lesbian books

[asianspice1]

I'd forgotten Even Cowgirls get the Blues! Thanks for reminding me - the sex scene with the cranes is wonderful!



i'm off to read it again.

[sheila wt.]

I just finished the Isis Series by Jean Stewart. They are really good and I can't wait for the next one! The books are:Return to Isis, Isis Rising, Warriors of Isis and Winged Isis (it's better to read in order).

I just couldn't believe when I read the following in Warriors of Isis(published in 1995):

Quote:Impulsively, Kali turned and kissed Whit's hand. "Keep physical contact with me." She took a deep breath, then finished, "I'm going into the nether world and I'm so... so tired. I'll need your life vibration to stay anchored, to know how to thread my way back."

My mind completely turned off Kali and Whit and I could only see Willow and Tara.

[xita]

Gosh, I have at least 2 of those books. I read them so long ago. Boy that's eery. Oh god , I may have to drag them out of the garage, I think that's where they are. I don't have time to read darn it! I didn't even know the series continued. That's good to know. I will admit , I had an addiction to lesbian books once.

- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"

[sheila wt]

Well, I admit that I still have an addiction to lesbian books. And films. Plays. Comics. Anything, really.



The next book in the series, Wizard of Isis, will hopefully be published next year.



For more info about the books:



ISIS SERIES

--------------------------
"She had tasted Willow on her tongue, and she had worn Willow on her skin. There wasn't a shower in the world that could have washed that away." (Terra Firma, by Tulipp)

[ScarlettVonRaven]

Thanks to all for giving us your recommendations. Initially I heard about Sarah Waters through the Great Books by Women thread here at the Kitten (and I’m ever so grateful). I’ve read a couple of good books that I haven’t seen anyone mention. I just finished reading Trash a collection of short stories by Dorothy Allison. Allison is a lesbian and about half of the stories in Trash reflect that fact. She is an excellent writer, but these are not lesbian romances. Before that I read Girl Walking Backwards by Bett Williams. It’s a coming of age novel set in California with all the modern trappings for teens (raves and Goths included).

[cattwoman98111]

Oh, Scarlett, im so glad you mentioned D. Allison. she is one of my faves, as is Bastard out of Carolina, deep and at points dark, but worth it. and props to N. Griffith, i liked her Sci Fi offerings much more than her latest stuff. geez, what else have i read lately? well, i know someone mentioned Tanya Huff. like her to.



i'm off to read for the GLBT book club at Borders. This months assigned read is Sacred Country by Rose Tremain. i'll let you all know how it is.



Catt

I want it. Give it to me. I love it. 7-Year Bitch

[hells bells]

Another pretty good fantasy book is The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling...i think it's got more of a trangendered theme ....and i thought it was pretty good...still a little bit of stock fantasy but darker than the average and i thought it was pretty good



hells.

[Ghostwriter]

What a great thread! If you like Sci Fi, Daughters of a Coral Dawn by Katherine V Forrest is pretty good. She has sequel to it, I think the name is Daughters of a Coral Sky, but I'm not sure. Both were good. An Emergence of Green by Katherine V Forrest is excellent as well. For fantasy another good one to go along with the others mentioned is Heartstone & Saber by Jacqui Singleton. If you want lesbian fluff romances all with sappy happy endings, anything by Karin Kallmaker will do, Pinted Moon, In Every Port, Touchwood just to name a few. She also has written a few SciFi romances under the pen name Lauren Adams. Peggy Herring has a few that are worth checking out, Those who wait and Once More with Feeling. For lesbian smut Robbie Sommers is your girl, with Personal Ads, Getting There, she also has a few others that I can't think of now. If you like thrillers or detective stories, Claire McNabb has a series out. Can you tell that I've kept Niad press in business? Someone mentioned Blayne Cooper, she's great, one of my favorites is The Story of Me, under the name Advocate, it is a hoot! I also read Radclyffe's stuff, she's great too. I just ordered a few of her books and I can't wait to get them. So there are a few, mostly mindless, but all with happy endings, great for beach reading, or sitting in front of the fireplace.

Edited by: Ghostwriter at: 11/19/03 7:19 pm

[xita]

I was very much a fan of Karin Kallmaker, I've found recent books to be lacking. But her early work is very much the epitome of the lesbian romance genre. Which sadly isn't saying much No, I enjoyed it I did.

- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"

[Ghostwriter]

Xita, I couldn't agree with you more. When I first discovered lesbian fiction I was amazed! I had finally found stories written that I could relate to! With that in mind, I enjoyed her early works very much. I was so glad though to see this thread, it's given me some great titles to go in search of!

