Welcome to Litsy!

I love when I have lots of data entry at work, because it allows me to #audiowork.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
This was an inventive, almost surreal blend of memoir & fantasy. Beautiful characters, and a variety of writing styles.

🎧: I never hold the narrator of an audiobook against the book itself, but this one was just ok. I felt the work was owed a better narrator in order to truly appreciate the poetry of the book. I'd recommend the print version.

“I don't believe in safe spaces.“

#firstlinefriday

"Sometimes, to become somebody else you have to become nobody first." Kai Cheng Thom, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars

#audioworking and this line got me thinking.

I liked the overall story very much. Some of the writing was so beautiful. Some of the voices seemed very young, which they are, but interrupted the story for me - not too much, but noticeably.

This was lovely and difficult. Little bit of magic and little bit of memory. The language used to describe houses, people, and one random baking scene are top tier. 👠🦄🌼🍄✨

This book is incredible!! And this cover, oh. My second read for the Trans Rights Read a Thon. 🏳️‍⚧️

#TransRightsReadathon book 2. YA fiction by Kai Cheng Thom. This was raucous, angry, and in your face, but also bubbly, charming, and cheerful. Basically everything the cover art and title promise it delivers. I really enjoyed the sporadic hints of magical realism that served to highlight the importance of truth over fact and challenge the traditional idea of a trans memoir. #transrightsmatter #transrightsarehumanrights

Part memoir, part fairytale retelling. I'm not sure how I feel about fictionalized memoirs.

It‘s #TRANSreadathon time! I got a bit of a late start last night, but I managed 1:26 before I fell asleep. That took me through DEATH THREAT by Vivek Shraya and Ness Lee, a short story by Neon Yang, and 80 pages of the tagged book.

Which I‘m SO EXCITED to get back to now. It reads like Francesca Lia Block with trans girls and without cultural appropriation. SO GOOD, Y‘ALL!

Friends, I got to ENTER THE LIBRARY tonight! It was just for a holds pickup, but it‘s more than they let us do last week. Next week, it‘s back to (time limited) browsing!

Anyways, tonight I nabbed the last three books I requested for the #TRANSreadathon on the 30th & 31st, plus an X-Men comic that was on order for like two years, moar HEARTSTOPPER, a cookbook, and the next stop on my Wheel of Time reread.

Very interesting: fiction framed as memoir that interweaves realism and fantasy. A young trans woman realizing her true identity runs away from home and finds a new community with other powerful trans femmes on “The Street of Miracles.“ While names of people and places, the mythical “First Femme,” and some animal characters add to the fantasy element, real and diverse issues in the lives of trans women are tackled head-on.
#Bookspin February

“Who knew that we had all this talent?” murmurs Yvana, who is sitting to my right. “It‘s...incredible,” whispers Ying, sniffling in her seat next to Yvana. “But femmes perform all the time on the street,” I protest. To my left Nora shakes her magnificent head. “Not like this,” she says. “Not just for ourselves, for each other, instead of for some guy who wants to buy us or make money off of us.” Each performance reaches deep in me and opens me up.

“A femme‘s heels are her armour, girl,” she tells me with the authority of a war hero imparting the secret of valour to a new trainee. I don‘t need her to tell me twice. The shoes are red as lollipops, red as adventure, red as my crazy violent blood. And they want me to put them on right now.

If I were Prime Minister – Prime Ministress – I would have [picking locks] taught in all elementary schools with the option for advanced study at the upper levels of education.

#Bookspin list for March:

1. Girl, Woman, Other
2. Show Me a Hero
3. Lost Children Archive
4. H is for Hawk
5. Me and White Supremacy
6. Talk about Race
7. The Salt Path
8. Jesus and the Disinherited
9. Africville
10. Call You a Terrorist
11. Bush Runner
12. The Strange Librarian
13. The Mosquito
14. Where the Crawdads Sing
15. The Innocents
16. How to Pronounce Knife
17. Education of an Idealist
18. Sourdough
19. Malcolm X
@TheAromaofBooks

I wouldn't call this one a pick for me, but it wasn't So-So either. More of a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ read. This magical realism memoir takes an interesting look into the life of a creative trans woman and her experiences living on the Street of Miracles.
Content warnings for trauma, rape/molestation (though it's portrayed through a reoccurring metaphor), assault, murder, and self-harm
#LGBTQVoices #LGBTQAuthors #TheRainbowShelf

Every week, I'm highlighting #lgbtqauthors. 🏳️‍🌈 Canadian author and social worker Kai Cheng Thom described herself as a fierce trans femme. It's a bonus that she also loves superhero cartoons. She also co-founded a mental health collective aimed at increasing youths' mental health skills. #lgbtqvoices #pocauthors #transgender #mentalhealth #poet #poetry

This month's #bookspin is a memoir from a Canadian trans woman that's been on my TBR list for a while. "From the Birds in the Air to the Fish in the Sea" was my nephew's birthday gift.

Last read of 2020, trans girls doing crimes and breaking the mould.

