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carriagelamp · 4 years

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~ Queer Lit 30 Day Book Challenge ~

I decided to do this challenge I came across for June! Originally it was designed as a “day-by-day” thing, but my June was way too hectic to do a write up every single day… so I decided to make a nice compilation for the end of the month instead!

This is perhaps not the “purest” form of the challenge but I wanted it to be personal for me. Growing up when I did and where I did, I had very little exposure to queer books, especially age-appropriate queer books. That being said, there’s some books on this list that are really only “queer” by technically, or through a secondary character rather than the main character. I debated whether to include these but finally decided that, yes, I would. I owe it to myself. Even though some of these books that aren’t “as queer” as other, they were (or are) really important to me as a queer person and my journey is understanding that, so I wanted to acknowledge them!

More info about the books and the challenge under the cut!

Day One: First Queer Book You Remember Reading

Color by Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki

Remember how I mentioned a lack of available, age-appropriate queer books? I was one of those kids who was definitely exposed (probably too young) to queer manga/yaoi. It wasn’t necessarily what I wanted, especially as a wee ace teen, but it was the best I had at the time and it meant the world to me at the time, to see same-sex relationships even if looking back on them is very “YIKES”.

I’m sure I read others before this, but Color is one of the first that I really remember and which I a) actually owned and which b) wasn’t completely repellent in hindsight! I haven’t reread it in probably over a decade so I have no idea how it stands up, but at the time it read like a much more “realistic” account of two teenagers developing a crush and starting a relationship and as a questioning teenager it really helped me realize that this was a real, viable option.

Day Two: Queer Book That Reminds You Of Home

The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag

I hummed and hawed about this one for a long time because honestly I tend to read books that make me feel far from home. I decided to go with The Witch Boy though because it’s a story that challenges gender norms and stars a large family out in the woods, running wild and exploring magic, and honestly it gives me vibes that remind me of vacationing with my extended family. We’re also partially ginger and inclined to run wild in the woods. If we knew magic we’d have used it for sure.

This book is about 13 year old Aster, who lives in a family where the women all become witches and the men all become shifters. Aster, however, has no interest in shapeshifting and instead finds ways to study magic and learn the arts of witchcraft while constantly being pushed out by his female relatives… though everything might change when a new danger, that may or may not be connected to Aster studying magic, begins to appear.

Day Three: Queer Book That Has Been On Your TBR Too Long

Beneath The Citadel by Destiny Soria

That was an easy choice, this has been sitting on my bookshelf for months, staring at me accusingly every time I enter my room. I’m really excited to read it (Magical heist? Rebellion? With an asexual protagonist? Yes please) but for some reason I have not gotten around to it. Some day, baby, some day.

Day Four: Queer Book With A Name Or Number In The Title

George by Alex Gino

George is an absolutely charming middle grade novel about a child named George who the world perceives as male… but who knows she’s definitely a girl. The novel begins when her class decided to put on a play about the novel they had just read: Charlotte’s Web. George is desperate to play Charlotte, her favourite character, but isn’t even allowed to try out because it’s a “girl’s role”. George and her best friend struggle with how to handle this problem and manage George’s secret amid elementary school and home drama.

This book is really adorable – it was a nice, easy, cozy read for an adult, and would also make a great read aloud to elementary-age children if you want to introduce them to transgender characters.

Day Five: Queer Book Where The Protag Has A Fun Job

The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

Not actually a queer protagnoist, but a queer side character who plays a major role in the series. Mister Vernon, one of Leila’s fathers, has arguable the coolest job: he’s a retired stage magician turn magic shop owner, which is complete with large rabbit, hidden room, and tons of fascinating gadgets to help a young practical magician learn their trade. He is hands down one of the neatest character in the series and is a major catalyst throughout the series.

The first book follows Carter, a runaway orphan who practices street magic to get by, as he runs away from his horrible uncle and winds up meeting a gang of magic-loving friends in a small town. Hiding from his uncle is only the beginning though, and the mysteries surrounding the town and Mister Vernon become thicker and thicker as the series goes on.

Day Six: Favourite Queer Graphic Novel

Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

There’s lots of fantastic queer graphic novels out there, but I have to name Check, Please! as my favourite (and not just because I’m Canadian and am legally obligated to at least show interest in a hockey story). Check, Please! is the friggin cutest story about Eric “Bitty” Bittle, former figure skater and avid baker, who joins the Samwell University hockey team. The story is told in the form of Bitty’s vlog as he recounts the bizarre quirks of the Samwell hockey team, his struggle to overcome his fear of checking, and his growing crush on the team captain, Jack. Seriously guys, this is cavity-inducing sweetness and you can read it all online for free, here on tumblr @omgcheckplease or at its own website, checkpleasecomic.

Day Seven: Queer Book You Often Reread

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Another book I haven’t reread in years, but this was the first queer novel I ever read (and owned!) so I read it obsessively, first the copy from the high school library and then my own copy (which is, let us say, well-thumbed by this point). It was pure fluff, in an aggressively diverse, relentlessly accepting, rainbow-coloured high school and it was exactly what I wanted in high school, and it still makes me happy whenever I remember it. It’s a straight-up high school romance, pretty traditional to the genre, but it has the most delightful supporting cast you could ever ask for. Maybe I should reread it again this summer…

Day Eight: Queer Book With A Happy Ending

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

This was a bit more of a “yeah it was fine” book for me, but honestly… queer people deserve some average, run-of-the-mill YA fantasies. As far as my normal reading preferences go, run-of-the-mill YA fantasies are my bread and butter. And this one has a cute sapphic romance to go with it. It’s about Denna, a princess with a dangerous secret: she has a magical Affinity for fire, despite being betrothed to the prince of a kingdom that aggressively prosecutes and fears magic-users. So now Denna is in a strange land, trying to hide her increasingly volatile magic, solve an assassination that rocked the kingdom, and deal with the growing connection between her and the prince’s wild sister, Mare. It has court intrigue, a murder mystery, horses, and lots of confused sapphic pining so it’s totally worth picking up if you want a light summer fantasy adventure.

Day Nine: Queer Book With (Over) 100 Pages

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

I decided to try to get as close to 100 pages as possible! River of Teeth is a 114-page novella that I haven’t quite finished (work and covid stress happened) but which I am fucking losing my mind for. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s peak alternative history, about queer hippopotamus-riding cowboys in Louisiana during the early 20th (late 19th?) century. Like… I don’t know how to emphasize how unbelievably cool this book is. Genderqueer demolition expert with a giant crush and a penance for making things blow up and attempting to poison guests when they’re bored?? Check. Gay gunslinging hippo-riding cowboy with an angsty backstory (and also a giant crush)? Check. Sexy, fat, badass lady con artist with an albino hippo that she spoils? Check. Like damn guys. I’m not done the book and I’ve already bought the sequel because I know the second I pick it back up I’m not gonna stop until I’ve ploughed through it all. This book is the epitome of “refuge in audacity” and “rule of cool”. Is it over the fucking top? Absolutely but that’s the point.

Day Ten: Favourite Queer Genre Novel

The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare

I’ll be honest, I’m a little shaky on what counts as a genre novel (isn’t… everything… a genre??) so I decided to interpret it as “slightly trashy YA supernatural fantasy” because that sure is a hella specific genre I’m weak for.

I really thought I was done with the Shadowhunter novels, I thought they were a goofy series I left behind in teenagerhood that I could look back on with amused indulgence. And then I found out that there was a novel specifically about Alec and Magnus and! Oh no! Ding dong I was wrong. I fell back in hard because listen… I love them. They were one of the first canonical same-sex relationships I ever read about in an actual novel, they meant a lot to me then and still mean a lot to me now. I have nothing to say to defend myself here except that this book wrecked me and I can’t wait for the sequel.

Day Eleven: Queer Book You Love In A Genre You Don’t Read

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connel

I am very rarely a slice-of-life / romance genre sort of person. I like my stories cut with a heavy dose of fantasy, scifi, action-adventure… something. So a graphic novel that’s not only a romance, but one about an unhealthy relationship and infidelity is like… super outside my usual range of reading material. But it was very much worth the read! The art was stunning, and the complicated emotions it tapped into really touched me. I’m very happy to have read it, and was so damn satisfied by the end.

Day Twelve: Queer Book With A Strong Sense Of Place

Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller

Linsey Miller is one author I very actively follow, I love her works and they always have very distinct, complicated worlds with unique societies and magic systems. Belle Révolte was her latest book and followed a prince-and-the-pauper type of story, in which wealthy Emilie des Marais is determined to learn noonday (magical) arts in order to become a physician, someone who can actually work to make her home a better place… but this is not something a proper lady would ever be allowed to do. So she flees her finishing school and meets poor, but magically gifted, Annette Boucher and offers her the chance to switch places. Annette goes back to school as “Emilie” and gets to hone her skills at the midnight arts while Emilie will use her name to sneak into medical school and fight her way up the ranks to physician. This is a challenging enough task, with rebellion roiling just beneath the surface and the country about to slip into a arrogant war that threatens the lives of hundreds…

Day Thirteen: Queer Book That Really Made You Think

Our Dreams At Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani

This is a four book manga series that is completely breath-taking. It’s touched by magical-realism and completely drowned in visually stunning metaphors and symbolism. Seriously, I’ve reread these books multiples times trying to digest how the wide variety of symbols overlap and contradict and compliment and challenge each other. I still haven’t really gotten a solid handle on it, it’s very fluid, so yeah… definitely makes me think.

