sara_m_martins's reviews
331 reviews

Punch Me Up to the Gods is a raw, powerful memoir that explores the ideals of Black masculinity, and that intersection with the queer identity, and what it is to be a queer Black man in the USA. It is brutal, powerful and superbly honest.
The memoir comes as a collection of essays about moments throughout Brian Broome's life, glavanized (and organized for us) through a shared bus trip between narrator and a small Black boy named Tuan. I found this really interesting, and this starting point made me reflect and approach the essays in such a different way.
This book talks of racism, homophobia, physical/emotional/sexual abuse, toxic masculinity, misogyny, family, addiction/alcoholism. With humour and a great writing style (felt almost poetic at points), one feels saddened but still wants to keep reading. 
I really appreciate the realness and unsanitized depictions. This is seen in other themes too, but Brian talks about being queer while not being a "good queer" - ashamed, denial, hidding, wishing it away; cowardice sometimes feels forbidden to queer stories.

A must-read, particularly for queer women and non-binary people!
This book talks for itself - advice columns about love, life and queer existence. The inclusion of "guest speakers" is a great addition for inclusivity and allowed for the best advice-giving possible!
If it won't help you personally (although, it probably will), it will at least give you a better insight to some problems other people may have, and think about how you could better interact with them.

This book talks about a lot of serious topics that i enjoyed seeing represented, including body image/  fatphobia/ miscarriage/ IVF. There is queer rep, with the main character being attracted to multiple genders (no label given), and supporting characters also on the rainbow - however, sexuality isn't a topic.
This is a story about a steamy fling turned romantic relationship, with loads of conversations about what self-love is and how to practice it - if that's your thing, read this book! There's plenty of deep moments (see topics above), accompanied by a bunch of loveable characters and a handful of antagonists. Throughout the book, Noni figures out what her life could be and what life she really wants to live
I really thought this was going to be a 5 star read, but the story was completely different from what I imagined, so while I enjoyed it, I didn't love it. 

I was really excited about a travel-around-the-world, figuring-yourself-out, having-fun book. Alas, this was a world tour, the same way most US performers do a "world tour": they do a couple cities in the UK and, if you're lucky, Amsterdam, and that's it. As Europe-exploration was the big pull-in for me, the lack of travel really impacted my enjoyment of it. This is no fault of the book, it just made the book not for me. 

Great book for cat lovers and people who love biographies!
It's a short, easy read, and I found it refreshing to see queer lives represented in a more airy, lighthearted perspective than usual! I think it is a great opportunity to introduce queer people, and then readers can search more in depth to anyone they get interested with.
This book has a 1 page biography of a queer person (a mix of some historic people and contemporary people), talking about their life and how they link to the queer community, and OF COURSE talking about the cats (mostly the tiny cats, but there are others!) in their life! Alongside this biography there is one photograph of said icon and accompanying feline.

Simple illustration style that tells you a bit of the lives of the Brontë sisters during their publishing years. A quick and simple read for anyone to get introduced to the Brontë sisters/Bell brothers. Not sure how much creative liberty was taken with the people and historical moments portrayed, as I am not a connoisseur. 
Good but didn't leave me over the moon

*Thank you Netgalley and Lerner Publishing Group for providing this digital eARC*

I loved this!
Short biographies (1/2 pages) folllowed by a few pages of illustrated novel for a part of each writer's lives, both really well done. I love the head subchapters' illustrations in this! This book serves as a small intro and give ways to further your knowledge! 

The 18 writers chosen are known in classic literature (some more than others), that you'll enjoy reading about even if you (like me) don't know their works. I found their stories really interesting, each with a different and inspiring life story to tell! - also because you have writers with different backgrounds, featuring women of colour and queer women!
Organizing it by theme (3 writers in each) was also a brilliant way to do it; showing how they link to one another (sometimes in their social lives) or what and how much of an impact they had in the world around them/us. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the eARC.