#OurSharedShelf #OSS Quite a unique read with a touch of true maliciousness wrapped in an emotional truth telling sheath. Also a bit of a comic book but I mean that in the most complimentary way. A violent, raw, charming, witty coming of age as trans tale. How did she squeeze it all into this light little package?

I am a Goodreads winner!

Writing my reflection on this week‘s reading for queer and trans writing, maybe a lil punchy after a long week (Lemon, it‘s Wednesday). My note here: “just @ me next time, Kai Cheng”
#queerbooks

The second blurb on this book starts, “The first lie is that this book is a memoir, the second is that it is not.“
Similarly, this summary is an accurate description of the book I just read, and also wildly not. This is a kind of storytelling that comes from the depths of a cultural conscience, too big for these pages and yet perfectly wrapped in this little package. Highly recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“I never thought about that before, that being kind is a brand of violence all its own.”

THIS BOOK, y‘all. I‘m setting it down for a bit because my brother asked to watch our show but I don‘t want to stop reading.

#queerbooks

‪I'm forwarding this great link from @queerbookreader on new #queerbooks #transbooks to check out. The currently sad setbacks with Trump in the U.S. (and Ford nearby me in Toronto) is a call for us to keep strong, and to keep on reading, above limitations and erasure attacks to education and LGBTQIA identity. 📚🌈

https://bookriot.com/2018/10/27/trans-non-binary-authors/‬

😞

I've refused to read anything about his memo cos I didn't want to face it. I still don't want to. I respect those who are really focused on it (like bookriot and the author of this article!!! Bless u folks), but I still can't handle it.

So here's a list of books by trans & enby & gnc authors. Search google for more lists and recs. Maybe finally pick up that trans book that's sat on your TBR for years. Pls, cis folks. Try. 💛 Link ⬇️

I'm so behind on reviewing for my queer Canadian book blog, https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.com! These are all the books I've read but still have to review! #QueerBooks #CanLit #NativeReads

This book is a work of genius! A funny, dark, innovative story that completely takes apart the genre of the trans memoir. Kai Cheng Thom's writing is beautiful and powerful and poetic. It reminds me a lot of Amber Dawn's Sub Rosa but it's also very much its own thing. An ode to trans sisterhood. Highly recommended! #QueerBooks #TransBooks
#JustFinishedReading

This new kind of plum wine I bought cause it was on sale is seriously inferior to others I've had (it's not even the right colour?) but obviously I'm not gonna let it go to waste. Thankfully this book is much better than the wine. It's one of those books with so many great lines you just want to underline whole paragraphs. #TransBooks #QueerBooks

A #trans girl with a body full of killer bees is raised by Chinese immigrants in a crooked house in a city called Gloom. When mermaids die on the beach, she packs her switchblade, moves to the City of Smoke & Lights, and comes of age amid the love, magic, miracles & violence of a #diverse group of trans femmes & she learns to bake a cake of forgiveness. The moral of this fabulous fable: “Don‘t get stuck in any one story, not even your own.” 💜

You can be anyone. They say. In the City of Smoke & Lights. The rent is cheap & the streets are lean & people are crazy as anything hell could spit out. You can be anything you want: baller, biker, bad girl, punk rocker, faerie queen, goth, artist, stoner, dominant, submissive, witch, man,woman, medusa,monster, mother, poet, demon, lost boi, foxfire phantom gleaming out of the night, superhero,goddess, strong,beautiful, powerful,untouchable,whole.

Littens I have a book buying problem! I was in library school for two years and had no money to buy books and now that I'm working full time I can't stop myself!! Picked these up today at my local queer book store. Very excited about both of them. #QueerBooks #BisexualBooks #TransBooks

“Yet, the world keeps spinning, a merry-go-round you can never get off. And somehow, some way, you find yourself circling a place you haven‘t been before, where all you can do is get up, drag yourself off the sofa, and stand in the shower under scalding hot water until you feel a little bit alive again.”

I joined my first book club! It‘s a queer book club and I hopped on for a great book. I just started, but if you like short, surrealist prose that are cuttingly real and powerful then get this book!

Book 3 for the #24in48 that I started earlier. So far it's fantastic.

http://www.teenvogue.com/story/author-kai-cheng-thom-on-writing-a-new-kind-of-tr...
Great article about a wonderful book! #transbooks

Yasss! Splurged a bit and got these two books from Metonymy Press. Both nominees for the Lambda Literary Award for Best Transgender Fiction. I #blameitonbookriot. I can't wait for them to come from snowy Canada! #transbooksmatter

#LitsyAtoZ #LetterT #queerbooks #transbooks Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars is an intense ride of a book. It's definitely not a typical feel good narrative. It features a girl gang of fierce femme trans women seeking retribution for the violence and murder of trans women in their community. It is tough, gritty and contains magic and mysticism woven in with the mundane. It's rough, beautiful and intensely, graphically violent. A powerful read.

😍📚 #transbooks

😍😥#transbooks

I saw this on social media today and it reminded me of Fierce Femmes. 😍

Love this dedication! 😍😍😍 #transbooks

So excited for this one! #transbooks