'm someone who has never had the desire to have kids, but the emotional beats felt genuine and still made sense to someone with my perspective on this issue.

Overall I've enjoyed the whole quartet and would recommend them as a gentle introduction to dystopian fiction, or as a very good entry in that genre for those who have delved a bit more.


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