The story starts with Tasuku Kaname who believes he may have just been outed as gay by a high school friend, and feels like he’s watching his entire world crumble around him. He is seriously considering taking his own life, when he runs into the mysterious woman “Someone-san” and winds up leading him to a drop-in center that’s run by a local non-profit, and is also a hub for a number of queer people in the community. The books follow Tasuku as he grows, learns, makes mistakes, and confronts his feelings, along with a number of other members at the drop-in center. It is completely beautiful, optimistic, but also quite stark and harsh at its look at homophobia and transphobia in modern Japanese society and how it can effect people in different ways. I just bought book four and can’t wait to read it and see how everything ends.

Day Fourteen: Queer Book That Made You Cry

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Holy shit guys. Listen. Listen. If you don’t read any other book on this list, please consider reading The Marrow Thieves. It is hands down the best book I’ve read so far this year. Another book that doesn’t have a queer character as the protag, but as one of the main supporting characters and listen, his story fucking destroyed me as a person. That romance just… aaaaaaah. AAAAAAAAH.

Anyway. The Marrow Thieves is a Canadian dystopian novel. It takes place in a post-climate change world in which society has been ravaged – partially due to the wildly different and extreme weather patterns, but also through a strange disease that has spread through the population that has left people completely incapable of dreaming. Now unable to rest, process their lives, and dream of a future, people are being driven insane and only one group appears to be immune: North America’s First Nations people appear to be unaffected. And so they begin to be harvested, rounded up and collected in “school” in order for people to suck the marrow out of them to give to white people afflicted by this disease. The Marrow Thieves follows a First Nations boy named Frenchie as he flees the recruiters and tries his best to survive in this post-apocalyptic like wilderness, banding together with other First Nations people who are heading north, where they hope to find communities of their own people with whom they can shelter and start to rebuild their lives.

It’s a YA level novel, not very long, and such an insanely good read. I cannot emphasize enough PLEASE GO READ THIS BOOK.

Day Fifteen: Queer Book That Made You LOL

Mostly Void, Partially Stars by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Welcome to Nightvale always makes me laugh and it was a lot of fun to get to read the transcripts of the episodes. I’m a sucker for novelizations/transcripts of shows. It was a nice nostalgia trip and gave me an excuse to go back and relisten to some of my favourite episodes too! If you’ve never gotten into Nightvale… hey, it’s a classic! Podcast is fucking stunning if you’re into podcasts, and if you’re not but would enjoy a weird, queer, eldritch horror comedy then try the book! It’s the first “season” compiled in text form, exactly how it’s heard in the show.

Day Sixteen: Queer Book That Is Really Personal To You

Jughead volume 1 by Chip Zdarsky et al

Including this one because gee golly it sure did make me want to fight a lot of people for quite a while. It was one of the first stories I ever found/read that had an explicitly asexual main character… (and a character I already really loved! Which I now got to feel an even stronger connection to! It was so fun and validating!) so it was super awesome how like half of tumblr decided for a year there that this was apparently a cardinal sin. Imagine… one single version of old, long standing comic series deciding to retcon a character to represent a heavily under-represented community… imagine being so fucking angry about that that you decide to start a hate campaign on the internet. So much fun to live through that as an ace person. Anyway, these comics were nothing amazing but I sure do love them aggressively out of pure spite, even now that the aphobia on tumblr has died back down I will hold this to my chest and adore it.

Day Seventeen: Favourite Queer Book Sequel or Spin Off

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

Honestly do I even need to say anything here? Is there any queer person who hasn’t read Mackenzi Lee’s The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue series? If you are someone who hasn’t read it yet… go do that?? Absolutely stunning, one of my all-time favourite book series. It’s the perfect combination of hilarious and goofy, intense action, heartfelt character development, and a dash of “wait was that supernatural or??” This sequel was fantastic, this time focusing on Felicity, Monty’s sister, and her quest to become a physician despite being a woman in the 18th century. Awesome look at femininity, feminism, asexuality, and race. (Also… OT3? OT3.)

Day Eighteen: Favourite Queer Book By A Favourite Author

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

One of those “ehh is this technically queer? Not really but close enough, it is in my heart” books. It was one of the books I read as a teenager when I was still beginning to seek out and try to explore queer lit in so much as I could.

Terry Pratchett is, hands down, my favourite author, and though he doesn’t tend to write explicitly queer literature, his exploration of gender through allegory is top fucking tier. Everything to do with the dwarves in his series is fascinating, and a really great challenge/critique/exploration of gender, and this is the book that takes it to the next level (and brings in at least implicitly queer characters). It’s about Polly Perks, who lives in a small, war torn nation, choosing to join the army in order to find out what happened to her brother. However, as tradition dictates, she can’t join as a girl… so she disguises herself as Ozzer, a young man. There’s a lot of twists and turns, and as always Pratchett delivers fantastic humour and just absolutely delicious satire.

Day Nineteen: Queer Book That Changed Your Life

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson

This was the book that made me realize that I, as a queer teacher, could have queer kid lit in my future classroom. Maybe a comparatively small revelation, but a really important one to me. It made me realize that this didn’t need to be something I kept a secret in my professional life and which could really positively influence children, especially queer children. It was the first queer children’s book I ever bought.

Day Twenty: Favourite Queer Book Series

Candy Color Paradox by Isaku Natsume

Alright… I’ll admit it, this isn’t actually my favourite series, but I’ve used my favourites in other spots. And this is a good one! Definitely more of an actual “yaoi” than the other manga I’ve included (here there be sex) but it has a very different vibe that what I’m used to from that type of manga. The main pair are actually both capable, mature adults, with careers they actively care about, and who get together in the first volume!

The rest of the series is less about them angst-ily toeing around their relationship, and much more about them learning to grow as a couple and balance their work and relationship and society. It’s funny and sweet, and I really enjoy these two losers. It’s a very low-stakes enemy-to-friends-to-lovers story, in which Onoe (a reporter) and Kaburagi (a photographer) are paired up on a news story they’re supposed to dig into together. What starts as a bickering rivalry gradually becomes respect, friendship, and love~ Onoe is a gremlin of a protag, so he’s a treat to follow.

Day Twenty-One: Queer Book That You Recommend A Lot

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

To repeat myself: Linsey Miller is awesome! This is my favourite book of hers, the first of a duology. It’s kind of like an intense, edgy Tamora Pierce novel with murder. In this world, the Queen has a team of assassins known as the Left Hand. They’re an elite group that keeps the Queen safe and does the dirty work that needs to be done to protect the kingdom and keep the encroaching nations at bay. When the assassin Opal is killed, a contest is announced to find the new Opal. People from all over come to complete for the honour of being one of the Queen’s royal assassins, including gender-fluid thief Sallot Leon. Sal has some deep motivations to become Opal that go beyond a loyalty to their kingdom, but they’re going to have to survive their competitors if they even wants a chance at it… (Sal generally goes by either she or he in the books, but I’m using they in this instance since it’s in a more general sense.)

Day Twenty-Two: Queer Book That Made You Take Action

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Uhh, I don’t really have any books that made me take action per se, but this one sure gave me a lot to think about. It’s about deep sea mermaids who originated from the pregnant slave women tossed into the ocean to drown during passage to North America. From those dying women, this race was born and were taken in by whales, raised and protected until they could descend into the deep ocean waters, to form their own safe society. Their collective past is so painful though that as a species they’ve developed a very short term memory. But a people can’t live without any ties to their roots and so one of them, the Historian, holds all the memories for their entire species and shares it with everyone once a year so that the community can be connected to their ancestors before once again returning the memories to the Historian for safe keeping. Yetu, the current Historian, is so overwhelmed by these memories, that she can no longer take it – she flees her people, her responsibilities, and her pain and escapes to the surface instead...

Day Twenty-Three: Queer Book By An Author Who I Killed Is Dead

Cybersix by Carlos Trillo

I cannot emphasize enough, this is not actually a queer comic, it is in fact a very homophobic, transphobic and sexist comic written by a horrible person.

That being said, he’s dead and I own it now the TV series was essentially about a genderqueer superhero and a very confused bi biology professor who has a crush on both personas. I had a passionate crush on both personas as a child, and I will cherrypick this comic until I die in order to enjoy the only kickass genderqueer/genderfluid noir antihero I’ve come across. I am valid and I am not open to debate or discussion. Do not read this comic it’s horrible (but consider watching the show).

Day Twenty-Four: Queer Book You Wish You’d Read When Younger

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

This is such an incredibly soft story with the nicest art. There’s so much understanding and compassion in it and its exploration of gender and self-confidence and being true to yourself would have been very reassuring to me as a child, especially by late elementary/middle school.

Day Twenty-Five: Queer Book In A Historical Setting

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

A retelling of Achilles’ and Patroclus’ relationship from childhood to the Trojan war. So yeah, you can imagine that this was also a candidate for Day 14 :’) I haven’t read this one in years but god it was lovely and emotionally destroyed me as a person.

Day Twenty-Six: Queer Superhero Book or Comic

Overwatch: Reflections by Michael Chu and Miki Montillo

I don’t really read superhero stories very often (the comics have always driven me a little bonkers, trying to find a way to enter the totally unapproachable Marvel/DC canons, and the MCU burnt me out years ago for every other sort of superhero story) so this is the closest I can get. Tracer’s a superhero yeah? Anyway, I, like every other queer person in the Overwatch fandom, lost my fucking mind when this dropped for Christmas a few years back and officially declared Lena Oxton not only the face of the entire franchise but also a lesbian. It’s an adorable little comic and Tracer’s girlfriend is a sweetheart.

