a-wlw-reads

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Happy National Hand Holding Day! 

May you hold hands with a cute girl!

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Why couldn't I be more like my drums? Drums are strong. You can play them with all your might, yet they're almost impossible to break. They absorb each blow, but they don't take it quietly. The harder you hit them, the harder they yell.

Lisa Jenn Bigelow in Drum Roll, Please

#quotes #lisa jenn bigelow #drum roll please

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Happy Pride to all you bisexual women!

Looking for books featuring bisexual leads? Look no further than these!

Paper Love by Jae

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley

Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney Stevens

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World edited by Robyn Ochs and Sarah E. Rowley

Necrotech and Nanoshock by K.C. Alexander

Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee

Bingo Love by Tee Franklin

The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson

A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Cinnamon Blade: Knife in Shining Armor by Shira Glassman

Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner

The Afterward by E.K. Johnston

Far From You by Tess Sharpe

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

Inkmistress by Audrey Coulthurst

Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde

About A Girl by Sarah McCarry

#titles and reviews under read more #pride month #bisexual

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Theme: All in the Family

Since it’s pride month and I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing/reading about cishet people, here are a group of books with absolutely nothing in common except for the fact that all (and I do mean all) major and many side characters are LGB and/or T. 

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde : Emmy King is the drummer for the newest teen sensation: the band The Brightsiders. Being suddenly shot to fame is difficult for most, and especially so for Emmy, who has emotionally manipulative parents, a toxic girlfriend, and substance abuse issues that gossip magazines are happy to spread around to the entire world. While she’s dealing with the fallout from a particularly bad night she’s also falling in love with one of her bandmates and is preparing to tell the world that she’s bisexual. Basically this whole band is LGBT and so many of their songs are about being out and proud and loving yourself while inspiring others. Read it for a story about the freedom of living openly and leaving behind the toxic people in your life. (bisexual girl main, NB love interest, prominent gay side characters)

Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block : When an earthquake and tidal waves destroy Pen’s home in Los Angeles and turn much of the west coast into a wasteland, she sets off on a cross country quest to find what’s left of her family. She’s guided by nothing but her copy of the Odyssey and her own visions, and she soon picks up a motley group of LGBT youth just hoping to not be alone. Total destruction of the world’s climate and the arrival of murderous cyclopes (yes that is the plural of cyclops, and yes I had to look it up) doesn’t seem like the best time to fall in love, but that’s not always something we can choose. (bisexual girl main, trans boy love interest, prominent gay side characters)

Chameleon Moon by RoAnna Sylver : Welcome to the city of Parole, home to the gifted and/or cursed (depending on who you believe). When the miracle drug Chryesdrine was found to cure all ailments, thousands of people took it. And then thousands of them started dying. Those who didn’t ended up addicted and... different. Everyone with a Chryesdrine ability is shunted off to Parole, a little city slowly falling into the fires raging underneath it. Enter Regan, a man with lizard skin and the ability to turn invisible, who remembers absolutely nothing about his life or how he got to Parole. Luckily he has Evelyn Calliope, resident singer/superhero, and her two wives to help him pull together the pieces. Meanwhile, they’re running from the paramilitary group Eye in the Sky that keeps Parole citizens afraid that they’ll be the next to disappear and trying to uncover exactly what is going on in the Turret House on the hill. (f/f/f main couple including one trans women, asexual man lead, NB lead) 

Rat Bohemia by Sarah Schulman : Set in New York City in the 1990s, this novel centers around a friend group who’ve all faced rejection from their family and friends for coming out as gay now forming their own community and relationships with one another. These characters all have their own struggles apart from their relationships, David is HIV positive before some of the major breakthroughs in AIDS research and they all grapple with financial difficulties in an increasingly gentrifying area of NYC. Compared to the others on this list this is definitely not as happy a read, but one that shows the incredible solidarity between gay men and lesbians who’ve had to make their own families and support circles, especially at the peak of the AIDS crisis. (alternating POV between one gay man and two lesbians)

#pride #happy pride 🌈

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Happy Pride Month Lesbians!

Looking for books about/by lesbians? Look no further than these!

