Last night I went to the first stop on Hayley Kiyoko’s book tour for her new book Where There’s Room For Us at none other than the Strand in NYC. I love their events because they’re so up close and personal. I laughed with Hayley, I cried, and I met her while she signed my two books. She said she thought my glasses were cute, and I thanked her for letting me feel seen. She said it right back, too. She was so sweet!! We got a posed photo together and the entire night was pure queer magic. “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan even came on while she was signing. I cannot wait to read her new book!
We also found out that she directed the feature film based on her previous novel, Girls Like Girls, coming in 2026. She said it took 10 years! I’ll definitely be seeing that in theaters!
I read 14 books in October. I’m looking forward to another great reading month in November!
My favorite books read in October were Cackle by Rachel Harrison, Inheritance by Nora Roberts and Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun.
Books Read In October: 📖 Cackle by Rachel Harrison 📖 Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison 📖 George’s Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl 📖 The Witches by Roald Dahl 🎧 Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison 📖/🎧 Inheritance by Nora Roberts 📖 Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison 📖 How To Survive A Horror Story by Mallory Arnold 📖 Re-Coupling by Harriet Shenkman 📖 Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun 📖 Play Nice by Rachel Harrison 📖 Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham 📖 Say A Little Prayer by Jenna Voris 📖 This Foreign Affair by Harper Bliss
What did you read in October? Which was your favorite?
Last night I went to yet another awesome author signing event at the Strand in NYC. I love going to these events, because they’re relatively small and always great! I have yet to read a book by Alexandria Bellefleur, and after going to the event, I learned that I’m clearly missing out, because this author has a big fanbase. Everyone was talking about the astrology signs of her characters, and now I’m totally going to look up “pisces” on her website, so I can read a character like me.
I love when I can see myself and connect to the books I read. Alexandria and her books are queer, and I can’t wait to dive into her latest, The Devil She Knows, which came out today! I got my book signed & personalized and also had my photo taken with the author. I loved it so much!
I also bought Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko, her debut novel, ahead of her signing in a couple weeks. I spent way too much money on queer and bookish stickers, and bought a tote bag since the one I brought was way too small. I just love browsing the Strand!
I went to Author Day at Harrison Library and it was awesome! I got to reconnect with one of my favorite author friends, Lisa Montanaro after having been to her book signing in May for her debut novel Everything We Thought Was True, meet a fellow bookstagrammer, Jen (@electric_bookaloo) and catch up with an old friend. I even won a raffle!
BOOKS & AUTHORS PICTURED Jessica Anya Blau – Shopgirls V.S. Kemanis Lisa Montanaro – Everything We Thought Was True Cleyvis Natera – The Grand Paloma Resort Cherry Lou Sy – Love Can’t Feed You Liv Constantine – Don’t Open Your Eyes Amity Gage – Heartwood Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau – The French Honeymoon Clémence Michallon – Our Last Resort Mariah Fredericks Alyson Richman – The Missing Pages Lauren Willig – The Girl From Greenwich Street John Beyer – Live A Little Better Susan Shapiro Barash – Estranged (author not pictured)
I was lucky enough to see Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert on her very first stop on her book tour for her new memoir, All the Way to the River. I was also lucky enough to have read the book on Netgalley before the talk as well. The book signing/talk took place at Cooper Union in New York City, which was a much bigger venue than the Strand’s Rare Book Room, where they usually hold their events.
I traveled down to the City alone, and met three other women who were also attending the talk who I sat near. The books were already signed by Liz and there were so many people there, so none of the books were personalized. She basically talked the whole time, and then took questions from the audience who lined up behind a microphone.
I am so happy that I was able to see Elizabeth Gilbert do her talk. The book is about her relationship with her best friend turned lover, Rayya Elias, and their codependent relationship with each other, their drug and love addictions, as well as Rayya’s ultimate death due to pancreatic and liver cancer. It wasn’t an easy read, but definitely worth it, I think, and a very important addition to Gilbert’s story.
I haven’t read all of her books (yet) but I plan on being an Elizabeth Gilbert completest (meaning will read all her works, eventually).
I read 10 books in July. I’m looking forward to another great reading month in August.
My favorite books read in July were: Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko, When We Go Missing by April Henry and The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff.
These are all the books I read in July:
📖 Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko 📖 When We Go Missing by April Henry 📖 25 Alive by James Patterson 📖 With A Vengeance by Riley Sager 📖 The Murder Game by Carrie Doyle 📖 The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk 📖 Show Me Where the Hurt Is by Hayden Casey 📖 The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff 📖 Easy Crafts For the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness & Making Things by Kelly Williams Brown 📖 Don’t Open Your Eyes by Liv Constantine
I went to NYC’s Lower East Side’s Pride Book Crawl! It was my first one and it was awesome! I bought stickers, bookmarks, zines, and of course, a few books! There were 7 bookstores in all but I got to 5 of them before my phone ran dangerously low on battery so I decided to call it a day. The thing is that my phone’s battery is bad to begin with, my portable charger died and also I was using Google Maps the whole time to navigate. But luckily the Uber I caught back to Grand Central had a charger so I went from 12% to 30% in the 15 minute ride.
Here are the stores on the route. The last two I didn’t get to.
Route Sweet Pickle Books – 47 Orchard St Bluestockings Books – 116 Suffolk St Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks – 28 E 2nd St Book Club Bar – 197 E 3rd St (at Ave B) Pillow-Cat Books – 328 E 9th St Village Works – 12 St Mark’s Place Yu & Me Books – 44 Mulberry St.
