bensbooks

[bensbooks]

5-Star in 2025: The Lilac People by Milo Todd

In 1932 Berlin, Bertie, a trans man, and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin's thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond, but everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation. In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him—not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies' vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation becomes fleeing to the United States.

[bensbooks]

Going to start posting again on here. And I know I'll too lazy to go back and cross-reference what I've posted before, so I'll likely accidentally post book recommendations I've already posted before.

[bensbooks]

me wanting to build my own library at home:

[bensbooks]

68% percent to our goal of $50k, with just over a week to go! Let’s goooo 🌈

[bensbooks]

did you know public libraries are free and beautiful

[bensbooks]

literary kinsey scale time

i’m just curious what mix of fiction and nonfiction the average tumblrina is consuming

[bensbooks]

Books on Libby have started disappearing.

My friend pointed it out first, and then I started noticing too. Why would books that multiple libraries definitely, 100% had digital access to a couple of months/weeks/days ago disappear?

Amazon is getting exclusive rights to them.

Ebooks that the public library once had digital copies of are now only available through Amazon. Audible boasts on their covers about Audible-exclusive audiobooks that did not used to be Audible-exclusive. Entire series and collections are disappearing overnight.

Keep your eyes on the privatization of media and your libraries.

[bensbooks]

Because of Re: Carmilla, I thought you all would enjoy my edition of Carmilla :

The holes go all the way through, the sides of the book are red, and on some pages the text is colored red just under the holes !

I was so happy when I found it in a little french bookshop specialized in queer texts ❤️

[bensbooks]

Vote based on the publication year of the physical copy that you own, not the book's first edition.

Publication/print dates can usually be found in the first 2–3 pages of a book, where title and/or copyright information is printed. If you own an old book that does not have a publication date printed on it, make your best estimate.

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[bensbooks]

my best tip for anyone trying to get back into reading is to remember that you can read books to avoid other responsibilities in ur life and it can become a vice if you play your cards right

[bensbooks]

How similar is our reading taste?

These are some of my favorite books. Out of a possible 660 points, how many did you get?

[bensbooks]

love books. because it’s like what if something happened

[bensbooks]

I love buying new books. Look at this! Isn’t it pretty? I’m not gonna read it for 2 years but it will look fabulous on my bookshelf

[bensbooks]

it’s crazy how much you can read if you read

[bensbooks]

[bensbooks]

ARC Review: This Here Is Love

This Here Is Love is an emotional story that follows many characters in the late 1600's, early 1700's in the time of Black American slavery. The novel is set in three parts, the first being when most of the characters are disconnected from each other, both in location and time. We learn who they are and their origin's (in terms of the novel), but the second part brings them all together and connects all their storylines together.

The heart of the novel is a girl named Bless; we watch her grow from a child into a woman, and all the ups and downs of her life as a slave. Other characters include a young white boy who becomes a slave owner, a free man and his enslaved son, and more.

This was incredibly moving, and well written. If you like the novel The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr., then I highly recommend you pick up this book. In the couple days that I've had between finishing this story and writing this review, I've not stopped thinking about it. I originally was going to rate this book a 4.5, but I'm now bumping it up to a full 5 stars.

[bensbooks]

there are books out there - many good - that cater to your extremely esoteric interests. #never kill yourself