LOUNGE LIBRARY RESOURCES:
We have the power to read books! We don’t need any expensive gadgets to read a book. We don’t need any cables, monitors or electricity for that matter. What we do need is the want to read. We might even have to change some gears so that we can get in the habit of reading. Now in the New Release section!
Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco’s Tenderloin
by Joseph Plaster
In Kids on the Street Joseph Plaster explores the informal support networks that enabled abandoned and runaway queer youth to survive in tenderloin districts across the United States. Tracing the history of the downtown lodging house districts where marginally housed youth regularly lived beginning in the late 1800s, Plaster focuses on San Francisco’s Tenderloin from the 1950s to the present. He draws on archival, ethnographic, oral history, and public humanities research to outline the queer kinship networks, religious practices, performative storytelling, and migratory patterns that allowed these kids to foster social support and mutual aid. He shows how they collectively and creatively managed the social trauma they experienced, in part by building relationships with johns, bartenders, hotel managers, bouncers, and other vice district denizens. By highlighting a politics where the marginal position of street kids is the basis for a moral economy of reciprocity, Plaster excavates a history of queer life that has been overshadowed by major narratives of gay progress and pride. (Order online here.)
A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder
by Ma-Nee Chacaby
A Two-Spirit Journey is Ma-Nee Chacaby’s extraordinary account of her life as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian. From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community riven by poverty and alcoholism, Chacaby s story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social, economic, and health legacies of colonialism.
As a child, Chacaby learned spiritual and cultural traditions from her Cree grandmother and trapping, hunting, and bush survival skills from her Ojibwa stepfather. She also suffered physical and sexual abuse by different adults, and by her teen years she was alcoholic herself. At twenty, Chacaby moved to Thunder Bay with her children to escape an abusive marriage. Abuse, compounded by racism, continued, but Chacaby found supports to help herself and others. Over the following decades, she achieved sobriety; trained and worked as an alcoholism counselor; raised her children and fostered many others; learned to live with visual impairment; and came out as a lesbian. In 2013, Chacaby led the first gay pride parade in her adopted city, Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Ma-Nee Chacaby has emerged from hardship grounded in faith, compassion, humor, and resilience. Her memoir provides unprecedented insights into the challenges still faced by many Indigenous people.
A Grand Love: Stories for Grandparents of Transgender Grandchildren
by Janna Barkin
Be Love. Be Patience. Be Curious. Be Approachable. Be Supported.
Being a grandparent to a transgender child may feel isolating. Generational differences can make it challenging for you to understand what your grandchild is going through, and you might not have the vocabulary to discuss it with them or have peers who are experiencing something similar. At the same time, your love, understanding, and acceptance will play a huge role in the flourishing of your trans grandchild.
With up-to-date research on gender identity, letters and stories from grandparents on the same journey, resources for transgender youth and their families, and a selection of online and local support groups, this book provides uplifting, educational guidance on how to support your grandchild – and yourself!
Published: Aug 21 2024, Pages: 240
Bi The Way, I love You: A Charity Anthology of Diverse Bi+ Love Stories
Published: Aug 21 2024
by Frances M. Thompson, C.J. Lucci, Cozy DuBois, Rochelle Wolf, Amelia Lascaux, MK Owens, Julie Brydon, Madison Diaz, and S.C. Muir
You’ll meet teenage frenemies to 30-something lovers Dion and Benji in Something About Us (MM) which features a mixed-race trans MC and a white MC with chronic illness (Crohn’s/stoma bag). In The To-Screw List (FF) best friends Amber and Jade make a sex-pact to be each other’s firsts at well, almost everything, but they’re absolutely NOT allowed to catch feelings. Ash and Luke are the thyroid-cancer-research academic heroes of STEM forbidden romance Experimental Affection (MX) which also features chronic illness rep (migraine disease) and a whole lot of should-we-shouldn’t-we tension! Love on the Airwaves (FFM) featuring Gabby, Stephanie and Adrian, is a short-story teaser for a workplace romance with pansexual and hearing loss rep. In Petty Roots (XX) two grumpy enbies, Eris and Blake, become fake wedding dates for an ex’s wedding and it turns out all these queer idiots needed was a road trip to a small town to realise how much they have in common. In Lattes and Plot Twists (FF), you’ll enjoy the best friend’s sister trope, dyslexia and social anxiety rep, and a whole ton of sapphic mutual pining between Em and Holly! Kami and Evan are the hot bisexual neighbours in Good Things Come in Unexpected Packages (MF) where Kami teaches Evan all about books, and more! We have Iris, an author dating for research in Doing It For the Plot (FX) only to realise their one true love, Hazel, was a lot closer than they thought. And in high-heat Caught in the Middle (MMF), (a different!) Gabby has to work closely — very closely — with rivals Shane and Luca on a project that quickly becomes much more than a working relationship.
