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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 It wasn't perfect and some of the ideas they had seem out of date now, the ones we know about anyway.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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Clear Your Shit: Helping the Witch (Final Boss Battle)

We have the Wizard cornered now! Literally. He's backed himself all the way into the far corner of the tower between two colossal shelves. Heather flanks him on the right, waving the feather in his direction. The wizard rolls his eyes and turns cautiously to me. I hate to admit I'm starting to agree with him. I don't think feather Heather has been toting around with her has any sort of power. She is at least keeping him from escaping in that direction, so I focus on him. As I'm trying to decide the best plan of attack without hurting that poor, innocent witch another book falls. I notice it moments before the Wizard, who's forced to separate from the witch to not have it crash down on his silly pointed hat. Heather quickly jumps in and pulls the witch to safety. Perfect! I come at him, swinging my club... and miss him completely. Instead, I clip the corner of the shelf, and an avalanche of books pile on the Wizard. He's knocked out cold. The witch inches back in his direction and nudges him with a booth before giving a satisfied nod.

"Thank you! The Kingdom's guards can take it from here. He has a lot to answer for." She smiles sweetly but begins pushing us in the direction of the door. "Now. I still have a lot of books I need to organize and send." Just before she slams the door on us she grabs the book that helped her escape, looks it over briefly, and thrusts it at me. "This is yours." The door slams shut and I'm pretty sure I heard a lock slide into place. I look down at the book in my hands. Valiant by Holly Black. This is mine? There's a small scrap of paper sticking between the pages with my name on it. It must be another of my orders. When did I get this again? Heather shrugs at me, also at a loss as I slip it into my bag. We stand outside of the tower for a moment, unsure where to go next when Heather points up smiling happily. It takes me a moment to realize what has her so excited. The books. Or the lack of books really. It seems the witch is getting the rain of books under control. I listen for a moment and notice the sporadic thumbs and books from inside the tower has almost disappeared as well. Whaddya know? That was a lot of work for a very simple solution.

We set off in what is hopefully the direction back home.


Narrated by Alu. Follow her on Twitter and check out her website: Tome Reader Reviews.

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