Forgive me if I am entirely naïve, but before reading this book, I did not give much thought to the fact that Oregon was once cruel and unwelcoming to its lesbian and gay residents. In 1989, however, Triinu is living in a town set on passing Ballot Measure 9, and it seems like more residentsRead More
Karelia Stetz-Waters reviews The Stranger You Seek by Amanda Kyle Williams
When I was at the university studying literature, I took a lot of classes on the writing of minority groups. The question often came up: what makes this book representative of the group? In other words, if a Native American writes a Harlequin romance with an all white cast, is that truly a Native AmericanRead More
Karelia Stetz-Waters reviews Ice by Lyn Gardner
Remember high school English class? Your teacher said there were three kinds of conflicts in literature: man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. self. Recently, though, I’ve noticed a dearth of man vs. nature. Okay, there is the surprise hit Sharknado, but I’m talking about good literature, not pulp movies. With global warming,Read More
Karelia Stetz-Waters reviews From the Boots Up by Andi Marquette
Students often tell me that they want to major in English because they love to read. I am professionally obligated to be happy about this announcement. However, I have reservations. I enjoyed reading more in high school than I did after my two degrees in literature. Mind you I can spot a Shakespearean reference aRead More
Karelia Stetz-Waters reviews Bella Key by Scarlet Chastain
Somewhere in Manhattan there is a think tank wherein scientists have spent the last ten years perfecting an instrument that will allow them to measure a book’s suitability for beach reading. On the Beach Readability Index (BRI) the novella Bella Key, by Scarlet Chastain, scores a perfect ten. The first point in Bella Key’s BRIRead More
Marcia reviews Dysphoria by Karelia Stetz-Waters
Dysphoria by Karelia Stetz-Waters Artema Press, 2013, 350 pp Dysphoria. On its own, the word means simply the state of feeling unwell. It is a loaded term, however, especially in the queer community. Trans*-folk use the word to describe the feeling of incongruity between how the body exists and how the brain expects the body toRead More
Karelia Stetz-Waters reviews Looking Through Windows by Caren Werlinger
Reading romance novels is bad for you. I read that in graduate school. Actually, I read a whole book to that effect. (Don’t worry. I love the genre. This isn’t a polemic.) To be fair, the study I read looked at heterosexual women. Nonetheless, one can draw some comparisons. The classic romance novel pairs twoRead More
Karelia Stetz-Waters reviews Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
I was somewhat disappointed to learn that my all-time favorite lesbian writer had released a new memoir. That’s not my usual reaction to book releases. It’s just that Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal promised to cover approximately the same time period as her first memoir, Oranges Are Not the OnlyRead More
Karelia Stetz-Waters reviews And Playing the Role of Herself by K. E. Lane
Romance is my favorite genre. It’s my comfort food. And, like bread pudding, romances are easy to find and rarely awful. The catch is it’s hard to find ones that are noticeably better than the rest. It’s harder still to find ones that are really great. In the world of lesbian romance, I’d give AndRead More