hi welcome back to my channel. my name is kat and i haven't been on in a long while
and so today's video is going to be a bit of what i've been doing and also my june tbr. so first up
i want to say thank you to everyone who has sent really lovely messages or have been checking in
with me on instagram uh just asking how i am or that you're excited for like my next video or you
hope i post soon. i did see them and they made me feel great um and kind of lifted my spirits.
so where have i been? so i went back to school for early childhood education um and at the
same time my husband and i were we were trying to get pregnant. so um yay success i'm pregnant.
uh i am almost halfway through my pregnancy now so if you count back that means that when
i started school i was also in the first trimester hellscape of nausea so i was reading nothing other
than like school stuff and i was just sleeping a lot and i was generally pretty miserable. um
but now i am halfway through, nausea is gone, and i've got school covered. and i have been reading
oodles oodles and oodles so that is pretty much where i've been, what i've been doing, and i have
just been really getting into reading for june. as you know, it's pride month. so i wanted to pop
up my tbr even though we're into june already. uh but there's two parts to this. first is netgalley
arcs that i have and i really want to get to and the other ones are queer books that i already have
on my shelves. so without further ado, let's talk about the netgalley arcs first. so the first one i
want to talk about is membranes by chi ta-wei who is a queer taiwanese author and this is translated.
this is following momo who is a skin grafter and she is basically in charge of renewing
people's skin and making them look like they haven't aged um and it's for celebrities.
and in this world, it's kind of post-apocalyptic. there's environmental damage so everyone lives
in domes at the bottom of the ocean and what really caught my attention (i mean other than
domes at the bottom of the ocean) is that momo is on a journey of queer self-discovery
and self-identity and gender expression. so i just thought overall it just sounds
absolutely amazing and i cannot wait to get to it. um i also want to read
finding the wolf by mell eight. so mell ate (maybe you don't know) but she is an american writer
who wrote kelpie blue that i read earlier this year and it wasn't perfect by any means but i
definitely really felt drawn to the characters and really liked
mell eight's writing style. so when i saw this on netgalley, i was thrilled. this is about a dragon
who is recruited to hunt for a wayward prince. um and the dragon really doesn't want to go because
the dragon just wants to stay with their horde of treasure. but he's known as like the best hunter
so he has to go find this prince that has gotten himself lost um and i assume romance ensues.
um i also have very excitingly the tangleroot palace by marjorie m liu. um this is a short story
collection and i don't want to know anything i didn't look up what the short stories are about.
i just am excited because if you recognize the art, this is the person who is one half of the creator
of monstress which is one of my favorite graphic novel series of all time. and i know that this
has queer elements, i know it's short stories, normally, i'm not a huge fan of short stories
but it's marjorie m liu... and i mean... the cover... i'm just a sucker for this cover. so
i can't wait to get to that one as well. i'm really anticipating it and i'm looking for some dark dark
content because monstress is uber dark so i assume this one will also have some dark elements. um and
the last netgalley one i want to talk about is star eater by kerstin hall. and first off, the cover
is absolutely gorgeous like the red star with like the bloody mouth like i'm all about it.
the plot is a little convoluted... so we're following elfreda who wants to avoid pregnancy at
all costs um because it will kill her if um they get a hold of her. so instead of that, she wants
a way out. so she's basically offered this shadowy deal by a shadowy like spy cabal organization
to spy and get information um and work her way up into the sisterhood. so i know that this has queer
elements as well i'm really excited to read it. so those are the four netgalley arcs that i will be
reading. they're at the top of my list. the other books that i have on my tbr for june
um are all... you know those videos that we all filmed that are like 21 books i need to read
in 2021? so these are all the books that are on that list for me which are queer and i haven't
read yet. so um first up is tin man by sarah winman. spoiler alert, i have already read this and it was
so good it hurt me so bad. uh we're following kind of two childhood friends ellis and michael who
have just like this very pure innocent loving uh friendship in childhood and then it grows
into something more. but then ellis meets annie and things get complicated. and this is just so
heart-wrenching and i really loved it. i'll get more into it later but this is on my
list and of course i mean i already read it so there you go. um i also have already read
the binding by bridget collins. this one is oh man it could have been
so much better if i hadn't have read the blurb on the back. the blurb gives so much away. so if
you have this book sitting on your shelves don't read the back. just here i'll tell you vaguely what
it's about. okay this is a fantasy world where people can have memories they want to be erased
bound into books and we're following emmett who has a binder's calling. so he goes to work at
this bindery. this also has some queer elements and some forbidden romance elements in it as well.
um yeah and that's all i'm going to say i'm not going to spoil anything but yeah like i said
queer elements and it's on my 21 and 2021 list. um and then if you've been around for a while,
you'll know this very well because this is a book that like for years running
or i should say poetry collection for years running i haven't read. it's only 100 pages
and i just like never read it but!! but!! times are changing because i'm halfway through. this is what
i'm currently reading. so this is an asian american poet who is writing about her queer experience
kind of mashed up with being a cyborg and cyborg humanoid themes, which if you know
anything, i love that, i love that. so like the other poetry collection that i bought recently
was hum by jamal may which is also about man and technology and humanoid android things.
um i'm just i'm really into that kind of thing. so i'm halfway through and i'll let you know
what i think but definitely if you're into poetry and this sounds interesting to you
go for it. um also on my list is the stars and the blackness between them by junaudra petrus,
who i believe um is of afro-caribbean ancestry but is an american citizen? yes.
and this is following a young girl who when her parents find out
that she has a girlfriend they decide to send her from trinidad to america to live with relatives to
more or less like straighten her out. however, she builds a relationship with one of the girls that
she meets there and i assume it's a very lovely sapphic romance. um i can't wait to get to this one.
um i also have call me by your name by andre aciman. uh tin man kind of
made me think like just read it, just read it. you know it's gonna hurt you, you know you're gonna cry
a lot, um but this is like an absolute five-star prediction for me because (if you don't know)
i bought the e-book and then within 10 pages i was like no no i want to read it in its physical form
because i know it's gonna make me cry... i know it's gonna rip my heart out so
um i'm looking forward to it but also like i know i'm gonna cry buckets. um and then the last one i
have is the gracekeepers by kirsty logan. i have attempted to read this before. i got like 20 pages
in. and this is a water world premise where earth has largely been covered by water and there are
damplings who are water dwelling people that go around basically on ships and boats flotillas
and then there are the land lockers (is that right?) uh yeah land lockers who live on earth
obviously. um and we're following callenish and north. one is a circus performer on a floating
flotilla and the other one is basically a burial guide for people who have passed away
and she helps like create their funerals. i'm looking forward to it but i'm a little
hesitant because i've put it down before but i figured now's the time to try again. and
yeah i hope i enjoy it. so those are all the books that i am reading in june. i'm really looking
forward to getting back into it. um and thank you so much for sticking around and if you're new
thank you for joining. and i will chat to you guys in another video soon. lots of love, bye~