Welcome to Litsy!

Happy Pride Month Litsy! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

I usually compile a fiction reading list for Pride, but I‘ve decided to get the tagged book instead this year. I have a tiny studio apartment and I‘m wondering if anyone owns photo books on kindle/tablet and if that works or if this is the kind of thing I just need to carve out space for?

I read the first book I bought from #GaysTheWord on the airplane back to Germany, and now I‘m happily laying in my own bed.
#Outrageous (which is signed by the author) is about the history of Section 28, and you can draw so many comparisons to what‘s happening in Republican states in the USA right now… very interesting and well-written.

#LGBT #LGBTHistory #Uk #nonfiction

I was not expecting this to be what it is, more a history of the literary scene on the island than a comprehensive history of the place. In that sense, it‘s not a great introduction. Nonetheless, it outlines a timeline of the authors and artists that have visited or lived on the island and their interactions with the gay and queer community there. I‘m leaving this with a sense of how fragile and varied the idea of a “paradise” can be. ⬇️

Vacation memories are often evanescent and sepia-toned, and Fire Island‘s archive can feel similarly fragile, a record of a seasonal community historically designed to evade detection. Its stories vanished, perhaps, in the moment of their utterance, consigned to the ocean breeze or the grave, along with the raconteurs, flamboyant and well-connected, who first told them.
#frankohara

This really is a little book, but it's still interesting. It uses the British Museum's collections (with a little bit of help from the British Library) to discuss how same-sex desire has been portrayed in art and literature. It's not an exhaustive account, and many cultures leave no mark: I'd say it's best viewed as highlighting some interesting objects (and some of the lacunae where we can't say), rather than as any kind of complete narrative.

Lots of GNs reviewed here. Rather tempting (can recommend the tagged one, too).

I am taking work from home to a new level and reviewing a book for course adoption from my bath. This is the first time I‘ve brought a highlighter to the bathtub!

New book (desk copy) from a publisher and pretty flowers from Anthony. 🥰