[lipkandy]

wow! I've actually ventured out of Pens! of course, it's to talk about writing...



anyway, my recs:

dare, truth or promise by Paula Boock for those of you who mentioned Annie on My Mind. this is a wonderful, well-written coming of age story set in New Zealand. two teenage girls whose personalities are strikingly similar to W/T fall in love. there's angst, but a happy ending and no one dies. sorry ME!



Fire Logic by Laurie Marks. for those of you who mentioned MZB. this book is amazingly well-written fantasty with a lesbian protagonist. it's about an egalitarian society/culture based in magic that is conquered by an oppressive, violent invader. it's very smart, with a lesbian relationship at the center of the narrative. big, sweeping fantasy. and you can read Chapter 1 online at her site and decide whether you like her style.



Jeannette Winterson's brilliant Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit has been mentioned a few times, so I thought I'd recommend The Passion, a sweeping romantic epic set in Napoleanic Venice and Russia, which was purchased by Gwyneth Paltrow who cast herself as the lead character, the bisexual Vianelle and Isabella Rossellini as her lover. and Sexing the Cherry which doesn't have a lead lesbian character but it does have the Dog Woman(!) and it's worth reading for Ms. Winterson's take on the Rapunzel legend alone: that nasty prince comes to kidnap Rapunzel from her home in the tower where she lives happily with her lesbian lover.



and if you're interested in Kelley Eskeridge, you can read her short story, Alien Skin, here



Severna Park is another lesbian scifi writer worth mentioning. you can check out a short story of hers called Harbingers online for free.



phew! anyway, that's all I can think of right now.



xomel

Edited by: lipkandy at: 11/23/03 9:50 am

[drlloyd11]

I absolutly love Severna Park. I used to exchange emails with her for a time after "The Annunciate" came out. She wrote a sequel to it about a year ago that has not yet been published.

Shes a nice lady and actually an art teacher in grade school by trade. if you go to sff.net there is a forum for her that she posts at from time to time

webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=xover&group=sff.people.suze&from=-10

[xita]

I've read some sverna park, I wish I could remember the name of the book, but I know I enjoyed it. Must dig out my old books.

- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"

[Twisted Minstrel]

This doesn't quite fit in with 'books' - and mods, feel free to move this if it doesn't fit - but this website, www.blithe.com/ features glbt short fiction that is awfully good. I finished reading "Stop Signs" by Cheryl Klein the other day and was quite impressed. If you can't make it to a bookstore but want to read something new, this site is worth a look.



PS - they also accept submissions.



Peace out!





Dijeratti's Lounge

[Ben Varkentine]

Not sure if this fits here, but it's the closest I could find at three in the morning. I read "Shattered Shell" by Brendan Dubois tonight and was wondering if there were any Kitten mystery fans who've read it. It's part of a series about Dubois' character Lewis Cole, an ex-researcher for the department of defense.



The reason I was curious about any Kitten reaction is because one of the supporting characters is a lesbian cop, and the book is partly about what happens when her girlfriend is raped and she asks Cole to find the man who did it. Without giving anything away, I'll say that I don't think this book can be counted as an example of "the cliche," if that can be applied to books. But the very end does raise a question or two.



I don't want to say more because I have a phobia of spoilers, but I'll just add that I do recommend the book for it's non-sterotypical (in my view) portrayal of a lesbian relationship. It's a good mystery, too, and very suspenseful.

Ben



"We are all one. And if we do not know, we will learn it the hard way."

-- Bayard Rustin, organizer of the 1963 March on Washington

[foreverpiper]

i dont have a book to recomend but i'm trying to find out what the title was!! a friend was reading the last week of school and she put it down and i started reading it. i didnt know what it was about but i got really into it. here's the summary.



a girl goes to a camp and falls for a girl with really long blonde beautiful hair and they become friends, but then the blonde is really tired of...something so she makes a statement by cutting off all her hair. then i think they fall for each other and kiss or something but then the now bald girl got mad or something so she goes out with a artsy guy called kevin. but then by the end of the book she breaks up with kevin and the two girls kiss and make up! it was a really great book and i liked it a lot but i dont remember what the title is! if anyone knows please please please tell me!!



it's not a large novel. its only like...200-300 pages or so. i read it in one day of school...not paying attention in class. got it first block, and gave it back to my friend at the end of the day



oh! and the book's cover had a closeup of 2 girls holding hands...u dont see the girls...just a closeup of their hands!

Galahad: What a strange person. French Dude: I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries. Galahad: Is there someone else up their we could talk to? French Dude: No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time. - Monty Python

[sheila wt]

I was doing some research for a paper and came across this site:



Lesbians in SF



I don't have time to check it throughly now, but I think it might be worth a look.

