It’s hard to believe we’re at August already. This month has been an absolute whirlwind for me, both in my personal life and with regard to who I am as a writer. On the personal side, I took a two week vacation to Portugal and then London. To be fair, I was in London for my day job, but being in Europe meant that I could write or watch my shows, meaning I fell behind on writing for this site. My travels were amazing, though! I’ve now been to four countries in Europe, and they’re all so different from the United States and I find such beautiful things each time.
On the writing side of things, a website I’ve admired for a long time, Autostraddle, appears on the verge of collapse. For those of you who haven’t stayed up to date on the queer literary news, the white, cis CEO/CFO/founder fired their subject editors without much notice, including a foundational Black voice who pretty much single-handedly increased Black readership when the magazine was run by almost solely white women. This led to a public outcry both internally and externally, not lest of all because of incredibly poor communication by Autostraddle to subject editors. Rather than working to do right by these people, the CEO and COO doubled down. I admired said CEO for a long time prior to this news breaking, so this has led to me doing a lot of thinking. It’s important to me to support and amplify POC and trans people on this platform, and I recognize the inherent difficulties in that given that I am a white (and at least cis passing).
All that being said— we’ve had some great content published this month! I hope you all are enjoying reading them as much as I am, because so many of our writers produced top tier content in July.
Books I Read
It was a good month for me in terms of the books I read! 4/5 were incredibly queer, and the fifth was a delightfully cute romp through the bookworm child’s dreamworld.
- Pansy, by Andrea Gibson (4 stars)
- Hijab Butch Blues, by Lamya H (4 stars)
- The Wishing Game, by Meg Shaffer (5 stars)
- Girls Like Girls, by Hayley Kiyoko (4 stars)
- Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg (5 stars)
TV I Watched
I haven’t had much time to watch TV, and that’s mostly because there’s so much reality television I’ve been watching! Love Island is great as always, and The Bachelorette is far above expectations this year, thanks mostly to Charity Lawson.
- And Just Like That
- The Bachelorette
- Love Island UK Season 10
Movies I Watched
I watched No Hard Feelings in theaters early last month and would highly recommend! The other three I watched on the airplane back from Europe and had a great time. I haven’t gotten to see Barbie yet, but I will I promise!
- No Hard Feelings (5 stars)
- The Parent Trap (5 stars)
- Magic Mike’s Last Dance (3.5 stars)
- Inception (4.5 stars)
Reviews You Can Use
Sometimes, we publish reviews long after we actually consume the material. Below is a list of all of the reviews we published this month.
Books
- Girls Like Girls, by Hayley Kiyoko
Movies
- Fear Street Trilogy
- No Hard Feelings
Posts We Wrote That You Loved
Here are the most popular posts published in June!
- Caroline Calloway Finally Write Her Memoir and It’s a Sapphic Swiftian Fantasy
- The Ultimatum: Queer Love Cast Ranked By Their Odds of Winning Survivor
- 10 July Book Releases To Add To Your TBR
- And Just Like That Episode 201 Recap: Met Cute
- And Just Like That Episode 203 Recap: Chapter Three
- And Just Like That Episode 202 Recap: The Real Deal
How was your July? Tell me all about it in the comments!