Day Twenty-Seven: Favourite Queer Children’s Picture Book

Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack

There’s a number of sweet queer children’s books that are popping up these days, but this is my favourite just because it’s less about “explaining the gays to children” (though those books also have their place) and more of a cute little fantasy adventure in which the actual protagonist is gay. It’s about a prince who sets out to find himself a bride who can help rule by his side, but it quickly becomes clear that he isn’t interested in any of the girls. Instead, when a fire breathing dragon threatens his kingdom, he meets a brave knight who fights along side him. It’s very supportive and the art is lovely.

Day Twenty-Eight: Queer Book That Made You Feel Uncomfortable

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

This is a book with an asexual protagonist that I was originally really excited for. I know there are a lot of people out there who really enjoy this book and connected with it, but it didn’t do it for me. Maybe because my expectations were too high, but the protagonist’s experience with asexuality was vastly different than my own and the narrative voice ended up rubbing me wrong (and let’s be honest, slice-of-life romance is NOT my usual genre at all). So it’s not “made me uncomfortable because it’s Bad And Wrong” more just… totally vibed wrong with me. Maybe the perfect book for other people but definitely not for me, I had to return this one unfinished because it’s portrayal of asexuality just made me so deeply uncomfortable.

Day Twenty-Nine: Queer Book That Made You Want To Fall In Love

The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice And Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

This book had to make it on here somewhere, and honestly it could have gone in a lot of different spots, but I chose to put it here because the relationship between Monty and Percy is so incredibly sweet and authentic it really does make you want something like that. TGGTVAV (for anyone who has somehow not heard of it) takes place in the 18th century, and is about Monty, his best friend (and crush) Percy, and his sister Felicity going on a final “hurrah” tour of Europe before Monty's father finally tries to pin him down in England and force every part of Monty that’s deemed “unacceptable” out of him. So Monty intends to live this summer up… until everything goes off the rail and the three of them are suddenly fleeing across the continent with assassins at their heels and a strange, stolen artifact in their possession.

Monty has a lot of growing to do in this novel, and that’s one of my favourite things about it. For his and Percy’s relationship to ever have a chance, Monty needs to learn and change and actually communicate with other people, and it makes the relationship feel strong. Not a fluffy, surface level romance that often happens in YA but something built from the ground up by two friends who really want to make it work. Ahh, it’s lovely. One of my favourite novels.

Day Thirty: Queer Book With Your Favourite Ending

My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame

A two-book manga series that was completely stunning. It deals with queer relationships and homophobia in a very stark, real-world manner that you don’t often get in manga, while still being incredibly loving and sympathetic. The book is about Yaichi, a single father whose estranged brother (Ryoji) recently died. One day, a Canadian named Mike arrives, introducing himself as Ryoji’s widower. Mike had come hoping to visit his late husband’s homeland to try to get some closure, and Yaichi ends up inviting Mike to stay. The whole story looks Japan’s societal biases, through Mike’s experiences, Yaichi’s thoughts, feelings and prejudices, and those of his daughter who adores Mike.

Seriously, this is one of the kindest, most earnest looks I’ve ever seen to internal prejudices that critiques them without demonizing the person who feels them. Instead it lovingly embraces grief, growth, and love. This series made me cry multiple times, was good enough that even my straight brother practically ordered me to go out and buy the second book when he finished the first, and the ending was just *chef’s kiss*

Honourable Mentions

A few books I really wanted to fit on my list somehow but couldn’t quite manage it, so here: All Out an anthology of historical fiction short stories about queer teens. The Tea Dragon Society series and Princess Princess Ever After, graphic novels by the amazingly talented Katie O’Neill. Heartstopper a webcomic turn graphic novel by Alice Oseman about a pair of rugby players. The Different Dragon a cute picture book in which the boy has two moms and which is about accepting different ways of being. And Lady Knight a part of Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series because because Kel is word-of-god aro(and/or ace) and I’ve adored that series and Kel since I was about thirteen so by god I’ll take it.

Now for those that wanted to do their own challenge, I found it on @gailcarriger’s blog.

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fabfoxly · 5 years

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What if... Harry were gay?

Thanks to an anon for the idea that inspired this post. I know I should be working, but one can always stay up even later and brew another cuppa (or ten), right?

Prince Harry’s orientation is strictly his own business unless/until he shares it with us, but if he did decide to go public as gay or bi, he would receive a warm welcome from LGBTQ people globally, and could do even more great things with his charity and philanthropic work in the future, as well as have a lovely family.

Harry certainly wouldn’t be the first gay man in the BRF.

Royals back to King Edward II have led less-than-closeted lives through the centuries:

Edward lavished gifts and titles on his lover Piers Gaveston, who was (maybe unsurprisingly) assassinated. Later, his favourite Hugh Despenser in 1326 was known as “the king’s husband.” How close were they? Ask Christopher Marlowe, whose steamy, homoerotic early modern drama about the pair was published in 1594.

James VI and I, who succeeded the first Queen Elizabeth, was famously attached to three different men during his reign even though married to Anne of Denmark. James referred to George Villiers as his wife in private letters; a 2008 Apethorpe Hall restoration discovered a secret passage between their bedchambers.

He wouldn’t even be the first gay British royal to wed.

HMTQ’s cousin, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, married his longtime partner, James Coyle, in September 2018:

(Image: credit Ivar Mountbatten Instagram)

While the Church of England is still holding out on hosting gay weddings, Harry and his partner could marry in the Scottish Episcopal Church or in Wales, which both fully recognise all marriages. If they want a grand ceremony, St. Paul’s Cathedral in Dundee is available:

He could have children with his partner, via surrogate,

as have other couples, like Sir Elton John:

and Neil Patrick Harris:

He could focus on LGBTQ charities and causes, as he already does.

HRH supports transgender youth charity Mermaids, the National AIDS Trust, Sentebale (which he founded), and many others. And who could forget when he took a Rapid HIV Test on live television in 2016?

Prince William, who has posed for LGBT magazine Attitude and condemned homophobic bullying, would no doubt continue to support the good work -- and his brother.

He’s stood up for LGBTQ military personnel as well.

James Wharton, a soldier in Harry’s unit, wrote about how the prince defended him from an an anti-gay attack: https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2015/6/23/why-prince-harry-defended-gay-soldier-attack

What it might be like to have an openly gay Prince

It’s no surprise that American writer John Paul Brammer wondered what might happen if that royal wedding had been a gay one: https://www.them.us/story/if-the-royal-wedding-were-gay

Since Harry’s currently married, we won’t speculate about possible partners, although one anon suggested his Sentebale ambassador and friend Adam Bidwell, who accompanied Harry on a private African charity trip in June 2018:

(Image: Facebook)

Even if this is simply a professional and platonic relationship, it’s great that they are involved and doing good with Sentebale.

He may be open to experimenting:

As a wild kid, he hung out in gay bars -- on his birthday, yet: http://www.back2stonewall.com/2011/02/prince-harry-boogies-in-uk-gay-bar.html

Then there was his good friend who was a gay porn star: https://canoe.com/life/royals/prince-harrys-friend-exposed-as-gay-porn-star and, it turns out, even escorted at the royal wedding (fun!).

Back in the party days of 2013, Harry said he “might experiment with men” if his relationship didn’t work out (at the time with Cressida Bonas): https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/03/17/prince-harry-i-might-experiment-with-being-gay-if-my-relationship-doesnt-work-out/

Well, one can hope, anyway. To be clear, I don’t wish ill on his current relationship (although I’m no fan of Megs and think the marriage may have been more of an “arrangement”) because breaking up can be sheer hell -- even if the relationship was, too. They don’t look like they get on well, and there seem to be tensions even though she puts on a loved-up act for the press.

It’s clear he’s chuffed about having a son, something he’s wanted for a very long time. If Harry ever does become a single dad and decide to date men someday, I’m sure he’d be welcome with open arms, and would be a smashing success as an openly gay or bi prince.

#gaypride LGBTQ PrinceHarry charities gayroyal

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thestoryweneededtowrite · 6 years

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Priorities - Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

The next morning, once Les had been safely deposited at school, Davey found himself shopping with Jack at the store where they’d first met. Buying food used to be a rushed activity, ten minutes of military precision up and down the aisles, so he could free up time for other things, but now it was time he spent with Jack and they both drew it out as long as possible. 40 minutes of meandering and talking and each carrying their basket with their outside hand so they could walk close together and let their fingers brush with each step. It meant Davey had to rearrange some things to make time in his day to do everything, but he wasn’t mad about it. Jack was worth the effort.

There was clearly something on Jack’s mind. He kept going to say something important before instead mumbling some mundane comment about which kind of cereal he should buy. Eventually, just as they were leaving the store and walking back to Davey’s apartment, he came out with it.

“Look, your kid brother seems to like me, the universe clearly wants us to be together, and frankly there is no one in the whole of Manhattan who I am more attracted to, so please just go out with me on a proper date just once,” he blurted out.

Davey wasn’t sure how to respond, stopping awkwardly and blinking. Jack had been good about not putting pressure on the attraction between them and this was the first time he’d brought it up since he’d suggested they just be friends.

“Jack, I…” Davey tried, but it was so difficult to say no. He’d never felt for anyone what he felt for Jack, and he didn’t know if he would again. It was an opportunity he’d be stupid to pass up but just as stupid to take.

Realising Davey was several feet behind him, Jack backtracked and nudged him over to the wall so they could talk without getting in the way of everyone walking past. It might have been more sensible to wait until they were at Davey’s flat, but he had to do this now or lose his nerve.