Bi The Way: The Bisexual Guide to Life
By Lois Shearing
‘The friendly introduction to all things bi’ – MEG-JOHN BARKER
‘A masterfully crafted guide to all things bisexual’ – THE PSYCHOLOGIST
‘Excellent and much-needed’ – GSCENE MAGAZINE
Whether you are openly bisexual, still figuring things out or just interested in learning more about bisexuality, Bi the Way is your essential guide to understanding and embracing bisexuality. With first-hand accounts from bi advocates, it includes practical tips and guidance on topics including dating, sex, biphobia, bi-erasure, coming out, activism and gender identity, demystifying a community that is often erased or overlooked.
Rallying, honest and powerfully written, this must-read book is a manifesto for bisexual people everywhere and will empower you to live your most authentic bisexual life.
Embracing All of Me: Identity-focused writing & Self-discovery for Bisexual, Pansexual & Fluid Men.
By Ross Victory
Embracing All of Me introduces a self-guided approach to “identity-focused storytelling.” This beginner-friendly tool blends reflection and creativity to help readers explore their story, connect with their experiences, and express themselves through written form. Curated for Bi+ men, men who may identify as bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer, or non-monosexual, and relevant to anyone with nuanced or fluid identities, this book offers culturally relevant inspiration, accessible language, and a structured path to turn self-reflection into tangible writing projects on your terms.
Through journaling, poetry, narrative storytelling, and more, this book will help you:
- Uncover deeper layers of your perspective and the interconnectedness of your experiences and identities
- Discover practical writing styles and tools to reclaim, reframe, and embody your truth with clarity and confidence
- Develop a sustainable, “you-centered” writing practice
- Rooted in the creative writing principles of Aristotle’s Poetics, backed by research on expressive writing’s impact on well-being, and enriched with anecdotes from public figures and personal insights from the author, Embracing All of Me empowers you to claim your space and embrace all of who you are in a world built on binaries and erasure.
Review from https://littledistrictbooks.com/products/embracing-all-of-me
MAKING THE CASE FOR EQUALITY: 50 Years of legal milestones
By Jennifer C. Pizer & Ellen Ann Anderson
There is a great book that has surfaced as of recent and it has been gifted to us by Brigid Reilly. Part of LAMBDA LEGAL and their 50 years of achievements in the struggle for LGBTQIA+ rights!
In this book we will take a journey together as we celebrate this historic 50 year anniversary! The intricacies and the relationship between cases, education and policy work. We will even be reminded that the language used to describe the LGBTQIA+ has evolved greatly in the past fifty years.
Along the way they have drafted statutes, trained judges, published know your rights tool kits, led awareness campaigns and responded to at least a quarter million Legal Help Desk inquiries. This is why…In September, it is being showcased as the “ Book of the Month “ at SOLANO PRIDE CENTER.
Come into our LOUNGE LIBRARY located at the Solano Pride Center and please take a look into this book. It will be sitting on the table here waiting for you!