#100dob

When you can see yourself making progress in a really long book

100 Days of Booklr Day Seventy Seven -

100 Days of Booklr | Day 74

Guess who has two thumbs and read a whole ass book in <12 hours!!! It’s ya girl!

Yeah so I picked up The Inexplicable Logic of My Life this morning. My plan for the day was to pop cold meds and watch Living Single now that it’s all on Hulu (woot!) and I did follow through on both of those things. However, every time I put down this book (not often), it was back in my hands within minutes. 

It’s pride this month! So of course I wanted to give some recommendations for books with lgbt+ characters. I know there are loads more books with lgbt+ characters in them, but these are the books I have read and finished. I know there are a few series that I have yet to finish (like The Raven Cycle and All for the Game) which reveal that characters are lgbt+, but since I haven’t read up to when that happens I’m not going to recommend them. But as soon as I do I will gladly add them to the list! Here are my recommendations for lgbt+ reads, in no particular order!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: This book is amazing. It tells the life of Achilles (you know the ancient demigod???) through the eyes of Patroclus, his best friend and his true love. It’s such a great story because you get the story you’re already familiar with from The Iliad, but this story humanizes them. We see that Achilles is a lover, not a fighter, and has a sense of humor. And we get to see this beautiful romance between Patroclus and Achilles that is so sweet and pure. If you haven’t read this book yet, please check it out! It’s one of my favorites and I can’t recommend it enough. 

The Color Purple by Alice Walker: This book is a modern classic, and for good reason, because it is a great read. This book shows what life was like for African-American women during the 1930s and how difficult life was for those women back then. During the story the main character, Celie, also begins a relationship with a woman. It’s been a few years since I’ve read this book, and I’ll probably pick it up again soon, but I remember how much I loved Celie as a character. This story has a way of sticking with you, no matter how much time has passed since you last read it. This book is an amazng read but it does feature some triggering stuff like rape and domestic violence, so don’t pick this book up if you are uncomfortable with reading that.

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: This is my most recent read and I loved it so much! I can’t believe it took me so long to read this book! The main character, Simon, is gay, but not out yet. He starts talking with this guy from his school who is also gay online (he doesn’t know his name or anything, he knows him as Blue) One day Simon forgets to log of his school email and someone reads the emails and starts blackmailing Simon. This was such a great read. I loved Simon as a character and it was such fin trying to figure out who Blue was. And Simon and Blue might be the cutest couple I’ve read about in a long time. Every time they talked and when they finally met face to face I was smiling so much because they were so damn cute! If you are looking for a cute lighthearted read definitely pick up Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda!

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: So this is the only book on this list where the main character isn’t lgbt+ but I felt like I should add this to the list. Molly, who is the main character, has a lesbian sister who is dating a pansexual girl, and both Molly and her sister are donor babies because their moms are lesbians who have been together for 20+ years. Also the best part of the story, in my opinion, is that it takes place right after the Supreme Court made same sex marriage legal so her mom’s are getting married to celebrate! I know I probably wasn’t meant to love Molly’s mom’s romance than Molly’s but I couldn’t help it. Seeing two women in a loving relationship and raising kids is something you never get to see in YA books. Don’t get me wrong Molly has a great story too but her mom’s are the highlight for me. Pick up the book at least for them!

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire: This is a fantasy story about a house for kids to come back to once they have gone to places like Narnia or Wonderland. It has such an interesting premise. Also the main character identifies as asexual and one of the side characters is a trans boy. As someone who is ace it was great to see an ace character, since it’s really hard to find any in not just YA but any books. And I’ve heard the second book has more representation for other sexualities. I can’t remember at the moment what the other sexualities are, but I think it might be bisexuality. So definitely check out this series for the representation! It definitely helps that it has a cool concept too.

Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo: Six of Crows is one of my favorite book series, and part of that is because of how diverse it’s characters are. And it’s a heist story where all of the main characters are thugs and gangsters. It’s great. There are PoC characters and four of the seven main characters are confirmed to be not straight: Jesper, Nina, Wylan, and Kuwei. It’s an action packed story with amazing characters that you end up loving, even if they’re morally gray. If you haven’t read Six of Crows WHAT ARE YOU DOING GO PICK IT UP!

The Love Interest by Cale Deitrich: This is another recent read that I found myself loving. The Love Interest follows these two spies who are competing to get this girl to fall in love with them, because whoever loses ends up dying. Kind of boring sounding right? NOPE! PLOT TWIST the guys end up falling in love with each other! It pretty much turns those boring overused YA tropes on their heads. It made me think of those tumblr posts where they say something like “make it gay you cowards!” because it did just that. And there were spies so it’s extra cool.