What Are you Reading today?

Has anyone read Battle Scars by (Meghan O'Brien)? I bought it because I wanted to see how O'Brien handled a Iraq war veteran with PTSD. She did a very good job of it. What did anyone else think?

I just finished up The Intersection of Law and Desire, a Micky Knight Mystery by J. M. Redmann. Now I'm looking for her 2nd book in the series. Any one else enjoy the Micky Knight series?

I haven't read either of those, but I've heard good things! They're on my vast wishlist.

I'm just re-reading Well of Loneliness to do a joint review on my book blog (the Lesbrary).

I'm reading Arianna Franklin's The Maze of Death and enjoying it.

I am reading Starting From Scratch by Georgia Beers. It is a nice easy summer read.

I'm really disappointed that more people don't post a message. What are we all reading ladies - must be some good books out there I don't know about. I'm reading George Mann 'The affinity bridge' etc.. I've just ordered Kim Harrison who has apparently a lesbian character called Ivy whom I want to read about to see whether she's well realised. But I really need some great books.

I'm reading Fire Logic, which is pretty good so far. I love how often lesbian fantasy or sci fi just doesn't make being gay an issue. It's refreshing.

I agree that we do not post enough messages. Me being just as much at fault. I even belong to a lesbian book group and I should be sharing those books here.

Right now I am reading The Road Home by Frankie J Jones.

I absolutely love the Micky Knight series! I have just finished book 5 and am waiting for #6 in September.

Tanner,

I just looked up the Micky Knight series and have hadded it to my wish list. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm going to try to Fire Logic - am reading the Stephen Hunt books Court of the Air etc which are fab. Will have a look at Micky Knight too.

I am half way through fingersmith which i started from a recommendation here....I LOVE IT...it is Jane Austen for lesbians. I will now read everything from Sarah Waters.

Yes! A Sarah Waters convert! She is definitely amazing.

I'm re-reading Annie On My Mind for a joint review at the Lesbrary.

i just got to part 3 today, and I cannot stop reading....No other book in recent memory has fooled me with so many plot twists and surprises. I was late back to work from lunch today because I was right outside the office on a bench reading.

I just started Jules Verne's Mysterious Island.

I'm drinking up Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. So far it seems (to me, anyway) like a love story between two girls. I'm just about a quarter of the way through this book, and I really enjoy the intertwining of the two protagonists, as well as the blurring of their connection somewhere between friendship and something so much more than friendship.

"Tully felt an emotion open up inside her like some exotic flower. She could practically smell its honeyed scent in the air. For the first time in her life, she felt totally safe with someone."

YES. Wow, do I remember that feeling....

I just started Daughters of Jerusalem (Charlotte Mendelson), and am really enjoying it.

Relishing a mystery with a sassy lesbian sleuth -- Hallowed Murder by Ellen Hart -- and I like everything about it, including the traipsing rhythm, the use of language, and the detective, Jane Lawless! This one is set partly in a sorority, which adds a surprising (and entertaining) facet!

I've just started Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and am enjoying it more than I expected to.

Picked a copy of TRACE ELEMENTS OF RANDOM TEA PARTIES (2003) BY Felicia L. Lemus at the remainders shop. It is described as a 'warm tale of "princess dyke" life in L.A.' 'A welcome addition to Chicana letters from the new generation', a debut novel.

JimT, I tried her book "Like Son" & couldn't get into it. I'll be interested to hear what you think of "Trace Elements." I've read one short story of hers that I liked so it'd be nice to read something longer.

I am in the middle of odd girl out by ann Banon. I got a B&N Nook for my birthday and found the entire Beebo Brinker series available as ebook. It is a cute story in a nostalgic sort of way. Very easy reading and pretty simple plot lines and character development. It is pulp fiction but I recommended it, especially for anyone growing up in the 60's like me.

I've started All Passion Spent. So far I'm enjoying it. It's my second attempt at a Vita Sackville-West novel; the first try was Pepita, which I found too cloying to finish.

I'm reading She Looks Just Like You: A Memoir of (Nonbiological Lesbian) Motherhood by Amie Klempnauer Miller. It's a really good book so far; the author has an engaging writing style.

