Welcome to Litsy!

This memoir has been a real roller coaster ride. I wish I could travel back in time & hand it to my teenage self; the kid who only had a sense of 'otherness' in their vocabulary to describe their experience. Pages came & went in a blur because I had tears in my eyes. I've never resonated with a person more or felt less alone in my life. It was quite jarring because I felt as though I had written parts. I'm so grateful that a book like this exists.

This has been a cathartic reading experience.

I've never, in all my days, resonated with a person more.

Experiencing Gender Queer was transformative. Maia tells their story of self-discovery, and navigating gender with a lot of candidness and vulnerability. From the very first chapter, I was enthralled. Maia‘s progression from confusion, then realization, to finally embracing, is one that I think a lot of people (regardless of gender, sexuality, or simply existentially) can relate to...
Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6615523708

In the last two to three years, my local bookstores have really stepped up their game for #Pride month! 🏳️‍🌈

#LGBT #bookstore

A beautiful story. I was a bit teary at the end with the note to es parents. @LeeRHarry I‘m so glad I found this book. Explains a lot to me. I‘m getting a copy for my 16 year old grandson. Though he well may have read it already. A very heart felt memoir. I‘m not a graphic novel fan but the words and drawings are clear and very well done.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This graphic novel , a memoir, has been banned in some states in the US. Now a Queensland politician has been trying to ban it here in Australia. Taking his case to the high court!! I can‘t believe it. It was published in 2020.
It is Maias story. I‘m looking forward to reading it .

Sadly, the most banned book of 2021 and 2022.

#ittakesallkinds #controversial #bookbansaretheworst

My February Graphic Novel #WrapUp
#NotAnotherGraphicMonday

My #FebruaryPick for my #BookBracket2024 graphic novel bracket 🩷 #NotAnotherGraphicMonday

This is a great memoir. I feel such sadness for those of you out there who feel uncomfortable with presenting yourself as is. Some of the panels talked about not staying up for yourself because you didn't want to seem rude. Ugh! That speaks to me. Please all know #YouAreSafeWithMe and please #StandUp
#BannedBook

I searched for the most #BannedBooks in 2023 and this one made the top 10. Here goes! Lets see what made everyone angry. 😡

My little lady, Zoey isn't ready for today.
#PugLife
#DogsOfLitsy

4.5⭐️/5⭐️

Stopped at Harold Washington and found a new to me Banned Books display on the third floor. I love that they‘re putting challenged and banned books front and center of a busy part of the library!

Friday Reads Nov 10: GG awards; PW Best of 2023; recent Canadian fiction; comics memoirs etc
https://youtu.be/H2oJJhcu4ho

This book is fantastic. The author is so brave to tell this story. Would I have bought this book if it wasn't so controversial? Likely not. Do I understand why people are all fired up about this? Maybe? Do I get why people are calling it porn? Definitely not. As a popular meme pointed out, if books turn you into things, where are all the wizards and vampires?

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I posted about banned books week in our bookclub's Facebook feed, recommending Gender Queer, and of course someone posted a page out of context to support restriction of the book. People these days...

How timely for my library hold to finally come during #bannedbookweek

Kicking off October's Wicked Words with the bonus Banned Book prompt (and for bonus-bonus points, I borrowed it from a US library): Gender Queer is an excellent, accessible, frank graphic memoir of what it was like for Maia Kobabe to grow up gender queer (nonbinary and ace)

#wickedwords @AsYouWish #bannedbooks

This Graphic Novel is so intense, that I had to pause every now and then while reading it. So many things were familiar to me, and still it helped me seeing things differently. This book might help many people finding their true self. There's no shame in being who you are. It's just a shame that people actually remove this title from libraries...

Banned Books Week is next week! 🎉 It's a celebration of the freedom to read! It's more important than ever to fight for this particular freedom because the number of book challenges/bans across the country has drastically spiked in the last couple of years! 😩 The book pictures hanging up are the top 13 books that have been challenged/banned to most in 2022! It's a scary time to be a librarian/teacher. ❤️

#bannedbooksweek #bannedbooks

I borrowed this book from my library (at least I can in my state!) to see what the fuss is about this book and to learn why it is often known for being “the most #banned book”. I can see how individual parents or teachers would be uncomfortable about some of its contents. However the essential “baring the soul” of the author was necessary to connect with people who have these same questions in order to reach out to them and those who love them.

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/q-FfLvOOylM

Enjoy!

What a beautiful memoir written by Maia Kobabe. Maia writes about eir experience growing up and defining eir's sexuality. There are a number of experiences e writes about as well as what e feels as an adult.

#ReadBannedBooks

30 book recommendations in 30 days...

