Mid-Month Update: July 2019

Hello, I’m stepping out of the void of impromptu hiatus to bring you a mid-July update! Work has me so tired that I’m basically non-functional as soon as I get home at the end of every day and then I just nap all through Saturday. It’s rough, but I’m hoping things will be better soon. In the meantime, I totally forgot to share the lovely stack of books I was gifted for my birthday (which was nearly a month ago), so I’ll be sticking to that today.

Currently Reading

The Stonewall Reader: Edited by The New York Public Library

June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library’s archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after.

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Birthday Book Haul

There are some common themes here that are really reflective of what I’ve been into as 2019 has been progressed: lots of sci-fi, a fair dollop of fantasy, retellings sprinkled in, and plenty of LGBTQ+ rep.

• Jade City by Fonda Lee: “In this epic saga of magic and kungfu, four siblings battle rival clans for honor and power in an Asia-inspired fantasy metropolis.”
• All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders: A mad scientist and a witch save the world.
• A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay: A historical fantasy novel about disparate lives and they ways they intertwine.
• Orope: The White Snake by Guenevere Lee: After receiving visions of the end of days, three messengers must journey to the great empires of the time in hopes of appeasing the gods.
• The Honey Month by Amal El-Mohtar: A new honey every day of the month, paired with it: a description of the color, taste, and a piece of prose or poetry.

• Autonomous by Annalee Newitz: A drug epidemic sweeps New York City at the hands of a renegade scientist. Their only hope? A military agent and his robot partner.
• Middlegame by Seanan McGuire: “Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.”
• Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear: Queer steampunk western!
• Stone Mad by Elizabeth Bear: Karen Memory #2
• Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield: Why yes, another book about time-travel and queer women. Are we sensing a theme in the books I seek out?

• The Fisher of Bones by Sarah Gailey: “The Prophet is dead. Long live the Prophetess.”
• The Only Great Harmless Thing by Brooke Bolander: Strange, beautiful, and heart-wrenching. Go in to this one with as little foreknowledge as possible.
• Wilder Girls by Rory Power: Annihilation meets Lord of the Flies in this haunting YA debut.
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: A woman fights through catastrophic natural disaster and collateral damage from a collapsing empire to find her daughter.
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik: YA romance that is so far from what I normally read, but why not, ya know?

Highly Anticipating

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Okay, I know I’ve already talked about this book, but I saw pictures of the finished copies (black sprayed edges!!) over the weekend and they reignited my excitement for this book.

“Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.”

Pub Date: September 10, 2019.

Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | IndieBound

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How’s your month been so far? Any really great reads in these first couple weeks of July? Let me know in the comments! Feel free to share your any recent hauls or TBRs below as well 🙂