I am reading With Every Breath by Alex Alexander in paperback & Chasing Carole by Barbara Washburn on the Kindle. Must admit am enjoying the latter more, but may be because I love old movies.

Lambda Literary website has a post of queer authors listing their favorite books of the year. Well worth checking out.

Just picked up Bastard out of Carolina really enjoying it right now, but everyone keeps telling me how depressing it gets. Not really looking forward to that. Read Liliac Mines not to long ago and really enjoyed that one even if it was a bit predictable.

The Ann Bannon books were some of the first books I found when I was coming out. I still have the originals (a little beat up but their pretty aged). I'm glad Beebo got reprinted and introduced to another generation.

yes, and I'm glad you mentioned her, because it's been a few years and I just went to her web site and saw she's been writing more books. She's great. Back to the library....

I wish I liked Sarah Waters! I feel like I'm missing something.

I'm halfway through Violette's Embrace, a novel about a woman researching Violette Leduc's life. I'm really tired of hearing how ugly everyone said Leduc was, but that's a biographical fact, not this author's invention or fault.

Read Rose's Will. Strong Lesbian character - 5-star reviews.

Try listening to Waters audiobooks. Her readers are so amazing, I found myself back-tracking to listen to certain parts again. Do Affinity first. You'll be a fan after that.

#6 What did you think of Ivy in the Harrison series Dead Witch Walking etc?

Not currently reading any lesbian authors, but I've heard so many great things about Sarah Waters she is up soon on my list!

I'm reading Jeannette Winterson's Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? JW has a passion for life and a determination to not be a victim of her upbringing. However, much of her writing refers back to events of her childhood and their impact. There are worse ways of dealing with your past than writing about it, directly or indirectly. It interested me that her novel, Written on the Body begins, "Why is the measure of love loss?"

Has anyone read Gotta Find Me An Angel by Brenda Brooks? It's one of my favorite lesbian books of all time. It's funny and dark (not in an evil sense) and has interesting characters. Spelling Mississippi is another excellent book.

About to start a reread of Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle for a lesbian book group (a LILAC lesbian library group in Wellington, NZ). Expecting a blast from the past. My copy, which has sat on my shelf since I first read it in the eighties is brown around the edges of the pages. I hope I still like it.

Rose's Will by Denise DeSio. It's my book and it's gotten 20 out of 22 5-star reviews. Glory D'Orsi, a lesbian, is the protagonist who shares the stage with two equally strong main characters, a blue-collar family man and a wealthy Bulgarian Holocaust survivor. If you enjoy reading about families who are more dysfunctional than yours, you'll enjoy it.

If you haven't read Affinity by Waters yet, get the audiobook! The reader is amazing.

Depressing or not, it is a great work of fiction! Hope you enjoyed it.

Winterson is the closest thing we have to a literary lesbian author. There's a difference between being a "victim" of one's upbringing and acknowledging its impact. Your thoughts are interesting to me, though, because my novel in part, explores my past, so your comments hit home. Are you saying that writing about the past is among the less desirable ways to deal with it?

I agree that the question, "Why is the measure of love loss?" IS a very interesting statement. If I were to venture a guess at the answer, I would say that it's because real love is commodity, and we're used to settling for whatever we can get. It is one of the themes in my book.

By the way, I don't get to this site too often, but when I do, I enjoy participating.

All the best,
Denise DeSio
Author of Rose's Will

Uh.... Denise, have you read any of Emma Donoghue's books that aren't titled 'Room'? Some of her others are very 'literary' (I use it in quotes because I think that it is a word that has no real overarching cultural definition. That there are too many opinions on what 'literary' really means)

And I disagree that Winterson is our only 'literary' lesbian author. Of course, I also probably also see more value than some others of non-'literary' lesbian fiction. In fact, I love stuff by Karin Kallmaker, or Erin Dutton Josie Gordon, or KG MacGregor or even Peggy Herring and wish that my library/library system would get more of those instead of focusing on the lesbian fic that's 'literary'.

As an aside, holey moley that was a lotta touchstones... :)

I keep forgetting that Donoghue is a lesbian author. When I say literary, I have to admit that I've lowered my standards. I mostly mean work with a firm grasp of the English language, character driven instead of a formulaic overused plot, complex sentence structure where every sentence doesn't begin with I, She, or It and then a verb, and has enough depth to qualify for a book club discussion among intelligent people.