“Let’s just try it. Once. If it’s too much for you then we can go back to just being friends. I’m always going to be here for you, no matter what,” he promised, putting down his shopping bag so he could reach out and take Davey’s hand.

“You make it so hard to turn you down,” Davey sighed. If things were different, he wouldn’t have hesitated. “Then don’t,” Jack encouraged. He stepped just a little closer and if an old man walking past tutted, neither of them noticed. They were caught up in each other.

“I can’t leave Les alone.” Davey shook his head sadly.

His brother was fourteen and for most people that would mean he was old enough to leave at home for a couple of hours, but Davey just couldn’t. Les was all he had left in the whole world and he needed to know he was safe. What if there was a fire or an accident or someone tried to break in. He’d never forgive himself. Thankfully, it was always something Jack had understood.

“My brother – he’s 19 – he could keep an eye on him for the evening? If that’s alright with you?” Jack offered.

He’d been considering it for a while, trying to come up with a way he could make Davey comfortable with the concept of a date. Considering he knew Davey liked him, and he definitely liked Davey, it seemed ridiculous to continue to stay apart when he was almost certain he could make Davey happy. And Davey definitely needed a little extra happiness in his life. For once, it seemed like he might even be considering it.

“I… I’d need to talk to Les about it. If he’s not okay with it then…” Davey trailed off, looking conflicted. He could trust someone Jack trusted, he knew that, but he would always choose Les over anyone and anything else if it came down to it.

“Of course. Let me know?” Jack asked, making sure Davey knew he could say no if he wanted to. And nothing would change if he did. Davey nodded, a small smile he couldn’t suppress tugging at the corner of his mouth. The prospect of a whole evening with Jack, of finally getting to be a normal, carefree guy for a handful of hours, was incredibly tantalising. When Jack lifted his hand up and pressed a kiss to the back of it before letting it go and picking up his shopping again, Davey’s cheeks went bright red. He would have rolled his eyes but he was too busy resisting the urge to swoon. He really wasn’t used to this. But as they resumed their walk, he took Jack’s hand and didn’t let go.

Davey waited until he was standing at the hob, stirring pasta sauce for dinner, before he brought up the possibility of him going on a date with Jack. His brother was sat at the table in the corner, slaving away over a history essay and occasionally calling out sentences for Davey to check that they made grammatical sense. Normally Davey wouldn’t interrupt his homework, but hopefully this wouldn’t take long.

Clearing his throat, he tried to make sure Les knew this was a question and not a statement – if he said no then Davey wouldn’t do it.

“How would you feel if, just for one night, I went out?” he asked tentatively, barely looking up from the saucepan as he focused on stirring steadily.

Les was thrilled to have a reason to turn away from his work and he looked up immediately with a huge grin. This question had been a long time coming, in his opinion. Davey deserved some time off.

“With Jack?” he checked, hoping. He wasn’t sure there was anyone else who would be able to convince Davey he was allowed to have a life of his own. And Jack was cool.

There was a blush on Davey’s cheeks just from the mention of Jack’s name. Despite the fact he was a grown man, he still felt like he had a teenage crush. This was what happened when you had to grow up too fast and hadn’t gotten to have those relationships that were carefree and full of shy glances and tentative touches.

“Yes, if that's okay with you,” he said, trying to sound like the adult in the conversation.

Les cheered and laughed at the way it made Davey blush an even darker red.

“Fucking finally,” he grinned.

“Language, Les!” Davey admonished.

“Hecking finally,” Les corrected automatically. “Why do you think I’d mind? I’ve never cared that it would be dudes you’d be bringing back.”

When Esther and Mayer had died, Davey hadn’t been out to his family. It still bothered him that they had never known about that part of him, and that he never knew how they’d have reacted to it. He’d had boyfriends but never brought them home, and soon after the accident he’d broke off most recent relationship. It had been another year until he’d come out to Les, who had taken it completely in his stride and informed Davey that he’d kind of already known from the collection of gay YA lit on his shelves and the poster of Neil Patrick Harris on his wall. Still, Les had never actually seen him in a relationship with another guy. Or in a relationship at all. “I’m not bringing anyone back here,” he promised, and he meant it. He might not be Les’ father but he was now, for all intents and purposes, his father figure and it just didn’t seem right to be bringing people back to the flat to fool around with. He was going to be a better guardian than that. Set better examples. “You could,” Les shrugged. Considering Davey hadn’t been on a single date in three years, he had some catching up to do. “Absolutely not. It’s not appropriate,” Davey said firmly. “You don’t have to be a saint, Davey. People’s own parents have treated them far worse.”

Les had friends with single mums who spent every other night away from home with a different guy each time, or fathers who brought home women a decade younger and were so loud with them that those friends had to put on headphones and blast music. Davey was, and always would be, much more responsible. “That may be so but that doesn’t mean I’m going to follow suit,” Davey promised. “You are my top priority, that’s not going to change. Even if I… if I do go out with Jack then he understands that and I’m grateful for it, but I need you to know it too.”

“You’re a good brother,” Les smiled. He climbed to his feet and crossed the kitchen to give Davey a hug, and only partly because he wanted to keep avoiding his essay.

“So are you.” Davey hugged Les back.

He was pretty sure Jack had the little brother stamp of approval so, as soon as he managed to corral Les back into homework, he slipped his phone out of his pocket and typed out a text to Jack to say that yes, he would absolutely love to go out on a date with him. If he spent the rest of the evening humming Disney songs and practically skipping around the apartment, well, no one needed to know.

#newsies #newsies fanfiction #javid #Jack Kelly #davey jacobs #Jack/Davey #Les Jacobs #priorities

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kiwigoat-art-shitposts · 5 years

Note

gay ask meme, 1 to 30 all of them.

OK and thank you anon!

1.what’s your gender?

Female

2. what are your pronouns?

They/her

3. is your family accepting?

Yes and no; My mom is kinda OK whit the idea of me having a girlfriend but on the other hand my dad/ Felix ether doesn’t care or is a bit homophobic as it is very hard to know, I don’t talk to him. And only one of my cousins supports me!

4. what do you wish you could tell your past self?

Don’t fake or hide your felling, it’s OK , you’re normal, you’ll find her one day.

5. what is your sexuality?

I’m a asexual lesbian!

6. favorite colors?

Blue, grey, green , purple , black, yellow

7. sun gay or moon gay?

I really don’t know, probably moon gay?

8. when did you find out your sexuality?

In the forth grade when we got a new classmate, she was really cute and nice, and she was my first friend. I loved her very much and I kinda want to be whit her, be her all (as she was my whole world for the next 5 years) and I kinda wanted to …. kiss her and so on.

9. how was your day?

OK, I guess!

10. do you have any gay friends?

I don’t know if I even have friends….

11. what’s your favorite hobby?

Drawing, painting, writing poetry and stories!

12. who’s the best gay icon in your opinion?

Freddie Mercury, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka and Jim Parsons and Ellen DeGeneres

13. which pride flags do you like the most design/color wise?

Asexual and the pan-sexual

14. are you openly out?

Partly , at home, I lied to my mom that I’m bisexual but around my old so said friends yes, they found out on their own and at first some of them were hesitant but they are my best supporters that I got!

15. are you comfortable with yourself?

No, I hate myself in every way!

16. bottom or top?

…can’t say that I know!

17. femme or butch?

I think I’m femme?

18. do you bind?

What?

19. do you shave?

Yes, what kind of a question is that….

20. if you could date anyone you wanted, who would it be?

I’m not too picky but I would date someone who truly loves me!

21. do you have a partner (s)?

No, I’m single but I wish I had a girlfriend!

22. describe your partner (s)?

I don’t have one….yet

23. have you ever dated anyone of the same sex?

No, not yet at least…

24. anyone of another sex?

I would say kinda but I felt awful and out of place and I didn’t really love him, I felt like I’m not equal to him even tho he was very nice to me….

25. pastel gay or goth gay?

Pastel Gay

26. favorite dad in dream daddies?

…ok, I don’t get this one even a bit!

27. tell me a random fact about yourself?

I’m afraid of snails and mirrors !

28. do you own any pride flags/merch?

No, not yet , when I get a bigger room I’ll get a nice flag!

29. have you ever been to a pride parade?

No, where I live there are none and I don’t want to go to Berlin just yet maybe when I’m older and when I’ll have someone that would go whit me there!

30. any advice to someone who isn’t out or who is exploring themselves?

…hmm You shouldn’t hide your real feeling just to appeal to others!

#ask meme #ask me anything #lesbian #gay girls #asexual #openlygay #kinda openly gay #single

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mommalokilovesyou · 6 years

Text

STORY TIME

I was on Pinterest reading Tumblr posts (moment of silence) and they were about shit that happened in school.

So I thought about my public school experience (since I ended up going to like 8 different schools from moving around so I'll put school initials). Bear with me, this is long.

Kindergarten (EPS):

I got a red card for doing an assignment ahead of time. The kicker was that I didn't even have a card slot with my name on it so it was one of the unnamed slots and then when I was told my the TA I could go back to green, WE DIDN'T KNOW WHICH ONE WAS MINE AND NEITHER DID MY TEACHER.