The Normal State of Mind by Susmita Bhattacharya

The Year of the Knife by G.D. Penman

Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure by Dorothy Allison

The Shattering by Karen Healey

Dispatches from Lesbian America edited by Xequina Maria Berber, Giovanna Capone, and Cheela Romain Smith

Tailor-Made by Yolanda Wallace

Tell it to the Bees by Fiona Shaw

Idaho Code by Joan Opyr

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Nagata Kabi

The Lesbian Path edited by Margaret Cruikshank

Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence edited by Rosemary Curb and Nancy Manahan

Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger by Kelly Cogswell

Rat Bohemia by Sarah Schulman

Memory Mambo by Achy Obejas

24/7 by Yolanda Wallace

Edge of Glory by Rachel Spangler

The Paths of Marriage by Mala Kumar

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

Natural Selection by Malinda Lo

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan

Falling Into Place by Sheryn Munir

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

Snapshots of a Girl by Beldan Sezen

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

Tell: Love, Defiance, and the Military Trial at the Tipping Point for Gay Rights by Major Margaret Witt with Tim Connor

Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake

The Summer of Jordi Perez (And the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding

Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home by Leah Lax

Living as a Lesbian: Poetry by Cheryl Clarke

Sappho’s Bar and Grill by Bonnie J. Morris

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

The IHOP Papers by Ali Liebegott

Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu

A Thin Bright Line by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Pulp by Robin Talley

The Dime by Kathleen Kent

The Dirt Chronicles by Kristyn Dunnion

Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

The Dark Victorian: Risen, The Dark Victorian: Bones and Ice Demon by Elizabeth Watasin

The Second Mango by Shira Glassman

Radical by E.M. Kokie

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

Not Vanishing by Chrystos

The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan

P.S. I Miss You by Jen Petro-Roy

Sister Mischief by Laura Goode

Kaleidoscope Song by Fox Benwell

#titles and reviews under read more #pride month #lesbian

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Happy Pride Month everybody!

Another year another pride month, so here’s to hoping that you have a good one!

(From left to right by row)

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

Disobedience by Naomi Adlerman

The Difference Between You and Me by Madeline George

Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown

Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World edited by Robyn Ochs and Sarah E. Rowley

Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee

Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz

The Shattering by Karen Healey

Inkmistress by Audrey Coulthurst

The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

Bittersweet by Nevada Barr

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

My Best Friend, Maybe by Caela Carter

Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova

The Island of Excess Love by Francesca Lia Block

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

Soft on Soft by Em Ali

Thaw by Elyse Springer

Ash by Malinda Lo

Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney Stevens

Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis

37 Things I Love (In No Particular Order) by Kekla Magoon

Living as a Lesbian: Poetry by Cheryl Clarke

Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard

The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif

The Second Mango by Shira Glassman

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Hild by Nicola Griffith

Dreadnought by April Daniels

Gretel: A Fairy Tale Retold by Niamh Murphy

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

Not Vanishing by Chrystos

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

Pulp by Robin Talley

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Natural Selection by Malinda Lo

P.S. I Miss You by Jen Petro-Roy

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

As I Descended by Robin Talley

Run by Kody Keplinger

Ship It by Britta Lundin

#pride #happy pride 🌈 #book titles under read more

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Tell it to the Bees by Fiona Shaw

Do the wlw end up together : Yes

7/10

Stories of 1950s lesbians with happy endings are not exactly easy to come by, so rest assured that this is one of the few. There was a recent movie of the same title; I haven’t seen it but I know that others have said the movie has a completely different ending, so don’t let that deter you from picking up the book it’s based on. Lydia is an outsider in the small English town that her husband grew up in, especially now that her marriage of a decade is quickly dissolving. While Lydia’s husband is spending fewer nights at home, her ten-year-old son is making a friend in the local doctor, a woman with few friends but a lot of bees. Lydia already has the enmity of her sister-in-law and it doesn’t take long for rumors about her growing closeness with Jean to spread around their small factory town. If you were disappointed with the ending to Carol / The Price of Salt, you should definitely check this book out. It has similar themes around vacant husbands and struggles for child custody with a much more satisfying end (which isn’t a knock on The Price of Salt at all - I still loved the book and it’s amazing that it got published with its lesbians together in that time period). This book does start off a bit slow, it takes quite a while for Lydia and Jean to even become friends, let alone begin their relationship, but once they do it’s quite the testament to the lengths that lesbians of earlier times went to to express their love for one another. Read for happy lesbian endings and for a low-income mother getting a second chance at love after divorce in a time when both were disturbingly difficult.