I'll check out the authors you mentioned. Thanks Daniel.

I cannot pass by here without mentioning Fernando Pessoa, particular emphasis on his Book of Disquiet, in which he brings the city and her tired charms to life in the way that joyce did for Dublin.

It's Danielle actually, but no worries....

Uh, but don't go out of your way to read Peggy Herring. They've gotten better, but some of her first ones were... harder to read....

And >44 therealdavidsmith:... sorry, don't like Joyce, and I looked up Pessoa, don't think that I'd like his stuff either. Honestly I don't want to read something that's all philosophical, and I think that you can get that sort of thing just as well from a very well written Margaret Maron (not a lesbian author or one who writes a lesbian character, just an awesome mystery writer) as from a 'I'm going to make my sentences twelve pages long' Henry James or whatever....

Just started After My Own Heart, Sophia Blackwell's debut. I've been looking forward to it for months (based on 2 short stories I read) and am now savouring it very slowly because, even though I only just started it, I never want it to end. I'll post a full review later.

I wish that I were reading some sorta lezfic right now, romance or 'literature', but, not so much. Though, I'm reading about a real Revolutionary woman who fought as a guy for eighteen months. But she was straight as far as the historians know.

Ann Bannon were the first lesbian novels I found -- excepting The Well of ..... While they seems light-weight today, they were a wonderful find when I was 16 and finally found novels I could identify with!

I'm reading the lesser known sequel to 'I Know My Own Heart'/'The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister,' entitled 'No Priest But Love.' It's rather steamier than the first edition :-)

I am reading The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister which is amusing with what >49 Natasha.Holme: is reading lol

Has anyone read Ellis Avery's second novel, THE LAST NUDE-- inspired by the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka and the young woman who sat for her most famous painting, Beautiful Rafaela-- ? I've liked the reviews, just ordered the book.

I adored that book! But my review isn't as good as Casey's: http://lesbrary.com/2013/01/07/casey-reviews-the-last-nude-by-ellis-avery/

It's definitely on my list. But I have to get through some of the TBR pile first, before it falls over.

I just read Lucy Jane Bledsoe's The Big Bang Symphony, a fictional account of the communities of the American research stations in Antarctica. I have to say, I worked down there for 9 seasons, and I generally DON'T read Antarctic books, but hers is so fun and REAL. Except for the near death experiences, it's really just like being there. I loved it and wished it was longer.

I can't tell how it would read to someone who hasn't been there... has anyone read it?

It's on my list! But I haven't read it yet.

I've just finished Starting from Here, which I really liked (made me cry!) And I'm about to start The Trouble with Emily Dickinson.

On my list, too. I love all things Antarctica. Nice to hear the book reads real to someone who would know!

Well, I'm not reading them today, but, woo! Soon (hopefully, if I catch up on my library reading) I will be cracking open the first three of Melissa Good's Dar and Kerry Series.

Right now I'm reading Betty Webb's Llama of Death

Reading Tanith Lee's Fatal Women. I even paid full price for it. I never do that!

I just started reading Deep South, an Anna Pigeon mystery by Nevada Barr. This one is set in the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. This is the eighth Anna Pigeon mystery, all of them set in National Parks.

I just purchased a copy of Three by Annemarie Monahan, for the fairly inane reason that LibraryThing tells me that we have "similar libraries." Yeah, well, I'll bet my book isn't in hers!

What I am reading at the moment:
Laurie Edwards' In the Kingdom of the Sick: A Social History of Chronic Illness in America, and Kate Atkinson's first novel (published in 1996), Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Neither are lesbian books, per se, but both are good books written by women. And since women who have chronic autoimmune diseases vastly outnumber men (ratios range from 2:1 to 9:1, depending on the disease), Edwards' book is as relevant to lesbians as to straight or bisexual women.

Hope you enjoy my book, CandaceVan. And you're quite right... I don't have a copy of yours in my library. So I've remedied that by ordering one.

I enjoyed the books in the series that I read years ago, when they first came out. I wonder how many are in the series now? I think it was about 3, back then.

