June is Pride Month! Join the #shelitbookclub this Sunday at 11 a.m. as we discuss the recently banned young adult novel Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera. More info on joining the conversation can be found here🏳️
Set to a recycled hypnotic beat, Beyoncé’s new single ignites dream job conversation
In a week where rapper Drake dropped a whole album, pop queen Beyoncé made a splash Monday with a single from her upcoming album that is allegedly having people quit their jobs. But “Break My Soul” is emphasizing the path to self-expression, which speaks volumes in a creative field like book publishing.
Only 7% of Americans surveyed were working their dream jobs, according to a report from MoneyPenny that came out last August. The survey also emphasized how that also meant a whopping 93% of employees were not working in their dream jobs.
Last year’s Great Resignation, also being dubbed the Great Reflection, inspired 47 million people to quit their jobs as the demand for better treatment in the workplace became a rallying cry during the Covid-19 pandemic. One in five of those people who resigned say they regretted it, according to a Harris Poll survey for USA Today.
But those unhappy with the transition may have moved too fast, said LinkedIn career expert Catherine Fisher on CBS Mornings in April.
Beyoncé’s newest single, which looks like it will be the sixth track on the Renaissance album out in July, uses voice samples from Big Freedia’s “Explode” and beats from Robin S.’s 1993 hit “Show Me Love.” In “Explode” and in the background of “Break My Soul,” Big Freedia sings, “Release your anger, release your mind / Release your job, release the time / Release your trade, release the stress / Release the love, forget the rest.”
Release your job? Release your trade? Release your stress? Social media lit up with the interpretations that Beyoncé was telling people to quit their jobs. And BuzzFeed News reports that in fact some people went ahead and quit their jobs in part to Beyoncé’s song but mostly due to their longing to release the job, the trade, and the stress.
The average business in the book publishing industry employs more workers than it did five years ago, according to the IBISWorld, though employment growth in the industry is expected to be 0.1% this year.
Employment of writers and authors is projected to grow 9% between 2020 and 2030, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found. There are usually over 15,000 job openings each year, mostly due to people leaving the workforce by choice or by retirement.
With all this data, it may be safe to say we’ll see more book lovers working in publishing houses, literary agencies, and bookstores while many could be rethinking their author and book influencer dreams.
ACLU files motion to dismiss obscenity claims against books
The American Civil Liberties Union says it filed motions seeking to dismiss obscenity proceedings in Virginia this week against two books on the behalf of local bookstores.
A state law, which the ACLU says hasn’t been used “in decades,” was used by a Virginia resident to claim Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas are obscene and shouldn’t be made available to young readers through Virginia Beach public schools and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
In May, the Virginia Beach Circuit Court ordered the books’ authors and publishers to show cause why their books should not be considered obscene.
OverDrive to aid libraries in providing ‘access for all’
Digital library catalog app OverDrive announced it will unveil toolsat the American Library Association Annual Conference & Exhibition to bring instant access to curated collections of e-books, audiobooks, and magazines to readers who are unable to install the app.
The main tool, Public Access Connect, will reach readers at their locations by using open Wi-Fi and QR codes. These efforts aim to especially help readers in areas with low internet access, seniors, children, and incarcerated individuals.
What we’re reviewing
Still looking for books by LGBTQIA+ authors and/or featuring LGBTQIA+ characters? Here are some reviews of books you may have missed.
What we’re reading
Body Grammar by Jules Ohman
Photographers flock to Lou once she turns 18 for a chance to profit off her androgynous look in this new adult queer debut novel. But Lou doesn’t want any parts of the modeling industry until tragedy strikes. Then she’s moving to New York from Portland and walking the fashion runways. As she maneuvers in a body she was never comfortable in, she worries she’s losing who she is.
The newest novel from Georgia Clark follows two families—one American and one Australian as they embark on a chaotic vacation. The only thing these families have in common are their two daughters are married to each other. A nearby volcano starts erupting, and before they know it, they’re stranded on the island for six weeks. In this course of time, similar to the Covid-19 pandemic for some, the characters now have the time to talk about how they handle queer romance, family secrets, and ambition.
