Link Round Up: November 23 – 29

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Danika Ellis

AfterEllen posted AfterEllen’s Gift Guide for the Gay Girl 2015, including “Comic Book Craver” and “Lez/Bi Bibiliophile”.

Autostraddle posted 14 Lesbian Sexual Fantasies Submitted By Anonymous Women To 1973’s “My Secret Garden” and Lez Liberty Lit #85: We Are Not A Trend.

“When Patricia Highsmith Offered Gay Readers a Hopeful Ending” was posted at New Republic.

“Essay: Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt — The Lesbian Novel That’s Now a Major Motion Picture” was posted at Huffington Post.

Pretty Much Dead by Daphne Gottlieb was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

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Link Round Up: November 16 – 22

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Danika Ellis

“I find the public passion for justice quite boring and artificial, for neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not,” [Patricia Highsmith] explained in her 1966 book Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. Told at one point by an agent that her books don’t sell in America because the people in them are unlikable, she responded that “perhaps it is because I don’t like anyone” and proposed that in the future she write about animals. Indeed, her 1975 story collection, The Animal-Lovers’ Book of Beastly Murder, is about pets that kill their human masters. (Her own favorite animals were snails, which she smuggled through customs by hiding a half-dozen or so under each of her breasts.) In truth she often identified with her most amoral human protagonists, from the psychopathic Bruno of Strangers on a Train (“I love him!”) to Tom Ripley.

“Frank Rich on Patricia Highsmith’s Carol and the Enduring Invisibility of Lesbian Culture In America” was posted at Vulture.

Autostraddle posted Hidden Gems of Queer Lit: Deb Jannerson’s “Rabbit Rabbit”.

“Revisiting a Cult Classic: Patricia Highsmith’s ‘Carol’ Inspiration ‘The Price of Salt’” was posted at Flavorwire.

The Chameleon’s Tale by Andrea Bramhall was reviewed at Lesbian Reading Room.

Hurricane Days by Renée J. Lukas was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

The Princess & the Prix by Nell Stark was reviewed at C-Spot Reviews.

Patreon Giveaway!

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Danika Ellis

Patreon Giveaway!

Did you know the Lesbrary and Fuck Yeah Lesbian Literature has a Patreon page? And if you pledge $2 or more a month, you get entered into a monthly giveaway of queer women books! Here are the books available this month!

Supporting the Patreon page means more Lesbrary and FYLL posts and more videos!

Support the Lesbrary Patreon page here and be entered in the giveaway!

*Sorry, cat not included!

Megan Casey reviews The Wombat Strategy by Claire McNab

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Danika Ellis

Kylie Kendall, newly arrived in L.A. from a small-town in Australia, is a fresh catch compared to cold-fish, Sydney-based Carol Ashton, the protagonist of McNab’s first lesbian mystery series. To expend the metaphor, The Wombat Strategy is a pretty good catch.

Kylie has grown up in Australia, working in her mother’s pub in Wollegudgerie. But when her American father dies and leaves her his 51 percent of a private investigation business in Los Angeles, California, Kylie jumps at the chance to jump ship and head for the states. Of course, having been dumped by her girlfriend for a hairdresser might have helped, too.

When the junior partner of the business politely tries to buy her out, Kylie refuses and decides that she wants to be a PI too. The fact that this junior partner, Ariana Creeling,, is a bombshell, might have helped in Kylie’s decision, too. But Ariana agrees to sponsor her and Kylie’s nationality comes in handy almost at once when a famous Australian self-help guru hires Kendall and Creeling to solve a mystery involving the disappearance of highly confidential patient records—records that might be used to blackmail certain famous clients.

The mystery is believable enough, especially with the strange Hollywood types who seem to flock to the quack doctor for therapy. Kylie proves herself to be not only smart, but able to take care of herself in dangerous situations—criminal or sexual.

Unlike the relatively lifeless Carol Ashton, Kylie brings health to these pages with her enthusiasm and her Australian euphemisms, which McNab lays on maybe a little too thick. Kylie is a quick study and catches onto the PI business in short order. Ariana is mysteriously aloof and professional, and the rest of the staff are interesting in their own ways. Fran, the office manager, is pretty, dour, and a relative of Ariana’s. Melody, the receptionist, is less at her desk than away at casting calls. There are also a few other members of the staff with their own areas of expertise.