Is anybody else participating in the Challenge (reading 75 books in 2014)? I'm off to a pretty good start. So far all female authors (?!) but no real LGBTI works, so far.

-- Candace

I don't generally participate in any of the challenges on this (or other) sites. But, I do keep track of my books. So far I think I'm up to 21 or so (maybe a couple more since I still have to enter them and with my computer down for awhile I have a bit to catch up on).

Yes, I'm in that 75 book challenge group. I've forgotten how many I've read now, 50+, but 13 of them have been lesbian fiction.

The 7 4+ star rating books read by me this year so far which fall into lesbian fiction:
Alexis Hall - Iron & Velvet - 5 stars
Robin Roseau - The Emergency Claus - 4.75
Barbara Ann Wright - The Pyramid Waltz - 5 & For Want of a Fiend - 4
K.E. Lane - And Playing the Role of Herself - 5
Cari Hunter - Snowbound - 4.65
Jae - True Nature - 4.65 stars

List is in order read except for the For Want of a Fiend, which I just finished.

thought i'd get this thread going again.

just finished letters never sent by sandra moran. was more predictable than i'd like, with less depth, but still was an alright read.

I have about 6 BSB ARCs on my Nook that I want to read, but first I have to get through the non-lesbian Game of Thrones (although, go Arya and your 'dancing'!!), which, at this moment is taking longer than getting through Henry James' Portrait of a Lady... argh...

I recently finished Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose, a novel which centers around Lou Villars, a cross-dressing lesbian race car driver who collaborates with the Nazis . . . fascinating! The format is that the story is told through various (fictional) memoirs, letters, and newsclippings . . . which reveals how the different characters in the story interpret the mystery which is Lou Villars.

Has anyone else read this book? What did you think?

I am reading Making Time right now, and man oh man I just love, love, love it. More than I thought I would for sure!!

starting a book of poetry by joanna hoffman. i don't read poetry much so we'll see. it's called running for trap doors. i knew her growing up but hopefully that won't influence my thoughts about it.

just finished annie on my mind. will review it tomorrow...

I just finished Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. This was a re-read (read it when it was first released many years ago) and enjoyed it just as much this time. Fannie Flagg does a wonderful job of creating characters that you care about.

Couldn't finish Destination Alara... painfully bad. Did make myself finish Try Whistling Chopin, hoping for a twist at the end, but there wasn't one. The search for a self-published, undiscovered gem continues.

Read The Friendly Young Ladies. Parts were hilarious, but the ending is maddening. Anyone else read that one?

>72 overlycriticalelisa: & >73 Canadian_Down_Under: I loved reading both Annie on my Mind & Fried Green Tomatoes. Such great books. :)

about to start carry the sky by kate gray, a local author. i'm super excited about this one and trying to tone it down so i won't be disappointed...

I'm curious if folks envision this thread for folks to list everything they are reading or only GLBTQ items?

>77 nancyewhite: I thought it was just the lesbian fic stuff since this is the lesbian bookworm group and it's not like there aren't 100 other places on this site where everything people are reading can be listed, but... whatever...

>77 nancyewhite:

just the lgbtq stuff, i thought.

Excellent. Thanks.

Just started Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. Having a hard time putting it down.

>81 lemontwist: I loved, loved, loved it. I may have been the last queer woman to read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit which I only got to after Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal. I fell in love with it too.

Ahem. Seems like I should probably read more Winterson.

>82 nancyewhite:

*everyone* should read more winterson.

i don't love everything i've read by her, but what i've loved, i've *loved* and will give everything a go.

(a literature t.a. in college that thought i had a crush on her - she was right but i didn't know it at the time - casually recommended that i read oranges are not the only fruit to give me the hint that i was queer. that was my introduction to that book and to winterson!)

> "*everyone* should read more winterson."

I second that! The Passion is still my favorite, though.

>84 7sistersapphist:
written on the body for me, but i admit that i actually haven't read all that much by her. someone recently read a passage from the passion at an open mic thing and it was fantastic. need to read more of her soon...

Im reading Sing you home by Jodi Picoult. I love her work

>86 PaigeWhitmore:

i've never read her but eventually want to. does she have lesbian content? i had assumed she didn't...

