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Dracoria Malfoy (690 KP) is asking for a recommendation

Jul 22, 2017  
Recommend Me
Ay sup peeps! I'm here in India, ridiculously bored, and I need some good YA novels to read. Also, I don't want boks about "Miss Slightly Popular and Her Crush that Obviously Likes Her but for Some God-Forsaken Reason She Doesn't Know" NO. I need books about LGBTQIA+ characters. Characters who break stereotypes. Characters from different religions. I don't care about their gender. I don't care about the genre (Unless it's mystery. I cannot stand mystery.) Please. I need some good books.

Also, I'm pretty well-read, s give me books you don't think I've heard of. Or John Green. I'm always ready to cry. Always. (HP REFERENCES FTW)
     
Well that was enlightening - I never knew what any of the words meant - I had seen a video online where individuals label people as what they think they are - and I had no idea what anything meant, this was quite informative - though they now need a book about ALL individuals, because there were some words used in that video I still have no idea what they mean - a guide like this for all genders would be superb. The graphics were cute and the "voices" in it were also well done and thought out. A great GN for those wanting to learn a bit about gender neutrality!
  
TT
Tempt the Stars (Cassandra Palmer, #6)
Karen Chance | 2013 | Paranormal, Romance
10
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Tempt the Stars is great, even with the grief over one of my favourite characters. The way Cassie pulls Pritkin into her adventures despite his sentence of doom is run and heartbreaking.

We learn of a whole new side to the world, the witches and the Pythian court, which provides ana exciting more female empowerment. While vampires were quite gender neutral there was a heavy male presence and the mages were all male. Having the strong witches arrive and Cassie prove her place among them and growing and maturing in this book was an exciting turn that I look forward to in subsequent books.
  
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Emma Watson recommended Hunger in Books (curated)

 
Hunger
Hunger
Roxane Gay | 2017 | Biography
9.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Roxane Gay describes her book Hunger as a ‘memoir about my body’. It traverses many of the issues surrounding our human bodies, the sexual experiences we have, our relationship with food, how we feel about our own bodies and the difference gender has to play on a body…While parts of the book are difficult to read, it highlights the very real damage done by sexual violence and puts you in the mind and body of someone that has to move through the world in a different way. A small insight or perspective I feel grateful for now having and understanding a little bit better."

Source
  
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Anthony Marra | 2014 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"In a politically fractious America in which “bearing witness” has been attacked as a motive for art in recent years, emerging writers have nonetheless written boldly across divides of class, ethnic identity, and gender. Outstanding among these has been Anthony Marra, a young American author whose first two books are set mainly in Russia and the former Soviet Union. In A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Marra’s debut novel, three survivors of the Second Chechen War band together in an abandoned hospital. In 2015’s The Tsar of Love and Techno, linked short stories follow various characters’ dreams and dashed hopes from the 1930s to the present, and then beyond."

Source
  
The Tsar of Love and Techno
The Tsar of Love and Techno
Anthony Marra | 2017 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"In a politically fractious America in which “bearing witness” has been attacked as a motive for art in recent years, emerging writers have nonetheless written boldly across divides of class, ethnic identity, and gender. Outstanding among these has been Anthony Marra, a young American author whose first two books are set mainly in Russia and the former Soviet Union. In A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Marra’s debut novel, three survivors of the Second Chechen War band together in an abandoned hospital. In 2015’s The Tsar of Love and Techno, linked short stories follow various characters’ dreams and dashed hopes from the 1930s to the present, and then beyond."

Source
  
When Katie Met Cassidy
When Katie Met Cassidy
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was one of my Book of the Month picks this month, so I got it a little early. It's a very quick read, and a sweet story. Basically, it's lesbian romance fluff. We need more fluff with non-heterosexual romances, so this is great stuff!

The book touches on gender issues - Cassidy is a woman, and seems happy to be so, but abhors feminine clothing and instead dresses solely in men's suits. (The scene with her fabulously gay tailor was an absolute delight!) She flashes back a little onto her childhood when she wasn't allowed to wear the clothing she felt best in. She also has a few conversations with Katie about gender roles. Katie is much more traditionally feminine, wearing dresses and heels and long hair.

I'm a little torn on whether I dislike the use of the trope "straight woman turned gay after breakup" or like the point that Katie isn't sure she likes women, but she knows she likes Cassidy. Cassidy's gender is secondary to her personality. And it's not like Katie decided to go hit on women after her fiance cheated on her; she got practically dragged to the lesbian bar by Cassidy, who saw how much she was hurting and decided to help her.

I enjoyed seeing that Cassidy has casual sex partners, many of them former sex partners, who are still good friends with her. Granted, she has lots of one-night stands who are upset with her since she's quite the player, but there are several women who she's been involved with before the book opens, who are close friends of hers and care about her future. I wish we saw more relationships like this in heterosexual romantic fiction instead of only in GLBT fiction! These kinds of relationships do exist in heterosexual groups, but it seems like romantic fiction is always divided between "heterosexual monogamy" and "everything else." I did read an exception in Next Year, For Sure, but I greatly disliked the ending.

I really loved this book. It was sweet, and light-hearted, and a pleasant breath of fresh air from a lot of what I've been reading recently!

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
  
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Lumos (380 KP) rated Every Day in Books

Apr 19, 2018  
Every Day
Every Day
David Levithan | 2013 | Children
8
7.6 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
I thought this book was really well done. This was this month's choice for book club. My BC has many members who identify as gender fluid and this book really resonated with them. A wakes up in a different body every day. To them, it doesn't really matter if they are male or female, that doesn't matter to them. What does matter, is the person and the different characteristics and traits that can make one individual distinguished from the next.

This book touched on so many different struggles that a person can be facing. It is hard to know what someone is going through unless you are literally walking in their shoes.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The China Syndrome (1979) in Movies

May 27, 2019 (Updated May 27, 2019)  
The China Syndrome (1979)
The China Syndrome (1979)
1979 | Drama, Thriller
Smart, taut thriller has lost none of its relevance or credibility. Journalists present at an accident in a nuclear plant attempt to uncover exactly what they witnessed; the supervisor at the plant makes his own investigation and uncovers some disturbing facts.

Works very well as a piece of entertainment, first of all, with strong performances, especially from Lemmon. But also very much a product of its time - it's one of many conspiracy-based American thrillers from the half-decade or so after Watergate; also has interesting things to say about gender politics of the period and the artificial nature of the media. A highly engaging, intelligently scripted movie, a class act in every department.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Womaneater (1957) in Movies

Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Jun 22, 2019)  
Womaneater (1957)
Womaneater (1957)
1957 | Horror
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Minor entry in the annals of British botanical horror proves that Orson Welles wasn't the only one whose career took a nosedive after Citizen Kane. George Coulouris does the best he can as a scientist so mad he thinks you should keep trees in a basement, but you can see the melancholy in his eyes throughout.

Essentially an attempt to transplant, or in this case re-pot, the US Z-movie horror formula to a British context, but this just makes the results weirder rather than appreciably better. Fabulous insights into assumptions about gender politics and other cultures, obviously. The killer tree itself will linger in your memory, though not in the way the film-makers would have hoped.