Very smartly observed and presented for maximal impact, the way a child sees the world for what it is, a pile of fools continent wide.

Shraya divides the book into three parts, each detailing parts of their experience as a queer trans person. It was confusing in some ways as Shraya tries to not divide by gender but through their gut wrenching, minute detailed exploration sorts the book into masculine and feminine? At the same time, I understood what they meant when they said that they can't trust women or men. A lot of this, I feel, comes down to trusting the individual.

One of Shraya's stronger works, God Loves Hair details a queer Indian male's journey through adolescence and finding inner peace in his own religion. It is sweet, poignant and delicate work, with the naive heartfelt angst of the teenage years on blast.

To read Kai Cheng Thom is like therapy, to delve into the complexities of race, gender, class, ethnicity, to have have hope again.

"some bodies can't be touched/ some poems cannot be written/ just felt"

"yes to filth. yes to the apple! yes to eve! yes to pain and to shame and to wondering and to crawling home"

"white queer are always thinking that other people don't belong in the places they have decided belong to them."

Hartman gently interrogates the sex lives of black women in the early 19th century between Philadelphia and New York City, dissecting their motivations, desires and restrictions, highlighting oft ignored lesbian population. Half historical fiction, half historical truth, this book defies definition. It is a book of passion, written with a lover's poetic grace. I urge everyone to read it.

Completely bizarre but highly entertaining and emotional, Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash traces the love story of Aja Kawak, his penis Bird, and his longtime love interest Iteung through the tumultous shanty town in Indonesia. Perhaps it was the translation, but the plot and writing felt stale to me, as if what was once a lively tale had been dulled to academia. Nonetheless, the plottwists at the end made me tear up.

I had to sit with Kiese Laymon's extraordinary collection of letters, essays and ponderings. Laymon remains true to himself and his community throughout his adventures in academia, publishing and teaching. Some laugh out loud moments, many tears in the eyes moments. A love letter to his mama, his hood and, most of all, to black male joy.

ARC thanks to #NetGalley

Each piece in this debut collection reads like a diatribe, an irrefutable incantation to be read at dawn while assuming a power stance. What makes it extraordinary is Mayrock's self assuredness, her conviction, her idealism and belief in sisterhood. Each line is powerful by itself and the collection as whole is cohesive and ultimately healing to read.

Harriet Washington's Deadly Monopolies is a masterpiece that addresses areas doctors usually find taboo to discuss - the big pharma industry. Through careful research and documentation, she shows a trial of heinous, irresponsible and malignant behavior by each of the Pharma giants on the American people and in the third world. As a medical student, we are never taught about this side of medicine so I found the read to be particularly helpful.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley

Sacrament of Bodies is Romeo Oriogun's painful, delicate and gorgeous manifesto of what it means to be bisexual in a country where you are not accepted. Each poem builds on the last, touching on the intricate battle between self love and familial duty, societal expectations and sexual curiosity, the sand that loves the sea but can only hold its castoffs, the sea that loves the sand but can never hold its weight.