--------------------------
"She had tasted Willow on her tongue, and she had worn Willow on her skin. There wasn't a shower in the world that could have washed that away." (Terra Firma, by Tulipp)

[Mrs Vertigo]

OOOOfff,



everyone, whatever you do, don't read Trans-Sister Radio, by Chris Bohjalian. It's pretty much an affront to gay people everywhere that this piece of crap got to the stores. I apologize to all transgendered people out there that we live in a world that's so deeply idiotic a book like this could be thought a fair representation of your journey.

I love my long lost Jewish little-potato twin. In a prison way.

[burtonreid]

I know that Jeanette Winterson's Oranges are not the only Fruit has been metioned a few times, and for those who have read it, I have a question. (I don't know if there should be a spoiler warning in effect here, but in case, please heed to it.)



Throughout the book, Winterson refers to other "mini-stories" (I'm not much one for vocabulary as of late) within that of her own, and in one she is talking about this guy (prince? duke? some other form of royalty?) who is in search of the perfect woman to marry. Now, I remember how it ended...slightly. She didn't go with him did she? She said something about perfection not necessarily meaning flawless, yes?



Her reply has been something that I can't get off my mind (even though I didn't particularly enjoy the book - or remember it very well). So, if anyone has made any sense out of what I attempted to explain/request, please get back to me.



Many thanks in advance!

i envy your ignorance, i hear that it's bliss. ani difranco

[concrete]

Burtonreid; I'm not convinced you mean "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit" because in this -semi autobiographical- novel I cannot recall a guy (of whatever noble background) who is in search of the or a perfect woman. In fact the novel is about a young girl (Jess) finding her -sexual- identity growing up in a stifling little village, being brought up by a smothering, religious fanatic mother and sort of an invisible father. (A really wonderful BBC series was made years ago, with the late Charlotte Coleman as Jess).

I think you could refer to "The Passion" which does sort of have a story-within-a-story. But the book "Written On The Body" is about a person (it is never determined whether this is a man or a woman) who is looking for a/the perfect woman.

Hope this info helps somewhat

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. ...

[burtonreid]

I'm pretty sure it was Oranges, but again, I may be mistaken. I haven't read any other novels by Jeanette Winterson, so I think it's either that or a totally different book, in which case I feel like an ass. lol



Thank you anyway.

i envy your ignorance, i hear that it's bliss. ani difranco

[mscheckmate]

Thank you, EZBoard, for eating my original post.



From The New York Times:





April 2, 2004

Publisher Won't Reissue Lynn Cheney Novel

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



Filed at 7:37 p.m. ET



NEW YORK (AP) -- A publisher has canceled plans to reissue a racy novel by Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, after she said the book did not represent ``her best work.''



New American Library, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), was going to reprint ``Sisters,'' a historical romance published in 1981 that includes brothels, attempted rapes and a lesbian love affair.



``We felt interest was growing because it was an election year and we decided it could be a timely book,'' Liz Perl, executive director of publicity at New American Library, told The Associated Press on Friday.



But according to Cheney's attorney, Robert Barnett, she did not even know about the reissue plans until receiving calls last week from the media. Barnett then contacted the publisher, which agreed this week to pull the novel.



``I told them that she did not think the book was her best work,'' said Barnett, who represents numerous political leaders, including former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.



``If there is a serious demand for this 25-year-old book, I am confident that America's used bookstores will be able to satisfy it,'' Barnett said.



Perl and Barnett said no legal action was threatened. Although New American Library had the rights to reissue the novel, Perl said, there was no desire ``to put out a book that the author was not happy with.''



Liberals have often mocked ``Sisters,'' noting that Cheney is a longtime conservative and that President Bush supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.



Her novel was the subject of a recent satirical performance at the New York Theatre Workshop, with actors reading such passages as, ``Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl.''



``Sisters'' has long been out of print and is not mentioned in Cheney's biography on the White House Web site. In 2001, she told a New York Times reporter that she couldn't even remember the plot.



Cheney has been active in publishing over the past couple of years, releasing the best-selling children's book ``America: A Patriotic Primer,'' and sponsoring a literary prize, the James Madison Book Award, for the best history written for young people. She was a featured speaker in February at the Association of American Publishers.



edited to add: Not her best work, huh. Hee. I've read one of Lynne Cheney's other novels, and it was hilariously awful. "Sisters," not being Mrs. Cheney's best work, should be even funnier. You don't think politics had anything at all with the publisher's change of heart, do you?

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it." G.W.Bush,Washington,D.C., 7/26/01, commenting on negotiating with Congress.

Edited by: mscheckmate at: 4/3/04 11:28 am

[mollyig]

How I adore books



I must recommend "Hood" by Emma Donoghue. It's set in Ireland with the principal character being a closeted school teacher.