I was a brat and didn't want to wear socks with my shoes that day. I complained there was something in my shoe, but couldn't take it off while I was in the car. I told my teacher who helped me take it off and a motherfucking spider fell out of my shoe. :)))))))))

1st grade (EPS):

I don't remember much other than reading above my grade and being told to read at the class level instead. *exasperated eye roll*

2nd grade (EPS):

My class was in the same hall as some 4th and 5th grade classes. Bunch of kids waiting to go into the hallway. I was standing there with my friend who didn't believe our class was in that hall. 5th grader looked at us like we were cockroaches and told us we were in the wrong hall. I informed her no bitch we're not, our class is down there. My friend ended up going to the other hallway, the wrong one, and I got to have the most triumphant look on my face of my entire childhood.

3rd grade (BCS):

I tied with some kid on our EOGs (the state test for NC for 3rd grade-5th) for the highest grade.

4th grade (BCS):

I had a crush on a guy who I realized much later was as gay as Neil Patrick Harris.

5th grade:

I MOVED THROUGH THREE DIFFERENT SCHOOLS GUYS. AND I NEVER FELL BEHIND. Ahem. I was at BCS for like two months before I moved to WPS.

After my last school (BCS), I ended up getting on the wrong bus to the new school (WPS) on my second day. I ended up at EPS WHERE EVERYONE IN THE OFFICE REMEMBERED ME (because I was the one kid to go through a major tragedy 2nd grade) and the guidance counselor from WPS had to pick me up.

I hung out with two guys all the time because none of the girls liked me cos I was new and strange.

I kept an unopened gumball seed in my desk (y'all know, the spiky ones that you throw at people) over a weekend and when I came back there were tiny seeds in my desk and that's how I learned more about trees c:

5th grade (CFE):

OH BOI THIS ONE WAS FUN. Let's see, my teacher was an ex-Marine who made us run a lap around the field around the playground before we could play (it was huge don't scoff).

A mouse ran from the classroom into the hall and a kid forcibly stomped on it and squashed it.

My teacher threw a kid's desk out of the classroom bc Sid (the kid) was back talking him.

6th grade (JCMS):

My English teacher told me I didn't make enough mistakes on my essay and docked me points because of that.

Gym class, a friend was bouncing a basketball on the wall above my head and I wasn't gonna be a bitch and flinch. Got hit in the head.

Gym class again :) we were playing Mat Ball (kinda like kickball but indoors and some different rules) the teacher kicked a goddamn squishy dodgeball (cushy but with some kind of color plastic cushy around it) and it FLEW INTO MY FACE AND KNOCKED ME ON MY ASS. My teacher had to check if I had a concussion, fun times.

I ran into a concert column leaving gym class. (REASON I DON'T WORK OUT MAN I GET INJURED DOING THE EASIEST SHIT)

I had no real friends. I mean that. Literally not one person was actually my friend.

7th grade (NWPMS):

I was still so shook from 6th grade English that I PURPOSELY FUCKED UP ALL MY PUNCTUATION ON AN ENGLISH ESSAY AND MY NEW ENGLISH TEACHER WAS CONCERNED. (We were good after I stuttered through an explanation of my last English class. And she helped encourage my writing stories.)

My science teacher liked to play guitar during tests and applauded my use of a staple to fix my glasses.

My math teacher felt bad for my situation (after a second tragedy aka the reason I moved there) and got my hair and nails done for me for Christmas.

A waterbug (big ass motherfucking roach from the pits of Satan's toilet bowl) landed on my shirt from the FUCKING CEILING WHEN I WAS WALKING TO MY LOCKER.

MY FAVORITE ONE R I G H T H E R E (kind of a two fer): Dance was an elective class we could take instead of gym. I loved my teacher. We found a roach in the classroom and she freaked out. It was on the divider we changed behind so a brave girl decided she was gonna go kill it. She gets up to go get it and Ms. Maura shouts "WAIT WAIT LEMME GET MY COKE", runs to her desk to grab the drink and runs back next to the door. Student goes to swat the bug and it FLEW ACROSS THE ROOM. Ms. Maura left us there. Similar situation happened with a wasp and she straight up ran out the door.

8th grade (NWPMS):

Had my first relationship (with a narcissist no less)

Quickly learned a million and one dirty jokes and innuendos bc I didn't fit in with the girls anymore and hung out with three guys.

Continuously poked in the sides by said guys. (If I'm being honest it was good times.)

Switched from dance to gym. Got knocked in the jaw from a basketball *que flashbacks* /mmm whatcha saaaaaaaay/

9th grade (JHS):

I discovered Sherlock. That's it. That's all you gotta know.

10th grade (JHS):

Everyone hated me the day I bought the last box of Krispy Kreme from the orchestra fundraiser.

I found my savior, Loki Laufeyson.

11th grade (JHS):

Idek I died that year.

12th grade (JHS):

Yeah no I was dead for that whole year, I remember almost nothing.

Oh wait! My career management (computer based class) teacher once told us that if we killed someone she had pigs we could give the body to. Because pigs eat everything and leave no trace. One of my favorites.

Oh and in the same class, there was a group of guys who would literally play Halo on their computers all the time. All. The. Time. No one cared.

And that's my story. Hah.

#public school #school #school story #american public school #whoo #sherlock #loki #loki laufeyson #sherlock holmes #i became a fangirl #and then i died #i was dead inside #thats what public school did to me #it killed me #america #murica #i hated it

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writing-in-riverdale · 7 years

Text

heartbreak | cheryl blossom x reader

request

written by: kelly

edited by: @jugheadxreaderinyourhead

anonymous said: can you do a cheryl x reader set on the 4th of july. as soon as the reader hears about what happened she rushes to the blossom’s house but gets run over by a car and cheryl witnesses this and the reader gets sent to the hospital and cheryl gets reckless without the reader until she wakes up. basically cher loses y/n and jason on the same day

chapter song: youth // daughter

✿

the 4th of july was riverdale’s ultimate holiday. the normally peaceful green streets were aligned with pops of red white and blue. the great american flag was spread across town centre and almost every person in town had a smile across their face, proud with patriotism.

that was all until news scattered around town that jason blossom, riverdale’s golden boy, had unfortunately drowned in the very river that had been the beacon of the town.

this is where the story begins.

“y/n, darling please run this pie to the andrew’s house. fred is a hopeless cook and the last thing we need is a fire in their kitchen… again.” my mom spoke, lifting her eyebrow reminding us all of the last time fred andrews ever touched an oven.

“yeah mom, i remember. although you weren’t complaining when all of those firefighters came to the rescue.” i say with a wink.

“less talking more walking missy!” she said, her cheeks instantly red.

and with that I was on my way, archie’s house was across the street from mine so it wasn’t really much of a chore. as I was approaching the andrews front porch, I heard betty shriek my name.

y/n!!” she yelled from her front yard, panic evident in her voice.

“what’s up b?” I say hesitantly, studying her body language.

“have you spoken to cheryl?!?”

cheryl was always a touchy subject in my friendship circle. we’ve been seeing each other for a year, and my friends weren’t supportive. not because I was seeing another girl, it was because I was seeing cheryl.

kevin referred to her as jessica rabbit on crack, but to be fair cheryl refers to kevin as a bootleg, gayer neil patrick harris.

“no, she’s spending the day with Jason, why?” I question.

“there was an accident at sweetwater, they were in a boat and it tipped, they can’t find jason and cheryl's…in a bad way.” betty said hesitantly.

my heart fell to the pit of my stomach, my hands almost instantly let go of the fragile pie dish and it shattered on the pathway.

the shattered pie depicted my current state of mind; a big mess.

the next thing I know, I was running to thornhill. ignoring my surroundings. the only thing that mattered in my mind was cheryl. thornhill manor was across town from where we lived but the trip was shortened by running through the local park.

i was running so fast that all of a sudden thornhill was in site. the burning ache in my throat was building up, I had a vision of my distraught girlfriend sitting there all alone. I needed to be there for her.

cheryl’s pov

sitting in the great room of my home brought up a lot of amazing memories for me; christmas morning, thanksgiving and the annual family reunion - today was not a celebration however.

my brother and i had been separated for the first time in our lives, and it was the most terrifying feeling. those thoughts were disrupted when I saw my girlfriend running towards our house.

she knows that this place is off limits, my parents would die if they ever found out that i was gay. I stare at the girl sprinting when in a split second, while she was in the middle of the road, a car sped past and took her clean off of her feet.

there was this moment when she was in the air, where I could see that she had come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t going to survive this. she landed on the road like a ragdoll.

it was like the next few seconds i had an out of body experience. i remember running outside towards the front gate yelling and screaming for someone to get help, as i reached the front i realize what had happened.

sheriff keller had hit y/n while he was on his way to thronhill to question our family, this was all my fault.

everything was a blur; the sirens were approaching us. there was a large crowd around her but it felt like no one but us. i could see her face, lying all alone in the middle of the road. her mother had arrived at the scene.

“MY BABY!” she screamed as a nice young man was holding her back.

“PLEASE, PLEASE SOMEONE DON’T LET MY BABY DIE.” she called as the paramedics lifted y/n’s mannequin like body into the back of the ambulance. i was paralyzed. the next few hours were crazy. I had betty cooper of all people messaging me from the hospital keeping me updated.

it wasn’t good enough. i had to be there for her, she risked her life trying to be there for me.

veronica offered to come and fetch me and take me to the hospital to be there with all of the friends and y/n’s mom. i never liked veronica, but I had never been more grateful for such an offer.

the car ride was rather uncomfortable. silence swallowed the atmosphere and it was the type of silence that needed to be broken.

“cheryl, i’m so sorry for everything that’s happened to you today.” veronica gulped.

“bad things happen to badpeople, ronnie. i’m a bad person. i deserve this.” i state with minimal eye contact.

