Book Recs!

[brigdh]

Help me, please! I want to read is a book which features (preferably stars) a lesbian couple, but I can't find any. I've already read everything by Sarah Waters. I started 'Aimee and Jaguar' by Erica Fischer, but didn't like it at all. I've read Jeanette Winterson's 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit', and I know she has other novels about lesbians, but I'm looking for books that are more, well, fun. Less serious. Historical fiction and/or fantasy is a plus, but I'll read modern stories as well. It doesn't have to be a romance, specifically, but that would be awesome. I prefer fiction, but if you know of a non-fiction book that reads more like a story than a history, that would work as well.

The only thing I don't want to read is a coming out story, or anything in which a large amount of the plotline is devoted to the angst of OMG I am teh ghei! What I want, really, is the equivalent of cheesy Harlequin romance or chick lit novels, but if you attempt to browse the GLBT section of bookstores looking for such, you end up with books that make fanfiction.net look like the home of the next Nobel prize for literature. You know not the horrors, o flist.

So, does anyone know of a good book?

Comments

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Life Mask by Emma Donoghue is one of my favourite books ever. Set in Britain before, during, and after the French Revolution, featuring real-life characters.

I also like Kate O'Brien's work, especially As Music and Splendour, set in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century opera world.

Really, I think we should just write our own and be done with it. XD

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Er, I should also point out that both those books are kind of serious, but Emma Donoghue has written more relaxed ones. Life Mask is still my favourite, though.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Well, serious is okay! I suppose maybe 'enjoyable' would have been a better word than 'fun'? Not that Winterson isn't enjoyable, but right now I don't feel like a book that causes one to have existential crises.

I knew you would have some good recommendations! Thank you.

And yeah, it would really be best to just write one, but I am laaazy. XD

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I love Emma Donoghue's Kissing the Witch but people tell me her historicals are pretty grim. I have been eyeing Jane Harris' The Observations, which looks pretty similar to Waters.

Sf/f starring lesbians, with romances in: Laurie J. Marks, Fire Logic, Earth Logic, Water Logic. Melissa Scott, stuff I haven't read. Severna Park, best one probably The Annunciate. Geoff Ryman, The Child Garden and The Warrior Who Carried Life. There's a major lesbian character in Susan Palwick's Shelter, but the romance ends unhappily. Aargh, what am I forgetting that I read recently? I am annoyed with myself. Raphael Carter, The Fortunate Fall. The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards probably have a list if you google for it.

Rachel Pollack, Temporary Agency, which was good except that I really hated the sex scenes. You might not, though. Oh! Maureen Johnson, The Bermudez Triangle. YA. I think it may be exactly the fluffy chick-litty thing you are looking for. Except maybe for the ending? I do like the ending, though.

Sybille Bedford's A Compass Error is a young girl's sexual awakening which doesn't read like a standard coming out stories. (I haven't read a lot of them, but she doesn't have sexual angst.) Lovely prose. Things about the worldview deeply bug me in ways I have a hard time articulating.

[chthonicsiren.livejournal.com]

Hmm, well, The Well of Loneliness might be a bit angsty for what you're looking for, but I still think it's an awesome book. Nancy Garden's Annie on my Mind is YA but still really good. Beyond that I only know really literary stuff. Wah.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! I think instead of waiting, I will promise you to read yours as soon as it comes out, and in the meantime check out some of these other recommendations.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ooo, thank you! So many choices, and only one that I've read already (Raphael Carter's; I'd managed to completely forget that had a lesbian relationship in it).

Many of these sound excellent, and just the type of thing I wanted. Thank you again!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've heard good things of 'The Well of Loneliness', but had forgotten it. Thank you!

[miep.livejournal.com]

oh, whatsherface, Manda Scott? She wrote some lovely, intense mysteries set in Glasgow. Hen's Teeth and Night Mares are the ones I remember best... I really liked them.

There's also Nicola Griffith's _The Blue Place_. I haven't read her other stuff.

[weirdquark]

I'll second the recommendation of Laurie J. Marks, for her books are excellent.

I will also recommend an ongoing serial story Tales of MU, even though it does have some identity angst, because as I told another friend when she asked me why she should read it, it has kinky lesbian sex. (Also it's generally interesting and well written.)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I think the Johnson, though not fantasy, is closest to what you're looking for. I loved it.

Fire Logic and The Child Garden are dark, though the former is also uplifting and the latter has an intelligent lesbian polar bear. The Warrior Who Carried Life is really dark.

Diane Duane's series beginning with Door Into Fire is charming and cheerful and features lots of bisexuality and polyamority, though the lesbian relationships are less spotlit than the het and gay ones.

Tamora Pierce's The Will of the Empress has a really sweet lesbian romance subplot; however, the book is a sequel to eight other books! But I do rec the series in general; it starts more childrens/YA and then gets more adult and also better as it goes along. The first series is "Circle of Magic," the second is "The Circle Opens."

Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart has a bisexual heroine and a very significant lesbian relationship-- with the villain, however. Though it's not done in a "lesbians are evil" manner, and she has other relationships with women too. It's lavish, lush, and over the top in a way which will either delight you or entice you to savage mockery. Intense S&M.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Rita Mae Brown was good before she started writing about cats solving mysteries.