"Our father" by Marilyn French. It's about four sisters, one of whom is a lesbian and is a half sister to the others.



Also have to give a vote to Nicola Griffith's "Ammonite" and "Slow River". Tulipp recommended "Ammonite" to me, and I heartily thank her for it.



Others - "Aquamarine" by Carol Anshaw. "Crucifix Lane" by Kate Mosse a sort of futuristic book set in London.



Some books in the crime/mystery genre: Laurie King's "Kate Martinelli" series, Manda Scott's "Hen's Teeth". I read one ofSandra Scoppetone's books and I enjoyed it, but am finding it difficult to get the others in the series.



Can't think of any more right now.

---

"Love is just like breathing when it's true" Indigo Girls

Edited by: mollyig  at: 4/6/04 2:38 am

[Iamyouknowyours]

Burtonreid -- I just finished reading Oranges are not the Only Fruit and you DO have the right book. The little mini-story ends with the woman telling him that she wont marry him. Something to the effect of perfection not being enough? I forget the exact details. And the prince chops off her head.



I must say I was very disappointed with Oranges. So dreary and sad. Nothing ever really changes and I still can't understand why she came back in the end and why her mother let her in the door. I like Rubyfruit Jungle (Rita Mae Brown) much better. Has anyone read any of Rita Mae Brown's other books and have some recommendations? I've also read Venus Envy, which was funny and clever though it ran out of steam towards the end. I'm desperately seeking new reading material, so I'd love any suggestions anyone could give me.



I know they've already been mentioned, but I can't recommend Sarah Water's books enough. Also the Strangers In Paradise collections by Terry Moore are excellent for those into Graphic Novels. One of the main characters is a kick ass lesbian, and a hot one at that, Katchoo. Be warned though, SIP is addictive like heroin.

[Tiggrscorpio]

Iamyouknowyours, I enjoyed "Sudden Death" by Rita Mae Brown. The backdrop of the story is the women's professional tennis circuit. It's the story of a woman's relationship with an up and coming rising tennis star who is extremely closeted, even though the whole community knows about her sexuality. Parts of it seems semi-autobiographical on Rita's relationship with Martina Navratilova.

*****



"The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal." The Massachusetts Supreme Court upholding its ruling in favor of gay marriage

[her BRIGHTeyes]

I don't know if this has been asked yet, but does anyone here know of any good, modern-day set, lesbian books about teenagers dealing with sexuality in highschool, or something like that? thanksabunch

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

she had eyes bright enough to burn me --conor oberst

[chewy 19]

her BRIGHTeyes,

you might want to look at Annie on My Mind or Dare Truth or Promise, I can't remember if they are modern or not but they are about teenagers dealing with sexuality in highschool.



Im positive there are more but that’s all I can remember off the top of my head...hope it helps

Gina



----------

Me: I swear to god im going to be an atheist!!!

My Mother: You cant be an atheist and swear to god.

[cattwoman98111]

Iamyouknowyours, it depends on what kind of material you like to read.



If you enjoy fluffy, sappy, the lesbian always gets the girl, check out Karin Kallmaker (One Degree of Separation), Katherine V. Forrest(Curious Wine), Kate Calloway(Cassidy James series) and Claire McNab(Carol Ashton series).



If you prefer your story to have a bit more of a plot, try Dorothy Allison(Bastard Out of Carolina), or even Ann Bannon(Beebo Brinker). Be advised Miss Dorothy Allison can be a little dark at times. (but I love her for it)



If you like a main character to be a "lesbian" or questioning but that not be the center of the story, check out Fried Green Tomatoes, I enjoyed the book far more than the movie.



There are other excellent recommendations in this thread, you may want to scan through it and pick out a few.



I have other recommendations however, they don’t fit in this thread as they are not lesbian books per se. If you are interested in any drop me a line at the email addy in my profile. Have fun.

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

[Iamyouknowyours]

Thanks for the suggestions! I don't mind dark books, I just didn't see any character development in Oranges from beginning to end. And if the characters never change and grow there is no real purpose in writing the story, because there is no story.



I love Fried Green Tomatoes which is about a thousand times better than the movie, but I think Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man is the best of Fannie Flagg's books so far. I would highly recommend it, although are no lesbian characters in particular but one of the best friends is gay.



I'll give some of the others you mentioned a try. Thanks!

[PunkNerd]

Girl Walking Backwards by Bett Williams. The book sucks you in. I read it on one sitting and that has never happened to me. Amazing because all the characters are so unbelievably flawed to the pt of driving the protagonist mad but she survives and finds real love. Mucho goodo!

~Lena~

Uncomfort Zone

Edited by: Warduke at: 4/20/04 9:28 am