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Thank You Random Acts!

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Hey everyone! We wanted to tell you all about an amazing gift we’ve received- a mini grant from Random Acts ! In addition to this being a public thank you note, we’d like to take some time to tell all of you about this amazing organization. What is Random Acts? “Random Acts was founded in 2010 by actor Misha Collins after an earthquake hit Haiti, causing massive damage. Collins, who had been involved in charitable projects since college, decided to harness the energy and resources of the followers he had gained during his acting career in order to raise funds for the UNICEF disaster relief program. Within days, over $30,000 was raised. Using this momentum, Random Acts was created to inspire kindness in Haiti and beyond.” What Do They Do? “We fund proposals for acts of kindness. If you have an awesome idea for an act of kindness, but need some assistance with funding, we can help you out!” Application Process: Submit Your Proposal Complete  the Act Proposal F
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Making the Yuletide Gay- An Ode to "Dashing in December"

  'Tis the season for a thousand and one holiday films bursting with evergreen farms, surprise snowstorms, last-minute flights, and of course, snow-capped romantic happily ever afters. But for many years, the movies all seemed to share the same glaring omission- a lack of representation. In the past decade or so, Hallmark and Lifetime and the like have made an effort to increase racial diversity of their holiday romances. (NOTE: They have not always been successful at this and they have not done nearly enough.) Still, pairings other than a man and a woman were nowhere to be found in the holiday lineups. Hallmark specifically has struggled with LGBTQ+ equality,  making headlines  in 2019 when they aired an ad that showed a lesbian couple, promptly pulled the ad after public backlash, and then apologized for pulling the ads. But in 2021, the company appointed a new CEO, Wonya Lucas, who said that Hallmark was committed to a “seismic” shift in their expansion of diversity. Now,
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Virtual Queer Halloweenposting Part 1: Queer Themes in the Scream Franchise

 It's September 1st, friends!!!! The day where I personally think I am allowed to start publicly celebrating Halloween without judgment. In honor of this most auspicious day, we are posting our first of many articles discussing queer themes in Horror. In this post, C is tackling one of her favorite horror series, "Scream". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What’s your favorite scary movie?      Well, Creepy Caller in a Universally Known White Mask, that list is so long, you will get bored and find another target fairly quickly. But since you asked… my favorite scary movies are the ones that can laugh at themselves, that are so meta, they quickly became a satire of themselves. Forget the fourth wall, the fifth and sixth walls are coming down, too. Ones that don’t use gore just for the sake of gore (unless you’re anything in the Evil Dead series, but that’s another blog post for another tim
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Book Review: "First Born Sons" by Vincent Traughber Meis

Reading First Born Sons by Vincent Traughber Meis became an absolute honor within the first few pages. As soon as it started out with a Langston Hughes quote, I knew I was in the right place. Although Meis has a few other books that have been published, this is the first one I have read, and I was able to decide within two chapters that I immediately needed to read the others by this author. Meis writes about the Burd siblings, each with their own struggles, each with their own chapter breaks and point of views. The writing is beautifully lyrical and very timely, as it talks about the pandemic, wildfires, LGBTQ themes, current political climates, and includes a fantastic soundtrack that I created on Spotify to listen to in the background while I read (we’re talking REM, Madonna… Lamar is the type of person I would trust making a playlist for a twelve hour road trip). Parts were difficult to read, as they did discuss tough topics, such as death, racism, police violence, and the Proud
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Book Us For A Lecture!

  Book Us For A Lecture! Hello friends! This post is a catalogue of the lectures that we offer. It will be updated as we create more lectures. We offer these talks either virtually or in-person (when possible.) There is not a strict pricing list for our lectures; we are happy to discuss with your organization and come to a fair price that is affordable to you. Half of the money will be given to the speaker and half will go directly back to the Library’s general fund.   Literary Lectures: The Haunting of Hill House: A Discussion on Queerness and Conformity The Haunting of Hill House is an iconic tale of a haunted house that has endured for decades. But underneath the walls that don’t line up and the rooms that move is a story about conformity- or lack thereof. This book is a character study more than a ghost story, an analysis of a young woman who was never given the chance to be who she truly is. This 45 minute presentation is an exploration of the metaphors contained within the
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We're Going To Pride!!!!

  Hey friends! We wanted to share some exciting news with you! This Saturday, June 10 th , we are going to have a table at Toms River Pride! At our table, we’ll be sharing information about the work that we do- the actual book mailing service as well as lectures and the many blog posts that we hope to continue to share with you. We will also be selling merch with our logo on it (continued thanks to the amazing CharCubed for our logo) as well as knitted Pride gear and Pride plushie friends. We are also going to be accepting book donations for the library at this event! Check your bookshelf for any LGBTQ+ themed books (any age/ reading level, fiction or nonfiction) and let us help you with your spring cleaning. Any books that you donate will be added to our online catalogue for people around the country to borrow. Toms River Pride is this Saturday, June 10 th , from 11am to 5pm. For more information about the event, click Here !
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Tra La! It's (Mer)May!!

Hello friends! Hope you’re “springing” into May with hope and blooms of good cheer! For some of us, whose thoughts turn towards warm sand and ocean breezes instead of flowering meadows, May also signifies a swimmingly good time- MerMay! During MerMay, artists, professional merfolk, and people who just love seafaring fantasy create and post content about merpeople. After seeing some books featuring transgender merfolk on some reading lists during the Trans Rights Read-A-Thon, we were inspired to start a similar event- the MerMay LGBTQ+ Read-A-Thon! So here’s how it works: Over the course of the month of May, we are going to be reading books with LGBTQ+ characters that also feature merpeople. For every book we finish, we are going to donate $5 to Mermaids UK ! Mermaids UK: “Mermaids has been supporting transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse children, young people,  and their families since 1995…Today, Mermaids has evolved into one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ charities, empowering thou
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