Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
This week is a Freebie week for Top Ten Tuesday, and it took me ages to decide what to write for it.
There are so many books out there that I’d like to read but haven’t gotten around to yet. Today, I’m narrowing my focus to those titles that are about LGBT+ characters because I haven’t been doing a good job of keeping up with these stories. There are a lot of good ones that have been published recently!
1. Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
I knew someone whose parent committed suicide when we were in middle school. That experience drew me to this plot even more than the queer content.
2. Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
I can’t imagine how frightening it must have been to realize you were gay during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Wow!
3. The History of Living Forever by Jake Wolff
The Elixir of Life is something I never grow tired of reading about. It will be interesting to see how these characters react to the thought of possibly living forever.
4. The Summer Demands by Deborah Shapiro.
It’s rare that a romance novel catches my attention, but the summer camp setting and adult protagonists of this one are unique enough that I’m curious to read it.
5. The Girl in Red by Christina Henry
A dystopian retelling of Little Red Riding Hood? Sign me up, please!
6. The Wise and the Wicked by Rebecca Podos.
The strong focus on family history in this blurb was what first grabbed my attention. My family has all sorts of stories about our ancestors that have been passed down through the generations. I love reading about other families that do the same thing. This seems to happen in every corner of the globe. I can only assume families from every culture occasionally disagree on specific details of their stories, too, just like mine does!
7. Wild and Crooked by Leah Thomas
It’s been a long time since I read a small town murder mystery. This sounds like it could be a good read.
8. A Queer History of the United States for Young People by Michael Bronski
Oh, how I wish I’d had a book like this when I was a teenager. I’ve always enjoyed history, but I also couldn’t help but to wonder why none of the history books I read or museums I visited every talked about people like me. They barely discussed women at all. Queer women (or people in general) were basically erased entirely.
9. Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
There’s something a little magical about wandering around in the woods. As much as I love my city life, I’m also irresistibly drawn to books that explore what might be living in the parts of forests where humans rarely venture.
10. Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone
As soon as I heard this was a feminist Guardians of the Galaxy type of story, I was intrigued. I’m not normally into space operas, but this one might change my mind about that.
Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think of them? How big are your TBR lists in general?
I am dying to read Empress of Forever! It sounds amazing.
Yay! That’s great.
Great list! I’ve heard really good things about Silver in the Wood, I keep meaning to pick it up.
Thanks a lot. I hope you like Silver in the Wood when you read it.
I haven’t heard of any of these, you read an amazing range. I hope you enjoy them all.
What a nice compliment. Thank you.
Well there goes my TBR! Haha, thanks for this though, there are some great books on here I hadn’t heard of and am going to try to read now, especially A Queer History of the United States for Young People!
Heh, I’ll take that as a compliment. I hope you enjoy A Queer History of the United States.
The Wise and the Wicked sounds great!
Glad to hear it.
I’m really curious about Mostly Dead Things and Silver in the Wood. Hope you get to read these ones soon!
Thanks. You, too!
The Girl in Red was good, hope you enjoy it when you get to it. Just added the history of living forever and Like a Love story to my tbr 🙂
I’m so glad you liked it! I hope you enjoy Like a Love Story and The History of Living Forever, too.
Such a great topic! 🙂
Thank you very much.
OOH I just added Silver in the Wood to my To Read list. Thanks for these lovely recs! 🙂
You’re welcome. Hope you enjoy Silver in the Wood.
Great list!! Lots of titles I’m not familiar with that I’ll have to check out 🙂
Happy reading!
Interesting list. Like several other have already expressed, I’m not familiar with them. I enjoyed reading your comments on them.
Thanks!
Loved your take on today’s freebie. This is a great list, Lydia! I’m looking forward to reading Like A Love Story and Wild and Crooked too 🙂
My TTT post
Thank you very much. That means a lot coming from you!
I haven’t read many LGBT+ stories, I need to add some more to my TBR!
Now is the perfect time to do just that. 🙂
I didn’t realize these were all LGBTQ+! I will have to add some to my TBR. Thank for sharing your list. 📚
I didn’t either at first! Isn’t that cool?! And you’re welcome.
Great list! I’m definitely going to need to add a few of these to my TBR, they sound so good!
Yay! So glad to hear that.
Great post! Loved the topic you chose.
Thank you very much.
I think The Girl in Red is the only one of this list that I knew about before! Great list, though. I love breaking down my TBR into smaller sections to analyze. It can get too intimidating otherwise.
Thanks. Yeah, breaking down a TBR into smaller pieces definitely does make it feel more manageable.
I haven’t read these but I think I’ve seen The Girl in Red and it looks interesting. I hope you like these!
Thanks! Will you be reading The Girl in Red?
Here’s hoping you get to read some of these!
Thank you. My fingers are crossed that my library will have at least some of them.
Love this list! Thanks for stopping by!
You’re welcome, and thanks.
Great picks, Lydia! Some of these titles are new to me, so I’ll definitely check them out!
Thanks a lot.
Silver in the Woods sounds good. Great topic pick. 🙂 I will have to check out a few books on this list.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy those books.
Here’s a fabulous book that I just finished this weekend: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. It may be my favorite read of this year. It definitely should go on your list.
Ooh, that sounds good. Thanks for the rec.
So many of these sound really good! Great picks and I’ll be adding some to my TBR list 🙂
Thank you! So glad to hear that.
I’m really looking forward to read Like A Love Story too! Great idea for a theme! These all look so good! 😊
Aww, thanks. Hope you like A Love Story.
