Welcome to Litsy!

Really, really good. Highly recommended!

This book is really excellent. I saw it recommended somewhere but now I can‘t remember where anymore. So glad I got to read it recently!

Part 3 of my long list of November highlights is now on my blog. This one has a focus on queer authors: https://lindypratch.blogspot.com/2021/12/best-lgbtq-books-in-november.html

At 25, Kimiko Tobimatsu was diagnosed with mucinous breast cancer. This comic-format memoir documents her experience navigating the medical system in Canada as a queer woman of mixed ethnicity. Attitudes towards traditional markers of femininity, the emphasis on maintaining a positive outlook, and on work ethic while incapacitated by illness are just some of the issues thoughtfully explored. Art by Keet Geniza is a perfect complement. #LGBTQ

There‘s not a lot of writing out there on cancer and disability. Maybe because for those of us who are now cancer-free, the ongoing symptoms are after-effects (of surgery, radiation, meds), not the result of disease still being present. Or maybe it‘s because the mainstream cancer narrative is about overcoming adversity, not about experiencing ongoing disability.

It probably doesn‘t help that I tie my masculinity—and, really, my value—to being able to provide for others. Whether it‘s running errands, baking or offering emotional support, I tend to focus on my output as the key way I affirm my butchness, dykeness, whatever you want to call it. This isn‘t sustainable post-cancer.

I even stopped reading because it evoked too much emotion.