>87 overlycriticalelisa: Sing You Home does. I don't think that others of her do though. In Sing You Home they're the main characters, but, just be warned, there's also a lot of 'religious' content as well as 'husband' content as well.

To each their own of course, everyone loves different books, but, I didn't think that Sing You Home was one of Picoult's best books.

>88 DanieXJ:

thanks for this!

I finished The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. It is a YA Dystopian Vampire novel. The main character's ex-boyfriend is bisexual. This is never stated, but rather just mentioned. Things like, "Aidan was kissing a boy on the couch," or descriptions of him flirting with a boy in one scene and a girl in another.

Of course I've seen this before, but this time I was really struck by how we are no longer relegated to books specifically about being queer and that we are no longer a big deal.

This feels like a big victory to me.

I really liked the trans girl character in The Coldest Girl In Coldtown! I was also impressed with it.

Just started reading Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel, the new young adult novel by Sara Farizan. Enjoying it a lot so far!

>92 lemontwist: i like that title. not reading it yet but thought i'd plug a local author's book who did a reading at my shop yesterday. forgive me if i've told you this before is by karelia stetz-waters and she is a really talented writer. i'm looking forward to reading this one. i'll read her others (thrillers) later because she's such a good writer, but this one is more up my alley, i think, even though it's young adult.

anyway, will be reading etched in shadows for book group once i finish the book i'm in right now...

>82 nancyewhite: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit e-book is $1.99

http://www.amazon.com/Oranges-Are-Not-Only-Fruit-ebook/dp/B007I7STHO%3FSubscript...

I just got done reading Sunstone (and then I went to the DeviantArt associated with it and kept reading the story. I highly recommend it!

It's not my usual cup of tea, but, it was masterfully (or mistressly done? :)) done and it's awesome that it got published in print and not just on the web (now I just have to figure out how to write its review since I read an ARC of it...)

just finished etched in shadows for book group. not great, but easy and fast and pretty entertaining.

I began Mean Little Deaf Queer last night. I meant to make sure it was downloaded and opened the book. I was so taken by Galloway's snarky, smart, insightful voice that I proceeded to read a part of it even though it was 1:00 AM and I was only up that late to finish Broken Monsters.

I just devoured Far From You by Tess Sharpe. Not my usual genre; it's a murder mystery-ish YA lesbian novel. I really enjoyed it though. Very fast paced, and managed to keep me guessing to the end.

>98 lemontwist: Far From You went directly onto my Wishlist.

just started the price of salt by patricia highsmith for lesbian book group. only 30 or so pages in so all i can say so far is that she's definitely a good writer.

>100 overlycriticalelisa: I went and bought The Price of Salt after seeing the thread about it on Girlybooks. I hope I can read it soon.

I just finished Blue Horses Mary Oliver's new poetry collection. For the first time that I can recall, she includes a few love poems. In "I Woke", Oliver describes watching her new lover sleeping:

“thinking I was intruding, / yet wanting to see / the most beautiful thing // that has ever been in my house."

As always, I'm looking for lesbian voices that are outside of what is typically available. The brand new love-life of an elderly poet certainly qualifies and makes me happy to boot.

Just finished The Color Purple by Alice Walker and it's not at all what I was expecting, but it was a beautiful book that I will definitely be rereading in the future. Highly, highly recommended. For some reason I thought it just had lesbian subtext, but this is not at all subtextual.

>102 Danneeness: The Color Purple has been on my "I need to borrow this from the library and finally read it already" list for years... I guess I need to go to the library!

Read my first lesbian fiction book of the year. Out on the Sound, the story of two women who find love at first sight. Dragged a little in places, but was quite interesting. Well written for a first novel. Slightly off putting that the author's name is exactly the same as the character in the book, down to the nickname of Decky. Don't know the back story there. It's the only R.E. Bradshaw book I've read wherein the main character (or any character) shares the author's name. And this is the sixth Bradshaw book I've read. I'd recommend the book.

Bradshaw has been nominated thrice for the Lambda Literary Awards.

