Welcome to Litsy!

#bookmail #bannedbookweek

My signed copy of Gender Queer arrived today, just in time for Banned Book Week! I've read it several times, but put off buying a copy for myself. A few months ago, pre-orders were offered with a portion of proceeds going to Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Florida Freedom to Read Project. I got a signed deluxe edition and a “Fight Censorship, Read Comics“ pin.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Beautiful graphic novel (look at the page designs!) about gender identity and finding yourself.

Loved reading this on my new kindle coloursoft.

#lgbtqia2025 @Kenyazero

This is probably my most reread book of the past few years. This time I‘m facilitating a book club discussion on it. I am really looking forward to discussing it and seeing everyone‘s takeaways.

#WithTheBanned

#WithTheBanned

Hey all! I can‘t believe it‘s already time for discussion again. Like always, I‘ll tag everyone in the first post. 3 questions total this time. #WithTheBanned

I learned a lot from this one about non-binary gender identity and asexuality. Kobabe does an excellent job of conveying the confusion and isolation e felt as e was coming of age. The art is beautiful.
#withthebanned @jadams89 #queerbc @PuddleJumper

The author accounts eir personal journey of queer discovery which could serve to explain gender dysphoria both to people on the outside or those who may be experiencing it without understanding. Man did the mom tick me off, not just on the pronouns, on many things. It kind of just ends randomly. But it‘s a memoir & I guess we are all in progress & evolving so …I‘ll take it for what it is.

#withthebanned

Repost for @Jadams89

How is it already June?? Our book this month is Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.
#WithTheBanned #buddyread

How is it already June?? Our book this month is Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.
#WithTheBanned #buddyread

Representation is so important. As is my continued education on diverse topics. This is a great intro graphic novel to genders and one person‘s journey and self-discovery.

Honestly, I don‘t even want to rate this book because I really struggled with it. There is just something about this graphic novel just did not sit right with me. It felt too childish, which made it hard to connect with. Well, except for the fact that er loved David Bowie because shouldn‘t we all. #ReadBanedBooks for March.

#Choose20 comics that stayed with you or influenced you. One comic a day, in no particular order. No explanation, no reviews, just covers.

Day 11

From @notcool

Thank you so much for the #jolabokaflodswap @LMJenkins !! I‘m glad to add another frequently banned book to my shelf! I love that the colors of the candy wrappers sort of match the book cover ☺️

And thanks @MaleficentBookDragon for hosting this amazing swap once again!

An eye-opening and vulnerable sharing of the author‘s coming-out story as non-binary, in a culture that still is largely fixated on people identifying as one gender or the other, even if they are LGBT. I particularly appreciated the author‘s emergence reflected in varying responses of friends and family and ongoing fear of coming out and how to articulate it. I could also appreciate the extreme pain of a Pap test! #Nonfiction2024 #Genderqueer

Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions for ways to make these tiny books turn out better! I realized I could post a picture showing off the books themselves. I made two copies of each book as an experiment, one with small versions of the existing book pages and one with book info to be a book recommendation. I'll probably only do the version that can be a recommendation instead of the small pages version moving forward. #LitsyCrafters

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 🏳️‍⚧️