26. A book related to pride

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

This week, you are reading a book related to PRIDE. This can be focused on the LGBTQIA+ community, or focused on the deadly sin of pride, or just about any other interpretation you could come up with.

A Few Ideas:
Pride and Prejudice Retellings: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
LGBTQIA+ Pride: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Deadly Sin: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Lions: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
Rainbows: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading this week? How is it related to pride?

[Kathy]

Possibilities:
On Beauty - Zadie Smith (related to Pride Magazine, a magazine targeting Black British, mixed-race, African and African-Caribbean women in the United Kingdom). I've added this book to my ATY possibilities every year, but haven't read it yet)!

Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (vanity-pride)

The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer (rainbow cover)

Cantoras - Carolina de Robertis (LGBTQIA+)

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf (LGBTQIA+)

EDIT: I finally read Mrs. Dalloway and quite liked it.

[LeahS]

Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History has been on my TBR for a while and this seemed a good opportunity to read it - pride going before a fall.

[Janice]

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, or The Guncle by Steven Rowley, or Heartstopper: Volume Five by Alice Oseman, or Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, or The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, or Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, or Less by Andrew Sean Greer, or The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare, or Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, or The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray, or Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall, or Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal, or Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, or Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West, or Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

[Bea]

I will choose among these:
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Longbourn
Song of the Lion

I have divided the ATY list into monthly groupings and have planned at least 3 books for each prompt. That way I have choice when the month rolls around.

[Dana]

I really want to get to Heartstopper: Volume Five, but if I don't have it by then, here are some other LGBTQ possibilities for me:

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

[Sherri]

I read Giovanni's Room

[Misty]

I had planned on reading something LGBTQ+ related for this prompt, but I ended up putting Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia ed. by Anita Heiss in this spot. I read this for a book club. It is a collection of stories ab out what it means to grow up Aboriginal in Australia. A repeating theme was the pride these individuals felt at being Aboriginal. It is a fabulous collection, and I highly recommend it.

[Tiffany]

I read Another Country by James Baldwin. James Baldwin as an LGBTQ+ author and multi-hyphenate, wrote about gay and bisexual issues in this great novel.

[Marie (UK)]

I readEmma there can be no character more Prideful than Emma Woodhouse

[Samantha]

I looked for lists of books to read during pride month and The Verifiers came up on several and I really wanted to read it so it was perfect. I am not sure it is for everyone but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

These are lists it was on in case you are looking for something alone the same lines but The Verifiers isn't your thing.

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/07/110183...
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2022/06/01/...
https://www.strandbooks.com/metalist/...

[Tracy]

I just finished Peter Darling by Austin Chant. "Pride" in this book related to LGBTQIA+, trans and gay specifically.

This is a book written with the idea that Peter Pan is really the trans reality of Wendy Darling

I only gave this novella 3 stars. I was very excited to read it, but the lack of development disappointed me. If it had been a full novel it could have been so much better. And with the lack of "space" to fully flesh out the story in the novella form, I feel like the "battle/fight" scenes could have been cut back dramatically to make room for more relevant content. If this had been written several years ago, before there was more representation of trans people in literature (not that there's TONS now, but there's more), I would have felt that this book had accomplished more. It wasn't a bad book, I just thought it had promise to be so much better.

[Wendy]

I'm reading So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, which is entirely focused on what happens when one's pride is destroyed in a variety of (mostly online or social-media enhanced) ways.

[LeahS]

I changed plans but kept to the idea of pride going before a fall. I read The Fall of Milosevic: The October 5th Revolution by Dragan Bujosevic and Ivan Radovanović.

I was a bit hampered by lack of knowledge of Belgrade (though there is a map) and all the names which cropped up, but the book did a good job of showing the speed and force behind the overthrow of Milosevic - the fact the army was not on his side was certainly important.

[Stacey]

I just finished Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, a debut novel that explores complex issues like relationships and parenthood through the eyes of its' transgendered and cisgendered female protagonists.

[Hannah]

I read My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout and decided it would work for this prompt. Partly because there is a pride parade/LGBTQ connection, though it's not the main point of the story, but more because I thought that learning to take pride in yourself was a major theme, as well as a theme of the bad kind of pride getting in the way of intimate relationships.

[Ana O. ⭐]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo 4 stars.

[Severina]

I read Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. Loved it.

[Denise]

I read Roses, In The Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman, which involves a Pakistani-American teenager exploring her sexuality with another teen girl and facing the wrath of her community. Also, it has "lion" in the title and features lion statues prominently

I also used this for the summer reading challenge Coming Of Age Novel


Updated: I moved this book to interracial relationship

For "pride" I read Fifty Words For Rain, which also could fit several other prompts: interracial, debut, 4+colors, unusual title, 20th century.

But the main events of the story are about the myriad ways an aristocratic Japanese woman attempts to "hide" or even rid her family of the "embarrassment" that is her biracial granddaughter, Noriko, the result of a relationship between the Japanese daughter and an African American GI. It is family pride that makes her wants to hide Noriko. Pride will also play a tremendous role later in the book when the girl Noriko makes some decisions but I won't say more and spoil it

[MissLemon]

I've just finished
One of Them: From Albert Square to Parliament Square by Michael Cashman

This is a memoir by actor and politician Michael Cashman , who has campaigned for LGBTQ+ rights, cofounding charity Stonewall.

[LeahS]

I read Maggie & Me by Damian Barr, a memoir of growing up gay in Thatcher's Britain and in a dysfunctional family.

[Nike]

I'm reading Albert Nobbs by George Moore

[Katie]

I re-read light from uncommon stars. It’s great.

[Anne]

I will be reading This Much Is True by Miriam Margolyes. She is gay.

[Book Concierge]

Main character is a gay man ...


Less – Andrew Sean Greer – 3***
Novelist Arthur Less is almost fifty, can’t seem to get his writing mojo back, and now his recent ex-boyfriend is getting married! So, Arthur does the logical thing. He runs away from his troubles on an around-the-world lecture tour. This won the Pulitzer for fiction and I’m not sure why. I never warmed to Arthur. There were episodes in his journey that I really liked and that kept me reading, but it’s not a prize-winner in my opinion.
LINK to my full review

[Jacqie]

I read Siren Queen by Nghi Vo for this one. It's about a Chinese-American actress during the Silver Screen era, but it's also magical realism or fantasy, depending on how you look at it. Luli is queer and she also is ambitious and prideful so it works with both interpretations.

[Donna]

I chose Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad

[Jill]

What are you reading this week?
I read The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

How is it related to pride?
Toad, one of the characters, is an extremely proud !