#historical #1950s #tell it to the bees #fiona sh

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The Crimson Ribbon by Katherine Clements

Do the wlw end up together : No

5/10

I didn’t realize quite how little I know about the English Civil War until I started reading this book. I think I maybe heard Oliver Cromwell’s name mentioned once in AP World, but that’s about all I had got. Ruth Flowers is a servant in the home of Oliver Cromwell until the beginning of a round of witch hunts forces her to flee to London. With little to go on she ends in the home of Elizabeth Poole, a woman who would soon become a prophet testifying at the trial of a king. This novel depicts many of the horrors of the time period, from the mob mentality of the witch hunts to a deserting soldier clearly suffering from PTSD. Much of this book revolves around the politics of who’s currently in charge and how exactly to spread your opinions about them, which adds plenty of intrigue on top of Ruth’s growing closeness with her mistress. While Ruth’s character is imaginary, Lizzie’s is not. She’s a woman who dared to advocate for the rights of women in a time not only hostile to such ideas but ravaged by a civil war. There’s incredibly little information about her available, despite the fact that she published many treatises and appeared before Oliver Cromwell to oppose the execution of King Charles I. I love to read about forgotten women of history, so I thank this book for introducing me to yet another lost figure. However, let me just say that this book fell into some of the more tired tropes in wlw representation. Keep reading ahead if you don’t mind the spoilers. I found the ending of the book quite heart breaking but also poetically done as Lizzie made quite the statement on her way out and then.... I read the author’s note at the end. Elizabeth Poole is not in fact executed, but rather lives to a much older age. I was incredibly upset that the author chose to deviate from the character’s real fate and instead to show her punished for her opinions and sexuality. Why would Clements chose to kill a gay character whose real life counterpart lived a long life when “kill your gays” is one of the most prevalent harmful tropes in LGBT literature? I also had major issues with Ruth then ending the novel with a male character she had previously rejected because of his violent past. While I enjoyed the body of this novel, the end made me uncomfortable with its similarity to so many of the lesbian pulp novels of the 1950s and their mandated “death or heterosexuality” endings, especially given that this was the author’s invention rather than historical realism. 

#historial #england #17th century #the crimson ribbon #katherine clements

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Was it possible to become catatonic after just one kiss? I sat there in the prayer box, ten minutes like she asked me to, thinking about this sin that didn't feel like one. Bad things were supposed to make you all heavy at the ankles and slumped at the shoulders. Guilt should be bearing down like a gorilla on your back. But, all I felt was light and fluffy and giddy. Like a laundry detergent commercial with the fluttery dress and soap suds and unbelievably white seamless panties. I wanted to sing and dance. On my way back to class, I think I did.

Brigitte Bautista in Don’t Tell My Mother

#wlwoc #woc #religion #religious wlw #brigitte bautista

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Sorry for the big gap between posts, I’ve been traveling for a class and only just had time to read again. 📚📖 I’ve got several posts queued up and several ready for pride month so don’t go anywhere before then!

#this blog is not inactive #I'm just stressed

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A Thin Bright Line by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Do the wlw end up together : Yes

7/10

This book gets bonus points for being written by a lesbian woman about her real-life lesbian aunt. As Bledsoe explains in the forward, her aunt (also named Lucy) died while she was barely old enough to remember her. Researching her aunt years later, Bledsoe discovers that her aunt was revered for her work editing scientific reports on the project to drill the first complete ice core. For anyone wondering, this is still a technique we use to today to investigate what our planet’s climate was like millennia ago. This book is Bledsoe’s attempt to piece together what little information she does have about her aunt, with plenty of fabrication to make it just as compelling a read as any other historical novel. 