Nice topic!! So many books listed in your post are ones I haven’t read.
Thanks. It’s always fun to read TTT posts that talk about lots of books you haven’t read yet!
I need to read Like a Love Story, I’ve owned it for a while, so I really have excuse for not having read it.
I hope you like it!
WILD & CROOKED sounds really good. I remember seeing it around, but didn’t hear a ton about it.
Thanks. I hope you like it.
I haven’t heard of most of these, but a lot of them sound really cool? Which.. yay because LGBT recs! And… fuuuuck bc MORE BOOKS TO READ O_O
Def gonna save this post to look over the recs later in more detail tho!
Exactly! So glad you liked my post, and I hope you enjoy at least a few of the books in it, too.
The Queer Histories would be interesting to read!
For sure. I hope you like it.
Freebies are almost harder than the given topics, aren’t they? So many choices. Love your choice! I didn’t realize The Girl in Red was LGBTQ, which is weird since I’ve heard so much about it and I’ve been so eager to read it. I didn’t know A Queer History of the United States for Young People was a thing, but I need to read that now!
Yes, they sure are. And thanks. I hope you enjoy both of those books.
I just read The Girl in Red the other day and loved it!
I’m so glad to hear that. Awesome.
Nice topic choice! It seems like the LGBT+ genre/characters are really expanding lately, which is great!
Thanks for visiting my TTT post!
You’re welcome! Yeah, books about LGBT+ characters are much more common than they used to be.
Excellent list. I say that not having read them, but in being made aware of the numerous titles. A Queer History of the US for Young people sounds especially noteworthy and overdue. And we are kindred spirits when it comes to sentiments on the woods<3
Thank you and that’s awesome. Yeah, we do seem to have very similar tastes in books and other things for sure.
Like a Love Story sounds like a really interesting read. I love this list!! I just added quite a few to my TBR 😛
Yay, that’s awesome! I hope your TBR isn’t too long now. LOL!
I want to read many of these titles as well.
That’s awesome.
I haven’t heard of any of these! I need to check them out.
Genesis @ Whispering Chapters
I hope you like them!
I have The Girl in Red and I’m so excited to read it! Also thank you for this list because I have more LGBTQ+ books to add to my TBR.
You’re welcome. Happy reading!
Nice list! I really liked The Girl in Red, and I just picked up a copy of Silver in the Wood. Enjoy!
Thank you. So glad to hear you liked The Girl in Red.
I haven’t read any of these yet but I heard some really great things about Like a Love Story so of course it got added to my TBR! I hope you get to these books!
Thanks. You, too.
Don’t think I’ve heard of any of these, but some of them sound really good 🙂
Thank you.
These sound like good one, I hope you get to read some of them soon. I worked up a TBR list for this week’s topic also, it’s good as a reminder to yourself.
Yes, it sure is. And thanks.
oh my goodness i love this list! you’ve just made me add 10 more books to my tbr pile, though these are definitely moving up to the top!
Thank you very much.
I love your list for this weeks freebie topic and I am definitely curious about Empress of Forever, especially if it has a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe to it.
Thank you! Glad to hear that.
Oh I need to add some of these to my list!
It’s always wonderful to get this sort of reaction to a post. You made me smile today. 🙂
Thanks for linking me Lydia!
I love your take on this week’s freebie. I haven’t been very active in reading more books with LGBTQ rep, but I know I need to. This list is going to help a lot.
You’re welcome. Happy reading!
A feminist AND LGBT Guardians of the Galaxy? YES PLEASE 🙂
I know, right?!
I’d recommend These witches don’t burn to add to your list :p
Thank you. I’ve added it to my TBR.
What a great list! My favorite LGBTQ title is Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. It’s NA, though.
I’m looking that book up now. Thanks.
I love this list! I will be reading at least a few of these. Happy Reading!
Yay! That’s awesome.
What an interesting list. I never thought of this as a topic. Will have to find a couple of those books, I guess.
Thanks for stopping by on my TTT earlier. Always nice to talk to fellow readers.
You’re quite welcome. And thanks.
Honestly, I want to read all of these but ESPECIALLY The Girl in Red. You had me at “dystopian retelling of Little Red Riding Hood” because, uh, YES, please. Sign me up. THAT’S my brand, 100%.
Aawesome. So glad to hear that.
What a great topic for this freebie! I’ve only heard of a couple of these books, so I’ll have to see what the others are about.
Thank you very much. Happy reading.
I need to read Max Gladstone. 🙂
I hope you like it.
The Girl in Red sounds absolutely amazing and I’m definitely going to have to check that out!
So glad to hear that. Happy reading!
Great topic choice! I hope you enjoy all of these!
Thank you very much.
I love this week’s freebie theme! There has been such variety in peoples topic selections and lots of books I’d otherwise be oblivious to!
Ditto. Everyone did a great job this week.
I hadn’t heard of many of these before but they all sound amazing, especially The History of Living Forever and Empress of Forever!
I’m glad to hear that.
The Wise and the Wicked is one I want to read as well. I’ve heard great things about it.
Cool! I hope you like it.
That’s a great list! I definitely have to look some of these up. I recently read Tell Me How You Really Feel but Aminah Mae Safi and it was a really cute one!
Aww, thanks. I hope you enjoy those books.
You’ve reminded me that I need to add Wild and Crooked to my TBR! I love Leah Thomas’ Because You’ll Never Meet Me duology, but this one sounds quite different and really interesting. I hope you enjoy it!