“cheryl, nobody deserves to go through so much in one day.” veronica argued.

the silence fell over us again, nobody spoke until we got to the hospital.

as we arrived into the I.C.U ward, i see y/n’s mom sitting next to fred andrews. her facial expression was neutral and calm but her face was red like she had been crying for days.

betty, archie and jughead were standing around a watercooler across from mrs y/l/n and mr andrews. betty came over and pulled me into a tight embrace.

“cheryl, she’s in a coma. her condition is stable for the amount of injuries she has sustained. the doctors are saying it’s a miracle that she’s even alive at the moment.” betty told me, sporting a broken smile.

that news was hardly a relief.

“i need a moment.” i said exiting the hospital ward, the smell of hand sanitizer and the sound of heart monitors kept making me feel like I was waiting for her to die.

i rush out to the parking lot of the hospital and i do the most reckless thing I’ve ever done in my life. i lie in the middle of the road at the entrance of the E.R, i close my eyes and i wait.

in about two seconds I get yanked up to my feet in a strong pull.

i see Kevin.

“cheryl as much as I feel sorry for you I need you to understand now is not the time to be selfish!” he barked at me.

as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. I was being reckless and selfish.

“are you okay?” He asked. the simplest question in the whole world, yet nobody managed to muster up the courage to do so.

“i’m fine.” i reply as i shook off some road gravel from my skirt.

“don’t lie.” he spat.

at that moment, my heart broke.

“no. i’m not fucking okay kevin.” i whimper.

he placed his arms around mine and he pulled me in for a hug. we sit around for an hour crying together. it wasn’t out of sadness, but desperation.

i still had hoped that she could pull through this. that was until those moments after the accident turned into days.

with each day, i began to lose more and more of myself. i found myself craving danger, i was on my way to the south side, i had a plan to go and cause trouble among the serpents.

a rush with danger was what I was craving and the serpents were the closest thing to danger that riverdale had to offer.

i was about 6 steps away from getting my ass kicked when the news broke that y/n was awake. that was the most amazing news I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

i ran through the hospital doors, rejoiced.

tag list: @hauntedcherryblossombanana-blog @sadbreakfastclb @jugandbettsdetectiveagency @mhysaofdrxgons @kindfloweroflove @fragilefrances @mydelightfulcollectiontyphoon @onceuponagladerhead @natalieroseg

#riverdale #riverdale imagines #cheryl blossom #cheryl blossom imagines #imagines #headcanon #one shot

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the-connection · 6 years

Link

A new documentary reworks the memoir of Bowers, who boasts he paired Cary Grant with Rock Hudson and Katharine Hepburn with 150 brunettes and slept with so many actors he didnt have time to see their films

Scotty Bowers was a 23-year-old petrol station attendant on Hollywood Boulevard when the actor Walter Pidgeon pulled up to the pump and asked the dimpled blond to jump in his Lincoln. It would be the ride of his life. Pidgeon was gay, claims Bowers in his autobiography Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars, and that afternoon they became lovers. Bowers himself transcended labels. Years later, he startled sexologist Dr Alfred Kinsey by checking off every sex act on his list (and took him to orgies to prove it). Guys, girls, spouses, kings, consorts and a three-way with Ava Gardner and Lana Turner. Bowers had done it all.

[Kinsey] came looking for me, says Bowers, now 95, on a hot afternoon in a Hollywood courtyard apartment. Things he thought impossible, I came up with. With his devilish blue eyes and thick white hair, it is easy to picture why he was popular. He burns with energy, as though he spent his retirement stoking gossip he vowed he wouldnt spill while his lovers were alive. J Edgar Hoover? A drag. Vivien Leigh? A hot, hot lady. Wallis Simpson? A real ballsy chick.

Bowers (second from left, back row) with friends. Photograph: Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment

Bowers used to turn tricks in this same building. Today, the vintage-style pad belongs to the director Matt Tyrnauer, a former Vanity Fair journalist who recently reworked Bowers memoir into the eyebrow-raising documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood. Tyrnauer, sitting next to Bowers and gently nudging his digressions on track, confirms that he called the Kinsey Institute to check Bowers tale. They knew exactly who he was.

Everyone knew Bowers. George Cukor, Gore Vidal, Merv Griffin; Tyrone Power referred to him in letters, interviews and biographies, calling him Scotty, Sonny, or just the gas station on Hollywood Boulevard. Tennessee Williams hand-wrote a 40-page story about him, which Bowers found embarrassingly over the top.

I said: Tennessee, forget that bullshit, says Bowers. I should have kept it. Instead, for decades, people pushed him to write down his own memories. I kept putting it off and putting it off, and all of a sudden, almost everyone they wanted me to write about was dead.

Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, with whom Bowers claims to have had a threesome. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images

In 1946, the year he met Pidgeon, Bowers was competing with millions of other returning second world war veterans for work. Canoodling with a celebrity for $20 made more sense than digging a ditch for $10. After Pidgeon spread the word about his new friend, more luxury cars began to cruise by. Soon, Bowers side-hustle had expanded to a parked trailer with two king beds, glory holes in the bathroom and a battalion of good-looking men and women to fix up with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Bowers boasts that he paired Cary Grant with Rock Hudson back when the Pillow Talk star was still named Roy, and introduced Katharine Hepburn to 150 lovely brunettes. As for Hepburns rumored paramour Spencer Tracy, Bowers says he slept with him, too.

Hepburn and Tracys complex relationship is a fascinating example of Hollywoods hypocritical and literal moral code. Publicists decided it was better to pretend the friends were having an affair than explain the real reason why Tracy wasnt living with his wife Louise, to whom he stayed married until his death. A heterosexual affair was forgivable even romantic and it wouldnt get either actor fired. After Fatty Arbuckle was put on trial for the rape and murder of Virginia Rappe, the studios began to add a clause in their contracts forbidding actors from committing any offence that risked public hatred, contempt or ridicule. While the courts found Arbuckle innocent twice the Hollywood moguls believed just a whiff of indecency could destroy the entire industry. The swinging days of the early silent era ended overnight. Performers became studio property: they were told how to dress, how to behave, and who to date, or at least pretend to.

Bowers in uniform in the 1940s. Photograph: Greenwich Entertainment

It was a lucrative lie. Roy Harold Scherer got his teeth capped and became Rock Hudson. When the tabloids began to nag Hudson to get married, the executives betrothed him to his lesbian secretary Phyllis. Archibald Leach was rechristened Cary Grant and wed to the great beauty Barbara Hutton, although the love of his life was screen cowboy Randolph Scott, with whom he lived for 12 years as a roommate. Bowers says in his book: The three of us got into a lot of sexual mischief together.

Living double lives took a toll. Eventually, Hudson began drinking a bottle of scotch a day and recklessly sleeping with strangers. Grant tried psychedelic therapy and spoke in quips that hinted at his unfulfillment. I played at being someone I wanted to be until I became that person, or he became me, he told his biographer. Even his most famous quote Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant sounds like a whispered confession, or maybe a misdirection. What if he just wanted to be as free as Archibald Leach?

Bowers bedded so many movie stars that he didnt have time to see their movies. A movie takes a couple hours. I was busy every minute. When his daughter, Donna, died, he went back to work that day. He shared a home with her mother, his longtime partner Betty, but slept there only a few times a year. In the documentary, he teeters towards admitting regret for spending most nights in someone elses bed. But he candidly admits his only true passion was money. He grew up hungry during the Depression era, and, as a young teenager, he turned tricks for two dozen Chicago priests who paid him in quarters. That would be abuse in everyones eyes but his. In the documentary, Tyrnauer repeatedly presses Bowers about his childhood, and does so again today.

Youre very intent on the fact that you dont perceive yourself as a victim, says Tyrnauer.

I did what I wanted to do, maintains Bowers.

That is not the conventional perspective at all, but it is his perspective and I dont judge him for that, says Tyrnauer. I think people get to define who they are and tell their story and express their beliefs.

Executives married off Rock Hudson to his lesbian secretary, Phyllis Gates. Photograph: Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock

I do think that different people are different, thats very true, replies Bowers. Im speaking for myself only.

As an adult at the petrol station, Bowers never took a cut of other peoples cash. To him, that meant he wasnt a pimp; he was a purveyor of joy. The most important thing was company, says Bowers. The LGBTQ community didnt have many safe places to connect at that time. Homosexuality was illegal in California until the 1970s. When the Los Angeles Police Department vice squad the sexual Gestapo, says Tyrnauer barged into a gay bar, patrons risked being arrested, shaken down for cash, shipped to a mental institution, and possibly lobotomised. The LAPD targeted the Hollywood glitterati because they had careers to protect and money to spare.

When the petrol station became too famous, Bowers became a for-rent party bartender, which gave celebrities an even better excuse to invite him into their homes. Even that was risky. One cop memorised Bowers car registration plate and would pull him over, scare him a bit, and then undo Bowers pants while complaining about his miserable marriage. I hope he found happiness, writes Bowers, charitably.

The vice squad is responsible for Bowers impressive memory. Midway through one aside, he recites the address of a silent movie star who has been dead for 45 years. Terrified of a raid, he rarely wrote down his friends information. It was all in my head, says Bowers. I never kept anything. If I wrote down a number, I had it in my hand until I tore it up. Even then, he would swap the first and last digits to ensure the persons identity couldnt be cracked, a trick inspired by the Navajo code talkers.

