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“its always been fascinating to me how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving themselves ruthlessly” - the seven husbands of evelyn hugo

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Literate Reviews: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Things That Are More Romantic Than They Have Any Right to Be:

-the tenderness in mitski’s voice when she sings ‘I love you’ over and over again in ‘Pink in the Night’

-the Waterloo scene in Carol

-this book

Red, White & Royal Blue is probably the lgbt book with the most hype this year. It’s been on the top of everyone’s tbr and anticipated release lists and I myself was dying for NetGalley to pull through with my ARC which, thankfully, they did, and let me tell you guys you’re in for a real treat!

McQuiston’s debut hits all the right beats a rom-com should. It’s lighthearted, full of lovable characters, and chock full of warm-hearted banter, especially between the two romantic leads. It’s tender, it’s funny, and it makes you forget about real life for the entire span of the novel.

Of course, to be nit-picky, there are a few things I didn’t love. I noticed that there’s a lot of struggle with showing-versus-telling in this novel, and there are several moments where the author explains to us what a character is thinking/feeling instead of showing us in other ways like body language or dialogue. It’s also fairly predictable as rom-coms go: it hits a lot of the same plot points and I pretty much knew everything that was going on with Rafael Luna right when the subplot started.

However, I’m going to contradict myself here and say that none of that actually matters. When McQuiston sat down and wrote this I believe she wanted to give the reader something sweet and lighthearted, something to turn to when real life sucks and you just want to be somewhere else for awhile. And she succeeded. This book is everything it should be: fluffy and romantic. I can’t count the number of times I smiled in this novel. Every time a historical gay love letter was quoted, I swooned. When Alex tweeted ‘never tell me the odds’ my heart melted. So really, who cares that it’s slightly predictable and not entirely perfect? So is Roman Holiday and yet I’d watch that movie everyday of my life if I could.

Bottom line is Red, White & Royal Blue is a fantastic romantic comedy and welcome edition to a genre of literature that is in desperate need of cheesy, heartstopping love stories like these. I’m absolutely thrilled to hear McQuiston is already working on novel number two and I can already say that novel will be at the top of my preorders, as Red, White & Royal Blue should be on yours.

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@booksociety underrated faves event: if we were villains by m. l. rio

“which of us could say we were more sinned against than sinning? we were so easily manipulated - confusion made a masterpiece of us.”

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how do i love you - mary oliver / the song of achilles - madeline miller 

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landscape with fruit rot and millipede, richard siken

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Written in 1950’s

- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (m/m)

- The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (f/f)

- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (m/m)

- The Charioteer by Mary Renault (m/m)

- The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault (m/m)

- Quatrefoil by James Barr/James W. Fugaté (m/m)

- A Room in Chelsea Square by Michael Nelson (m/m)

Takes Place in the 1950’s

- Pulp by Robin Talley (f/f)(ya)

- Lie We Tell Ourselves (f/f) (ya)

- Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule (f/f)

- Leading Men by Christopher Castellani (m/m)

- Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon (m/m)

- The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif (f/f)

- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (f/f) (not explicitly in the 50’s- it starts there but continues on into the 80’s)

Do you know of any lgbt novels that were either written or take place in the 1950s?

The most famous is probably The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, which was recently turned into the movie Carol.

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“The law was also abundantly clear on homosexual relationships. The act of sodomy had been illegal since 1535, and the law was re-enacted and strengthened in 1828. Yet attitudes to same-sex relationships were to change as Victoria’s reign progressed. Male homosexual behaviour simultaneously became more visible, as policing became more widespread and effective, and as the national press grew more and more salacious. In short, more cases were tried and more people heard about them. There remained, however, for most of the century, a degree of room for manoeuvre. Take the cast of Boulton and Parke, two young men who liked to cross-dress and publicly flirt with men at the theatre and in the shopping arcades of the West End. For over two years they lived a flamboyantly camp lifestyle, sometimes in full drag, often in male clothing, with feminine make-up and scent. They were reported at their trial as attending the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, the Strand and Alhambra theatres, the casino in Holborn and several balls at West End hotels. By 1870, they had pushed their luck a little bit too far and found themselves in the dock. However, since no one could be found to come forward and say on oath that they had had sex with either of them, and coupled with a judge who proved lenient, they were acquitted. The case was eagerly followed by the press, but the general tone was one of amusement rather than the abusive mobs that greeted the arrests of other men. Boulton and Park took the pragmatic decision to live more discreet lives after the case and the question of whether they were a couple, or not, was never publicly aired.”

—

From How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman

Someone definitely needs to make a film about these people.

(via nothingbutthedreams)

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Edna St. Vincent Millay with friends and her lover Thelma Wood in Paris, ca. 1921

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It’s so rare that I find jokes this funny about the books I read, thank u SparkNotes Twitter

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To be sixteen again by Keaton St. James

Prompt courtesy of this list from @nosebleedclub

Seguir leyendo

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Silence is not power. It’s not strength. Silence is the means by which the weak remain weak and the strong remain strong. Silence is a method of oppression

Naomi Alderman, Disobedience (via kxowledge)

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I love your writing so much!!!! Do u have any pieces about being trans?

thank you!! i have a whole tag dedicated to my trans poetry :)

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“My partner, Jane Wagner, and I married kind of impulsively a year ago after being together 43 years. I needed a ring. I went into the jewelry box and found one made out of denim with a stone in it, and another little expandable ring with beads on it. We used them, but now they’re back in the jewelry box. Relationships aren’t always easy. Ours is still sweet, but it gets bumpy and hilly now and then, and that’s just reality. I cannot fathom life without her.” - Lily Tomlin

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“Delicacy, that’s what I love,”

— Sappho, tr. by Jim Powell, from “The Poetry of Sappho,” published c. 2001

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This photo always cheers me up a bit. It’s a front-page article from 1955 about Christine Jorgensen, one of the first women to have sex-reassignment surgery.

Since the text is a bit small and I couldn’t find a larger copy, here’s what the small blurb says:

A World of a Difference

George W. Jorgensen, Jr., son of a Bronx carpenter, served in the Army for two years and was given honorable discharge in 1946. Now George is no more. After six operations, Jorgensen’s sex has been changed and today she is a striking woman, working as a photographer in Denmark. Parents were informed of the big change in a letter Christine (that’s her new name) sent to them recently.

This article is 58 years old, and it’s more respectful of Christine’s pronoun choices and name than some publications are today. It makes me happy to see a newspaper be respectful of a trans person’s choice of name and pronouns like that :3

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Bella Books Where Enemies Become Lovers

Bait and Switch by Blythe H. Warren

The Roundabout by Gerri Hill

Rising Above by Genevieve Fortin

Echo Point by Virginia Hale

Hidden Hearts by Ann Roberts

Anyone But You by KG MacGregor

Five Moons Rising by Lise MacTague

Hurricane Days by Renee J Lukas

Crash Stop by Mary Griggs