Based on Jenny Han’s best-selling YA romance trilogy, this new series on Amazon Prime features almost 16-year-old Belly Conklin, played by Lola Tung, as she heads to her family’s summer getaway at Cousins Beach. But over the past year, Belly has grown up, and her growth will make the summer unforgettable. The author is also the executive producer.
The Austin African American Book Festival will be held on Saturday, June 25, at the George Washington Carver Library and Museum in Austin, Texas. In its 16th year, the book festival will be headlined by author Dr. Julianne Malveaux who will discuss her book, Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History.
Sourcebooks, which calls itself the largest woman-owned trade book publisher in North America, is looking for an editorial assistant/assistant editor. On its Wonderland editorial team, the perfect candidate will be expected to conduct industry research, manage author relationships, and some other duties. The position is ideally based in the Chicago area.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters explores the complexities of parenthood between two women and a man who unite in an effort to take care of a baby, but the closer they get, the more they convince themselves they’re making a mistake.
Reese always wanted to be a mother. In fact, she acts as a mother figure in the New York City transgender community, taking in young trans women who remind her of herself when she first came to the city from the Midwest. Upon her arrival, she quickly became a go-to caretaker for children on the Upper East Side. She has the natural gift of taking care of others. One of the trans women she had taken under her wing was Amy, who returns in her life in a form she’s unfamiliar with.
Ames is a marketing executive having a sultry fling with his recently divorced boss, Katrina. They soon realize they are expecting a baby. Katrina had a miscarriage during her marriage, so she’s nervous about the pregnancy. She’s also at the top of her game at work, and she’s unsure how a baby she’s having with a subordinate fits into her career plan post-divorce. Ames can’t believe he even impregnated a woman, but now that he has, he suggests bringing in an old friend to help parent the baby.
When Reese sees Amy again, Amy is now known as Ames. Amy detransitioned from a trans woman back to a biological man. Ames explains how he thought years of taking hormones to live as a female would decrease his fertility. But now that a baby is coming, Ames wants to tap Reese to be a secondary mother and assist Katrina to raise the child. Reese always wanted to be a mother, and she feels her chances were dashed when she and Amy broke up. Now, who Reese still can’t believe is the Amy she used to love is offering the opportunity of motherhood.
Skeptical of the idea of becoming a mother by playing a third parent in raising another woman’s baby, Reese starts hanging out with Ames and Katrina to see if she can get onboard with the proposal. Katrina has questions and misconceptions of how Reese lives as a trans woman and how Ames lived as a trans woman. The clashes melt away once Reese and Katrina realize they are simply women who want to be mothers. It takes a village to raise a child. But when Katrina realizes why Reese and Amy broke up, she starts to rethink the concept of letting Reese play a mother and herself become a mother.
This is an eye-opening novel exploring a part of the New York City trans community rarely seen in mainstream media. Reports say that this book is one of the firsts written by a trans author to be distributed by a “big five” publisher. It’s refreshing to learn about how these fictional trans women feel they are competing with biological women to demonstrate their femaleness, including their capability and desire to become mothers. The author, who is a trans woman, spent time in the community to nail down the intricacies of the characters, their backgrounds, and their desires.
The spectrum of characters represent different people who interact in the community. There is the trans person, the former trans person, and the cisgender, heterosexual person fighting their biases to accept someone they actually meet in real life who is trans. For Reese, her sex life is complicated with having committed lovers and secret lovers. The emotional struggle of identifying as female in a world that deidentifies her as not female makes her feel like she could never commit to a monogamous relationship long enough to raise a child with someone. For Ames, he detransitions soon after ending his relationship with Reese but still struggles on pinpointing what made him want to live as male again, especially when Reese pushes for answers. For Katrina, she is wrapping her brain around the fact she is having a baby with someone she didn’t know had lived as a woman for years, but her open-mindedness forces her to shake the anger and accept the perceived affection she’s receiving from Ames and now Reese.
Overall, this novel again shows a community rarely magnified in the literary world. Pushing the boundaries that women who have penises also have desires to be mothers, and though it could be difficult to produce that child biologically depending on the partner, they will make a way to be mothers. Humankind, regardless of identities and circumstances, wants love, and this story shows the road for these characters finding that love unexpectedly with each other, though their inner demons try to destroy what they have. By the way, a TV series adaptation is in the works.
She Lit
