Announcing GayYA’s August 2014 Book of the Month, and Other Updates!

Announcing our August 2014 BotM: Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block!

Our August 2014 Book of the Month!

Her life by the sea in ruins, Pen has lost everything in the Earth Shaker that all but destroyed the city of Los Angeles. She sets out into the wasteland to search for her family, her journey guided by a tattered copy of Homer’s Odyssey. Soon she begins to realize her own abilities and strength as she faces false promises of safety, the cloned giants who feast on humans, and a madman who wishes her dead. On her voyage, Pen learns to tell stories that reflect her strange visions, while she and her fellow survivors navigate the dangers that lie in wait. In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely. At the helm is Pen, a strong heroine who holds hope and love in her hands and refuses to be defeated.

We like to pick not only our favorite books for the Book of the Month, but also ones that contribute something very unique to Gay YA. In most Gay YA (especially speculative fiction), there’s only one or two queer characters, and they’re surrounded by a cast of straight, cisgender characters. And while we’re happy to get representation in that way, it’s also great when you find a book in which the majority of the characters are queer– especially in speculative fiction, because for some reason most authors think that being queer is still taboo in future and fantasy worlds, and more often than not, we end up with a book made up entirely of straight, cisgender characters. Love in the Time of Global Warming is such a wonderful subversion of that. I don’t want to spoil anything, but let us just say there is queerness abound in this book, and it’s done respectfully and wonderfully. I especially love it, because I love all the re-tellings of Greek and Norse mythology, and I’ve always wanted a re-telling with queer characters. This book, being based on The Odyssey, fills that.

And, okay, I must unleash the inner fangirl: This book is so good you guys. SO GOOD. Literally, I carry my copy around with my everywhere and snuggle it while I sleep (although I do alternate with some of my other favorites like Brooklyn, Burning, Split, and TPoBaW).

I’m super excited about this next month, and not just because our BotM is one of my very favorite books of all time.

We have TEN BOOKS for a giveaway– 5 copies of Love in the Time of Global Warming aaaaannnnnd 5 ARCs of The Island of Excess Love, the next book in the series! I screamed when I opened the package…they’re so beautiful guys. SO BEAUTIFUL.

We are doing a Skype interview with Francesca Lia Block, the wonderful, amazing author, and are going to try record that audio for you all. I say ‘try’ because we’ve never worked with the technology before, and also since we are both such huge Francesca Lia Block fans, well, you might just be listening to a lot of giggling and pterodactyl-like screeches.

And on top of that, we are starting the process for a total site redesign– not only are we waayyy behind the book blogging times with the layout we have now, but it also restricts access to a bunch of our really great posts from the past, many of which are still 100% relevant today. So we’re getting ready to switch over to a new layout, which will make it much more pleasant to read new posts, and will make it easier to find posts on whatever subject you might be interested in.

We’ve got some great guest bloggers lined up for August as well. We’re going to be talking about minor queer characters in media, and f/f pairings and general female sexuality– if you’ve got some thoughts on either of those topics– or something related to them– and would like to do a guest blog, send me an email at victoria@gayya.org with your topic idea.

I’m so excited for August you guys I can barely contain it. In the meantime, if any of you have read or are reading Love in the Time of Global Warming, hop on over to our forums to discuss it with us! (This will earn you 5 entries in the giveaway! 😉 )

Oh, and until the end of the month, we’ll be accepting applicants for our book review team! Just send us (victoria@gayya.org) a little blurb about yourself and a sample review that you have written, and we’ll let you know within a few days if you’re a fit or not! People of all ages, sexualities, romantic orientations, and genders are welcome to apply.

That’s all for now!

Your Webmistress, Victoria