Although I hadn’t noticed this in McNab’s Ashton series, the names she gives certain things are often excellent. The self-help guru has a system he calls “Slap slap Get on with it.” And the movie titles of a couple of filmmakers make me want to go out and watch them; I mean, if they really existed. A TV reality show has incognito angels competing with humans for viewer votes.

I like the title, too, which is a spoof on Robert Ludlum titles. Kylie is kind of like a wombat, small but determined and feisty. I think that what sets this book—and this series—out from most lesbian mysteries is its lightheartedness and its ultimate disposability. In other words it’s a perfect novel to pick up when you can’t decide what to read.

Bottom line? Kylie is refreshing not only compared to Carol Ashton, but compared to most other lesbian sleuths as well. A good beach read that you may want to keep instead of throwing away. And here’s another thing: if you have a stack of books that is so large as to seem imposing, then the next Kylie Kendall mystery may be the one that works its way into your hand. Call this one a 3.7–closer to a 4 than to a 3. Fair dinkum.

For other reviews by Megan Casey, see her website at http://sites.google.com/site/theartofthelesbianmysterynovel/ or join her Goodreads Lesbian Mystery group at http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/116660-lesbian-mysteries

Link Round Up: November 2 – 15

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Danika Ellis

AfterEllen posted 14 Must-Read Novels by Lesbian and Bisexual Women Published This Year.

Autostraddle posted

Lambda Literary posted New in November: Michael Cunningham, Jill Dearman, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and John McManus.

The Rainbow Hub posted Five Books to Read When You Come Out.

Women and Words posted Hot off the Press, November 2015 and Coming Attractions, December 2015.

“Why Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s Relationship Matters” was posted at MoviePilot.

“Queer CanLit classics and classics-to-be” was posted at Daily Xtra.

Wishbone by Elaine Burnes was reviewed at The Rainbow Hub.

Romaine Brooks: A Life by Cassandra Langer was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

Valor edited by Megan Lavey-Heaton was reviewed at Okazu.

Audrey reviews Snow Angel by Ronica Black

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Danika Ellis

Maggie’s been hurt before. She’s happy with her life out in the woods, with a few close friends and her dog for company. She knows how to survive.

Ellie doesn’t. She’s an actress on an incredibly popular television show, and she needs a break. She and Maggie have a close friend in common. Ellie runs away from her own life to the mountains to seek refuge with that friend, and she runs smack into a brutal winter storm. Her SUV doesn’t cut it. If Maggie hadn’t found her, taken her back to the cabin by snowmobile…

Ellie’s a mess. She’s vulnerable, skittish, in pain, and in desperate need of someone who’ll leave her alone and let her adjust a little. She knows once her agent finds where she’s gone, he’ll send people for her, and she’ll be dragged back to a life that’s draining her sanity.

Maggie, once she’s brought Ellie back to the cabin and back from the brink of death by hypothermia, leaves Ellie alone to acclimate. There’s chemistry, but the only company that’s pushed on Ellie is Lincoln’s–and Ellie’s immediately fond of Maggie’s dog.

Ellie’s also been hurt before, and while she’s warming–literally and figuratively–towards Maggie, she has a reputation to think of. Her agent won’t be pleased if she gets involved with a woman. Will Ellie and Maggie be able to put aside their hesitancies before Ellie’s spirited away? And how will Ellie deal with Maggie’s secrets?

Snow Angel is a novella, and it flies by. It draws characters and scenes in large strokes, and it’s good fun if you’d like a quick read that’s particularly escapist. If you’re looking for a book that takes its time and is concerned more with prose than sketching in background to get some action going, it’s not going to fit those criteria. But it’s not trying to.

Elinor reviews Best Lesbian Erotica 2015 edited by Laura Antoniou

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Danika Ellis

Some of the stories in Best Lesbian Erotica 2015 are among the best erotic writing I’ve read. Whether or not you’re a big erotica fan, there are stories in this anthology that so well written that they warrant a read because of how well they show nuanced lesbian relationships. Some of these authors took big swings and came up with exciting, original tales. Stories like, “The Last Last Time,” “Second Date,” and “Behrouz Gets Lucky” show us a diverse cast of queer people dating and falling in and out of love in ways that feel true and meaningful, as well as offering some hot sex. “Andro Angel” gives us a sexy, anonymous threesome, while in “A Knock at the Door” the two women write erotica together via email, imagining the encounter that they’ve yet to have. Because of the skill of these writers, even stories I would not have chosen based on their description turned out to be gems, particularly Tina Horn’s “Wet Dirt.” In another example, I found the love interest in “Learning to Cook” incredibly unappealing but the story so good that by the end I’d lost all my resistance.

