Weekly-ish Link Round Up: 2 Week Edition

How many times have I told myself not to neglect the weekly link round up, and yet, here I am again with 175 things starred to share with you.

The big news in queer literature, according to internets, is

A) The American Library Association has added the Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award (for queer children’s literature) to their Youth Media Awards. Read about it at Newser, Forbes, Advocate, New York Times, babble, MG McFarrelly, Lambda Literary, Oh My Godot, etc. Think of the children! (Also, pet peeve: this is not a “gay” award, or a “gay and lesbian” award: it’s a queer award. This should be especially obvious when you quote that it honours books “relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience” within your article. Sigh.)

and B) Taiwan’s first gay and lesbian bookstore!, opened 11 years ago, has a bathroom with transparent walls. Why this is suddenly news, or international news at all, I have no idea. But you can read about it at Daily News and Analysis, Education Blog, and many other sites that have copy-and-pasted them.

“Defending The Well of Loneliness” was posted at Barnes and Noble Review.

AfterEllen posted

Bibrary Bookslut posted “New & Notable November Releases” and “Support a Great Cause . . . and Win Yourself a E-Reader!”.

Bookish Butch posted her first post for her lesbian online book club (go join in!).

The Femme’s Guide posted a review of the zine Fucking Trans Women #0, which isn’t only relevant to lesbians, but is written by a self-identified trans dyke.

GLBT Promo posted a video preview and a link to the first chapter of the upcoming lesbian historical romance Beguiled by Paisley Smith as well as a giveaway of Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher.

I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? posted an It Gets Better video of queer author Cheryl Rainfield.

Kissed By Venus posted a piece on appropriation of lesbian literature.

Lambda Literary posted

Our Big Gayborhood posted I Wanna Hold Your Ha-a-a-and: Confessions of a Lesbian Author.

QueerReader posted “Wonderful News For Queer Readers: Magnus Books Begins. The Publisher is Don Wiese!”

QueerType posted November Publishing Notes.

Readings In Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Fiction posted a reading with Lynn Ames and a survey for listeners.

Women and Words posted

More lesetc author news and book reviews under the cut.

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Danika reviews The Long Way Home by Rachel Spangler

I haven’t read a lot of lesbian romance, and I wasn’t sure how much I would like the genre; I’ve never had any interest in the straight romance genre. Well, Rachel Spangler has made me a convert.

My favourite part of The Long Way Home is the premise. I read it while there were a lot of criticisms coming up about Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project. One of the more intriguing ones was discussing how Savage’s original video especially concentrates on this reaction to “small town mentality” and finding acceptance in a big city, and how this anti-rural sentiment not only gives small towns too little credit in their ability to be accepting and progressive, but also encourages queer people to keep draining out of small towns and heading to big cities, which only makes the situation worse. (Cities are more accepting because there are more queer people, but there are more queer people because queer people move to cities, because cities are more accepting…)

The Long Way Home tackles that anti-rural sentiment by telling the story of a woman who “escaped”, who left her small town and made a living talking about her escape story at various colleges around the country (the US), becoming a quasi-famous lesbian because of it.

But once she gets a little older, the calls stop coming for speaking arrangements: people don’t want to hear the same story anymore. Raine, as she’s known now, or Rory, as she was known in her home town, is forced to return to the place she escaped from if she wants to have a paying job. Raine/Rory comes face-to-face with the people she knew, the family she left behind, and the town she grew up in. While there she discovers the escape story she’s been telling for years may not be the only interpretation that should be drawn.

This is a romance, obviously, so Rory/Raine discovers a lot of this through an old school mate, including being introduced to a small-town queer community, something she couldn’t fathom of before. The romance is sweet and interesting, and I liked both of their characters, but it was the underlying message that really drew me in.

The only minor quibble I had with The Long Way Home was the occasional over-explaining, like this:

“Are you out of your fucking mind? I’ve spent my entire life getting away from that place. I’m Raine St. James, the one who survived.” Raine needed to remind herself that she’d made it out alive.

I’d rather the speech stood on its own, but that’s hardly noticeable. Overall, I definitely recommend it.

Have you read The Long Way Home or another of Rachel Spangler’s books? If so, what did you think of it?