Maplewood Library: Reader's Place: July 6, 2021

Press release from the Maplewood Library:

Robert Nealon

2021-07-06

What’s lit in “New Adult” lit? This diverse collection of titles explores the stories of characters in their 20s (or nearly there) who are on their way to discovering who they are as adults. Perfect for readers who enjoy YA or those looking to recapture that singular sensation of figuring out who you are, with all the messiness and joys that process entails. 

Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe (eLibrary, Library Catalog)

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then came Gender Queer. Maia's intensely cathartic graphic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

-Compiled by Jenny Zbrizher

This press release was produced by the Maplewood Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.