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Cake day: August 15th, 2025

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  • Recently finished Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle. I felt called out by the main character, especially what tips her decision in the climax. I felt like there was something missing in the book, but I did really enjoy its message and found it solidly enjoyable. It was never boring, although I would have preferred more outlandish deaths.

    Recently started the final Marvel What If? book series (the DOOM one). It’s been okay. It’s been a minute, but compared to the previous book (at least in my memory), this version of Kitty Pryde feels like it’s pulling from Evolution instead of the comics. I’m also incredibly dissatisfied with a certain happening fairly early into the book, and hoping that won’t be the permanent state of affairs, but as is usual when it comes to these superhero things, it probably will be.

    Also, just from a writing perspective. I feel like writing Doom has to be a blast for the author. I know I’d be having fun with it.


  • These are mostly binary trans women recommendations, and most of these are by trans authors. If for some reason you want comic book or manga recommendations, I’ve got those too if you need them. There was also an LGBT spreadsheet in one of the reddit subs for books (either bookrecommendations or maybe fantasy) with a massive list of books, though no indication of their quality.

    From the more comprehensive list below, I would recommend:

    General Literary Pick: Disappoint Me - Nicola Dinan
    General Romance: Chef’s Choice - TJ Alexander

    Solo Books

    Disappoint Me - Nicola Dinan
    Great story, often humorous in my opinion. Deals with many aspects of being trans that I think most cis people with little experience with trans people would think about.

    Light from Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki
    This one’s pretty well loved. A woman who made a deal with the devil romancing an alien while training an up and coming trans woman who wants to become a famous musician.

    A Lady for a Duke - Alexis Hall
    Victorian Romance. Does glaze over some of the practicalities of being trans in that era, but I don’t think that’s an issue. It’s okay to allow for a little suspension of disbelief. The romance is pretty great imo.

    Pack of Her Own - Elena Abbott
    Werewolf. If you like supernatural romance, just read this. Trust me. Sapphic.

    Chef’s Choice - TJ Alexander
    T4T romance with a binary trans man and woman. One of my favorite trans romances I’ve read. Also, unlike the others on this list, you get a trans man’s perspective too. Plus, it’s trans experiences from those who are more and less privileged, changing the way they interact with the world.

    Orlando - Virgina Woolf
    But you probably already know about this one. I’m sure someone will probably get angry at me for including this as trans, but that is what Orlando functionally is in the story, regardless of whether that’s how it’s meant to be read. It’s certainly an exploration of gender of the time, at the very least.

    Young Adult (YA) - Fawn’s Blood - Hal Schrieve
    Vampires. Certainly playing on the idea of a twisted version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you all enjoy YA and supernatural stuff, give it a read. It has various trans characters as part of its cast.

    Solo books with trans main characters but don’t heavily focus on the trans part

    YA - This Delicious Death - Kayla Cottingham
    Zombies/Ghouls. People who eat human flesh, basically. Sapphic.

    Two Book Series

    YA - Dreadnaught Duology - April Daniels
    Trans woman superhero main character. Various rep, plus it’s Sapphic.

    Stealing Thunder Duology - Alina Boyden
    First book is very rough and stereotypical imo. The second book is actually pretty fun though.

    Trilogies

    Her Majesty’s Royal Coven - Juno Dawson
    One of the main characters is trans, though you won’t get her perspective until the second book. I wouldn’t recommend reading this specifically for the trans aspect. Also chock full of pop culture references (not necessarily in a good way) even I didn’t always pick up on, which is saying something. Overall enjoyable though.

    Solo books with trans protagonists that I would not recommend

    People Collide - Isle McElroy
    Either I didn’t get it, or I didn’t like it. Some reviews seem to insist this book is great. I personally hated it.

    Podcast

    This Queer Book Saved My Life - Tons of queer book recommendations.


  • Hard to read when they ban the books you’re interested in and cut library services.

    I would debate streaming services having that significant of an impact. It’s likely the same impact that traditional TV used to have, especially when VCRs entered the mainstream (into DVDs, Blurays, and around the same time, Streaming).

    I think mobile gaming and social media would be more likely to blame. Not to mention algorithms. Maybe it’s only me, but most algorithms rarely pick out things I was interested in (it was very easy to tell that they were just ads). And as the younger generation depends on algorithms, not hard to imagine that they slowly become disenfranchised with what they’re reading if it’s not something they really want to read.

    But the real reason behind this is the education system. High schools were effectively turned into diploma mills. There’s also a lot of bullying for teenage boys that like reading in the school system, and many boys do not have a high literacy rate in public schools. Repeated Republican governments in America have decimated the education system as well.







  • It’s not the best, but Pop OS because it’s the only one that actually worked without any other setup (Mint didn’t appear on my screen, and I couldn’t find anyway to access a terminal or troubleshoot that). Starting to regret it, though, especially as the Pop community devolves into the Cosmic cult and 22.04 has more issues (some of my flatpaks refuse to open now, sometimes I get a black screen when starting the computer, bluetooth headphones no longer work, etc.).