Lesbian and/or Feminist Literature and Writing

[Brown Eyes]

Heya!

This new thread is an off-shoot of the long-running thread here in Culture Tent dedicated to the books (and movie adaptations) by the wonderful Sarah Waters.  Here's a link to the thread dedicated to Waters: http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,16313.0.html

Milli and I thought it would be fun to have a second, more free-wheeling thread for recommendations and discussions about literature with lesbian or feminist themes by a wide range of authors.

To kick things off, I'll mention a book that Milli actually recommended to me not too long ago.  Both Milli and I have learned that we both tend to like lesbian novels that involve a historical perspective or a "period" setting. Sarah Waters, is of course, a major example of an author who writes historical lesbian fiction.  And, this one also certainly fits that category.

It's called Beyond the Pale by a woman with the amazing name of Elana Dykewomon.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/5996507-ea3.jpg" border="0" />

I've only read about 3/4 of it so far.  So, I'll wait to give my overall review until I finish.  But, so far, it's absolutely riveting. It's fascinating for the overall history and societies it describes as much as for the lesbian content. It's an amazingly well-written story about a topic that must have involved a lot of petty indept research.  I'm going to copy the book's back cover description here to provide a summary:

"Set in the early 20th century, Beyond the Pale follows the lives of Chava and Gutke, two women born in a Russian-Jewish settlement who ultimately immigrate to New York's Lower East Side.  This is an honest and passionate look into a specific past: a world of midwifery; Russian pogroms; the immigrant experience and the New York suffrage movement.  It is an enduring tale of triumph, love and courage over inhumanity.  But, at it's heart lies the most universal story of all: the devotion of one person to another."

And, here's what the back cover says about the author:

"Elana Dykewomon is the author of the bestselling novel Riverfinger Women, as well as Nothing Will Be As Sweet As the Taste and They Will Know Me By My Teeth.  She was an editor of Sinister Wisdom and now teaches at San Francisco State University.  Still an activist and cultural worker, she lives in Oakland, California."

Judging by how smart and complex Beyond the Pale is proving to be as I read it... it seems like it might be well worth looking into some of her other books.

[Lumière]

Hey Amanda,

Thank you for starting this thread, Bud.


I am eager to read your review of Elana Dykewomon's amazing Beyond the Pale.

Here is another review from Amazon.com:

Amazon.com Review
Elana Dykewomon's Lambda Award-winning novel Beyond the Pale announces itself to the world with an infant's scream--"a new voice, a tiny shofar announcing its own first year." The midwife attending this birth is Gutke Gurvich, a half-Jew with different colored eyes and a gift for seeing into the spirit world. Beyond the Pale is Gutke's story, detailing her odyssey from a Russian shtetl to a comfortable Manhattan brownstone. But, as Dykewomon puts it, "Whenever you tell the story of one woman, inside is another," and this rich, multilayered novel is also the story of Chava Meyer, the baby girl Gutke delivered that day, as well as the story of the important women in both of their lives: mothers, sisters, neighbors, lovers, friends. After seeing her mother raped and killed during a particularly vicious progrom in her native village of Kishinev, Chava immigrates to America. There, on Manhattan's Lower East Side, both she and Gutke find themselves involved in the nascent labor union and suffrage movements. Dykewomon has clearly done her research here, and Beyond the Pale presents a beautifully detailed account of life among turn-of-the-century immigrant Jews, from classes at the Henry Street Settlement House to the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Through the lens of several lesbians' lives, Dykewomon draws a portrait of an entire Diasporan community living through the terror and uncertainties of both Russian progroms and life in the New World. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


I am sure you already know what I think of this book - I loved it from the first page to the last; I laughed and I cried as I read it.  I enjoyed the journey she took me on as she described Chava and Gutke's lives and the people/events that shaped them.  Ms Dykewomon, not unlike other authoresses such as Sarah Waters and Emma Donoghue, has thoroughly mastered the skill of storytelling, IMO.

After reading Beyond the Pale, I went looking for some more of her work ...


She has an upcoming novel called Risk, set for release in April 2009.




From Amazon.com:
Risk is a beautifully told story that spans the years from the mid-eighties to the post-9/11 world. Carol is an idealistic, Berkeley-educated, Jewish lesbian living in Oakland, California. Downwardly mobile, the Berkeley grad makes her living by tutoring high school students. Through Carol’s life, Dykewomon explores the changing times and values in America.


I have recently acquired one of her very popular books published in the 70s - Riverfinger Women. 
I had to order it from a used books seller on Amazon but it was in great condition and surprisingly cheap.





Publisher's Note -  Riverfinger Women:
Since Inez Riverfinger's arrival on the scene in 1974, women have hailed `Riverfinger Women" as an indispensable classic of lesbian life.

Recapture the exhilaration and pain of being young and lesbian in the anti-war '60's in this salty tour de force, this romp through a unique time of personal and sexual discovery.


I also just ordered another one of her novels (again, from a used books seller on Amazon), Moon Creek Road - a collection of short stories.




Amazon Product Description:
A collection of short stories that engages readers in not only the lesbian lifestyle, relationships, family issues, political concerns, but also the Jewishness of their lives. This is critical; we read to find our reflection, to validate our emotions, history, experiences and dreams. Moon Creek Road will do that for the Jewish women who read it and will engage other lesbians because of its depth, creativity, and emotional exploration of lesbian relationships.


Got a lot of wonderful reading ahead of me.
This thread will be an excellent spot for recommending great books and reviewing/discussing the ones we have read.   
Should be fun!


~M

[Brown Eyes]

Hi Milli!
Thanks for all this info about her other works and forthcoming project!  Based on the quality of Beyond the Pale, I'll certainly look into her other writing down the road.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6004655-ed6.jpg" border="0" />

I just changed the title of this thread to include the general term "writing", because tonight I'm feeling the urge to recommend a non-fiction book.  Milli, I know you've also enjoyed this book and have talked about it here and there on BetterMost.

The book by Lillian Faderman is called: To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America - A History

It's a remarkable look at the astounding number of really powerful women historically (the focus is mostly 19th and early 20th century) - in many fields from education to politics to social work, etc. - who were lesbians.  And, it examines why a lesbian identity might lead to a strong urge towards working for progressive change and even allowing for the life-circumstance (for instance not being encumbered by the constraints of a conventional 19th century marriage) and social networks to pursue public life and things like politics.  In a way, it's an amazing look at a "secret history"... which, once you think about it, seems really obvious or at least not surprising.

The cover photo shown here depicts Carrie Chapman Catt who was the president of NAWSA (the National American Woman Suffrage Association- the country's biggest and most historic suffrage association) at the time that the 19th Amendment finally passed in 1920.  The book talks about a huge range of suffragists.  And, it also talks about two major figures from my two alma maters.  Mary Woolley who was president of Mount Holyoke College in the early 20th century and M.Carey Thomas who was president of Bryn Mawr College from the late 19th c. into the early 20th c.... both of whom were pretty open lesbians.  Thomas lived very openly with a woman named Mary Garrett, who was also a Dean at Bryn Mawr.  The relationship between Thomas and Garrett is very openly acknowledged still to this day at Bryn Mawr... major portraits of both of them grace various buildings, etc.  Garrett was also a major benefactor for Bryn Mawr (she came from a very wealthy family).  The book also talks about well-known figures such as Jane Addams.  Anyway, it's really fascinating reading.

Here's the blurb from the back of the book:

"This landmark work of lesbian history focuses on how certain late-nineteenth century and twentieth-century women whose lives can be described as lesbian were in the forefront of the battle to secure the rights and privileges that large numbers of Americans enjoy today.  Lillian Faderman persuasively argues that their lesbianism may in fact have facilitated their accomplishments.  A book of imeccable research and compelling reading, To Believe in Women will be a source of enlightenment for all, and for many a singular source of pride."

And here's the blurb about the famous Lillian Faderman:

"Lillian Faderman is a much-honored pioneer in lesbian studies. Her books inlcude Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers and Surpassing the Love of Men.  She teaches at California State University at Fresno."

[Lumière]

Hi Milli!
Thanks for all this info about her other works and forthcoming project!  Based on the quality of Beyond the Pale, I'll certainly look into her other writing down the road.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6004655-ed6.jpg" border="0" />

Another intriguing read, Amanda... and you have summarised it beautifully.

I started a "To Believe in Women" series of posts in the "Strong. gorgeous women" thread to highlight the names and faces of some of the women Lillian Faderman discusses in this inspirational book.  She exposes little bits of history that have fallen through the cracks.  She gives us a closer look into the lives of some of the famous, influential women we have often heard about and didn't fully know ... what they accomplished, how and why..
I love this book.

"Lillian Faderman is a much-honored pioneer in lesbian studies. Her books inlcude Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers  and Surpassing the Love of Men.  She teaches at California State University at Fresno."

" Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers " is another book I am eager to read.  I bought it weeks ago but didn't start on it yet.

[Lumière]

Here is another novel on my To-Read-List:


Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
by Jeanette Winterson




From Amazon.co.uk
Jeanette, the protagonist of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and the author's namesake, has issues--"unnatural" ones: her adopted mam thinks she's the Chosen one from God; she's beginning to fancy girls; and an orange demon keeps popping into her psyche. Already Jeanette Winterson's semi-autobiographical first novel is not your typical coming-of-age tale.

Brought up in a working-class Pentecostal family, up North, Jeanette follows the path her Mam has set for her. This involves Bible quizzes, a stint as a tambourine-playing Sally Army officer and a future as a missionary in Africa, or some other "heathen state". When Jeanette starts going to school ("The Breeding Ground") and confides in her mother about her feelings for another girl ("Unnatural Passions"), she's swept up in a feverish frenzy for her tainted soul. Confused, angry and alone, Jeanette strikes out on her own path, that involves a funeral parlour and an ice-cream van. Mixed in with the so-called reality of Jeanette's existence growing up are unconventional fairy tales that transcend the everyday world, subverting the traditional preconceptions of the damsel in distress.

In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Winterson knits a complicated picture of teenage angst through a series of layered narratives, incorporating and subverting fairytales and myths, to present a coherent whole, within which her stories can stand independently. Imaginative and mischievous, she is a born storyteller, teasing and taunting the reader to reconsider their worldview. --Nicola Perry

[Lumière]

Another title to add to the list of period, lesbian novels.
Pretty much every review I have read of this book has been good.


The World Unseen
by Shamim Sarif




Amazon.ca
In 1950's South Africa, free-spirited Amina has broken all the rules of her own conventional Indian community, and the new apartheid-led government, by running a café with Jacob her 'coloured' business partner. When she meets Miriam, a young wife and mother, their unexpected attraction pushes Miriam to question the rules that bind her and a chain of events is set in motion that changes both women forever. The World Unseen transports us to a vibrant, colourful world, a world that divides white from black and women from men, but one that might just allow an unexpected love to survive.

About the Author
Shamim Sarif lives in London with her partner Hanan and their two children. She was born in the UK, and is of South African and Indian descent. This heritage formed the starting point for her first novel, 'The World Unseen' which won a Betty Trask Award and the Pendleton May First Novel Award. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


This book has also been adapted into a movie.  One review below:


THE WORLD UNSEEN Movie Review
http://www.hdfest.com/Gerald/worldunseen.html

Director, writer and actress Shamim Sarif brings her sensitive yet powerful novel of the same title to the screen. It depicts love, traditions, culture, bigotry and denial in 1950's South Africa.

This film with exceptionally fine crafted cinematography, focuses on two oppressed women living in Cape Town. The first woman is Amina, a woman of mixed blood (she is part Indian and part Black African) portrayed by Sheetal Sheth. She is a considered a free spirited person during these early years of apartheid. She is the owner of a cafe, an Indian man named Jacob (David Dennis) assists her. Amina wears trousers and speaks her mind when it comes to injustice.

The second woman is Miriam, an Indian with three children. Her marriage was planned by her family and she accepted her fate in life as a subservient mate to her physically abusive husband Omar (Parvin Dabas). Omar is a store owner and he provides for his family; however, he rules his family firmly, much like all men of his culture and race. With the backdrop of a government that racially profiles people of color, Amina and Miriam meet and form a friendship that blooms into something more.

The background scenes are spacious and breathtaking. However, what was even more beautiful were the two leading ladies. Sheetal Sheth is an American actress of Indian origin, best known for starring opposite Albert Brooks in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2006). Lisa Ray is an Indo-Canadian actress who began her career with the Bollywood film Kasoor (2001). Ray is best known for her female lead in Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)

The chemistry of these ladies is perfect on screen and their performances compliment each other. When they kiss, a certain shyness is projected as neither of them is in the habit of kissing another woman. However, the actresses both brilliantly capture the feeling of an unsurprised rush of emotion. The result is a unique and tasteful scene of easing into a lesbian love affair. The whole scenario blends gracefully into the many suspenseful changes of events in the film.

This cinematic marvel transports the audience into historical South Africa, while simultaneously taking them into a world that segregates white from black. I was caught up in the division of women and men, and how each lived in this environment of political unrest.

This is one the most sincere films I've seen in quite some time.

FILM RATING (B+)

[Brown Eyes]

Heya!

I'm hear to report that I finally finished Beyond the Pale! And, I thoroughly enjoyed it through to the end.

**Spoilers ahead**

Wow this book is packed with drama.  And, I loved all the historical context.  I'll say that as soon as I started seeing Triangle Shirtwaist mentioned in the story I kind of predicited in my mind that Rose would end up involved in the tragic fire.  Maybe about a year or two ago I saw a PBS program that discussed the Triangle fire disaster in detail.  If I remember correctly, it was a program about the labor movement and talked a lot about the Triangle fire as a big turning point for certain aspects of workplace safety regulations that impact labor policies to this day.  But, wow, what a terribly sad way for the book to more or less conclude.  The detail and the evocative way that the author describes the horror of the fire were really gripping... just as dramatic and horrifying (in different ways) as the earlier descriptions of the pogrom in Russia that Chava lives through.

I enjoyed the strategy of having Chava be a sort of witness to historical events.  It provided a really personal perspective and window into these real-life historic events.  And, seeing how lesbian culture dovetails with so many historic events and contexts is also so interesting... obviously because so much of lesbian history is kept invisible in mainstream or conventional histories.

The role of lesbians in things like the settlement movement, union movement and suffrage simply makes sense when you really think about it.  And, it was interesting to see in-depth, narrative descriptions of how these lesbian social networks worked.  I'm also fascinated by the ways that different movements impacted each other... like the union movement in relation to suffrage, etc.

Honestly, I wish the story continued a bit.  I would love to see how things go for Chava in Ohio with the suffrage movement.  I feel like we see so much tragedy in relation to Chava's life experiences (though, we also do see some glimpses of pleasure and joy too)... it would be nice to see how her life progresses a little further out from the tragedy with Rose.

The role of Dovid/Dovida was so fascinating in this book too.  I feel like that kind of history is even more cloaked in mystery than other aspects of lesbian history.  What a fascinating thing to imagine women masquerading as men and working for women's rights issues within the context of the male establishment.  I wonder how much of that really went on historically.  I'm glad that Chava decided to pursue her future in Ohio "in women's clothes" so to speak.  I think it's important for women as women or "women among women" (as Dykewomon described) to fight for their own issues and causes.  I think it's important (and was particularly important probably at the turn of the century) for the public to begin to see women as self-sufficient and powerful in their own right -- different from men.  I say this while also recognizing the contribution of the kind of activity shown by Dovid/Dovida too.  I suppose the Dovid/Dovida situation illustrates a kind of subversiveness and imagination in terms of life-strategy that many people couldn't conceive.  The thing that was interesting about this particular character as written in the novel is that she didn't really seem to identify as a transexual.  At home Dovida seemed happy enough to acknowledge or identify with a kind of femaleness.  Her masquerade seemed so deliberate and strategic.

[Brown Eyes]

OK, so I'm back to recommend another book that I've mentioned to Milli before.

It's called Life Mask from 2004 by Emma Donoghue and it's another novel set in a historic context with major lesbian characters.  I read this quite a while ago and remember really enjoying it.  It's a complex novel, which is something I always like.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6088755-f5e.jpg" border="0" />

Here's the blurb from the back of the book.

"Vividly bringing to life the glittering spectacle of late eighteenth-century England, bestselling author Emma Donoghue turns the private drama of three celebrated Londoners into a robust portrait of a world on the brink of revolution.  Lord Derby, the unhappily married creator of the eponymouse horse race, is the steadfast suitor of a leading comedy star, the lowborn Eliza Farren, but their unconsummated courtship jeopardizes his stature.  When the ambitious actress begins an intimate friendship with the aristocratic widow and sculptor Anne Damer, the resulting scandal threatens to destroy the lives of all three.  Relationships dissolve, marriages crumble, and political liasons prove as dangerous as erotic ones in this sensational worls where everyone wears a mask."

[Lumière]

OK, so I'm back to recommend another book that I've mentioned to Milli before.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6088755-f5e.jpg" border="0" />

Ah yes, I think I will start on this book after the one I am currently reading. 

[Lumière]

Hey Amanda,

Thank you for that great review of Beyond the Pale, bud. 


The one thing I loved about this novel is the way E. Dykewomon intertwines the lives of her characters with real historical events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Here is a blurb on the Triangle Shirtwaist Company [wikipiedia]:




The company employed approximately 600 workers, mostly young immigrant women from different places in Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe. Some of the women were as young as twelve or thirteen and worked fourteen-hour shifts during a 60-hour to 72-hour workweek. According to Pauline Newman, a worker at the factory, the average wage for employees in the factory was six to seven dollars a week[3], at a time when the average yearly income was $791.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company had already become well-known outside the garment industry by 1911: the massive strike by women's shirtwaist makers in 1909, known as the Uprising of 20,000, began with a spontaneous walkout at the Triangle Company. During the strike, owners Blanck and Harris, two anti-union-leaders paid hoodlums to attack the protesting workers and hired prostitutes as replacement workers to show contempt for the strikers.[5]

While the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union negotiated a collective bargaining agreement covering most of those workers after a four-month strike, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company refused to sign the agreement.  [...]

On the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a fire began on the eighth floor, possibly sparked by a lit match or a cigarette or because of faulty electrical wiring. A New York Times article also theorized that the fire may have been started by the engines running the sewing machines in the building. To this day, no one knows whether it was accidental or intentional. Most of the workers who were alerted on the tenth and eighth floors were able to evacuate. However, the warning about the fire did not reach the ninth floor in time. [...]

The ultimate death toll was 148, including 141 who died at the scene and seven survivors who later died at hospitals.


What a horrific tragedy indeed.  It is sad to know that an event as tragic as this was what it might have taken for labor/safety regulations and workplace conditions to be changed.

I had not heard about the Triangle Shirtwaist Company prior to reading this novel (I later did a little research on it), and so I was not prepared for the painful experience that was to come when Rose left Chava that morning and headed to work.  I was not prepared for Rose's death.  It shook me up and I cried when I read that part of the novel, just like I did when Chava witnessed her mother being raped and murdered during that pogrom in Kishinev.  Rose's death was yet another heavy blow to Chava, a young woman who had already seen so much grief and felt so much pain in her short life. 

Not unlike Brokeback Mountain, Beyond the Pale ends on a more or less tragic note, as you pointed out...
And that is the haunting impact it has on you; it leaves you wanting more.  I would've loved to see how Ennis' life unfolds after Jack's death, just like it would've been awesome to catch a glimpse into Chava's life in Ohio, her role in the suffrage movement, her next love after Rose ...
Reading the novel, you got a sense that Chava was meant to accomplish great things in her life - you are just not given the opportunity to see them or to experience the full, happy life you hope she finds down the road.


Yeah, the character of Dovid/Dovida was fascinating indeed.  One might have characterised her as the typical 'sexual invert' of her day, but like you said, she was content being a woman when she was at home with Gutke.  Out in the world, she bacame a man - she walked, talked, acted, worked like a man...and earned as much money as only a man could at that time.   I can only imagine the risks she bore; how she must've worked hard to overcome the fear of being 'discovered' as a woman masquerading as a man living with another woman, like a married couple would.  I guess you could say that her adoption of a male persona 'out in the world' made it possible for her to work in a profession, in a job that may not have been granted to a women - thereby earning enough money to live as comfortably as she did; it allowed her to live openly with her partner.  I guess the benefits of her chosen 'lifestyle' must've outweighed any risks she had to contend with.  Very interesting indeed.

I loved the character of Gutke because of her ability to instill a sense of calm in me; her outlook on life, her wisdom, her kindness, and of course...the maternal role she played in Chava's life - all very inspiring. 

The following is an excerpt from Gutke's journal, after she meets Dovida in Kishinev:

Dovida was such a pleasure to me that even when other opportunities presented themselves — an unhappily married woman reaching for my hand, a friend of Dovida’s from Berlin trying to sweet-talk me — I was never tempted. The way it was between Dovida and me was what I wanted, not because it was the only possibility but because Dovida absorbed my attention, even when I wasn’t sure I liked her. The flame I saw the night I met her never left, though it often changed shape, intensity or color.


So beautiful. 
And of course there is this Gutke quote from the beginning of the book:

"Whenever you tell the story of one woman, inside is another."

[Lumière]

Btw, Amanda...

Now that you are done with Beyond the Pale, what is next on your list?

One of the books I am reading at the moment is an anthology called No Margins: Canadian fiction in lesbian edited by Catherine Lake.
I love anthologies on a variety of subjects, lesbian fiction/non-fiction being one of them.
Lately, I can't seem to stop buying lesbian anthologies, lol ... so I have added quite a few to my library.  I will do up a list of them one of these days. 

[Brown Eyes]

Hi Milli!

OK! So here I am, ready to catch up a bit with this cool thread.  Thank you so much for posting all of that information about the Triangle tragedy.  It's such a sad event, it's hard to even imagine or comprehend the horror and injustice of that situation.  And, I think it was handled beautifully in Beyond the Pale.  Some of that writing was so chilling.  The parts of the chapter "Melt the World" that were in either Rose's voice or the ghostly voices of the other victims were just haunting. 

In my copy, starting at p. 368 the formatting of the text becomes unconventional and Dykewomon writes these little short sentences and phrases, such as  [these are just some of the fragments... It's kind of hard to quote because the formatting is so unusual] "Flame spikes up through the floorboards.  Everyone is running... let me out of here... I have to get down stairs... don't you understand... let me through... how can this happen to me?... I was good... I was about to meet my lover... I was pregnant... I was bringing my paycheck to Mama..." And then the part that specifically from Rose's perspective "Chava I worked sewing since I was fourteen... seven years in sweatshops... and still I had pride in my needle... Chava I went to the window but I saw what happened to the girls... who jumped... I tried to get back to the doors... the black stripes on my shirt... burn first."

I love this part.  It's so unbelievably powerful to give voices to these victims.  And, I really like how the text breaks down almost into poetry. 

It is interesting to see how this book, or at least Chava's story, is bracketed by two events of horrendous violence and injustice.  It's hard to imagine one individual enduring so much tragedy, so young and within such a short span of years.  Poor Chava. 

But, yes, I agree with you that I think she's meant to go on and do great things in Ohio and in the suffrage movement.  She gets so excited by social and political causes that I'd expect she would really enjoy working in the suffrage movement.  And, of course it seems that many suffragists would make good friends (and potential lovers for Chava) based on common interests and ambitions.  Really, I'd love to read a sequel to this book... to see how things go for Chava and to see some happier times for her (hopefully).

Anyway, thanks again for recommending Beyond the Pale.  I'm very happy to have discovered this book and author.  I'd never heard of her prior to your recommendation.

In terms of what I'm going to read next... I don't know.  Not Lonesome Dove afterall...  I've decided to put that off some more (it seems like a good Brokie thing to do, but I don't have a huge sense of urgency).  At the moment I don't have the willpower to tackle it.  Or, if I do start it, I'll go ahead and read other books at the same time (I read multiple books at once quite frequently actually).

I've already read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and really liked it.  I've also read Written on the Body and Powerbook... I really like Winterson a lot.

Some day I'd like to read more of Dykewomon's writing.  So, that's a possiblity.  Or, I might take your suggestion about the No Margins anthology.  It might be nice to read shorter works.  I actually really love short stories as a form of writing.

But, essentially at the moment I'm open to any and all suggestions about what to read next.  I'll have to buy my next lesbian read, I don't have anything in hand right now.

Thinking of anthologies, here's a good one edited by Lillian Faderman (I think she'll become a running theme in this thread). 

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6124451-d4c.jpg" border="0" />

Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (1994)

The title comes from a famous passage in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, 1929.  I actually quoted this little passage in the Favorite Quotations thread in the Women Today forum.  (A Room... was first written/delivered as a lecture)- " I turned the page and read... I am so sorry to break off so abruptly.  Are there no men present? Do you promise me that behind that curtain over there the figure of Sir Chartres Biron is not concealed? We are all women, you assure me?  Then I may tell you that the very next words I read were these - 'Chloe liked Olivia'... Do not start.  Do not blush.  Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen.  Sometimes women do like women."

And, this is the blurb from the back of the book:
"Chloe Plus Olivia is an anthology of four centuries of lesbian literature, with each piece set in historical and literary context.  The most complete compilation of its kind, it offers an enlightening review of the shifting concept of lesbian literature itself, followed by examples of six different genres: Romantic Friendship, Sexual Inversion, Exotic and Evil Lesbians, Lesbian Encoding, Lesbian Feminism and Post-Lesbian Feminism.  Authors included range from Katherine Philips in the seventeenth century and Emily Dickinson in the nineteenth century to Audre Lorde and Dorothy Allison in the twentieth century.  With a historical scope enhanced by Faderman's personal search for a definition of lesbian literature, Chloe Plus Olivia is certain to become the reference point from which all subsequent studies of lesbian writing will begin."

[Lumière]

Hey Bud,

Thanks for lending some more of your insightful comments on Beyond the Pale.  The way she wrote the fire scene was chilling, very moving... I agree.  That is where the waterworks really began when I was reading that section of the book.  It was definitely poetry and it brought the images crisp and clear to the mind.  For example, this line you quoted: " the black stripes on my shirt... burn first."     Haunting.

Thinking of anthologies, here's a good one edited by Lillian Faderman (I think she'll become a running theme in this thread). 

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6124451-d4c.jpg" border="0" />

Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (1994)

Oh yeah, this is another 900+ page book (I am thinking of Lonesome Dove as another, lol ).
I bought this book from a used book seller on Amazon for like a dollar (plus shipping) - if you can believe it.  I was amazed at how cheap it was & very excited about adding it to my collection.


Here are a few others I've acquired recently that fall in the category of Lesbian Anthologies:

Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories by Emma Donoghue (editor)



I absolutely loved this anthology.  It is no longer in print, so you probably have to get it used. 
Beautiful, moving, inspiring stories from women with different backgrounds, experiences... loved it.


A Woman Like That  by Joan Larkin



Another great anthology.  I recommend it! 



Penguin Book Of Lesbian Short Stories by Reynolds, Margaret



I bought another edition of this book with a different, much more provocative cover -



Note: The picture has been edited in order to not violate Bettermost image rules. 
The cover makes it kinda hard to read the book in public, lol.


Does Your Mama Know?: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories by Lisa C. Moore (editor)




I loved this anthology.  I went through it in a few short days - it was very good.



Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801 by Emma Donoghuea




This one should be fun to read.  Not sure it falls in the "anthology" category though.



So, Amanda, more recommendations. 

~M

[Brown Eyes]

Wow!  Thanks for all these suggestions Milli!

I actually have been curious about the Penguin book of Lesbian Short Stories.  I've seen it around and have meant to pick it up.  I think I definitely am interested in reading fiction next.  As much as I like history books, I'm in the mood for narrative lately.

I'll add your suggestions to my shopping list!

I'm heading to my parents' house tomorrow for a full week of holiday vacation.  So, maybe while I'm on vacation I'll have some time to hit the bookstores.

I'll work on some more recommendations of my own for this thread too.

[Lumière]

I have quite a few more titles to add to this thread as well, but it'll probably have to wait till after the holidays.
Looking forward to your recommendations, A. 


~M

[Lumière]

I also just ordered another one of her novels (again, from a used books seller on Amazon), Moon Creek Road - a collection of short stories.

Got it in the mail today! 

I also received another book I ordered (both from the same used bookdealer on Amazon):
   
Piece of my heart: A lesbian of colour anthology (by Makeda Silvera (1991) )



Uncompromising in its honesty, at times humorous, angry, confrontational, and erotic, Piece of My Heart celebrates the lives of women both out and coming out. [alibris.com/]

About the editor - Makeda Silvera -
Makeda Silvera (born 1955 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Caribbean Canadian novelist and short story writer.

Silvera emigrated to Canada at the age of 12 with her family, and currently lives in Toronto. She published two volumes of short stories in the 1990s before releasing her first novel, "The Revenge of Maria" in 1998, followed by The Heart Does Not Bend, in 2002. An out lesbian,[1] she is the cofounder and managing editor of Sister Vision Press, and has edited a number of anthologies, including Piece of My Heart, the first North American anthology of literature by lesbians of colour.   [wikipedia]

Believe it or not - I got this book for 13 cents plus shipping.    

[Front-Ranger]

Thank you very much for these recommendations. I hope to read at least two of these books in the coming year. Tipping the Velvet has me wanting more!!

[Brown Eyes]

Thank you very much for these recommendations. I hope to read at least two of these books in the coming year. Tipping the Velvet has me wanting more!!

That's great Sister Mod! 

I'll post some more of my own recommendations when I'm back home in Pittsburgh after Christmas.

LOL, on a tangential note... I did bring Lonesome Dove along on the plane for the trip out to Chicago since it was close at hand and I was inbetween books as I was heading out the door... and so far I'm liking it a lot more than I'd sort of expected.  I've already read over 100 pages.  And there really is a ton of material in that book already that seems relevant to BBM (especially very familiar symbols such as the moon, etc.).

[Lumière]

LOL, on a tangential note... I did bring Lonesome Dove along on the plane for the trip out to Chicago since it was close at hand and I was inbetween books as I was heading out the door... and so far I'm liking it a lot more than I'd sort of expected.  I've already read over 100 pages.  And there really is a ton of material in that book already that seems relevant to BBM (especially very familiar symbols such as the moon, etc.).

How goes the Lonesome Dove read, A?  How many pages have you conquered thus far? 


On another note...

Piece of my heart: A lesbian of colour anthology (by Makeda Silvera (1991) )

I took this book with me on holiday and read almost half of it on my flights.  I am halfway through it now.
I am enjoying it greatly - it is highly recommended. 

[Lumière]

These, I am sure, would be two good additions to any lesbian erotic fiction collection..
I will return with reviews in the near future.. 


On Our Backs, Vol 1.



Amazon.com:
For 16 years, On Our Backs has published the lesbian community's sexiest and most controversial erotic fiction. Now, for the first time, the best stories from this groundbreaking magazine are collected in one volume. The talents of writers as varied as Dorothy Allison, Fetish Diva Midori, Jewelle Gomez, Pat Califia, Peggy Munson, Joan Nestle, and Sarah Schulman come together to provide stories of erotic intensity while also exploring many of the political and social issues surrounding lesbian sex. On Our Backs: The Best Erotic Fiction will stimulate a new generation of women-intellectually and otherwise.


Vol 2.

[Lumière]

I just finished reading another anthology:




From Publishers Weekly [amazon.ca]
Margins are ignored in this fine collection of fiction by 15 Canadian lesbians. Three of its authors have won Canada's highest literary honor, and readers will recognize authors such as Ann-Marie MacDonald (Fall on Your Knees, an Oprah pick) and Shani Mootoo (Cereus Blooms at Night). Themes of discovery and lost boundaries (sexual and otherwise) run through the anthology, and though the stories vary in quality, a sense of energy and newness pervades them. Standouts include Dionne Brand's contribution, an excerpt from In Another Place, Not Here that crackles with Caribbean authenticity; Nicole Brossard's treatise-like "State of Mind in the Garden"; and Karen X. Tulchinsky's "Ruined by Love," a road story set on the west coast.

There were one or two stories that did little for me, but for the most part - I really enjoyed it, especially entries by Karen X. Tulchinsky,  Ann-Marie MacDonald, Anne Fleming, Shani Mootoo... to name a handful. 


I am currently reading a collection of stories by Emma Donoghue (love her writing) called:  Touchy Subjects.




Amazon.ca:
How do you make conversation with a sperm donor? How do you say someone's novel is drivel? Would you give a screaming baby brandy? In what words would you tell your girlfriend to pluck a hair on her chin?

Touchy Subjects is about things that make people wince: taboos, controversies, secrets and lies. Some of the events that characters crash into are grand, tragic ones: miscarriage, overdose, missing persons, a mother who deserts her children. Other topics, like religion and money, are not inherently taboo, but they can cause acute discomfort because people disagree so vehemently. Many of these stories are about the spectrum of constrained, convoluted feeling that runs from awkwardness through embarrassment to shame.

I have only read the first story at this point; was laughing through half of it.  Fun so far. 

[Brown Eyes]

Heya M!

Thanks for keeping this great thread going with these recommendations!  I'm busily compiling book shopping lists with the help of this thread.

I'm still in the midst of reading Lonesome Dove... I'm at about page 500 at the moment.  So, it's going pretty fast actually.  Hopefully I'll be done with it in a week or so (my copy has 945 pages).  When I'm done, I really do think I'll probably read an anthology of lesbian short stories.  That sounds really appealing to me at the moment.

But, just to keep my contributions to this thread going I thought I'd post about a book and movie that I think are really wonderful, and definitely deserve a place on this thread.  I think we've talked about this before somewhere on BetterMost... but, again, it really needs to be on this thread.

The non-fiction book is Aimee and Jaguar by Erica Fischer (1994) and is the true story of a Jewish woman (Felice Schragenheim) and the wife of a Nazi officer (Lilly Wust) who fall in love in Germany during WWII.   It's an absolutely incredible story.   

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/1513074-200.jpg" border="0" />
This is a picture of Felice and Lilly from the cover of the book that I have.  There are many fascinating photos included in the book.


And, there was a truly wonderful movie made of this, also called Aimee and Jaguar (1998).  It documents all sorts of tragedy that occured during the Holocaust era, but it also provides a really fascinating glimpse or representation of lesbian culture in mid-20th century Berlin.  And, while tragic, it's also really romantic.  The movie is in German (with subtitles).

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/1540107-6c7.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/1540109-9be.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/1540108-917.gif" border="0" />

[Lumière]

Hey A,

Aimée & Jaguar is most certainly worth checking out.  I haven't read the book, but I own the DVD.
The movie was really well done; and like you said, it is fascinating to take a peek into the lesbian culture in Berlin at the time.
Thanks for bringing it in here, bud. 
I think I'll take it off the shelf for another viewing one of these evenings. 




Amazon.com
In 1943, while the Allies are bombing Berlin and the Gestapo is purging the capital of Jews, a dangerous love affair blossoms between two women. One of them, Lilly Wust (Juliane Köhler), married and the mother of four sons, enjoys the privileges of her stature as an exemplar of Nazi motherhood. For her, this affair will be the most decisive experience of her life. For the other woman, Felice Schragenheim (Maria Schrader), a Jewess and member of the underground, their love fuels her with the hope that she will survive. A half-century later, Lilly Wust told her incredible story to writer Erica Fischer, and thebook, AIMEE & JAGUAR, first published in 1994 immediately became a bestseller and has since been translated into eleven languages. Max Färberböck's debut film, based on Fischer's book, is the true story of this extraordinary relationship. The film was nominated for a 1999 Golden Globe Award and was Germany's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Both actresses received Silver Bears at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival for their portrayals of "Aimée" and "Jaguar".

[Front-Ranger]

Over the weekend I read a good story by Louise Erditch that was in a year-old edition of The New Yorker. I'm a little out of date on my TNY reading, LOL. It was about a Canadian Native lesbian woman.

[Lumière]

Hey Lee,   

I have heard of her but I have not read any of her work yet.
What is the title of the story you read?

[Lumière]

I have a few more additions to our growing list here...
(this one will be coming home to me in my next amazon shopping bag).


Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches



[amazon.com]
"Perhaps ... I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am a woman, because I am Black, because I am a lesbian, because I am myself -- a Black woman warrior poet doing my work -- come to ask you, are you doing yours?" This is how Audre Lorde introduces herself in a paper entitled "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action." Audre Lorde takes personal responsibility for this essential, perpetual transformation. In Sister Outsider she enters into dialogue with listeners and readers, lending us her voice and challenging us to speak and act for ourselves. She insists that we pay attention, that we confront the limitations we set upon ourselves and each other; her words have weight and resonance because she listens as rigorously as she speaks. She asks and risks more of herself than might seem possible; the political is personal on many levels of her life. She writes about facing the threat of cancer, about being part of an interracial lesbian couple raising a son, about sex, poetry, rage, and restraint. She is a fiercely intelligent writer, addressing racism, sexism, and heterosexism from the heart of her individual experience as an African-American, lesbian poet/warrior. Audre Lorde demonstrates how each of us must speak for and from our most intimate knowledge, yet simultaneously extend the boundaries around ourselves to include the "outsider," to include more than we have been, more than we thought we could imagine.

[Lumière]

Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing



From Publishers Weekly [amazon.com]
The title of this collection of 20 essays, stories and poems is the name of a lover portrayed by Audre Lorde both in the excerpt from Zami that introduces the collection and in the poem that ends it. Both are, first and foremost, works of literature. As the editors say in their introduction, "identity politics bind and frankly bore us," and here beauty, meaning and insight outweigh any given political stance. Even where there is politically charged jargon, such as in Jocelyn Maria Taylor's essay recalling her life as a stripper and her burgeoning political consciousness, it is compensated for by her smart take on the image of the black woman's body. By and large, the selections are encompassing: any African American will understand Alexis De Veaux's painful letter to her light-skinned "Dear Aunt Nanadine"; any woman will cringe at the story of a back-alley abortion related by Helen Elaine Lee. And any human will be moved by Cynthia Bond's searing tale of abuse and madness. The essays are intelligent, for example Jewelle Gomez's look at her complicated relationships with black men; Linda Villarosa's studied response to blinkered Bible-thumpers who would throw stones; and Evelyn C. White's touching, nostalgic recollection of family life in Gary, Ind., in the '60s and her first realization that her mother was a woman, not just an accessory to child and man. Not every piece is of equal quality, but the majority deserve to be read.


