When people ask me, “what do you like to read”, I often panic because it’s kind of all over the place. For the sake of getting good recommendations, I will try my best to provide some clues into what I enjoy…
First off, I’m a lesbian so I love books with surprise lesbians/queer couples. I feel like 90% of the books I’ve read this year have had a surprise lesbian in it, and I’m all for it.
I do enjoy long books where you really get to know the characters (think A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara). I’m more of a 300-400 page book person, but if the characters are interesting, I can do a 1,000 pager.
I do enjoy a good autobiography by someone who has done some crazy journey (think Wild Life by Keena Roberts. Bonus: she’s also a lesbian). I love the outdoors, but I’ve read essentially every biography out there about thru-hiking/other long distance trips so we can probably steer clear of those, unless it’s not something popular and also written by a woman or POC (I don’t want to read another outdoor book from a white man’s perspective, and I’m not sorry about it).
The past year, I’ve been reading from my wife’s bookshelf, which is more dark/depressing, which I’ve surprisingly been enjoying (think: Ohio by Stephen Markley, The Deluge by Stephen Markley, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottesia Moshfegh).
I’m down for a big 1,000 pager or potentially a couple smaller books. Also, no history or sci-fi books.
Thank you in advanced for any recommendations!
by bigbadmon11
3 Comments
[All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Masad](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49532609-all-my-mother-s-lovers)
Surprise lesbians: Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis
Beartown by Fredrik Backman has a queer character, but not a lesbian. There’s a pretty large cast of characters, and they are all equally important and you get to know them all really well. Backman is incredible at writing realistic characters, these books feel like I’m reading town gossip about people I grew up with. The story is dark and dreary at times but it is also hopeful. It’s a trilogy, but none of the books leave off on cliffhangers, so you can read one or all if you like. (There’s also a lot of recap in #2 and #3 so you don’t have to read back to back). The book is set in a small swedish forest town, and the nature setting is almost like an extra character.
With Love, From Cold World by Alicia Thompson is a fun queer romcom with surprisingly complex characters. FMC is a “boring” bookkeeper who grew up in foster care, MMC is bisexual and was kicked out of his house at 17 because he’s queer and his dad is a pastor. The main characters are somewhat enemies to lovers/workplace rivals, but they work at a winter themed tourist attraction in Florida and it was just the right amount of silly for me to get into it. This book was super surprising for me, I thought it was SO cute and funny, I’m not always a big romance person but when I do read romance books I really like them to have realistic characters with normal people baggage and jobs.