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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 It wasn't perfect and some of the ideas they had seem out of date now, the ones we know about anyway.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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Mid September Reviews (2023)

Greetings

Welcome to the Books That Burn Fortnightly Roundup! Releasing every two weeks (one week early for Patrons).

News and Events

We're now on BlueSky and Cohost!

Notable September Releases:

  • SLEEP NO MORE by Seanan McGuire (September 5th)

  • THE SPIRIT BARES ITS TEETH by Andrew Joseph White (September 5th)

  • MAMMOTHS AT THE GATE by Nghi Vo (September 12th)

  • YOUR LONELY NIGHTS ARE OVER by Adam Sass (September 12th)

  • A CROWN SO CURSED by L.L. McKinney (September 19th)

  • A STUDY IN DROWINING by Ava Reid (September 19th)

  • FOUL HEART HUNTSMAN by Chloe Gong (September 26th)

Recent Reviews

UNSEELIE by Ivelisse Housman, book 1 of The Unseelie Duology is Fantasy marketed as Young Adult. Iselia is a changeling who grew up with her twin (human) sister. Told in First Person with Single POV.

THE SPIRIT BARES ITS TEETH by Andrew Joseph White is Fantasy/Horror/Historical, with queer character(s), marketed as Young Adult. Silas is a trans boy who can see spirits, institutionalized as a hysterical girl when he's found out. Told in First Person with Single POV.

WE WON'T BE HERE TOMORROW AND OTHER STORIES by Margaret Killjoy is LGBTQIA+ marketed as Adult. A collection of stories about death cults, queer love, and the end of everything. Told in an Anthology with multiple POV styles.

THE INNOCENT SLEEP by Seanan McGuire, book 18 of October Daye is Fantasy, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. Tybalt has lost Toby in an instant, yanked away by Titania into an entirely different version of the world which now surrounds them both. Told in First Person with Single POV.

Reviews forthcoming for WITCH KING by Martha Wells and SYSTEM COLLAPSE by Martha Wells.

DNFs

I didn't get far into THE SPLINTER IN THE SKY by Kemi Ashing-Giwa before stopping. Nothing was particularly wrong, it was just too sapphic and too sci-fi for me. I'd be open to trying it again later, but for now it wasn't what I wanted to read.

Rereads and Older Reviews

I re-read THE MAGPIE LORD by KJ Charles, and (from a different series) AN UNSEEN ATTRACTION, also by KJ Charles.

Current Reads

I'm in the middle of way too many books, I've just wanted to re-read and focus on m/m right now, which means anything outside that is taking me a lot longer.

  • DRACULA (via Dracula Daily, will finish in November)

  • THE SUGARED GAME by KJ Charles

  • SUMMER SONS by Lee Mandelo (re-read)

  • THE ARCHIVE UNDYING by Emma Mieko Candon

  • THE WITCHES OF BONE HILL by Ava Morgyn (ARC)

  • IMMORTAL LONGINGS by Chloe Gong

  • FEVERED STAR by Rebecca Roanhorse

  • THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett (ARC)

In Case You Missed It

This time last year I read THE GHOST BRIDE by Yangsze Choo.

Pluggables and Podcast News

If you're looking for a place to buy any of the books I've reviewed, please consider our Bookshop page (if you use our links to purchase any books we get a small commission). Let us know if there's a category you'd like to see curated and we'll see if we can get some titles together.

The 2023 prompts are now available from the annual reading challenge! It runs from January 1st to December 31st this year. Find info and links here.

As for the podcast, hopefully you're enjoying our most recent episode. If you'd like to receive episodes early, as well as bonus content, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Patrons receive this newsletter one week early, as well as a list of upcoming podcast episodes.

Patrons pledging $20 or more each month receive a bonus episode. Patrons pledging $50 or more can vote once per month on what we'll cover in the podcast. You can find all of those polls here. Patrons at any level receive the booklist with our planned episodes for up to three months at a time.

Thanks for reading, the next roundup will be in two weeks!

-Robin

Co-host of Books That Burn

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A black and orange tortoiseshell cat (Folio) is lying on her back in a windowsill, partially on a blanket covered in cats with large eyes. Folio is sleeping, her paws curled up in front, with her belly in the air and her tail curled around her hind paws.


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