My 2019 Reading Wrap Up (I read 10 books)

Unbearable Lightness by Portia De Rossi

This one is a big trigger warning to those with eating disorders. There’s talk of numbers and self harm behaviours.

This book really made my younger self feel seen. I grew up wanting to be an actor, bi and with an eating disorder that I didn’t get help for. It was really interesting to read about a woman I only vaguely knew about and connect with her on a deep level I often can’t. She talks a lot about the inner workings of Hollywood, which is always so morbidly interesting to me, and about her interpersonal relationships failing within this awful period in her life and then how they began to thrive as she chose recovery. This had a wonderful happy ending (which, most of us know) and could be a good read for someone struggling to see through the fog of mental illness.

Queer Intentions:  a (personal) journey through LGBT+ culture by Amelia Abraham

This is a great book for an introduction to Queer history and culture around the world! I am a white British queer who does not know much of what it is like to be queer around the world, and we can’t understand what it’s like being a different gender or sexuality. This book bridges the gaps in the white western viewpoint. It’s also much easier to read than you’d think, more like a selection of essays you could read in a queer magazine. I’m trying to say, this is an accessible book for people of all knowledge and education levels and may spark a love and need to know more.

Heartstopper vol. 1 & 2 by Alice Oseman

The perfect mixture of manga style drawings and story telling, with a cast of very British people. Wonderful selection of characters who portray all kinds of different people of our real world. Wonderful bisexual representation with our main boy Nick. A light and fluffy story, even the angsty bits aren’t too angsty and you’ll feel warm and fuzzy inside. I’m also very excited for volume three to come out in early February!

the witch doesn’t burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace

I’d call this the political book of insta poetry. This has similar formatting to Rupi Kaur, which makes it accessible and easy to get through, and leaves an echo of each poem’s final line in your mind. It’s also very inclusive feminist art, I’ve not read anything that includes all women in their art and says it so out right. I love the links to witches and magic, it really hit the nail on the head with metaphors and analogies. This book made me feel angry and powerful all at once and fed me motivation to change things. If you’re looking for revolution, this is your poetry book.

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

I watched the film first guys, I know, it’s an unwritten rule. But I don’t care! It was actually really enjoyable to read this after watching the film because I could slowly pick out the bits they did and didn’t keep in, which is a really fun game for me really! I love this book, it was so fun and silly, some bits still shocked me and I think I’ll continue reading the series because there was a pretty anticlimactic ending to the book. At least the film, you could pretend that was the only one (even though there is definitely a second one coming soon) but you can’t do that with the book unless you want to perpetually never know what happens! It’s a great book to show teenage readers that you will love many people in your life, not all of them will love you back or end happily like most YA shows.

Leah on The Off Beat by Becky Albertalli

This was teenage me in a book. One line literally a couple of pages in got me. The book for fat, bi, slytherin girls with a single mother. You might think ‘there aren’t many of those’, but you’d be surprised. This book not only has one bi female character, but a few (!!!) and is a really nice follow on from Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda where you still see the others milling around in the background but you get more of Leah’s story and what she’s hiding. She, like Simon, hasn’t come out either. I saw a lot of this story coming from watching Love, Simon and then reading the book, which I think is really great story telling, giving us some subtle foreshadowing. If you have an idea what I’m talking about, you’re probably right. Now officially an Own Voices book! Sadly Becky was forced into coming out before she was ready, but she is now out as a bi woman. Check out these articles here, here and here.

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: a dangerous trans girl’s confabulous memoir by Kai Cheng Thom

This book was an interesting one. I won it in a giveaway and I’m glad that happened, because I’m not sure I would have picked it up myself. It’s easy to read and has a wonderful twist on the typical memoir with beautiful fantasy comparisons and descriptions. I am definitely keeping this book for reference when I want to try something different, or am writing something with fantasy elements. There were a few sections I wasn’t huge on, but I feel they would have resonated more with a trans woman reader, such as the three pages of poetry about her hair. The ending was a surprise and made me quite sad, but I would totally recommend people read it!

Prozac Nation: young and depressed in America, a memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Trigger Warnings: Talk of mental illness, suicide (ideation and attempts), sexual assault, abuse. 

I’m sad to say I struggled through this book. It’s very up my alley and there were parts I did really enjoy. But I felt like some parts went over my head and I would read long paragraphs where I had no idea what was happening or what was being said. Particularly as I got towards the end of the book. I pushed on, only because I wanted to know what happened, there wasn’t a hugely satisfying ending, and then it was followed by an epilogue which felt more like an academic essay and a follow up essay after the book had its first round of publishing. It felt a bit long to me, a lot could have been cut if I’m being honest. It’s a shame because I did really enjoy some parts but these other sections really ruined it for me.

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton

I Honestly had no idea I wanted or needed this book until I read the description. It was amazing, I read the whole thing in one day which I haven’t done in ages! Couldn’t put it down. The queer rep is great, I think the more sexual content was perfectly hinted at without writing a sex scene… (which is a hot debate subject) I love that there was a little bit of disability rep too! Often people with disabilities in a zombie book/film/show die because of it etc. This is a great adventure book that ‘just so happens’ to centre a gay character. I could go on but I won’t coz it’ll just become spoilers and I’d rather let everyone have a chance to read themselves! (Comes out Feb 6th!)

I don’t read nearly as much as other book bloggers and YouTubers, but I wasn’t far off a book a month in 2019 so that’s my 2020 goal. One book a month (on average…) so 12 books with a few extras incase I really need to DNF something or have some spare reading time.

~ Artie