Day 20: I anticipated a good read with this one, but had no concept of how much I would learn. Some wonderful perspective provided to help people understand Maia Kobabe's experiences and feelings. #30recsin30days

Happy International Non-Binary People‘s Day!
Great read! You‘ll learn a lot. I certainly did!

Forgot to review this last week! ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

The reason I can't quite give this 4 stars is because I often felt like I had missed a page, so I'd flip back and forth looking for it. However, it turns out that I never missed a page; rather, the story had jumped to a different time/memory with no segue.

Otherwise, I thought Gender Queer was a compelling and moving memoir. Maia shares the highs and lows of eir journey. The graphics were excellent.

Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈 I‘ve only recently learned about my own identity as queer/bi & acespec, so it was very meaningful to read about someone else‘s journey and challenges. I could connect with Maia‘s experience being asexual, and it was powerful to see how em came to terms with eir gender identity. My reading has been super slow, but I‘m hoping to read more queer books and learn more about other LGBTQIA+ experiences and my own 💗

This is an adult, and mild raw, questioning book: who you are and how you identify. This memoir is very well written and the images clearly define the feeling eir is trying to portray. In this case, non-binary/asexual. While sex is difficult to read (traditional raising) the essence of of the book was still well stated. The finding of the new terms to go with how eir was feeling inside was beautiful. I felt that in my soul. #lgbtq

Same!! This book is giving me the most feels because I feel seen. I never understood the hype and desire for relationships that weren‘t for friends. This books is amazing in its openness.

4.75/5 ⭐️ Beautiful graphic novel memoir I read for the #transrightsreadathon 🏳️‍⚧️

★★★★☆

#fREADom #UniteAgaintBookBans

Fantastic!

Lol, I love this book so much. Every queer person has these moments when we‘re younger where something happens and a bell rings that nobody but you can hear telling you that something is different for you than how other people perceive and experience something. In Maia‘s case, it was eir gender. This was deeply personal, has these jarring moments of gender dysphoria, but then has these really cute moments of humor. This book is an important pick!

#transrights

#transrights

Insane to me that this is the most banned book in the United States.
It is so good. An exploration of body and attraction, and growing up not feeling you fit in your body. It is beautifully told , the artwork is great, and the story is so useful to so many.

Highly recommend.

#TransRightsReadathon

"So Lady Gaga was right - I was born this way."

A reread for #TransRightsReadathon. There are a lot of really important moments depicted in here, which are all so relevant to what kids can go through as they become acquainted with their own sexuality and gender. I was struck by the importance books held in the author‘s journey of self-discovery. It shows the importance of teaching sex/gender topics in school and how everyone can benefit from that. Such an important book!
#asexual #nonbinary

I‘m not a GN fan, so I wouldn‘t have read this, but I wanted to see why it‘s so often challenged. I am bewildered and disheartened that anyone would want to challenge this beautiful, gentle book. Who among us hasn‘t struggled with who we are or how we fit in the world? This is so relatable and shows the complexity of not fitting a binary in a world that very strongly seems to want to be binary. I hope every questioning kid can read this.

I reread this important work while killing time as my dogs were being groomed.

One of the many relatable quotes I found while reading, Gender Queer. 💜💚

Hi, I'm Becca. I'm new here. Hoping to find rad folks to chat books with. 👋🏽

#12booksof2022 August pick.I love this graphic novel, I think many could learn from it .It filled me with compassion for Maia , and more understanding of how complicated our relationship even to ourselves can be.I‘m a bit saddened it‘s often mired in controversy.

Maia's graphic memoir is so touching! And I learned about a new set of pronouns (E, Em, & Eir).

I was thrilled to discover this is a graphic novel. I chose this book for a reading challenge because of how it‘s been heavily targeted by book bans (and idiots).

I was also pleased to see my nails matched the cover. Milo, my orange tabby who is standing over the book, also matches! 😹

#LGBTQ+ #LGBTQ #LGBTQReads #graphicnovel #graphicnovels

#12Booksof2022

I‘ve already fallen behind.

I highly recommend this one. Read it because it‘s great. Read it to learn. Read it because it‘s challenged all over the place. Read it for all the reasons.

Honorary mention to Bridge to Terabithia for devastating me all over again. My husband found me sobbing and asked me if someone had died.

Saw this at the bookstore and had to snap a pic! This graphic memoir is SO excellent -- raw and real. I picked it up after I found out Maia Kobabe is also a long-time lover of Witch Please -- my fav podcast -- and I'm so glad I did!!

@Addison_Reads, just sae that you recommended this one today too! Great minds!!

#adventrecommends

#adventrecommends @emilyrose_x

This graphic memoir is amazing! It's such an honest look into the author's life with great explanations and insights. The artwork is beautiful as well.