My June TBR - LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Books by Black Authors

Hello June!

Usually the time for Pride celebrations, as LGBTQ+ Month is upon us, however this month has a second important movement to remember - Black Lives Matter.

Both are such important issues, which is why this month, I've chosen to split my reading between educating myself on LGBTQ+ through books, and also reading more by Black authors. If you'd like to educate yourself on the Black Lives Matter movement (please do!), take a look at this link, to sign petitions and get involved.

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Pride / LGBTQ+

Summer Bird Blue - Akemi Dawn Bowman

Synopsis (Goodreads Link) : Rumi Seto spends a lot of time worrying she doesn’t have the answers to everything. What to eat, where to go, whom to love. But there is one thing she is absolutely sure of—she wants to spend the rest of her life writing music with her younger sister, Lea.

Then Lea dies in a car accident, and her mother sends her away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while she deals with her own grief. Now thousands of miles from home, Rumi struggles to navigate the loss of her sister, being abandoned by her mother, and the absence of music in her life. With the help of the “boys next door”—a teenage surfer named Kai, who smiles too much and doesn’t take anything seriously, and an eighty-year-old named George Watanabe, who succumbed to his own grief years ago—Rumi attempts to find her way back to her music, to write the song she and Lea never had the chance to finish.

My Thoughts: I saw this one recommended a few times on social media, and I was drawn to it because it explores Rumi's asexuality. Rumi shares the same sexuality as myself, and this will be the first book I've ever read where the main character is asexual, so I'm looking forward to reading this one and I'm eager to find out more.

Click here to read my review.

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Only Mostly Devastated - Sophie Gonzales

Synopsis (Link): Will Tavares is the dream summer fling―he's fun, affectionate, kind―but just when Ollie thinks he's found his Happily Ever After, summer vacation ends and Will stops texting Ollie back. Now Ollie is one prince short of his fairy tale ending, and to complicate the fairy tale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country. Which he minds a little less when he realizes it's the same school Will goes to...except Ollie finds that the sweet, comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn't the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, closeted―and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk.

Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn't ready for a relationship, especially since this new, bro-y jock version of Will seems to go from hot to cold every other week. But then Will starts "coincidentally" popping up in every area of Ollie's life, from music class to the lunch table, and Ollie finds his resolve weakening. The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again.

My Thoughts: This is another book that explores sexuality, homosexuality maybe? Or bisexuality? I'm not sure just yet, but again, I'm looking forward to it! It sounds a super cute summer read and has great reviews!

Click here to read my review.

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Books By Black Authors

A Song Below Water - Bethany C. Morrow

Synopsis (Link): Tavia is already at odds with the world, forced to keep her siren identity under wraps in a society that wants to keep her kind under lock and key. Never mind she's also stuck in Portland, Oregon, a city with only a handful of black folk and even fewer of those with magical powers. At least she has her bestie Effie by her side as they tackle high school drama, family secrets, and unrequited crushes.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation; the girls’ favorite Internet fashion icon reveals she's also a siren, and the news rips through their community. Tensions escalate when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice during a police stop. No secret seems safe anymore—soon Portland won’t be either.

My Thoughts: I've seen this book everywhere - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube! You name it! I've really started to get into fantasy books lately, and this sounds such an important one to read! From what I've read of reviews, this book mentions race, protests and police brutality - so it sounds very relevant to today!

Click here to read my review.

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The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo

Synopsis (Link): Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

My Thoughts: This sounds like a really intense and powerful book. Another one with amazing reviews, and I just can't wait to get started!

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That's my June TBR, what's on yours? Are there any books that you'd recommend, or that you think I should read?

Take care and stay safe,

Sophie x

Note: If I've made any errors in this post, please let me know! I'd hate to have offended anyone :)

Pride / LGBT+ Flag.