This collection takes us to other times and places too. “Lovely Lady Liberty” is a delightful romp in the middle of World War II. “Arachne” reimagines a Greek myth as erotica with surprisingly great results. “The Bullwhip and the Bull Rider” seems like it’s from another time, though it’s not explicitly, and it actually made the rodeo sound sexy–a compliment that should be taken seriously since I grew up in small-town Idaho and the memory of rodeos, with their hay-and-manure smells, still makes my nose twitch.

There’s a wide range of characters and sexual expression in this book. There’s plenty of kinky and vanilla adventures alike, and characters of many races, gender presentations, and different ages. With authors like Sacchi Green, Xan West, Miel Rose, BD Swain and many, many others, there is a ton to savor in this collection.

That being said, this anthology felt uneven. Rarely will anyone like every story in an anthology, but the high quality writing in the best pieces made the less polished stories a let down. Some, like “Late Show,” tried to pack in way too much relationship angst and sudden commitment in a short erotica piece. “Girlz in the Mist,” on the other hand, presented an intriguing premise but the sex scene read like a blase recitation of acts without desire or pleasure, with a narrator who is “tolerating her own violation.” Despite an interesting set up at an all-female bath house, ultimately it reminded me of the bland girl-on-girl erotica you find written for a male audience. Worse was “Kristie’s Game,” in which a rough consensual hook up between strangers turns disturbing when one woman physically overpowers the other and threatens to penetrate her while the physically weaker woman says “no” repeatedly. The reader is told she’s afraid, but the sex scene doesn’t stop and in the end we’re told this behavior is a habit for the stronger woman. I felt incredibly frustrated because this story could have been consensual with a brief conversation early in the hookup to determine safe words, providing a clear line between playing with power and actual fear of rape. There was no need to include the threat of rape, which it should go without saying I do not expect from the erotica I read. This story also had a notable spelling mistake and a few very clunky phrases, giving the impression that it had not been edited.

I do recommend this book, but please skip “Kristie’s Game.” It’s unfortunate that this is included in an otherwise great, if not flawless, erotica anthology.

Danika reviews Snapshots of a Girl by Beldan Sezen

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Danika Ellis

Snapshots of a Girl is a graphic memoir that follows Sezen in her coming out process–to the world at large, to her Turkish family, but mostly to herself. As the title suggests, we get glimpses into different stages in her life, titled things like “The Denial Years” (including “Boy #1” – “Boy #3”) and “Coming Out To My Mother” parts 1-3.

I enjoyed the different illustration styles throughout this memoir. They range from metaphorical and vague images to detailed portraits of various people in her life. Although at some points the short sections and varied styles could feel disjointed, I could see how these were the pivotal moments in this story that really didn’t need the in-between to support them.

My favourite section is near the beginning and really sets the tone for the story. Sezen is 18 and has fallen in love with an older female coworker. She doesn’t dwell on this and instead tells her coworker, unexpectedly finding that this leads to them in bed together. As she is sleeping with a woman for the first time, she gets completely overwhelmed and abruptly gets up, gets dressed, and leaves without really saying anything to the other woman, and then she just doesn’t really consider her sexuality again for years. (Thus, “The Denial Years.”) It makes for such a comic scene, for her to suddenly backpedal on this whole process, but it’s also refreshing for breaking up the usual linear coming out storyline. Sometimes you come out of the closet and then go back in, and sometimes you embrace and identity temporarily and spend years trying to regain it. Coming out–and also growing up–doesn’t happen the same way and in the same order for everyone.

This was a quick and interesting read. It reminded me of a zine in style (though it is almost 150 pages long), so if you’re a fan of that medium, I think you’ll really enjoy this one. Definitely worth picking up for graphic novel/memoir fans!

Link Round Up: October 26 – November 1

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Danika Ellis

Who knows why that particular kid asked about gay representation in that book. Maybe he’s gay or questioning, maybe he knows someone who’s gay, or who knows, maybe he just cares about gay people. In any case, he deserves better than being told he’s asking for rainbow sprinkles. Queer people exist, and we’re not optional add-ons. We don’t need to justify our existence, whether in real life or on the page, and the only way we’re going to get that kind of representation is by people who keep asking the questions publishing doesn’t want to hear.

Over at Book Riot, I responded to an awful editorial with I’m a Rainbow Sprinkle (Queer People Are Not Optional).