Our friend Ryn is running a reading challenge for Pride 2021! The focus is on LGBTQ+ #OwnVoices works. Check out the official announcement video:
We’re excited to participate and hope you’ll join in! Here’s our picks:
We’ll be reading The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall for most of the challenge prompts because it’s written by a BIPOC LGBTQ+ author, has an LGBTQ+ main character, is from your favorite genre, and is non-US centric. More importantly, though, it’s a Japanese pirate tale that just happens to have LGBTQ+ characters, which is right up our alley! We nearly read it for the 2021 Asian Readathon and can’t wait to go on this YA adventure!
For our non-fiction book and the bonus challenge spotlighting lesser-emphasized parts of the LGBTQ+ community, we’re reading Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen. This will be a buddy read with AdventuRyn. Described as “an engaging exploration of what it means to be asexual in a world that’s obsessed with sexual attraction, and what the ace perspective can teach all of us about desire and identity,” we’re hoping it will help us wrap our pansexual brain around asexuality so we can better understand and support our ace friends.
Since we’ve intended to read The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings by Oscar Wilde for years—and since we suggested the “read a book with an LGBTQ+ focus written before 1950” bonus challenge—we will finally read this classic tale. We both hope it lives up to the hype and that it’s not as creepy as we’ve heard.
Finally, we will read The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang to fulfill the “read a book with trans/non-binary characters or by a trans/non-binary author” and “read a book by a new-to-you LGBTQ+ author” bonus challenges. Prince Sebastian lives a secret life as fashion icon Lady Crystallia. He’s able to do this because of his friendship with the amazing dressmaker, Frances. But how long will she be able to stand keeping her talent and his identity secret?This graphic novel comes highly recommended by friends and family, so we’re looking forward to it!
We hope our picks have inspired you to join the fun! We will be following the hashtag #ReadLGBTQpride here and on Instagram, so be sure to let us know which books you choose and what you think of them!
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