Absolute Destiny Apocalypse

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You could watch Revolutionary Girl Utena. It's a seminal (you should pardon the expression) lesbian anime, madly erudite, packed with symbolism, and totally insane, with duels and musical numbers and surrealism and hilarity and menarche metaphors and kangaroos. And curry that makes you body-switch. rilina is watching and blogging about it right now. Avoid the manga, it does not compare.

In books, Nicola Griffith's Ammonite is an excellent take on "planet of women." All her books have lesbians as main characters, but that's my favorite.

Gael Baudino's Gossamer Axe,along with the rest of her books, is kind of a guilty pleasure. It's an urban fantasy with Celtic harps and lesbians. Her Strands of Starlight (plus sequels) is historical fantasy with elves and pagans and lesbians and a Goddess vs. very bad patriarchal men. There's swordfighting. I can't exactly call these books good, but I like them.

[springgreen.livejournal.com]

I second the rec for Kissing the Witch as it is AWESOME. I liked Life Mask as well, but Slammerkin is horrifically grim and also does not have much f/f at all. Hood is a contemporary, and I think it does, but since it is about a woman recovering from her lover's death, I think it is not the happiest book ever (I haven't read it).

Re: Absolute Destiny Apocalypse

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

OMG, Revolutionary Girl Utena is AMAZING. I second the recommendation!

Re: Absolute Destiny Apocalypse

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Also, Black Wine by Candance Jane Dorsey is a quite excellent sf/f novel.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Though I love books for their portability, it's really neat to be able to support fiction on webzines as well.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'd heard that 'Slammerkin' is incredibly unhappy, which is too bad, because I think otherwise I'd like it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Those sound good.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh. When I was little, I read that entire freakin' series about the cats. Though I don't think I would now.

Re: Absolute Destiny Apocalypse

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Re: Absolute Destiny Apocalypse

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I forgot about Utena! I've seen about half of the series, but then my roommate at the time moved out, taking her netflix subscription with her, and I forgot to acquire it from other sources. Thank you so much for reminding me.

Thank you for the other recommendations as well; they sound good.

[pukingtoreador.livejournal.com]

You share my hunger then. Except I've only read one thing by Sarah Waters.
Anyway, Babyji takes place in a modern India. It does address some serious stuff, rambles ona bit, but the main character has three girlfriends and no issues with her orientation.

[pukingtoreador.livejournal.com]

I second rec for Kushiel's Dart. I <3 kink.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd forgotten to mention 'Babyji' in this post! But you're right, that is a perfect recommendation; I adored that book.

I'd recommend Waters; my favorite is 'Fingersmith', but most people seem to prefer 'Tipping the Velvet'. I do have to say that I didn't like her newest book, 'The Night Watch', very much, though.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That's probably Lillian Jackson Braun, actually-- the one about the reporter? RMB's is more recent.

[askeladden.livejournal.com]

Robertson Davies's The Lyre of Orpheus contains one of my favorite dyke (http://www.m14m.net/haberdash/bloglet-archive-2003334075232.php#2003338111911) characters of all time. She gets a bit of action, though she's a secondary character and both relationships are fairly transitory; it's still a romping good time, especially if you like opera and pageantry and bumbling academics. Depending on how much you dislike being in the dark about plot points, you might find it annoying to read the last book of a trilogy first (though I did, and quite enjoyed it; when I finally read the other two, there was lots of "Oh! That's what that was all about!", which I found sort of pleasant). The other two books, though excellent, don't have any dykes in them, and the third one is definitely the best all-round, so I'd recommend you start with it and then, if you like it, pick up the first two.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

The first book I thought of was the The Gilda Stories, by Jewelle Gomez.

It's a collection of episodic chapters that are slices of life of Gilda, a runaway slave who becomes a vampire. It's got that vampire through historical ages, deals with American women's communities through the ages (brothel, salon, artist group), deals with race, and handles queer relationships matter of factly.

You also might like Nicola Griffith for her writing style (sensual descriptions, scenery, cities, etc) and her greyscale characterizations. I wouldn't recommend starting with The Blue Place because it has a depressing ending. The only other book I've read of hers is Slow River.

Re: Absolute Destiny Apocalypse

[rm.livejournal.com]

I swear I and everyone I know have read that book, but we are in fact the only people who have read that book.

Re: Absolute Destiny Apocalypse

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Haha, it's true. Gabriel recommended it to me.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, you're right. Heh, I didn't realize there were so many mysteries involving cats.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! That does sound really interesting.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you. Those both look really excellent.

[veleda-k.livejournal.com]

The two books that come to my mind are Shy Girl by Elizabeth Stark and Girls Will be Girls by Leslea Newman. (Newman is most well known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies but she's written plenty of other stuff too.) Shy Girl is probably more serious than you're looking for, but I encourage you to keep it in mind for another time. Girls Will be Girls is a collection of short stories and a novella, which vary in tone and subject. The two I would consider the most fun are "Eggs McMenopause" and "A Femme in the Hand," but there are a lot of good ones.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I think LJB was the pioneer. I still like the book where the guy baked people into his pottery.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes! I remember that one. It was awesome.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, those both sound very good! Thank you very much.