My March Book Report

A new monthly series for paid subscribers on the books and articles I found meaningful this month!

Howdy, y’all! Since there was so much love on the trans rights readathon post that I made last week, I decided that it might be fun to have a monthly post for paid subscribers on the books I’m reading and loving each month. Choosing to protect time in my day to read lots of books is one of the greatest gifts I give to myself. Plus, building up my attention muscles for reading has been an awesome way to start retraining my focus and attention out of the way social media has intentionally destroyed it.

As always for my free subscribers, this post will become available to you in 1 month (end of April). If you want to get access to a paid subscription another way, you can do that by:

• Sending me a picture of you owning my book and leaving a positive review on Goodreads, amazon, bookshop, or another place!

• Referring 3 or more friends to subscribe to GQN for free!

• Literally just asking me. Yep, really. I’ve done this for a whole bunch of people and have no qualms about it!

Fiction Reading

Fiction-wise, I’ve been on a real trans fantasy kick lately.

I started out the month with a re-read of the Witch King duology by H.E. Edgmon, which was really delightful. The series centers around a transgender witch who fled his kingdom to escape an arranged marriage to the prince—his former best friend.

The book deals largely with themes of oppression, systems-level change, prejudice & discrimination, and more through the metaphor of witches vs fae. Notably, though, while plenty of the characters express hateful beliefs and rhetoric about the main character Wyatt’s identity as a witch, I don’t think there’s a single character who has an issue with his transition. There was no prolonged misgendering or transphobic remarks/violence.

I’ll probably write a longer article about this at some point, but one of the things I love most about fantasy like this is that because there aren’t characters being directly hateful towards my identity specifically, I have the safety to explore the problems I am facing with a small amount of detachment and envision the many ways we might solve those problems. Even if the book is an obvious metaphor for the ways people like me are treated, knowing that trans heroes get to fight bigger battles than just people who don’t use our pronouns is very freeing to me.

I also found these books to be delightfully snarky, and Edgmon is a very talented writer.

After finishing Fae Keeper, I decided to pick up the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series. I had read the first already, but wanted to re-read it before reading the second.

This is the polar opposite end of the spectrum of what trans fantasy can be, in the best way. If Witch King is using fantasy problems to talk about real world solutions, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven has a great time discussing real world problems and finding some healing with magical solutions.

The book follows a historical women-only coven of powerful witches in England who divide sharply into factions on the arrival of an incredibly powerful young transgender witch. In case there is any part of you that wants to see any British TERFs (who’s naming names? Not me!) face some satisfying magical consequences, this book is fantastic. It also talks a whole lot about why people develop those TERF-y feelings, and the second book talks a lot about the ways that people use masculinity and misogyny to rile men up against “threatening” women and why men are drawn to the far right.

Still had a healthy dose of snark, found family, and humor, even with the much heavier topics.

Nonfiction Reading

I’ve been very slowly working through “Loving Corrections” by adrienne marie brown. Not slowly because it isn’t interesting, but because I read each piece (short essays essentially serving as nudges to advocates on better ways of changemaking/being in community with each other) and then need to sit on it. This is a book for stewing, chewing, and digesting.

I find adrienne’s work to be deeply moving, and her approach to accountability to be incredibly necessary. For anyone working in a social change space, or for anyone who gets frustrated by the other people they work with in a social change space, this is a must-read.

I finished “Slow Productivity” at the end of February, but I’m counting it in this month’s roundup because I wasn’t doing this yet, and it’s a great book. Cal Newport, who I appreciate for his thoughtful takes on better ways of working and living, put together a real balm for the “productivity=morality” complex. Not pointing any fingers here (besides all ten at myself), but I find myself often feeling like I need to be doing more. I say yes to everything, and then become a bit unreliable with my commitments. This has been a really wonderful book for taking time to think through what my capacity actually is, and where I might be able to learn to say no, slow down, or structure my day to get truly good work done. Highly recommend for anyone grappling with (or fearing, or approaching, or recovering from) burnout.

What about you?

As you might be able to tell, I eat books for breakfast. This is not a brag or a competition. I happen to live a life where I have the privilege of making a lot of time for reading, but I am not better than anyone because I read a lot. Even if you finish one book every two months, you are still a reader to me!

What are you reading lately? I want to hear all about what you’ve loved, what you’ve been excited about, new releases, etc! What should I add to my April TBR? Thanks for fueling my nerdiness!

With love as always,

Ben