Until the Clock Strikes Midnight

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

Here in the U.S., July is Disability Pride Month! It seems like every year, representation—and all-around recognition—for disabled people only progresses by millimeters. Time and time again, it’s left on the back burner by so-called intersectional activists, continually ignored from unaccommodating public education to inaccessible infrastructure in the biggest cities and the smallest towns. It’s gotten bleaker still with the damaging rhetoric spread by R.F.K. Junior and by the Trump administration at large. And we’ve somehow let the r-word insidiously creep back into common use. I feel like it’s relevant that when I was in high school, I frequently heard people call their phones “autistic” when they were broken or not working—2019 wasn’t as long as ago as people would like to think. Dehumanizing disabled people has always been baked deep into the roots of our language and slang—and yet it’s so easy to just switch words around.

In short, the world hasn’t exactly gotten kinder to any of us in the disabled community. But recently my best friend sent me this hilarious (and wonderful) reel, and it reminded me of the endurance of our community:

View this post on Instagram

Yes, this is totally goofy. But it’s true. Despite all of the rampant campaigns to dehumanize and outright eradicate disabled people in all aspects of life, we are still here. The disabled community is as diverse as our struggles, but we have weathered all of them. There are countless issues that we have to face, in the highest forms of government and even in the simple ways we interact with friends and strangers. But if there’s one thing that the disabled community has done, it is endure—and endurance is nothing without community. The strength of our community is what has allowed us to create a more accessible world, little by little, and it is the key for making the world a kinder and more accessible place to be.

Also, four years out from my installation of this post where I talked about the absolute dearth of SPD representation out there (see 2022 in the “previous lists” section below), I’ve finally read one more book with a main character with SPD. Halfway through 2026, and it was one of the best books I’ve read this year by a long shot. Thank you, Jamie Sumner. Representation matters. 🩵

NOTE: my memory (and the internet) is imperfect, so if I’ve misrepresented/mislabeled any of the specific rep in these books, don’t hesitate to let me know!

KEY FOR TERMS IN THIS POST:

MC: Main character
LI: Love interest
SC: Side character

For my previous lists, click below:

Let’s begin, shall we?

♿️ THE BOOKISH MUTANT’S BOOKS FOR DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH (2026 EDITION) ♿️

FANTASY:

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls – Cherie Dimaline | YA | MC with OCD | POC, urban fantasy, paranormal | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Katabasis – R.F. Kuang | Adult | MC with chronic pain | POC, dark academia, urban fantasy | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea – Rebecca Thorne | Adult | MC with ADHD, LI with anxiety | LGBTQ+, cozy fantasy, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Scout’s Honor – Lily Anderson | YA | MC with PTSD | POC, LGBTQ+, urban fantasy | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
The Tainted Cup – Robert Jackson Bennett | Adult | Blind MC, Dyslexic MC | high fantasy, mystery | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Until the Clock Strikes Midnight – Alechia Dow | YA | MC with Bipolar disorder | POC, cozy fantasy, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

SCIENCE FICTION:

Redsight – Meredith Mooring | Adult | Blind MC, several blind SCs | LGBTQ+, space opera, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Under This Forgetful Sky – Lauren Yero | YA | MC with limb difference | POC, dystopia, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Ephemera Collector – Stacy Nathaniel Jackson | Adult | MC with long COVID/chronic pain | POC, LGBTQ+, dystopia | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Failure to Communicate – Kaia Sønderby | Adult | Autistic MC, SC with Bipolar disorder | LGBTQ+, romance, space opera | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope – edited by Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older | Adult | various disabilities represented throughout | LGBTQ+, POC, anthology (various subgenres represented throughout) | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Ancestral Night – Elizabeth Bear | Adult | MC with PTSD | LGBTQ+, space opera | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Calculating Stars – Mary Robinette Kowal | Adult | MC with anxiety | alternate history, historical fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Strange Bedfellows – Ariel Slamet Ries | YA | MC with depression and anxiety, SCs with chronic migraines/cane users | LGBTQ+, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

REALISTIC/HISTORICAL FICTION:

The Loudest Silence – Sydney Langford | YA | Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing MC, MC with Generalized Anxiety Disorder | LGBTQ+, coming-of-age | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
All the Noise At Once – DeAndra Davis | YA | Autistic MC, | POC, coming-of-age | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Golden Boy’s Guide to Bipolar – Sonido Reyes | YA | MC with Bipolar disorder, | LGBTQ+, POC, coming-of-age | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
According to Plan – Christen Randall | YA | MC and LI with ADHD | LGBTQ+, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Tune It Out – Jamie Sumner | MG | MC with SPD | coming-of-age | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This – Rachel Lynn Solomon | YA | MC with OCD | romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Pod – Laline Paull* | Adult | Deaf MC | animal POV, literary fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Out on a Limb – Hannah Bonam-Young | Adult | MC and LI with prosthetic limbs | romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
You Started It – Jackie Khalilieh | YA | MC with anxiety and IBS | POC, romance | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Where Sleeping Girls Lie – Faridah Àbíké-Ìyímídé | YA | MC with depression and C-PTSD | POC, LGBTQ+, thriller, mystery | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

*the POV character in Pod is a dolphin, but I feel that the representation still counts.

