The Dawnhounds – The Bookish Mutant

Happy Wednesday, bibliophiles!

Here in the U.S., September 16th-23rd is Bisexual Visibility Week, and September 23rd is Bisexual Visibility Day!

To me, visibility—true visibility—for the bi+ community is more vital than ever right now. In contrast to decades ago, when bisexuality wasn’t in the public conversation, today, it seems that bisexuality has enjoyed a more nuanced mainstream understanding. Yet this visibility came with the price of misunderstanding and stigma, much of which continues today. It’s already a handful coming from straight people, but what breaks my heart the most is when it comes from within the LGBTQ+ community. Sadly, it’s more common than you’d think. It manifests in a lot of sinister ways within the queer community, from the stereotype of bisexual women only dating men to the widespread jokes this year in particular about bisexual people only being allowed to celebrate pride for half the month. Sure, they may not be all that sinister on the surface, but when they repackage the same stereotypes about bisexual people (bisexuals only being bi for attention and bisexuals being “less queer”), they become regurgitations of the same demons that we’ve been facing for decades. And don’t even get me started on the stereotyping, particularly from lesbians and gay men, about how bisexuals are somehow co-opting queerness by exhibiting same sex-attraction or that we’re somehow “unclean” because we may have dated other genders. Especially considering that bisexual people are more likely to consider or commit suicide than their lesbian or gay peers, as well as reporting higher rates of depression and sexual assault, this rhetoric always has a consequence.

When did we all forget that we should all be on the same side? I’m so tired of saying something to the effect of the last paragraph in these posts, but this rampant biphobia—and infighting—just keeps happening. Whether bisexuality/biphobia is the issue or not, all of this casual queerphobia only serves to divide us further. There are real, present threats to the LGBTQ+ community, especially here in the U.S., that are so much more pressing than some fabricated issue of who’s more queer and who doesn’t deserve to be queer. Even if the issue was remedied, we should be quick to remember that after the word transgender, the next word that the government tried to erase from Stonewall National Monument’s website was bisexual. We need to focus on the real, tangible threats to our community, not on pointless squabbling that only makes enemies of each other.

To all of the fellow bisexuals who may be reading this: you are bisexual enough, you are queer enough, and you do not have to justify your identity to anyone. When I embraced my bisexuality in my teens, I felt freer than ever before. That’s exactly what claiming this identity should be all about: the idea that you cannot be boxed in by a society placing you on a single track for the gender you should be attracted to. In a perfect world, it should bring you that freedom, and never fear. We can all work towards that world, someday.

For my lists from previous years, click below:

Let’s begin, shall we?

🩷💜💙THE BOOKISH MUTANT’S BOOKS FOR BISEXUAL VISIBILITY WEEK (2026 EDITION)🩷💜💙

FANTASY:

Call Forth a Fox – Markelle Grabo | YA | high fantasy, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dawnhounds (Endsong, #1) – Sascha Stronach | Adult | POC, romance, biopunk | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Full Shift – Jennifer Dugan and Kit Seaton | YA | urban fantasy, paranormal fantasy, graphic novel, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

SCIENCE FICTION:

Love Galaxy – Sierra Branham | Adult | space opera, romance, mystery | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
A Swift and Sudden Exit – Nico Vicenty | Adult | time travel, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Failure to Communicate – Kaia Sønderby | Adult | space opera, disability | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Red Star Rebels – Amie Kaufman | YA | space opera, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

REALISTIC/HISTORICAL FICTION:

According to Plan – Christen Randall | YA | disability, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Golden Boy’s Guide to Bipolar – Sonido Reyes | YA | POC, disability, coming-of-age | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Very Nice Box – Laura Blackett & Eve Gleichmann | Adult | contemporary, mystery/thriller | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Blue-Skinned Gods – SJ Sindu | Adult | POC, literary fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Girls I’ve Been – Tess Sharpe | YA | thriller, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! Have you read any of these books, and if so, what did you think of them? What are some of your favorite books by bisexual authors? Let me know in the comments!