Lucy has just been left by her long term girlfriend when she’s approached by an odd-mannered man with a strange proposition: move to Chicago and work for the government. She takes him up on it and joins an odd crew of grammatically-challenged scientists and a very few female employees. She’s pretty quick to find close lesbian friends even while working in the government during the peak years of the Lavender Scare. When unmarked packages containing lesbian pulp fiction titles start appearing on her desk, she begins to think she might be the next one out the door. Because there are so many lesbian characters in this book it’s a really interesting look at the many ways individuals responded to the persecutions of the 1950s and ‘60s. Some crumple, others are so paranoid to hide to the detriment of their relationships, and some know exactly who they are and what they want. In general the people that Lucy meets are understanding, slowly learning to accept a woman editing their papers and pointing out mathematical errors and, for some of them, learning of and accepting the fact that she only loves women. My favorite part was after reading this novel, where Bledsoe goes through in much more detail about her process in finding out information about her aunt and where exactly the gaps that she filled were. I’d hope that the original Lucy Bledsoe would be happy that lesbians today are able to read her story and find some joy in her unwillingness to cave to a loveless marriage or a lie. 

#historical #lesbian #1950s #a thin bright line #lucy jane bledsoe

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Bringing this back for Lesbian Visibility Day!

Lesbian Books!

Happy pride y’all! To celebrate, here’s a collection of books about/by lesbians! Want bisexual women too?

Keep reading

#lesbian visibility day

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The Normal State of Mind by Susmita Bhattacharya

Do the wlw end up together : Yes

8/10

Dipali comes from a highly traditional family, but she got lucky with a caring husband; one who’s suddenly lost in the 1992 Mumbai religious riots. Now her family expects her to accept a joyless widowhood and her domineering brother is happy to consign her to watching over their ailing mother. Far away in Calcutta, Moushumi falls in love with a high society woman, a relationship that is not founded on equality but which teaches Moushumi exactly who she is: a lesbian. An unexpected friendship between the two gives each of them the power to defy the societal norms they’ve been raised with and the support to arrange their own lives. I really love novels like this, where a lesbian woman’s growth is paralleled with a straight woman defying expectations in her own way. I found quite interesting Dipali’s conversations with Moushumi where she compares how widows and lesbians are treated in Indian society, how both are on the outside for not having a man in their lives. I also really liked that for the most part Dipali and Moushumi’s stories are timeless, but woven in are occasional scenes that tie the novel to the ‘90s. There are references throughout to the religious violence across the country during this period as well as the arson of several movie theaters for playing a lesbian movie, which I’m relatively sure is supposed to reference Deepa Mehta’s Fire. To get back on track, the alternating perspectives played off of each other quite well and I’m glad that these two had each other to push towards a more empowered future. At times this book feels more like a narrative than a novel; the character’s emotions are explicitly spelled out on the page rather than detailed through their actions. It was a bit inconsistent because at other times Bhattacharya does a beautiful job giving so much life to the two women, especially in their scenes together. All in all, if you like women living their authentic lives, you’ll like this book.

#woc #wlwoc #asian #indian #lesbian #the normal state of mind #susmita bhattacharya

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Chag Pesach same’ach!

I’m a bit late (as usual) but I wanted to make sure to wish everyone a good Passover! I hope you’re all surrounded by people who are loving and supportive, but if not, you’re so strong and will one day have your own family/found family to celebrate with!  👩‍❤️‍👩✡👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

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Hello there! Do you want an interactive map of books about women-loving-women across the US and the world? Well then check out this map I made over on MapHub!

It’s got a bunch of organized tabs so you can search by continent, or by some of the more popular cities! And the color coding refers to the genre (or marks which are just short stories in larger anthologies). 

And they link to reviews over on my blog, if you want a little more info before checking the books out. I’m doing my best to add to this as quickly as I can read, but I hope you all find it useful (or at least worth the click)!

#wlw #wlw books #international #lesbian #lesbian literature

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They say a fever is the body fighting an intruder. It is a warning that the state of things is not quite right. There is a defect in here somewhere, and you ought to find it. She is not an intruder. There is no defect. This is the most right I have ever been my whole life. The fears and insecurities, the nagging thought that I will burn in hell for this, all fall away. That electric panic, that roller coaster-sick kind of feeling, is gone, too. I hold her, naked and vulnerable, and find no shame in revealing myself to her. I touch her freely, my hand and mouth roaming and tracing and claiming what it can. My body is at the bidding of my heart's desire. I take a bite of the forbidden fruit and find for myself that the forbidden is just a construct. Just a term that people use for things they are unwilling to understand.

Brigitte Bautista in Don’t Tell My Mother

#nsfw #quotes #Don't Tell My Mother #brigitte bautista

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Theme: WOC in Love!

Representation of women of color in happy, healthy relationships with other women of color is sadly lacking in our world, but here’s four books to at least start you off!

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole : Last time Likotsi was in New York City, a relationship that was intended to be a quick fling ended up breaking her heart. Now she’s back with a mission to forget Fabiola, a plan that goes haywire when, of all the subway cars in the city, Fabiola walks into her’s. For a book that’s only barely over 100 pages, the chemistry between Likotsi and Fab unfolds so naturally. I feel like I watched a full-length romcom rather than read a quick novella. Unlike a lot of romcoms, however, this book isn’t shy about planting itself fully in 2019. I think it’s the only book I’ve read with two wlw who meet through a dating app. It also touches on the struggles of families who see the current political climate threatening their previously secure immigration status (although a happy end is reached). Lastly, if it’s been a while since you read a book with a snappy-dressing black butch lesbian for a main character, Likotsi may be the one for you.

The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif : I’ve heard people say that it’s unrealistic for books about lesbians in the 1950s to have happy endings, so they must be real mad about this book about two Indian women in 1950s South Africa. Miriam is a woman from a traditional Indian family. She moved to South Africa to do the marriage and babies thing, and now she struggles with controlling in-laws and boredom in the rural outskirts of Pretoria. That’s until she meets Amina, who chooses to defy her community by driving a taxi and running a cafe with a black man under strictly segmented Apartheid conditions. Jacob’s side plot involves a relationship with a white woman, and it’s quite heart breaking to have a side-by-side comparison of the many ways love has been criminalized throughout history. This is one of those books where you can track the characters’ growing confidence and feel like you’re about to cry when they finally learn to stop deferring to others and take a stand for themselves.

Final Draft by Riley Redgate : It’s college decision season right now, so this book might hit a little closer to home than usual. Laila wants to be a writer, and thankfully she’s quite good at it - or so her high school English teacher says, anyway. But with only three months left before Laila leaves high school forever her teacher is replaced by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, a woman who has nothing but criticism for Laila’s stories. She’s facing a sudden crisis of doubt about where her talents and interests lie, right as she’s supposed to be making one of the most major decisions of her life thus far. And also, she might just be falling for her best friend. I remember the stress and panic of having to decide the course of the next four years (minimum) of my life even as I was questioning the major I had declared on the Common App so I can say this book absolutely nails that sense of turmoil. It’s also a nice step away from a lot of the standard YA literature about senior year; I think I can count the number of books I know with a biracial, pansexual, plus-size lead on exactly one finger. It’s a great book with advice on expanding beyond your standard range of experience that I think most of us, writers or not, could take advantage of.

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta : This is one of my favorite books and easily one of the most satisfying endings I’ve read, but I will preface it by saying there is a good amount of very violent homophobia throughout that makes it a difficult read. Beginning with the Nigerian Civil War, Ijeoma is sent away to live with another family where she falls in love with another girl. This book stands as a testament to the futility of trying to change sexuality, set in a country that criminalizes same-sex love. Ijeoma is faced with so much pressure to continue to be a societal success story, even as it’s clear she’s incapable of being fully happy with the man she’s married. It’s also a rarity to see a character come from religious-based disgust of homosexuality to acceptance of a loved one, and it’s part of what made the end of this book so deeply satisfying. Be warned that it doesn’t shy away from the ugly and violent end of homophobia, but it’s a book with a happy ending in an era and region where lesbians often find those hard to come by.

#woc #wlwoc #historical wlw