>101 nancyewhite:

oh that's nice, and makes me happy, too. thanks for that. and see you on the spoiler thread for the price of salt soon. =)

>102 Danneeness:, >103 lemontwist:

as much as you all read i can't believe you hadn't gotten to this one yet! (no offense.) i think that the movie is more subtextual, with maybe a hint and nothing more, but the book is quite explicit in the relationship. it's wonderful. it's one that i've read a handful of times and would never mind reading again and again. (although not my favorite walker - by the light of my father's smile gets that nod from me, also with explicit lesbian content, although not a ton.)

As part of the Spec Fiction arm of the category challenge, I went searching for lesbian steampunk and found The Dark Victorian: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin. It was $4 for the Kindle and short so I took a chance. I started it yesterday, and am about halfway through. The premise is, "A lesbian ghost and a smart-mouthed skull are reanimated and team up to solve magical crimes in an alternate Victorian England."I'm finding it to be quite fun. Not earth shattering, but creative and just enjoyable.

For anyone interested, there is also an anthology of lesbian steampunk with the wonderful name, Steam-Powered. I haven't read it but heard positive things from a friend IRL.

up next for our lesbian book group is nevada by imogen binnie but it'll be a little while before i get to it...

Just finished Clean Slate by Andrea Bramhall about a woman who is viciously attacked and can't remember anything after she was 19. Meaning she can't remember her wife of 15 years, or her children. Or why she had just walked out on her family three weeks before being attacked.

One of those books you start, and when you resurface it's many hours and you've completed the book. I'd recommend it.

I'm excited to have found this website and thought it might be useful to other folks here.

http://lesbrary.com/

Just finished Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour which I found to be almost impossible to put down. It's technically a YA book, but the characters are 18+, so it's not all about high school drama and stuff. Which I liked.

The story takes place in LA / Hollywood, the mystery surrounding the long lost granddaughter of a recently deceased movie star and how she comes into the lives of the two protagonist best friends. At times I thought the plot progressed just a little too conveniently, but I do enjoy books that come with pleasant surprises and happy endings.

And, in honor of Julie Anne Peters' birthday today, I started reading It's Our Prom (So Deal With It). I'm really running out of books by her to read... I think after this there's Luna (which is next in line), then I'm done.

Reading Forgive me if i've told you this before which is really captivating. I'm almost done and can't wait to see where it goes before it's over.

>113 lemontwist:

i'm so glad that book is getting out there! i think that karelia stetz-waters is a really fantastic writer. we'll be reading this book for book group in april, i think.

>114 overlycriticalelisa: I'm definitely interested in reading her other books now. It was fantastic.

i haven't actually read any of her books yet, but she's done two readings in my bookshop (she launched forgive me at my shop), and i read her blog. from the first reading and the blogs i know that i'll read everything she writes, even her book that came out last week, which is a romance and i don't like romances. she's such an excellent writer, and happens to also be a very cool and genuine person...

>116 overlycriticalelisa: Yeah, I intend to request her new book at my library. It's so exciting to discover fantastic new lesbian authors!!!

>117 lemontwist: yes it is! i look forward to reading all of her stuff. i hope she's busy on the next one since i think she's done with this publishing blitz she's been on.

just starting nevada by imogen binnie for lesbian book group.

finished nevada this morning. not for everyone, i don't think, but i took a lot out of it. i'm hoping for a really interesting discussion for book group next week...

Just started Ask the Passengers and am really enjoying it so far.

Just finished My Real Children by Jo Walton. A domestic alternate history/reality book where a woman vividly remembers having lived two completely lives. One in which she accepts a marriage proposal and another in which she does not. The story of each life is told in alternating chapters.

This one was a 2015 ALA Stonewall Book Award nominee in the literature category.

just starting forgive me if i've told you this before. we'll see if i like it as much as you, lemontwist!
i've been looking forward to this since it came out so am trying to temper my excitement.

it's a book group read, so i'll also get to hear what a few others think about it next week.

I am reading Just Three Words and I am going to be so very bummed when I finish it. (It's coming out in a couple of weeks and is in the same SoHo Loft Romances series as Kiss the Girl, both by Melissa Brayden

This is what I've been reading so far in 2019

1. Love in the Time of Global Warming.
So, I've only read one lesbian fiction title this year, this YA (or possible middle grade) book. It's a sort of retelling of the Odyssey, using a magical realism style. This story features multiple queer youth characters.

2. Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story
I'm currently reading a memoir by a bisexual woman, but most relationships detailed in the book are with men.

3. Shameless: A Sexual Reformation by Nadia Bolz-Weber and Walking the Bridgeless Canyon by Kathy Baldock.
I've also read portions of two religion books that feature content and commentary on gay Christians.

I've already read the latter more than once, and it's the most well-researched book I've ever read on this subject and I highly recommend it for anyone struggling with how to talk to people about the history of "homosexuality" and the church. I think it can be completely eye-opening for straight readers, and I've found that even gay readers learn a lot about not just the church and our society, but also about queer history. It is a really thought-provoking book.

My 2019 LGBTQ+ reads so far (and this year I'm finally getting to quite a few of the ones I've bought but then didn't read right away, so, yay!):

(Definitely not putting all the covers in here ;))
Fated Love
LA Metro
The Origin of Heartbreak by Cara Malone
Heartland
Summer Winds
Take Me Home
Dawn of Change
Finding Home
Major Surgery
A Chapter on Love
Listen
Without Pretense
Safe Harbor
Beyond the Breakwater
Distant Shores, Silent Thunder
Storms of Change
Winds of Fortune
Returning Tides
Comrade Cowgirl
The Do-Over
Sheltering Dunes
Love on Lavender Lane
Dark Passions, Book 1
Dark Passions, Book 2
Love's Portrait
Pretending in Paradise
Recipe for Love
Bombshells United, Vol. 3: Taps
Love to the Rescue
Comfortable Distance
A Lover's Mercy by Fiona Zedde
Write Your Own Script by A.L. Brooks

Some of these were ARCs, some I've gotten over the years, some through the library. I love that I have so many ways to get books.

My current read as of this post is Not the Marrying Kind byJae, her newest I do believe, that just came out or is just coming out really soon?

(Here's hoping I don't break the Touchstones when I hit Post Message on this message... fingers crossed.... :) )

>125 DanieXJ:
any of those that you particularly recommend?

i just finished reading riding fury home and am trying to get my thoughts about it in order. it's a memoir and is definitely worth reading.

Love's Portrait is probably my favorite of them. It's about two women, one who works as a museum curator and the other who is a big donor. The latter's father has recently died, and she finds a piece of art that isn't in her father's will. She and the curator go on a fun journey finding out all about the woman in the painting and the woman who painted it.

Also, I always recommend Radclyffe. Not all her books are perfect, but, the series that starts with Safe Harbor and is set in Provincetown is pretty awesome. As someone who also has read a lot of thrillers/mysteries it has just enough of that in it to interest me.

I also just got done with Not the Marrying Kind by Jae, it's the sequel to Perfect Rhythm. And they're both pretty awesome.

>125 DanieXJ: Dang, nice list!

I've been focusing on other genres, so I've hardly read any queer fiction this year, but I'm hoping to catch up in the latter half of 2019!

>128 originalslicey: I read a lot, especially a lot of lesfic (there's probably 10 or 15 other non-lesfic books scattered between those that I listed). Library, Netgalley, and thankfully this year, some of my own tomes that I had bought but not gotten to.

I love reading, I love TV, I love movies, and somehow I have a job too (librarian, but, alas, they don't let me read at work, although I did convince them to let me have a Tumblr Recommendation Blog (mwahahahahaha)

Sorry to be late to the game. I recently finished "Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham". A pretty good read, and even though told by a family member it was reasonably well balanced.

I'm reading all the Melissa Good Dar and Kerry Series. Unfortunately, I just started reading Southern Stars which is the last currently published one. :(

But, it's been a fun ride reacquainting myself with Dar and Kerrsion.

I've recently finished The Priory of the Orange Tree a mainstream fantasy doorstop that's getting a bunch of comparisons to Game of Thrones in that it is about dragons and has a thousand year old evil rising again and lots of interesting political worldbuilding. It also includes a central relationship between two women that is beautifully done. Took me quite a while to get into it, but it is a stand alone volume with an actuall ending, unusual for epic fantasy!