Recommendation: Shira Glassman

[soc_puppet]

Dear readers, if you haven't heard of her already, please allow me the privilege of being the first to tell you about Shira Glassman (found here on Tumblr).

Shira is a bisexual Jewish woman who writes the most adorable fluff you can imagine, pretty much all of which has at least one Jewish and/or queer main character. She is best known for her Mangoverse series, and her novella, Knit One, Girl Two.

The Mangoverse is a light/cozy fantasy series set in a fantastic version of Florida, starring an almost entirely Jewish cast. The main characters are Queen Shulamit, a lesbian who's allergic to poultry and has a gluten intolerance; Rivka, a demisexual warrior woman disguised as a man and Shulamit's newfound BFF; Aviva, the bisexual palace chef who was the first person to take Shulamit's food problems seriously and helped her find out what she could and couldn't eat; and Isaac, a wizard who can transform into a dragon. It's currently four books long with a collection of short stories. Every book and story has a happy ending guaranteed for all queer characters and their loved ones, all of whom find whatever kind of love they want. Each book is designed to be read as standalone and in any order, though you will be slightly spoiled for something that happens in the first book if you read any other one first. There's also a collection of short stories, one of which features Rivka rescuing an aro-ace damsel in distress.

Knit One, Girl Two is a cute, contemporary romance between two young Jewish women in Florida. They're both artists of different types: The main character, Clara, is a small-batch yarn dyer, and her love interest, Danielle, is a painter. The story is about the struggle to find inspiration, even when the world seems its bleakest. Fun side note: Both of the main characters are into the same imaginary fandom, which Shira later expands on in the high-heat short story, Cinnamon Blade.

You can find out more about the majority of Shira's work in her post on LGBTQ Reads (it was published before Knit One, Girl Two and Cinnamon Blade were published).

I do have a few warnings for the stories, but by and large they are very quick and not the focus. If you need to know them before going in, though, click the cut and learn more:

Mangoverse book one, The Second Mango, has some very mild homophobia near the end. It also has a mild sex scene or two (think high end of PG-13 or low end of R).

Book two, Climbing the Date Palm, has some biphobia in it that is combated thoroughly by the cast. There's also a scene where it looks like a lesbian is going to have sex with a cis man, but that does not happen. There's also a couple of mild sex scenes in this one, about the same rating.

Book three, A Harvest of Ripe Figs, has some transphobia; a primary character is a young trans man who ran away from home because his parents didn't believe him when he said he was a boy. Another main character, Esther, has an emotionally abusive/manipulative boyfriend at the start of the book.

Book four, The Olive Conspiracy, has a bit of ematophobia close to the end, when we get to find out up close and personal just why Shulamit can't eat poultry, and some animal death references.

I legitimately can't think of anything to warn for in the short story collection, Tales From Perach, or in Knit One, Girl Two, but it may also have been too long since I read them.


One last thing: If you're interested in any of these books, specified here or in Shira's own list of her work, improfem has very generously offered to buy them for people who can't afford them.

Note: As of yet, there are no audio versions for any of these. I live in hope, though!