Today’s song:

That’s it for this recommendations post! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

Summer is waning, and thankfully, I can close this chapter knowing that I’ve filled it with an awful lot of books and iced coffee. I’m itching for fall now, I am SICK of this 80-90 degree weather!

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

This is the first summer that I haven’t had to wake up, toss everything aside, and go back to school. It’s weird. I still have friends in college, and it’s so strange to see everybody going back to class knowing that I don’t have to. In a way, I miss it: classes with friends, hanging out in the library, walking across campus in the fall when the leaves turn yellow. But man, I’m glad that my days of honors theses and extensive study sessions are behind me. (For now. We’ll see about grad school.)

Either way, I’ve managed to stick to my goals I set at the beginning of summer: writing a short story per month, taking walks three times a week. (I did cave and buy some yarn, but they were only $4, can you really blame me? And they were fun ombre colors!) Said creativity has definitely been an anchor as I’ve mired myself in the job hunt trenches, which have been…y’know, as frustrating as most everybody says that they are, but, uh. We stay silly, I dunno. I’ll find a way. I gave up on the political temperature checks long ago; safe to say, it’s hard to ignore how increasingly messed-up things are on more fronts than you’d ever think possible. But when I’m having to be in the Real World and looking for Real Jobs, all this creativity that I promised to myself at the beginning of the summer has become so much more meaningful. It’s always given me purpose, but giving myself time to enjoy it has been vital in enjoying my life, whether it’s making or consuming things.

And boy, there have been some fantastic things to enjoy lately—The Odyssey (I have insufferable English major thoughts, but a solid adaptation overall), Spiderman: Brand New Way (healed me, 10/10), a much needed rewatch of Ghosts (DIP IT AGAIN 👹), and Widow’s Bay (watching episode 10 tonight, NO SPOILERS, Y’ALL). So at least, wherever September and October takes me, I’ve made a commitment to keeping that creativity and love alive. I’ve taken another trip around the sun now, and I vow to make the weirdest of it! Nothing will break me down, not fully! Not as long as I’ve got the essential British double-hitter of new seasons of The Great British Bake-Off and Taskmaster to look forward to. Everybody say thank you to the Brits 🙌

JULY READING WRAP-UP:

I read 14 books in July! Oddly, I read a lot of novellas in July, for whatever reason. There were more stinkers than usual this month, but they were outweighed by several showstopping highlights. I also read some new-to-me and familiar authors for Disability Pride Month!

2 – 2.75 stars:

The Four Profound Weaves (Birdverse) – R.B. Lemberg (⭐️⭐️)
Field Guide for the Formerly Villainous – Autumn K. England (⭐️⭐️.25)
Climate of Chaos – Cassandra Newbould (⭐️⭐️.5)
The Last Contract of Isako – Fonda Lee (⭐️⭐️.5)

3 – 3.75 stars:

All the Stars in the Daylight Sky – Maya MacGregor (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space – Amanda Leduc (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Wearing the Lion – John Wiswell (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
A Drop of Corruption (Ana & Din Mysteries, #2) – Robert Jackson Bennett (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

*1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left*

Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement – Ashley Shew (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
King of the Neuro Verse – Idris Goodwin (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Ariel Crashes a Train – Olivia A. Cole (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Language of Liars – S.L. Huang (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left – Robyn Hitchcock (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

5 stars:

Machine (White Space, #2) – Elizabeth Bear (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH (not counting re-reads): Machine – 5 stars

REVIEWS:

SUNDAY SONGS:

BONUS:

The Bookish Mutant’s Books for Disability Pride Month (2026)

AUGUST READING WRAP-UP:

I read 13 books in August! Unfortunately, I had another DNF (Braking Day…finally, somebody was brave enough to ask the question “what if Aurora Rising sucked?”), but I had lots of excellent reads from all across the genre spectrum.

1 – 1.75 stars: