I read a bunch of queer nonfiction last month, including All the Parts We Exile by Roza Nozari, a memoir by a queer Muslim immigrant in Canada. It follows her coming out, going back into the closet, and then finding a way to reconcile her sexuality and her cultural identity. It’s also about her relationship with her mother, and trying to understand her better. I really enjoyed this one!
I also picked up Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle East by Gaar Adams, which is part personal writing about his experience living in the UAE for years as a white gay American and part exploration of queer communities in the area. I learned a lot, and it was so interesting to see how these pockets of queer community were maintained even in places where being queer is illegal, including in karaoke bars and parkour groups.
As I promised last update, I read Hermaphrodite Logic: A History of Intersex Liberation by Juliana Gleeson, which I think is a good match for task #5: Read a nonfiction book about resistance. It is academic and can be a little dry in places, but I appreciated learning about how intersex activism began in the 90s and how it changed over time.
A microhistory (task #1) I read was Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness by Michael Koresky, which is an exploration of queerness in Hollywood while under the Hays Code. Some chapters I found more interesting than others, but it was worth it just to read about the butch lesbian director who worked at this time that I’d never heard of.
As for March, I have a few different options lined up, including The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All, Vol. 3 by Sumiko Arai, translated by Ajani Oloye. I’ve been really enjoying this sapphic manga series, and I highly recommend it.
I also need to read a couple of my most anticipated books of the year, which come out in March: the sapphic gothic novel Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran (task #6: Read a gothic novel published in the last ten years) and the queer, sci-fi retelling of Moby Dick, Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall.
I have These Heathens by Mia McKenzie checked out from the library, which I can’t believe I haven’t read yet: Mia McKenzie’s The Summer We Got Free and Skye Falling are two of my all-time favourite books.