Queer Books at the Local Library

Got the local paper yesterday, and I was disappointed. I have no idea why. I guess I keep hoping to see a glimmer. Something that will spark joy or make me feel welcome.

It is full of what it is always full of…crime reports, recognition of locals for good deeds, hard work or creativity, local events, and high school sports. I suppose if I actually knew any of the people in the articles, that would make it more interesting.

There was something a bit different–still a local event but it’s politics–sort of. There is going to be an election for two of the seats on the Board of Directors for BTC Fiber, a local internet provider headquartered in Pikeville, which is the next town over on Hwy 127.

The are three white men running for those two seats. To be fair I only know for certain that two of them a white…and old-ish. Those two had pictures in their ads. I tried to look up the third guy but I only got his deceased father’s obit pic. The father was an old white dude so it’s not a stretch to assume that he is too.

This, while different than the usual, did not spark joy or feelings of welcome. I think I need to find a way to be more involved in this community so that the names I see printed will actually mean something to me. I have absolutely no idea what except maybe something to do with the library.

Speaking of which, in the column about the library they announced that September is library card sign-up month. I’m going to try and get Tennessee signed up. Also, every week they recommend a book in 5 categories: Adult Fiction, Adult Non-fiction, Young Adult, Chapter Book, and Easy Fiction.

I went back to check the book titles just in case though I was certain they would not be something I would be interested in just like all the others before. For the first time, however, they actually have two books I might find interesting.

The first is “The Keeper of the Hidden Books'” by Madeline Martin from the Adult Fiction category, which I put on hold using my Aurora Public Library card. It’s not available for 8 weeks so I thought it was a good time to add my Sequatchie County Library card to my Libby to see if I could get it faster. No such luck. However, I was able to borrow the other book, “When It All Syncs Up” by Maya Ameyaw, the Young Adult book recommendation. I’ll do a review when I’m finished.

Through this little adventure, I was able to actually discover something that made me feel welcome and brought a little joy. My local library is able to connect with the Libby App through the Tennessee Reads Network. Our physical library is small but through the network many other books are available so I thought I’d see if there were any LGBT books available.

Y’all they had 500 books, 96 audiobooks, and 2 magazines!

The magazines are “Outre” and “A Modern Gay’s Guide”. I checked out the latest “Outre”. I’ve never read a magazine through Libby but I’ll try it out and let you know.

So 596 books aren’t a lot of books comparatively, and I’ll likely never be able to find their physical counterparts in the building down the street, but that is way more than I expected to find. Good on them, and yay me! What a great way to start the weekend!