Queerly Popular

Welcome back to season 3 of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the 2023 book The Borrow A Boyfriend Club by Page Powars. The book is about a trans boy in high school who joins a club which he thinks is about cars and sports in order to prove to people that he is a "real boy". It ends up being a club where people can borrow the members as boyfriends and wacky hijinks ensue as Noah tries to join.

The book is absolutely adorable and all sorts of fun. If you are trans, it is also highly relatable, particularly when it comes to Noah's obsession with proving that he is a "real boy". There is a lot of fun and romance and heartbreak and laughs, this is a rom-com after all. I highly recommend you read it!

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

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Welcome to the final episode of the second season about the 2016 film Shared Rooms. This is a short film (75 minutes) about a group of gay men in Los Angeles starting on Christmas and ending on New Year's Eve. There are 3 seemingly separate stories that end up coming together in the final few minutes of the film.

It is a fun and cute film, but it is also very fluffy and shallow. There is not a lot of emotional depth or character development. Which is not inherently awful, but is something to keep in mind. I enjoy watching this film every December because I like the fluffy stuff sometimes.

After this episode, we will go on break until February 1, when we will come back with the book The Borrow a Boyfriend Club. The rest of the schedule will come out in early or mid-January on Instagram, Twitter, and Threads.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

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Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today we are talking about the Something Like..... book series. It is a series of 9 novels and 3 books of short stories about a group of gay friends (or rather people who become friends) centered in Austin, Texas. Each book is told from a different character's perspective and we often get to see the same event through multiple characters' eyes across multiple books. It is an absolutely fascinating, if flawed, series of books. We do also discuss some of the flaws near the end of the podcast. Check out the complicated relationships with this picture and this one.

Next week, we will talk about the movie Shared Rooms. After that, we will go on break until February 1, when we will come back with the book The Borrow a Boyfriend Club. The rest of the schedule will come out in early or mid-January on Instagram, Twitter, and Threads.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

Welcome to this week's episode. We're talking about Always the Almost, a book about a trans pianist and how music and friends help him discover who he is and why music matters to him. This is a lovely book filled with queer and trans joy, heartache, self-discovery, friendship, and all the stuff that being a teenager entails. I cannot recommend the book highly enough. I do also read the author's note at the end because it does a beautiful job explaining why I love this book and why I choose the things I choose to talk about here (I know, not what he was actually talking about, but the reasons are shockingly similar).

Our next two episodes will be the Something Like book series on November 30 and then the movie Shared Rooms on December 7. After that, we will take a break until coming back on February 1. I will be posting a schedule of the first part of season 3 in early January on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

Welcome to this week's episode of Queerly Popular where we will be talking about the 2013 movie Geography Club. Geography Club is a fun (and relatively short) movie about a 16-year old boy, Russell, and his coming out of the closet. He finds acceptance and friends in a "geography club" that becomes a GSA.

This is a fun and sweet movie, but is not outstanding in any particular way. I definitely enjoyed watching the movie, but I wouldn't rush out to watch it over and over. That said, I enjoyed that the movie had both Nikki Blonsky (Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray) and Alex Newell (Unique from Glee). That was fun. And there was eye candy in the form of Justin Deeley. Enjoy!

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

Today's episode is about the book The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch. Robbie has written a couple of other books and they are all delightful books and well worth reading.

This book is abourt a boy in MIchigan who is openly gay and who decides to prompose to a popular straight guy. Things go off the rails before the promposal happens (read/listen for why). After everything goes sideways, Sky learns that he has an inner strength he doesn't know about and that he really can rely on his friends. He also inspires people because of his actions and ends up being promposed to by a character who you may or may not have seen coming.

Our next episode will be about the movie Geography Club.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

Today's episode is about the 2019 book I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. The book is about an 18-year old non-binary person named Ben who is kicked out of their parents' house and ends up living with the sister who abandoned them 10 years before. The book follows them through the second half of their senior year of high school as they pick up the pieces of their life and create a new one where they are safe and loved. It is an absolutely beautiful book and I highly encourage you to go read it. In addition to discussing the plot and characters of the book, I also discuss why I identify with Ben and a headcanon I have.

I do want to warn you that I do screw up Ben's pronouns a few times. I'm not sure why it happens, and I apologize for that.

The next episode will be about the book The Sky Blues.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

Welcome to today's episode about the movie Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Couple of things. First, this is a shorter episode than normal. I loved the movie, but I realized after I started talking that most of what I wanted to say, I said last week. So rather than repeat it, I added a couple of topics to this episode. I start off with the movie and my thoughts about it. Then I talk about my newly discovered love of audio books and why I love them. I also read a selection from Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World to give you a feel for the lovely, poetic use of language in the books. Then I end with a discussion about why I think we need to stop obsessing about "realism" in movies.

I hope you enjoy this somewhat scattered episode. Our next episode will be about the book I Wish You All the Best.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

Today's episode is about the books Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012) and Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World (2021). These two books tell the story of how Aristotle "Ari" Mendoza and Dante Quintana meet, fall in love, and navigate a relationship together in El Paso, Texas in the late 1980s. The books deal with their coming out, their Mexican-American identity and Mexican heritage, homophobia, transphobia, and changing family dynamics. I personally found I much preferred the second book to the first one, but that is purely my opinion.

Our next episode will be about the movie Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and will be out on September 21.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

Welcome to my review of Red, White, & Royal Blue (movie). I talked about the book in an earlier episode which you can listen to if you want. This episode is almost as long as the last episode about Heartstopper, but I am sure you will enjoy every minute of it. In this episode we talk about a couple things I needed to add to the Heartstopper episode, why we should love what we love, delve a little into the online drama of straight (or presumed straight) actors playing queer characters, differences between the movie and the book, how I would structure a limited series based on the book, a review of the movie, and a little bit about the music.

Articles:

Stop apologizing for enjoying romantic comedies

The Rise of the Phenomenon That Is Red, White & Royal Blue

'Red, White & Royal Blue' Is No. 1 Worldwide on Prime Video, Sparks 'Huge Surge' of New Subscribers

Here are some great scenes from the movie:

The Cornetto Scene- This was deleted. I have no idea why because it so should have been kept in.

Where is she?- Zahra discovers Henry in the closet

Alex travels to England to get Henry back

Alex's Speech

Alex and Henry in the Museum

The New Year's Kiss

Alex and Henry talk in Texas

Songs from the movie

Vagabon's "If I Loved You"

Perfume Genius "Can't Help Falling In Love"

Our next episode will be about the Aristotle and Dante books.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram, Twitter, or Threads (@queerlypopular). You can also send questions or comments to [email protected]

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.