friday love list #8: pride edition
celebrating new books by queer authors + more
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Friday is Venus’ day.
A day for connection, for beauty, for joy. For sharing what is bringing us joy, and what we’ve loved.
As ever, the Friday Love List is in honor of and offering to Venus. Here are some of the things that most brought me pleasure and delight this week.
please note that nothing on this list is ever sponsored; i’m just screaming bc i love it!
Queer Authors I’m Loving
It’s been a GREAT week for new books here at the Kadlec-Jones Wall residence. (This is in part thanks to the fact that the year is heavily frontloaded with new releases — no one wants big books coming out around the election.) Here’s a few new books that I’ve started and/or are on my TBR, all from queer authors:
First up: Brea Baker’s Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership. (Comes out June 18th!)
From the promotional copy, “Research suggests that between 1910 and 1997, Black Americans lost about 90% of their farmland. Land theft widened the racial wealth gap, privatized natural resources, and created a permanent barrier to access that should be a birthright for Black and Indigenous communities. Rooted traces the experiences of Brea Baker's family history of devastating land loss in Kentucky and North Carolina, identifying such violence as the root of persistent inequality in this country. Ultimately, her grandparents' commitment to Black land ownership resulted in the Bakers Acres--a haven for the family where they are sustained by the land, surrounded by love, and wholly free.”
I’ve just started Rooted and am gripped already. This is the kind of deeply researched, emotionally aware narrative nonfiction that I live for.
Next:
’s debut novel But How Are You Really? (Out now!) Perhaps you, like me, have been following Ella’s journey of writing and publishing this novel on social media, which makes its arrival all the sweeter. From the promotional copy: “A burned-out bisexual confronts old demons, her estranged chosen family, and the ex she maybe shouldn't have walked away from when she attends her five-year college reunion.”Meg, my partner, devoured this in a few short hours. She did note that the book deals significantly with emotionally abusive relationships (both professional and romantic), and while it is ultimately victorious, the reader definitely goes on a journey. So be prepared for that!
Speaking of much-awaited books. I have been chomping at the bit for R.O. Kwon’s Exhibit since she teased it in the interview she did for this newsletter two years ago. And her NYC launch event (which I attended with my writers’ group) was so gorgeous, filled with insight and generosity and all-out transparency about what it’s like to publish a queer, kinky novel as a queer, kinky, ex-Catholic and ex-evangelical Asian-American woman. I haven’t started this one yet, mostly because I want the mental spaciousness to give Reese’s stunning line-level prose the attention it deserves.
New Newsletters from Queer Occultists
My beloved friends Amaya Rourke, Sasha Ravitch, and Maeg Keane have all launched newsletters here on Substack!
, who has taught so many of us so much about the fixed stars, is soon retiring from public spiritual life and has created her newsletter as a series of farewell love letters; I am emotional just thinking about it. Meanwhile, Sasha, the mother of stellar witchcraft, is writing about monstrosity over at , and is writing about astrology and especially the fixed stars. I learn so much from all of them and cannot recommend their work strongly enough.Other Queer S*** I Love (and need to tell you about)
Cedar McCloud, creator of the queer-classic Numinous Tarot, is back with another deck (that those of us in the astrology for writers Discord got previews of!). The Magic Pantry Tarot is perfect for all lovers of cooking and baking. Only 13 days left to back this truly extraordinary project on Kickstarter!
A perfect gift for this upcoming Cancer season, and for any of the foodies or experimental home chefs in your life.
NYC-specific: Haven Tattoo, my favorite parlor here (woman and queer-owned!), has Pride flash coming soon! Jes Valentine is one of two artists I regularly get work from, and I can’t recommend her work (or her girly-pop pink shop) enough.
Thank you, Venus, for the space to be queer. For art and self-expression and words that affirm, all of which ultimately remind us that we are, none of us, alone.
Ahhh thank you so much for the lovely shout out Jeanna! Now the race is on to actually finish the first letter, if the Pleiades will ever stop throwing me into deep dives so I can finish this draft.
Ooh we’ll check out some of these for sure. I finished All Fours recently and it was surprisingly kinky and queer.