
Ace
What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
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Narrated by:
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Natalie Naudus
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By:
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Angela Chen
About this listen
An engaging exploration of what it means to be asexual in a world that's obsessed with sexual attraction, and what the ace perspective can teach all of us about desire and identity.
What exactly is sexual attraction, and what is it like to go through life not experiencing it? What does asexuality reveal about gender roles, about romance and consent, and the pressures of society? This accessible examination of asexuality shows that the issues that aces face - confusion around sexual activity, the intersection of sexuality and identity, navigating different needs in relationships - are the same conflicts that nearly all of us will experience. Through a blend of reporting, cultural criticism, and memoir, Ace addresses the misconceptions around the "A" of LGBTQIA and invites everyone to rethink pleasure and intimacy.
Journalist Angela Chen creates her path to understanding her own asexuality with the perspectives of a diverse group of asexual people. Vulnerable and honest, these stories include a woman who had blood tests done because she was convinced that "not wanting sex" was a sign of serious illness, and a man who grew up in a religious household and did everything "right", only to realize after marriage that his experience of sexuality had never been the same as that of others. Disabled aces, aces of color, gender-nonconforming aces, and aces who both do and don't want romantic relationships all share their experiences navigating a society in which a lack of sexual attraction is considered abnormal. Chen's careful cultural analysis explores how societal norms limit understanding of sex and relationships and celebrates the breadth of sexuality and queerness.
©2020 Angela Chen (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“[Ace] is a [thoughtful] combination of reportage, cultural criticism and memoir, and the writing attempts the difficult balance between proof and emotion. [Most striking is] Chen’s honesty, the sentences of intimate reflection that appear in the margins of her argument throughout.” —The New York Times
“Ace is a fantastic starting point for dismantling harmful sexual narratives and reimagining human connection as a broader, more equitable, enjoyable and free experience.” —Washington Post
“The book allows us to imagine how much more we could get from our relationships if we were able to free ourselves from restrictive ideas of what we’re supposed to feel and do.” —Rhaina Cohen, NPR
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Story
Dear Wendy's Sophie and Jo, two aromantic and asexual college students, engage in an online feud while unknowingly becoming friends in real life, in this dual POV Young Adult contemporary debut from Ann Zhao.
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Kinda slow for most of it, but it resolves well.
- By Nikki on 04-30-24
By: Ann Zhao
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So Many Stars
- An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
- By: Caro De Robertis
- Narrated by: Caro De Robertis
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world. This singular project collects the testimonies of twenty elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations—who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very trailblazers.
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Groundbreaking Collection
- By Andre on 06-14-25
By: Caro De Robertis
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Hi Honey, I'm Homo!
- Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture
- By: Matt Baume
- Narrated by: Matt Baume
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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From flamboyant relatives on Bewitched to closely-guarded secrets on All in the Family, from network-censor fights over Soap to behind-the-scenes activism on the set of The Golden Girls, from Ellen’s culture clash to Modern Family’s primetime power-couple, Hi Honey, I’m Homo! is the story not only of how subversive queer comedy transformed the American sitcom, from its inception through today, but how our favorite sitcoms transformed, and continue to transform, America.
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Loved it!
- By Sage on 07-14-23
By: Matt Baume
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Sounds Fake but Okay
- An Asexual and Aromantic Perspective on Love, Relationships, Sex, and Pretty Much Anything Else
- By: Sarah Costello, Kayla Kaszyca
- Narrated by: Sarah Costello, Kayla Kaszyca
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Sarah and Kayla invite you to put on your purple aspec glasses—and rethink everything you thought you knew about society, friendship, sex, romance, and more. Drawing on their personal stories, and those of aspec friends all over the world, prepare to explore your microlabels, investigate different models of partnership, delve into the intersection of gender norms and compulsory sexuality, and reconsider the meaning of sex—when allosexual attraction is out of the equation.
By: Sarah Costello, and others
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Gay the Pray Away
- By: Natalie Naudus
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Riley is so confident and kind, and she and Valerie bond quickly over existing as multiracial teens in a very white Christian community. As Valerie explores her feelings for Riley, she begins to see that the world she knows is a carefully crafted narrative. Publicly, the girls are close friends—holding hands in prayer, rooming together at a conference. Privately, they grasp at any chance to continue their forbidden romance—until they are found out. Now, Valerie must choose between staying with a family she fears will never accept her, or running away with the girl she loves.
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Stunning debut
- By Heidi H on 06-12-24
By: Natalie Naudus
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Transgender History
- The Roots of Today's Revolution
- By: Susan Stryker
- Narrated by: Emily Cauldwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Covering American transgender history from the mid-20th century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events.
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something for everyone to learn
- By Nick G on 03-12-19
By: Susan Stryker
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Every Heart a Doorway
- By: Seanan McGuire
- Narrated by: Cynthia Hopkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Children have always disappeared under the right conditions - slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere...else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced...they change a person. The children under Miss West's care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.
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Utterly Moving
- By tm on 07-12-16
By: Seanan McGuire
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Gender Euphoria
- Stories of Joy from Trans, Non-Binary and Intersex Writers
- By: Laura Kate Dale - editor
- Narrated by: Laura Kate Dale
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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So often the stories shared by trans people about their transition center on gender dysphoria: a feeling of deep discomfort with their birth-assigned gender, and a powerful catalyst for coming out or transitioning. But for many non-cisgender people, it's gender euphoria that pushes forward their transition: the joy the first time a parent calls them by their new chosen name, the first time they have the confidence to cut their hair short, the first time they truly embrace themself.
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simply life changing
- By Grant Vargas on 06-01-24
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Before We Were Trans
- A New History of Gender
- By: Dr. Kit Heyam Ph.D
- Narrated by: Dr. Kit Heyam Ph.D
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Heyam looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures.
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Educated but skewed 
- By Joshua Ambrose on 11-30-23
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Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century
- Unabridged Selections
- By: Alice Wong
- Narrated by: Alejandra Ospina, Alice Wong
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent - but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people.
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Missing stories
- By Adrianna A. on 11-19-20
By: Alice Wong
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And They Were Roommates
- By: Page Powars
- Narrated by: Ben Balmaceda
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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On his first day at Valentine Academy for Boys, Charlie’s carefully crafted plan to hide his identity as the school’s only trans student is set in motion. Only to be immediately destroyed. Charlie has been assigned the worst roommate in the world (possibly the universe): Jasper Grimes, the boy who broke Charlie’s heart the year before he transitioned. Except, Jasper doesn’t recognize Charlie.
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Exactly What I Wanted
- By Bennett Nelson on 06-11-25
By: Page Powars
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Reverence
- By: Milena McKay
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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It's the carefree '80s and Juliette Lucian-Sorel has it all. She's the greatest dancer to ever grace the floorboards of Palais Garnier, she's royalty to her adoring fans, and Paris is at her feet. Or so it seems . . .
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I will always recommend this masterpiece
- By A.L. on 04-17-25
By: Milena McKay
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The Library
- A Fragile History
- By: Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes, or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident.
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Stays on point
- By Alex on 04-29-23
By: Andrew Pettegree, and others
Mind and life altering
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I will need every single person who would love me read it.
I felt so seen
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one of the most eye opening books ive ever read
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Helpful
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Improving Understanding
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I never knew how bad I needed this
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I’m ace and I loved this
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A great overview
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This book made my whole life make sense!
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I felt seen by this and I'm glad I was able to read it during ACE Week this year.
10/10 will recommend.
Never Have I Ever Felt So Seen
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