NONFICTION:

Black Disability Politics- Sami Schalk | Adult | POC, feminism | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement – Ashley Shew | Feminism, technology | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left – Robyn Hitchcock | Memoir, music | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! Have you read any of the books on this list? What are your favorite books with disability rep? Let me know in the comments!

Today’s song:

THIS JUST IN, ROLE MODEL HERMIT IS A BANGER

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

Happy Saturday, bibliophiles!

We’ve all felt it, right? Like the past two months have simultaneously crawled by excruciatingly slow and then sped up, and then the cycle repeats itself? Anyways, I’m in denial that tomorrow is the first day of March, but in the meantime, I’ve got some books to recap.

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Before I go on: my heart breaks for the trans community, and especially all of the trans folks in Kansas. I’d like to direct your attention to somewhere to donate to/a potential resource if you need to get out of a dangerous state—the Trans Continental Pipeline, an organization based here in Colorado that helps relocate queer and trans people from unsafe environments. Donate if you can! Sending all of my love to my trans siblings, today and every day. You are loved.

Alright, so here goes nothing with this recap of the first two months—

Wait, first two months? Insert that one Tintin meme (“What a year!” “Captain, it’s only February…”) here.

But if there’s anything that those two humble months have taught me, it’s the value of staying busy during difficult times. The government committing war crimes not even a week into 2026 feels about as American as apple pie and baseball at this point. I can’t remember a time since the age of 12 where it hasn’t been at least partially a scary time to be alive, but January and February both exemplified that, what with the horrors of ICE in Minneapolis (and elsewhere in the States) and the formal declaration that our government is a rat’s nest of the richest and most depraved pedophiles (what else is new?) imaginable. I’m rarely grateful to be this busy. What with the honors thesis and everything crammed into my final semester of undergrad, I’ve had so much to keep me busy, and this period of work couldn’t have come at a better possible time for me. I get frequent flashes of guilt that I should be doing more: the world is burning, and I’m just chiseling away at this thesis in a coffee shop. But this is my education we’re talking about, and I’m trying to focus on not falling into stagnation creatively and keep my mind limber, which isn’t nothing. And I did knit the Melt the ICE hat—I spent about 75% of these past two months learning how to make a hat in preparation for this, and I’m glad I’ve got this finished project to show for it.

It’s difficult for me to separate politics from the past two months. But I’ve still been going at a number of projects. There’s all the reading, which has also kept me afloat both intellectually and emotionally. I’m taking a class on People of Color and Social Movements, and I’ve already gotten several great books out of that. Ever since picking up knitting, I’ve discovered that I’ve accumulated and awful lot of hobbies. But what better time to have a ton of hobbies? So I’ve been knitting my way through the horrors. I’ve been chipping away at some Cate Le Bon and Robyn Hitchcock on guitar…to varying degrees of success. I’ve been sketching out sci-fi soldiers and spaceships and ordinary people to better visualize my thesis and my novel. And speaking of said novel…ANOTHER DRAFT DONE, BABY! 108,000 WORDS! The key for me here, above all, is to not become stagnant—that’s when it’s easiest for both my negative anxiety thoughts and excess rumination on the bad news to take hold. At this point, Instagram has made it so that sticking my head in the sand isn’t an option, but I sure can limit my intake of negative news. So don’t underestimate the value of putting the phone down, hanging out with friends, and your craft of choice—and, obviously. reading.

Anyways, here’s my Melt the ICE hat:

BONUS: I meant to slip this in as a bonus after one of my Sunday Songs posts, but there’s one, singular thing that has made me feel patriotic as of late, and it was the Benito Bowl. Have I ever really cared about his music? Nope, but I respected his politics. I did not expect to be crying while watching the Halftime Show the morning after the Super Bowl. I full-on saluted my phone with tears in my eyes when he shouted out Colombia. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

JANUARY READING WRAP-UP:

I read 13 books in January! Though there were some misses here and there, I had an absolute slam dunk of a month, with two 4.5 star reads and one 5 star read. If that’s not a good start to my reading year, then I don’t know what is!

2 – 2.75 stars:

The Broposal – Sonora Reyes (⭐️⭐️)
Son of the Morning – Akwaeke Emezi (⭐️⭐️)

3 – 3.75 stars:

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy, #1) – N.K. Jemisin (⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
The Will of the Many – James Islington (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
If We Were a Movie – Zakiya N. Jamal (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
A Swift and Sudden Exit – Nico Vicenty (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope – edited by Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older (anthology) (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)
Pod – Laline Paull (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance – Nick Estes (for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Absolute Martian Manhunter, vol. 1: Martian Vision – Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
Ancestral Night (White Space, #1) – Elizabeth Bear (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Railsea – China Miéville (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

5 stars:

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza – Gloria Anzaldúa (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza – 5 stars

REVIEWS:

SUNDAY SONGS:

FEBRUARY READING WRAP-UP:

I read 12 books in February! I mixed it up with new-to-me and familiar authors, and although I had my first book in the 1-star range this month, there were tons of fantastic books that I discovered too. I thought I’d get lower than this because I ended up reading several VERY thick books in a row, but I’m happy with this number. And as it’s Black History Month, I focused on Black authors.

1 – 1.75 stars: