More From the Bookbag
One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding - Rebecca Mead - This may be the best book I've read all year. It's all about the commercialism of the wedding industry, and how it gives birth to the bridezilla culture. While keeping half an eye on the role and nature of weddings in American history, she analyzes the causes of the consumerist wedding fetish, and determines that the lack of authority is the primary cause. We live with a strong sense of freedom, without strong cultural authority figures such as the Church to tell us how to conduct ourselves. Without being overly critical of freedom, she describes how brides find them themselves looking around, looking for anyone who will tell them what to do, someone to tell them what "tradition" is, or what the "proper" thing to do is. And the first authority to step up to the bat is the wedding industry. Basically, it seemed like she was saying that we're looking for a ritual - ritual is how we celebrate our life - but we don't really have the basis or need that "traditional" ritual is based on. And I put "traditional" in quotes on purpose. You'd be amazed at how many traditions are maybe only a hundred years old. Like the diamond ring. Nobody had diamond rings until Eurpeans started opening up diamond mines in Africa and exploiting local labor in the mid 19th century, and even then, it didn't catch on th 20th century. Highly recommended.
Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage - Davina Kotulski - A powerful read. It's not that old, but the field has moved so quickly that some of it's starting to get dated - I just read the other day that California has eliminated inheritance tax for domestic partners - but in so many more ways this book is spot on, describing how the lack of civil marriage for gay people hurts families and Americans. It's especially important now that those molerats in Indianapolis passed the SJR-7 marriage amendement through the Senate again. And you know what really pisses e off about that? They didn't even do it honestly - they attached it to HJR-1. That's right, the bill about property tax. What does gays getting married have to do with your property tax, you might ask? Nothing! Nada. Zip. They just wanted to make sure it passed, because they weren't sure it would otherwise. This should be another post.
Broken Wings - L.J. Baker - This is one of the books I've always wanted to read! It's a fantasy novel about all the brownies, nymphs, dryads, etc in this one country. But Rye is a fairy, a persecuted minority from the theocratic Fairyland to the north. Rye ran away because she's lesbian, and now she's living as an illegal immigrant, and raising her little sister. The story of her immigrant struggles, alongside the romance that develops between her and Flora, a fabulously famous dryad artist, is a remarkable story. I read the last 50 pages in one rush, and cried through the whole last half of the book. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. And now I find that the author has written other things! Medieval fantasy lesbian romance! Now if someone could just convince her to write about vikings...
The Journey Out: A Guide for and About Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Teens - Rachel Pollack - Your standard young adult coming out book. It's from the office library, and I'm always recommending it to people, so I figured I should actually read it at some point. A very quick read, good solid introduction.
The Gilda Stories - Jewelle Gomez -Once upon a time, I read a novel that purported to be Anne Rice, but with lesbian vampires. It wasn't even close. This book is much closer. It's about an African slave who becomes a vampire in the 1850s, and spends the next 200 years wandering around the US, in search of a family. The writing is beautiful and lyrical, although not as erotic as I was hoping for. Still, the characters are engaging. Highly recommended.
Nice Girls Don't - Laurence Jaugey-Paget - Photography. Randy seemed surprised to see photographs of naked women that weren't touched up. Other than that, I don't have a lot to say about the art of photography.
Desert of the Heart - Jane Rule - Jane Rule is one of those classic lesbian authors, who reads a bit weird in the early 21st century. The basis of the movie Desert Hearts. A beautifully rendered love story, that deserved to be read at a much more leisurely pace than I gave it. In many ways typical of the time period in which it was written, especially in Evelyn's constant equivocating over the moral nature of their relationship, it is nonetheless an enjoyable read.
Fool For Love - Lisa Lees - The main characters sound less like teenagers, and more like a PSA on intersex people. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the voice is preachy, but the overall tone is stilted. It meets a need, but I suspect it will be replaced when better fiction is written.
Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage - Davina Kotulski - A powerful read. It's not that old, but the field has moved so quickly that some of it's starting to get dated - I just read the other day that California has eliminated inheritance tax for domestic partners - but in so many more ways this book is spot on, describing how the lack of civil marriage for gay people hurts families and Americans. It's especially important now that those molerats in Indianapolis passed the SJR-7 marriage amendement through the Senate again. And you know what really pisses e off about that? They didn't even do it honestly - they attached it to HJR-1. That's right, the bill about property tax. What does gays getting married have to do with your property tax, you might ask? Nothing! Nada. Zip. They just wanted to make sure it passed, because they weren't sure it would otherwise. This should be another post.
Broken Wings - L.J. Baker - This is one of the books I've always wanted to read! It's a fantasy novel about all the brownies, nymphs, dryads, etc in this one country. But Rye is a fairy, a persecuted minority from the theocratic Fairyland to the north. Rye ran away because she's lesbian, and now she's living as an illegal immigrant, and raising her little sister. The story of her immigrant struggles, alongside the romance that develops between her and Flora, a fabulously famous dryad artist, is a remarkable story. I read the last 50 pages in one rush, and cried through the whole last half of the book. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. And now I find that the author has written other things! Medieval fantasy lesbian romance! Now if someone could just convince her to write about vikings...
The Journey Out: A Guide for and About Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Teens - Rachel Pollack - Your standard young adult coming out book. It's from the office library, and I'm always recommending it to people, so I figured I should actually read it at some point. A very quick read, good solid introduction.
The Gilda Stories - Jewelle Gomez -Once upon a time, I read a novel that purported to be Anne Rice, but with lesbian vampires. It wasn't even close. This book is much closer. It's about an African slave who becomes a vampire in the 1850s, and spends the next 200 years wandering around the US, in search of a family. The writing is beautiful and lyrical, although not as erotic as I was hoping for. Still, the characters are engaging. Highly recommended.
Nice Girls Don't - Laurence Jaugey-Paget - Photography. Randy seemed surprised to see photographs of naked women that weren't touched up. Other than that, I don't have a lot to say about the art of photography.
Desert of the Heart - Jane Rule - Jane Rule is one of those classic lesbian authors, who reads a bit weird in the early 21st century. The basis of the movie Desert Hearts. A beautifully rendered love story, that deserved to be read at a much more leisurely pace than I gave it. In many ways typical of the time period in which it was written, especially in Evelyn's constant equivocating over the moral nature of their relationship, it is nonetheless an enjoyable read.
Fool For Love - Lisa Lees - The main characters sound less like teenagers, and more like a PSA on intersex people. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the voice is preachy, but the overall tone is stilted. It meets a need, but I suspect it will be replaced when better fiction is written.