Damn time flies when you're reading huh? I can't help it, I love a good readathon/reading challenge, which is how I've ended up participating in three in the past few months! I recently started the SFF Summer Reading Challenge, which runs until September 1, so check back then or follow on Instagram.
Below are two I finished earlier this year: the Trans Rights Readathon and the Disability Readathon. I hope you find some great reads, and if you're also doing the SFF Summer Reading Challenge a ton of what's listed below can count for that too!
Trans Rights Readathon: March 22 - March 31
Indie or Self-Published: The Eternal Rocks by Amelia Onorato
A self-published comic that tells an eternal love story between a woman and a genderfluid sea creature. Short, lovely, and funny.
Multiple Authors: Fantasy Lewds from Dark Spark
A great indie collection of smutty comics and illustrations featuring a variety of genders, body types, and fantastical beings.
Romance: Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell
I read Winter's Orbit for a romance book club. Straight up romance is not usually my jam, but a friend highly recommended it and I'll read just about anything with a scifi twist. And they were right, of course: I loved it. I immediately picked up Ocean's Echo, the second book in the series, which is just as packed with adventure and political intrigue as the first.
Disability Rep: Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a. greathouse
A fantastic poetry collection that explores the intersection of gender, queerness, and disability. I always enjoy listening to a poet read their work, and I recommend the audiobook if you can.
Asian Author: Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom
This one is for the queers who don't want to be normalized. It's a weird and fun novella that will also break your heart.
SciFi, Fantasy, or Horror: The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
I finished this book and immediately wanted to read it again. It's perfectly grotesque in a classic fairy tale kind of way, and is great if you love nasty mermaids and Hozier's "Work Song."
Nonbinary, 2Spirit, Gender Expansive: The Fish Wife by Melanie Gillman
I'm a big fan of Gillman's work, and this little comic is perfect if you need more nasty mermaid romance.
Disability Readathon: April 1 - April 30
This readathon did not come with any prompts, so I challenged myself to read ten books, including the group read. I happened to be taking a class on critical disability studies in librarianship at the time, so many of the books I read are a bit more academic (but they're still great reads).
Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer
Yep, this is one of the ones I read for school. A bit academic for a casual read, but Kafer is cited by many others so if you're reading on disability justice it's a good place to start.
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Piepzna-Samarasinha's essays are beautiful, visceral, and unapologetic. Highly recommended reading for everyone.
No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement by Joseph P. Shapiro
This was another school read. It's quite dated (it was published in the 90s) but gives a good overview of the disability rights movement that centers disabled voices. A bit lacking in discussions of mental health, neurodivergence, and chronic pain, which is unsurprising for its time.
El Deafo by Cece Bell
A middle grade graphic memoir about the author's hearing loss as a child. It's a great comic, and I had an advance copy for the audio adaptation which was a really interesting experience.
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century ed. Alice Wong
I really like collections like these because they show the range and complexity of disability, something that's often seen as a box that either is or isn't checked. Of course it's more complicated than that, and this collection doesn't shy away from exploring the gray areas via the lived experiences of disabled folks.
Friends Make the Best Medicine: A Guide to Creating Community Mental Health Support Networks from the Icarus Project
A zine guide that I got in a pack of random mystery zines ages ago. It's not especially recent, but the steps and resources are pretty timeless.
Blood Orange by Yaffa
An intense and beautiful collection of poems from a neurodivergent, disabled, queer Palestinian poet. I was on the hold list for this one for months through the Queer Liberation Library, and it was well worth the wait.
Sipping Dom Perignon Through a Straw by Eddie Ndopu
This was the readathon group read. I'm not a big memoir reader so this wasn't my favorite, but Ndopu does have a great sense of humor and it's both a fun and frustrating (because of how Ndopu is treated) read.
A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability by A. Andrews
It really is quick and easy! I like this comic series, and find them to be good primers both for folks who may need help understanding their loved ones and for those who are newly exploring their own identities.
Corpus: A Comic Anthology of Bodily Ailments ed. Nadia Shammas
I've said it before, but I love the way anthologies are able to explore different and sometimes contradictory experiences. Unlike others I've read, this anthology also shares stories of medical trauma, short-term illness, and temporary disability.
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