Time For A Summer Fling And A Good Vacation Read
 The possibility of life-changing romance always seems so much more palpable in summer. I suspect it has something to do with the longer days the sunlight brings. So for those of you hoping for a little romance, or at least a hot fling, we've got you covered this month! Pier Dominguez writes about the latest season of the MTV reality dating show Are You The One? which deftly manages to entertain while also complicating traditional characterizations of queer people on reality TV. Then you should really take some time to read Shannon Keating's epic personal essay about falling in love on a lesbian cruise. Plus, Karolina is back with her astrology column this month and writer Lisa Taddeo, whose new nonfiction account of the sex lives of Three Women is out now, tells us what she's been reading lately.
— Tomi
Personal Essays  The Time I Went On A Lesbian Cruise And It Blew Up My Entire Life I didn't expect that spending a week with a couple thousand lesbians on a cruise ship would push me to radically reconsider the future I'd planned for myself.
Going Through Menopause Changed The Way I Think About Gender I've experienced menopause as a kind of "ungendering." The transition has been disorienting, thrilling, and freeing. (An excerpt from Flash Count Diary.)
Chernobyl Blew Up My Childhood. Will Climate Change Do The Same For My Kids? I was a 10-year-old in Kiev when the Chernobyl explosion destroyed my faith in my country and my family. Now I wonder if history is bound to repeat itself.
Queer People Can't Forget Our Own Mortality — Except In Montrose Houston's historic gayborhood is gentrifying into something new. But for me it will always be a place where you could, for so many queer folks who'd been told they could not.
Newsletter exclusive: an astrology column from executive editor Karolina Waclawiak  What happens when eclipses intersect with Cancer season? All the feelings. July 2 saw a total solar eclipse which brought an infusion of positive energy into the summer (finally, thank you!) and we'll soon see a partial lunar eclipse on July 16. Add to this Mercury retrograde from July 7 to July 31, and we've entered a time to reflect on our feelings, which — with sensitive Cancer reigning supreme right now — are abundant.
As things in my life have begun to speed up, I've really been trying to make a conscious effort to stop and give space to my feelings. Typically, my default setting is to keep moving so I don't have to stop and feel discomfort that may be rising to the surface. But this summer has been so overwhelming at times that I've found myself wanting to tap out and simply say, "I'm Baby."
This might be because Cancer season brings sensitivities to fore. Instead of suppressing those sensitivities, take some time to look at their origins. I've been thinking a lot about the stories I've been telling myself my entire life — especially the negative ones. Do I really need to adhere to them anymore? Or can I let go of old beliefs and form newer, healthier and more positive ones? I've made a lot of judgments about myself — what I can do and what I can't — which are both self-created and based on other people's perceptions of who I am. Now feels like the perfect time to reassess and reframe. And maybe you can too, just in time for Leo season.
Features  Amy Osborne for BuzzFeed News When You're Trans, Living With Your Parents Can Be Complicated Some young trans people are choosing to live with their less-than-accepting families rather than face high chances of homelessness.
Kathleen Hale Came For Her Goodreads Critic. Then The Internet Came For Her. Five years ago, Kathleen Hale wrote an essay for the Guardian — about targeting a Goodreads reviewer — that nearly ended her career. Now, she's back with a new book that some people say never should have been published.
Books  YA Twitter Can Be Toxic, But It Also Points Out Real Problems When critics on social media "cancel" a YA writer or book, it's really about ongoing frustrations with an overwhelmingly white publishing industry.
26 Books You Should Read On Your Next Vacation Leave lots of room in your carry-on for these.
31 Books That All Millennials Remember Reading, Yet Still Can't Really Describe The Plot Three words: The Baby-Sitters Club.
18 Memoirs That Will Change The Way You See The World As recommended by BuzzFeed Book Club members. 12 Books By (And About) Lesbians And Bisexual Women To Read Invite queer women from different decades to hang out with you from this mix of older and modern classics.
5 Books We Couldn't Put Down In June Some of our recent favorites, as reviewed in the BuzzFeed Books newsletter.
Cultural Criticism  Beyoncé Is A Mystery We Can't Stop Trying To Solve After all the confessional albums, candid footage, and memeable moments, Beyoncé still feels as distant as ever.
Midsommar Is Scary, But Not Because Of All The Grisly Deaths Ari Aster's new movie is a nightmare about finding the place where you feel like you belong. Spoilers ahead.
MTV's Are You The One? Is Queering Reality Television The sexually fluid season of MTV's dating show explores the complexities of gender and desire in a way rarely seen on reality TV — or in pop culture, period.
Meryl Streep Is The Best And Worst Part Of Big Little Lies If there's a through line in this season of Big Little Lies, it's that maternal good intentions themselves aren't worth shit.
The Rise Of The Rom-Com Schlub Always Be My Maybe and Long Shot let their ambitious women have it all — because the men in their lives are willing to hold their purses. Mild spoilers!
Searching For The Real Britney Spears The fan battle to #FreeBritney raises uncomfortable — and maybe unanswerable — questions that have long plagued her brand.
A newsletter exclusive: an interview with a writer we like! This month: Lisa Taddeo, whose new book Three Women, is out now.
What are you reading... Lisa Taddeo?
 J. Waite
I've been doing press for my book, which is great, but I'm also terrifically anxious about traveling — about, among other things, not being completely present for my daughter. I prefer being at home and reading and writing and cooking. And reading is what I miss most of all. When I'm nervous, when I'm feeling lonely or terrified or unsure, I read books that make me feel safe, or that remind me how others have felt anxiety and fear and made it through to the other side. That sort of calm, for me, is best achieved with language that is at once soothing and incisive. At the very top of that list is William Trevor. I'm taking his Collected Stories everywhere I go on this tour. And Alice Munro's Dear Life and Tessa Hadley's Bad Dreams and Other Stories and Lucia Berlin's Evening in Paradise and Colin Barrett's Young Skins: Stories and Natalia Ginzburg's The Dry Heart. These artists are never cruel or false and always brilliant. That's not to say they aren't about pain or loss or fear. They may show you the bottom of the well, but they throw a bucket down before you panic.
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