Now, Bowers has no secrets. Critics have slammed the book and the documentary for outing celebrities without consent. In the film, Tyrnauer includes a film fan arguing that legendary stars deserve more respect. Bowers counters: Whats wrong with being gay? Others have thanked him for sticking up for the real person underneath the studio gloss for revealing their truth the way they might have if they were alive today. It is impossible to know how Hudson and Grant would have chosen to live in a country that legalised gay marriage. Perhaps their lives would have been happier. Although, Bowers notes, even in 2018: Everythings not going to be out in the open. More actors are out, but now must prove they can play both gay and straight characters. Neil Patrick Harris has succeeded; Matt Bomer is trying. Some have decided that it is still easier to hide.

Asked if he is biting his tongue about anyone alive, Bowers blurts out the name of a beloved actor and her 169% gay husband. He is dead; she isnt. So, Bowers will wait. Let me tell you something: when youre dead youre dead, he insists. Later, when the conversation turns to Kevin Spacey Bowers claims to know one of his exes Tyrnauer steadily repeats that Bowers information about the alleged perpetrator is merely secondhand. The director is clearly, and correctly, aware of the complexities of talking sensitively about sex in the era of #MeToo. But after eight decades of secrecy Bowers sighs: Poor Kevin Spacey, he was right in the middle of a picture and they dumped him and everything. Thanks to #MeToo, morality clauses are making a comeback. This time, one hopes they will only be wielded for good.

Cary Grant (right) with his room mate Randolph Scott. Photograph: Snap/Rex Features

Hollywood journalist Liz Smith once quipped: All this crap about coming out! Honey, I dont think I have ever really been in! Before she died last November, she affirmed that Hepburn was a lesbian.

I was pleased that she went on the record about Hepburn because I dont think shed ever done it before, says Tyrnauer. It really provides a great assist to Scottys narrative about Hepburn and Tracy, because people are in willful suspension of belief about this supposed golden couple.

Even more startling are Bowers lusty tales about Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII. Wally and Eddie, corrects Bowers, waving away their formal names. It was very easy to see how she talked him out of being king of England because she had complete control over him, says Bowers. She told him if you want to fool around and do this and that, you cant do it if youre king.

Scotty Bowers at home in LA. Photograph: Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment

A lot of people dont believe that particular story, says Tyrnauer. But he places them at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the 50s. We found a picture of them in the Beverly Hills Hotel in that period its in the movie. Four former clients knew Edward, and the couples close friend, photographer Cecil Beaton, titled an entire chapter of his diary: Scotty.

There were many, many factors that connected them, says Tyrnauer. I cross-referenced everything I could. When Bowers described a mansions winding pathway to the pool house, or a gate in a backyard, Tyrnauer would pull up an aerial view of Google Maps and there it was, as though the nonagenarian had visited yesterday.

In Los Angeles, notes the director: You can wipe the dust off something that has been obscured and find the truth. Scottys a living example of that. Here he was in Laurel Canyon for decades minding his business. And yet hes Scotty Bowers, the infamous male madame to the stars, and either you knew it or you didnt.

He has tried to ensure Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood tells the truth instead of peddling innuendo like tabloids, TMZ, or even acclaimed smut such as Kenneth Angers Hollywood Babylon.

Am I in that, too? asks Bowers.

Tyrnauer chuckles: Maybe between the lines.

There always will be secret life happening, beams Bowers. People should do what pleases them and the other person some people just please more than a few.

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is out now in the US and awaiting a UK release date

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

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investmart007 · 6 years

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NEW YORK | The Latest: 'Once On This Island' wins musical revival Tony

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NEW YORK | The Latest: 'Once On This Island' wins musical revival Tony

NEW YORK — The Latest on the Tony Awards (all times local):

10:35 p.m.

“Once On This Island” has been named the best musical revival Tony Award winner.

The 1990 musical with a Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s calypso-infused score unfolds as a group of storytellers — caught in the midst of an unrelenting storm — recount the tale of a Caribbean island country girl in love with an aristocrat.

The revival is made to resonate deeply for today’s audiences, who are all too familiar with the devastating impact hurricanes have on a community. Many of the characters play instruments made out of found objects, including trash bins, flexible piping and more.

It stars Lea Salonga, Phillip Boykin and newcomer Hailey Kilgore.

The revival beat out “My Fair Lady” and “Carousel.”

___

10:20 p.m.

A British revival of “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s monumental, two-part drama about AIDS, life and love during the 1980s, has won the Tony Award for best play revival.

The show is an astonishing kaleidoscopic seven hours with an assortment of characters that includes Roy Cohn, Ethel Rosenberg, a young man living with AIDS, his cowardly ex-lover, a Mormon housewife, the world’s oldest living Bolshevik and a high-flying winged creature.

The latest version stars Nathan Lane and Andrew Garfield, and it won the best revival Olivier Award. It is directed by Marianne Elliott, a veteran of “War Horse” and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”

It beat out “Three Tall Women,” ”The Iceman Cometh,” ”Lobby Hero” and “Travesties.”

Both Lane and Garfield won acting Tony Awards earlier Sunday.

___

10:10 p.m.

J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” franchise has cast its spell on Broadway, winning the best new play Tony Award.

The win for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” adds to the franchise’s haul of seven bestselling books and eight blockbuster films.

The two-part play, which picks up 19 years from where Rowling’s last novel left off and portrays Potter and his friends as grown-ups, won nine Olivier Awards in London before coming to America and bewitching critics and audiences alike.

It beat out “The Children,” ”Farinelli and The King,” ”Junk” and “Latin History for Morons.”

___

9:50 p.m.

John Tiffany has won his second directing Tony Award for his work on the two-part play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

Tiffany previously won a Tony for directing the musical “Once.” He also was nominated for the 2014 revival of “The Glass Menagerie.” Tiffany won the directing Olivier Award for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

Tiffany was Associate Director of the National Theatre of Scotland from 2005 to 2012. Some of his other credits include “Black Watch” and “The Ambassador.”

He beat out Marianne Elliott, Joe Mantello, Patrick Marber and George C. Wolfe.

___

9:45 p.m.

David Cromer has won his first Tony Award for directing “The Band’s Visit.”

The musical is based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name, has songs by David Yazbek and a sardonic story by Itamar Moses. It centers on members of an Egyptian police orchestra booked to play a concert at an Israeli city who accidentally end up in the wrong town.

Cromer directed the short-lived Neil Simon revival of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” in 2009 and the 2011 revival of John Guare’s “The House of Blue Leaves.” He drew acclaim for two productions at the off-Broadway Barrow Street Theatre — “Tribes” and “Our Town,” for which played the Stage Manager in addition to directing.

He grew up outside Chicago in Skokie, Illinois, and won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2010. He taught acting and directing at Columbia College Chicago for 15 years and has often returned to the works of Tennessee Williams.

He beat out Michael Arden, Casey Nicholaw, Tina Landau and Bartlett Sher.

___

9:30 p.m.

Glenda Jackson has added to her impressive resume with a Tony Award for best actress in a play.

The 82-year-old British actress won her first Tony for playing a flinty woman facing the end of her life in the new revival of Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women.”

Jackson has two Academy Awards, for 1970’s “Women in Love” and 1973’s “A Touch of Class, and credits in such films as “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” ”Mary, Queen of Scots” and “Hedda.” She won two Emmys for starring in the television miniseries “Elizabeth R.”

She stepped back from acting in the early 1990s to enter politics and is famous for a 2013 speech she gave after the death of Margaret Thatcher, bitterly decrying the late prime minister.

She beat Condola Rashad, Lauren Ridloff and Amy Schumer.

___

9:15 p.m.

A heroic drama teacher who nurtured many of the young people demanding change following the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has been honored from the Tony Award stage.

Melody Herzfeld, the one-woman drama department at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was cheered by the crowd at Radio City Music Hall.

Herzfeld saved 65 lives by barricading students into a small classroom closet on Valentine’s Day when police say a former student went on a school rampage, killing 17 people.

She then later encouraged many of her pupils to lead the nationwide movement for gun reform, including organizing the March For Our Lives demonstration and the charity single “Shine.”

Members of Herzfeld’s drama department then took the stage to sing “Seasons of Love” from “Rent.”

___

9 p.m.

Nathan Lane has won the Tony Award for best featured actor in a play for his role in “Angels in America.”

Laurie Metcalf won best featured actress in a play earlier Sunday for her role in Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women.” It is Metcalf’s second Tony win — she won best actress last year for “A Doll’s House, Part 2.”

Lane’s win is the second of the evening for an “Angels in America” actor. Andrew Garfield won for best leading actor earlier in the evening.

___

8:10 p.m.

Andrew Garfield has won the Tony Award for best leading actor in a play for his work in “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s monumental drama about life and love during the 1980s.

Garfield plays a young gay man living with AIDS in the sprawling, seven-hour revival opposite Nathan Lane.

He previously was nominated for a featured role in “Death of a Salesman” opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Garfield has been nominated for an Oscar for his work in “Hacksaw Ridge.” His other film work includes “The Social Network” in 2010 and the 2012 superhero film “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its 2014 sequel.

He beat out Tom Hollander, Jamie Parker, Mark Rylance and Denzel Washington.

___

8:05 p.m.

Tony Award co-hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles have gotten the show started with a self-parodying duet on piano for all the losers out there — including them.

Neither Bareilles nor Groban have won a Grammy or a Tony despite selling millions of albums and appearing on Broadway in hit shows. They turned that into a playful song.

“Let’s not forget that 90 percent of us leave empty-handed tonight. So this is for the people who lose/Most of us have been in your shoes,” they sang in the upbeat opening number. “This one’s for the loser inside of you.”

