Else & Ilse | LGBTIQ+ adventurers

When we were young, we only (mainly?) had books with straight characters. We didn't see any representation of LGBTQ+ characters. Luckily, we see an increasing number of queer books these days— for adults ,   for younger readers,  and  for kids . And although we aren't that young anymore, we occasionally enjoy reading a YA book. Here are three books we enjoyed: Amy Feltman's Willa & Hesper (2019) is not a typical love story. Studying Creative Writing, Willa and Hesper meet at Columbia and quickly fall in love with each other. But their love is not meant to be and soon, they break up dramatically. To mend their broken hearts, both leave on trips to find their roots: Willa goes on a trip for young Jews to Germany and visits places of the Holocaust. Hesper and her family visit her grandfather's family in Tbilisi, Georgia, and she begins to uncover her family's hidden history. What If It's Us (2018) by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera brings us romance, friends...

Today is a very special day because it is Else's birthday! For me (Ilse) this is my favorite day of the year because I love surprising Else. I wish her birthday celebration could go on for days and weeks. Just make it an Else-year. I never thought that I would meet my soulmate on tinder when I started using the app about 2 years ago. Flash forward to November 9th 2020. Else is sitting next to me while I am writing this blog text. I never thought that I would be so happy in 2020. She makes me incredibly happy. She is the most caring and most funny person in the universe and she always manages to make me smile or laugh even when I'm in a really bad mood or even when the world seems to be going down. 2020 is a very challenging year for everyone. The pandemic is affecting the mood. It sometimes depresses me a lot and I start to worry or miss things so much. And then there is Else who never fails to cheer me up and to put me in a good mood. And now, more than ever, it is so importan...