Bayou Bytes Blog

The ABCs of LGBT+ is a beginners guide to the LGBTQ community. I found this book on a recommended reading list and it had such high ratings I decided to check it out. ABCs is aimed at both individuals who are questioning their identity and allies looking for better understanding.   Now having read it, I can see why this stands apart from other LGBT introductory texts. A lot of introductions in this genre give you rigid definitions of each identity and leave it at that. Mardell sets this book apart with a much more user friendly format. By devoting the first section of the book to spectrums, Mardell reminds readers that it's rare a person fits perfectly into one category or another. The book also includes anecdotes from dozens of community members describing how they perceive their identities. It really helps to emphasize the variety within communities.   The author also follows through on the "+" in the title. Letters after the Q are typically less visible communiti...

 This is the first self-help book I've ever read. I stumbled across Laziness Does Not Exist just after the review of How to be Fine: What We Learned From Living by the Rules of  50 Self Help Books  had been posted, and its critique of the self-help genre was still rattling around in my head. Though I had little interest in the genre, a book that would absolve me of the guilt of laziness seemed like a good place to start.   Devon Price, author of Laziness Does Not Exist , is a social psychologist. In this book, they discuss how humans have been taught that time spent doing nothing is time wasted. There is constant societal pressure to do more. Even people with packed professional and social calendars are made to feel like they are still not accomplishing enough.   Price also unpacks the cruel way in which the word "lazy" is applied to people as a way to blame them for their circumstances. We see this frequently in reference to a child struggling in cla...

 Dellaria Wells is a gutter witch, a street rat with a decent amount of fire magic. She's not thrilled with her lot, but she's content enough scamming the rich during the day and drinking her worries away at night. But money is tight. When the opportunity to play bodyguard for an Important Young Lady on retreat appears, she can't afford to pass it up. Why a proper young lady should need to be protected, Dellaria has no idea, but it pays well.  On the job, she's introduced to her charge as well as the rest of the bodyguards who have been chosen. It's a particularly threatening group of women, each chosen for her skill in a field of magic. And it includes Winn, an adventurous woman with respectable roots, who immediately takes a liking to Dellaria. The gutter witch realizes that cultivating a relationship with Winn won't just make this job more fun, it could get her out of the gutter for good.  Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry  is a fantasy set in an alternat...

Kappa Rho Nu is the most exclusive sorority at Westerly College. It's also a cover for the most powerful coven of witches in the country. The Ravens  alternates between two different Kappas. Scarlett is a junior from a long line of witches, and in line to be the next Kappa president if everything goes right. Vivi is completely the opposite. She doesn't believe in magic. In fact, Westerly is her chance to get away from her "weird" mother. After joining Kappa kind of by accident, she learns she's actually a powerful witch.  This novel plays into the sorority tropes you'd expect. Scarlett and Vivi make a terrible first impression on each other. And since their relationship is antagonistic, of course they're paired together when Scarlett is assigned to be Vivi's Big. Despite the tropes, it's a fun read, and their relationship does improve throughout the story. Since we're leaning hard into the typical sorority story, of course it needs guys, right?...