The co-hosts then noted that such noted shows like “Hair” and “Into the Woods” didn’t win the best musical prize. Nor did “Waitress,” the show Bareilles wrote music for.

At the end of the song, the pair were joined by over a dozen members of the ensemble from each this year’s nominated musicals.

___

7:55 p.m.

Condola Rashad has a special reason to celebrate on the Tony Award red carpet Sunday. She also just closed her show, “Saint Joan.”

The actress says she has “a lot of emotions today.” She likened it to the last day of school mixed with prom and graduation at the same time. She says: “It’s a celebration.”

The daughter of Phylicia Rashad and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad earned a best actress in a play nomination for playing Joan of Arc in the play by George Bernard Shaw, which ended its run with Sunday’s matinee. Her dad and sisters were her dates to the Tonys.

She says “it’s been a really great opportunity for us to come together.”

Rashad also earned a 2012 Tony nomination for “Stick Fly” and plays a district attorney on the Showtime series “Billions.”

___

7:45 p.m.

Broadway’s SpongeBob, Ethan Slater, has walked the red carpet with a ribbon supporting the American Civil Liberties Union pinned to one lapel.

He says the organization is “incredibly important to our country” when it comes to guarding civil liberties. He called his show “aligned with the values of the ACLU.”

How exactly? Well, in terms of diversity, for one.

The “SpongeBob SquarePants” musical includes Sandy the squirrel, a scapegoat for Bikini Bottom’s problems who is targeted for banishment.

Slater calls the story line “really relevant to the Muslim ban” in the United States and the way he says that “Muslim-Americans have been treated.”

___

7:25 p.m.

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has no problem with nerves as he heads into the Tony Awards. His accolade to come once inside is all sewn up as an honorary tribute.

The musical theater legend says the feeling is wonderful: “I don’t have to worry about it.” He says all he has to do is “just go and get it.”

Webber says this season on Broadway is exciting, in particular amid musicals with many fine new writers. He also praised the night’s co-host, Sara Bareilles, for her work in the recently televised rock opera he co-created back in 1970, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Webber describes Bareilles as an “extraordinary actress,” especially through music.

___

6:50 p.m.

Andrew Garfield says the social message of “Angels in America” is a huge part of why he agreed to star as Pryor Walter.

The nominee says on the Tony red carpet that he doesn’t want to “tell a story unless it has the potential to change people.”

The British actor says the eight-hour play is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago, when Tony Kushner first staged it and won a Pulitzer Prize for his trouble.

Garfield says theater must be political and mirror the times we’re in. Otherwise, he says, “we’re wasting everyone’s time.”

___

6:20 p.m.

Josh Groban is promising “a really fun” Tony Awards.

Says the first-time co-host: “I feel really excited about the show we have ready for everybody tonight.” He says it’s been a fun season and he called co-host Sara Bareilles “brilliant.”

He says the chance to collaborate and bounce ideas off her has been “nothing less than a dream come true.”

He adds “We’re just going to go out and be ourselves.” Groban promises the show will be a combination of slick and two musical theater geeks being “total weirdos.”

For her part, Bareilles says she “just wants to stay present.” She added that her job is to make sure everyone else is having a good time, saying “that’s the goal — people pleasing.”

___

6:10 p.m.

Cynthia Erivo and Brian Tyree Henry say the theater is a perfect place to deal with social issues.

Says Henry, who is nominated for his work in “Lobby Hero”: “It’s happening right in front of your face.” He adds that something about the stage encourages tough issues to be worked on by strangers.

He says the cast and audience of a show go on a ride together and hopefully it creates a platform for discussion.

Erivo, winner of the best actress in a musical award for her work in “The Color Purple” in 2016, agreed: “People can see themselves live.” She says theater gives people a chance to express themselves freely.

John Leguizamo adds there are no “gatekeepers” in theater, which allows many points of view to emerge.

___

5:45 p.m.

“Frozen” songwriters Robert Lopez and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, walked the red carpet at the Tony Awards on Sunday for the first time as equal nominees.

Robert Lopez co-conceived and co-wrote the smash-hit musicals “Avenue Q” and “The Book of Mormon,” both earning him Tony Awards. “Frozen” marks Kristen Anderson-Lopez’s first nomination.

“I’m so proud of her,” her husband said. “She’s been here before as my plus-one.” His advice to her was “enjoy this thing.” It might be scary, but he calls it like a “prom.”

Anderson-Lopez acknowledged she was going to be nervous for the cast of “Frozen” and suspected that she would share their butterflies. Joked her husband: “She’ll be mouthing every word along with them.”

___

2:45 p.m.

The Tony Awards dress rehearsal — normally with few actual stars in attendance — got a shock of A-listers this year, including Tina Fey, Kelli O’Hara, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Leguizamo, Tituss Burgess — and Bruce Springsteen.

The four-hour rehearsal at Radio City Music Hall allows producers to go through the show from start to finish before the Sunday telecast. Usually, stand-ins are used for Hollywood presenters, who prefer to hit the snooze button.

But the audience this time cheered loudly when Patti Lupone, Uzo Aduba, Ming-Na Wen, Melissa Benoist, Tatiana Maslany, Christopher Jackson, James Monroe Iglehart and Rachel Brosnahan showed up in the flesh.

The highlight was Springsteen, who walked onstage in a T-shirt and jeans, performed one song on the piano from his sold-out one-man show and departed to a standing ovation.

___

12:15 a.m.

The Tony Awards kick off on Sunday night with a pair of first-time hosts, no clear juggernaut like “Hamilton” to cheer for, but a likely assist by Bruce Springsteen.

Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles face their biggest audience yet and a careful political balancing act when they co-host the CBS telecast from the massive 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall.

Getting buzz from appearing on the telecast can dictate a show’s future, both on Broadway and on tour. Broadway producers will be thankful this year that the telecast won’t compete with any NBA Finals or Stanley Cup playoff games.

By Associated Press

___

#New York #Once On This Island #TodayNews #wins musical revival Tony

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foursprouthappiness-blog · 6 years

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The Book You Should Read Instead Of Binging Netflix, Based On Your Zodiac Sign

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The Book You Should Read Instead Of Binging Netflix, Based On Your Zodiac Sign

Unsplash / Aziz Acharki

Aries: March 21st – April 19th

Circe by Madeline Miller

“In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child–not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power–the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.“

Taurus: April 20th – May 20th

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

“By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and ‘retire’ them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.”

Gemini: May 21st – June 20th

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

“Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it’s the truth?”

Cancer: June 21st – July 22nd

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

“Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.“

Leo: July 23rd – August 22nd

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

“In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he’s put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.

That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.”

Virgo: August 23rd – September 22nd

The Woman In The Window by A.J. Finn

“Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.”

Libra: September 23rd – October 22nd

Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Alberalli

“Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.”

Scorpio: October 23rd – November 21st

I’m Fine And Other Lies by Whitney Cummings

“Here are all the stories and mistakes I’ve made that were way too embarrassing to tell on stage in front of an actual audience; but thanks to not-so-modern technology, you can read about them here so I don’t have to risk having your judgmental eye contact crush my self-esteem. This book contains some delicious schadenfreude in which I recall such humiliating debacles as breaking my shoulder while trying to impress a guy, coming very close to spending my life in a Guatemalan prison, and having my lacerated ear sewn back on by a deaf guy after losing it in a torrid love affair. In addition to hoarding mortifying situations that’ll make you feel way better about your choices, I’ve also accumulated a lot of knowledge from therapists, psychotherapists, and psychopaths, which can probably help you avoid making the same mistakes I’ve made. Think of this book as everything you’d want from the Internet all in one place, except without the constant distractions of ads, online shopping, and porn.“

Sagittarius: November 22nd – December 21st

The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

“When street magician Carter runs away, he never expects to find friends and magic in a sleepy New England town. But like any good trick, things change instantly as greedy B.B. Bosso and his crew of crooked carnies arrive to steal anything and everything they can get their sticky fingers on.

After a fateful encounter with the local purveyor of illusion, Dante Vernon, Carter teams up with five other like-minded illusionists. Together, using both teamwork and magic, they’ll set out to save the town of Mineral Wells from Bosso’s villainous clutches. These six Magic Misfits will soon discover adventure, friendship, and their own self-worth in this delightful new series.”

Capricorn: December 22nd – January 19th

Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land

“Milly’s mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school.

But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother’s trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all.

When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad? She is, after all, her mother’s daughter.”

Aquarius: January 20th – February 18th

Every Day by David Leviathan

“Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.“

Pisces: February 19th – March 20th

The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero

“In 2003, an independent film called The Room—starring and written, produced, and directed by a mysteriously wealthy social misfit named Tommy Wiseau—made its disastrous debut in Los Angeles. Described by one reviewer as ‘like getting stabbed in the head,’ the $6 million film earned a grand total of $1,800 at the box office and closed after two weeks. Ten years later, it’s an international cult phenomenon, whose legions of fans attend screenings featuring costumes, audience rituals, merchandising, and thousands of plastic spoons. Hailed by The Huffington Post as ‘possibly the most important piece of literature ever printed,’ The Disaster Artist is the hilarious, behind-the-scenes story of a deliciously awful cinematic phenomenon as well as the story of an odd and inspiring Hollywood friendship. Greg Sestero, Tommy’s costar, recounts the film’s bizarre journey to infamy, explaining how the movie’s many nonsensical scenes and bits of dialogue came to be and unraveling the mystery of Tommy Wiseau himself.”

#Happiness

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