I think my two favorite were Cat Pillow Books (they had a cute cat, I mean, come on!!) and the Book Club Bar. I also really liked the queer owned-and-operated one, Blue Stockings Bookstore, except that they allowed multiple panhandlers in their store who approached me and I felt very uncomfortable. So after being hit up twice for money I hightailed it out of there. Honestly if it weren’t for that I would have stayed longer. They even had a public bathroom and a water station which was awesome.
The Sweet Pickle Bookstore was great too in that they sold jars of different flavored and types of pickles – totally unique! But it was pretty crowded and cramped in there.
I ate a scone and had a “Murder On the Orient Espresso Martini” for lunch – I had to make it back in time for art therapy otherwise I would have stopped for a proper lunch – but it was still a really cool place!
The books I bought were:
-Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens On Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown (purchased at Bluestockings Books)
-A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander (purchased at The Book Club Bar & signed by the author. Also, they moderated the adult queer panel at Barnes & Noble last weekend and I didn’t realize they’d be signing books so I’m glad I picked this signed one up!)
-Show Me Where the Hurt Is by Hayden Casey (also purchased at the Book Club Bar; a melancholy short story collection I bought off the “blind date with a book” shelf, having only read a description, not knowing the title or author of the book. I am SUPER intrigued & excited to read this one!)
-A Book Lover’s Guide to New York by Cleo Li-Tan (purchased at Cat Pillow Books).
It was a whirlwind kind of day but I had a lot of fun!
I went to two out of three days of Barnes & Noble Union Square’s Pride Festival this year!
On Sunday afternoon they had a panel of authors called “Let Me Be Perfectly Queer” moderated by author TJ Alexander and featuring authors Christina Li (The Manor of Dreams) Debbie Millman (Love Letter To A Garden) Jesse James Rose (Sorry I Keep Crying During Sex) and Prabal Gurung (Walk Like A Girl).
It was a lovely and powerful conversation! They gave out free swag like bookmarks, pins and body art and I even got a reserved seat! There was also a cute Heartstopper backdrop for lots of photo ops!
Of course I got to Barnes & Noble early to browse and scored some other books as well! Besides the books from the events, I’m most excited to read the art books I bought.
Here are the books I got signed on Sunday at the event:
Here is the swag I got on Sunday:
Here are the other books I scored while there Sunday:
Monday night was another panel called “GYA.” It consisted of queer YA books. The authors in attendance were Zikiya Jamal (If We Were A Movie) Alice Lin (Love Points to You), Page Powars (And They Were Roommates), Brian Selznick (Run Away With Me), K. Wroten (Everyone Sux But You). It was moderated by David Levithan.
The second night was just as magical as the first with all kinds of incredible questions answered and audience engagement. We even got to take photos with each author as we got their books signed! The staff at Barnes & Noble Union Square is amazing; kudos to them for keeping everything flowing so smoothly.
I had so much fun on both nights and came home exhausted! I am SO excited to read ALL the awesome books I bought 🌈📚💜
Everything We Thought Was True by Lisa Montanaro is a dual timeline novel which is a heavily fictionalized story of her life. It is told in the 1970s and 80s by Teresa and Frank Antinori, and in 2015 by Lena, their adult daughter, a lawyer who dedicates her career to fighting discrimination.
When she is thirteen, Lena discovers that her father is gay, and that her mother knew. Now, Frank is set to marry his partner Oliver, and wants Lena to plan the wedding.
Ms. Montanaro’s gorgeous writing made my heart ache both for Teresa and Frank in their own ways. The novel is incredibly moving, heartbreaking, and beautiful.
I had the privilege of meeting the author. You can read the post I wrote about the event here. I highly recommend the historic and timely novel Everything We Thought Was True by Lisa Montanaro. Oh, and a word of advice? Bring tissues!
Recently I had the privilege of going to an area library, where Lisa Montanaro, who used to live locally but moved to California in 2012, was promoting her novel with a book talk and signing. She was in conversation with Christine Adler, a local lady and former president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
Ms. Montanaro’s book, Everything We Thought Was True, is a family drama, and a highly fictionalized version of her life. It is a dual timeline, being told in 2015 by Lena, the adult daughter of a gay father, and narrated by her parents Teresa and Frank in the 1970s and 80s.
Ms. Montanaro told us that, being first a nonfiction writer, she initially intended for this story to be a memoir, yet as she was interviewing her formerly closeted gay father, she wanted to change many parts of his story. She quickly realized that this project had to be a novel.
Through reading this book, she wants readers—especially young people—to “understand the history of the hard-won rights of the LGBTQ+ community, and anyone who has a secret and is healing from a trauma to realize that embracing the truth will set you free.”
Ms. Montanaro told us that Lena was the most difficult character to write as she is the most different from herself, and that Teresa is the heart of the novel. Frank was the easiest because she identified the most with him. She said that “Lena is still grappling with loyalty issues and that she’s still living in the closet that Frank came out of.”
Ms. Montanaro’s father is very proud of her book, and he’s very much like Frank because he’s Italian-American, marries a heterosexual woman. She said it took her 6 years to write the book from start to finish.
The three biggest challenges of writing the book were:
Trying to do justice to the true story but not being defined by it.
Converting the raw data of her personal essays into a novel.
Learning that you have to write the entire book before you send it to a publisher, in the fiction world, which is not so in the nonfiction world, as she’d written in the past.
Ms. Montanaro was asked if she had planned to write both such a historic and timely novel. She said she absolutely did not plan it that way at all.
The audiobook version of Everything We Thought Was True is set to release on May 13 through Tantor Media, and it’s being read by Annalee Scott. Lisa Montanaro is planning on starting her next book in a few months, and I can’t wait to see what it will be all about!
I’ve already finished reading Everything We Thought Was True, and you can read my full thoughts here. Happy reading, all!
Michelle’s Bookish Life 