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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 It wasn't perfect and some of the ideas they had seem out of date now, the ones we know about anyway.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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Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Harley Milano has dreamed of being a trapeze artist for as long as she can remember. With parents who run a famous circus in Las Vegas, she spends almost every night in the big top watching their lead aerialist perform, wishing with all her soul that she could be up there herself one day.

After a huge fight with her parents, who continue to insist she go to school instead, Harley leaves home, betrays her family and joins the rival traveling circus Maison du Mystère. There, she is thrust into a world that is both brutal and beautiful, where she learns the value of hard work, passion and collaboration. But at the same time, Harley must come to terms with the truth of her family and her past—and reckon with the sacrifices she made and the people she hurt in order to follow her dreams.

TITLE: Harley in the Sky
AUTHOR: Akemi Dawn Bowman
PUBLISHER: Simon Pulse
YEAR: 2020
LENGTH: 384 pages
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Contemporary
RECOMMENDED: N/A

DNF 98 pages in (24%).

Partial Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.

I don't like the main character and I vehemently disagree with her choices early in the book. At this point I can't help feeling like she brought this mess on herself and it makes it hard for me to sympathize with her. Since that's not a great feeling for me, I'm stopping. I can tell from the description that part of the point is that this is a mess and a lot of it is her fault, but this just isn't the book for me. 

TW for Harry Potter reference.

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The yellow and black stripes of a big-top tent, viewed from underneath, with the shadow of a young woman doing acrobatics silhouetted against the stripes.


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