I have wanted to check out this anthology for a while. 
I will in a week or so when my copy arrives.

[Lumière]

Another book to add to the Black, queer anthologies category..


Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual African American Fiction



Amazon.com Review
One result of the combined American prejudice against both blacks and sexual minorities is that as these voices finally come to light, they seem astonishingly new. The words of Alice Dunbar Nelson or Angelina Welde Grimke, both of whom wrote at the turn of the twentieth century, are as fresh to us as the novels of E. Lynn Harris. This groundbreaking and beautifully crafted anthology--a graduate seminar in a single volume--reveals a hidden tradition, no less powerful for being filtered quietly from writer to writer, sometimes between the lines of published stories or novels. All the writers you would expect are gathered here--Langston Hughes (represented by his incomparable story, "Blessed Assurance," posthumously published in 1963), Countee Cullen, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde--beside scores of lesser-known figures. Many of the contemporary writers included are out of the closet, but not widely read as gay. The unifying factor is the high quality of the work, rare in a collection such as this. With historical introductions, author profiles, and an extensive bibliography, Black Like Us is a sparkling scholarly accomplishment, as well as a fantastic, accessible read.


I haven't gone through the entire anthology but found the short stories fascinating - especially because of the variety - 100 years worth of black, queer culture/fiction... I was particularly touched by Angelina Weld Grimke's short story The Closing Door (from 1919) - a harrowing tale of lynching & what a mother would be driven to do to keep her child from slavery. 

Definitely worth checking out this collection of stories (all 600 pages of it)

[Lumière]

I have 2 more books to add to the heap.
I haven't read these yet, but the reviews look very promising.

First, a story of young lesbian love...


Dare, Truth Or Promise
by Paula Boock




Publishers Weekly [Amazon.ca]
New Zealand author Boock traces the developing lesbian romance between two high school seniors in an ultimately uplifting novel. The two are from different social strata: Louie quotes Shakespeare and poetry and comes from a conservative, upper-middle-class background, while newcomer Willa, still suffering from the repercussions of an ill-fated first relationship with another girl, lives above a pub. Told in a third-person narrative that alternates between the two characters' points of view, the book offers a frank appraisal of the girls' initial attraction, passions and the conflicts of dealing with a variety of outsidersAparents, friends, co-workers, etc. When Louie's mother discovers the two girls in bed together in Louie's room, she forbids Louie to see Willa. After a rather prolonged period of suffering and soul-searching, they are able to reunite. Although Boock's intense narrative crosses into melodrama and occasionally plants an important scene offstage, teens who are curious about or struggling with questions of sexual identity will find reassurance in these pages. The characters' interactions with Louie's father and priest, and Willa's conversations with her own mother, convey an empathy and tolerance strong enough to counterbalance the intolerance the lovers face from everyone else. Ages 12-up.

[Lumière]

Moving into a world of gender norms, sexual orientation and class...


Stone Butch Blues
by Leslie Feinberg




Publishers Weekly [Amazon.ca]
This compelling but uneven first novel follows the sexual travails of lesbian Jess Goldberg. At its start she is a girl who feels confused by strict ideas about gender and who wonders if she might be a "he-she" since people often ask whether she is a boy or a girl. Constantly searching, she quickly moves from trying on her father's suits to visiting bars and transforming herself into a full-blown "butch," complete with her own dildo. As police crackdowns on gay bars result in more than one night in jail, Goldberg decides to begin taking male hormones and have a breast reduction in order to pass as a man. Although she delights in visiting the barber and being able to use the men's room--and even manages to make love to a woman without being discovered--the emotional complications of changing her sex (and hence her identity) build up until she ceases to take her hormone shots. Certain transmutations, like her lowered voice, cannot be reversed, however, so she is now even less defined as a member of a specific gender. Goldberg and her like-minded friends who have embraced the butch/femme dichotomy find they have no place in either the nascent women's or gay pride movements. Feinberg attempts to present Goldberg's life as the personal side of political history, but the narrative seems unattached to time despite the insertion of landmark events like the Stonewall riot and the mention of Reagan and the Moral Majority.

[Front-Ranger]

What are your thoughts on the book Middlesex? I read an excerpt from it that was very good. I understand that John Gallagher was reading it recently.

[Brown Eyes]

What are your thoughts on the book Middlesex? I read an excerpt from it that was very good. I understand that John Gallagher was reading it recently.

I think I've heard the title Middlesex... but I don't know much about it.  It features lesbian characters?   Tell us more Bud!

[Brown Eyes]

Heya!

Well, I've been done with Lonesome Dove for a while now.  And, I'm back to the pursuit of good lesbian books and short stories.  Recently, I ordered the
Penguin Book Of Lesbian Short Stories by Reynolds, Margaret, recommended earlier in this thread.  So, I'll look forward to that arriving.

I actually have a copy of Stone Butch Blues somewhere that an ex-girlfriend once gave me long, long ago.  I've never read it yet though.

So, to keep the recommendations going here... I thought I'd post about a classic: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (1928)

I have an old paper back copy of it that was put out in 1981 and this is what the blurb on the back says:

"She was named Stephen by the adoring daddy to whom she was 'all the son I have.' Her mother detested the raffish little tomboy, who was driven from Morton Hall and her family's aristocratic soceity, into the fashionable lesbian world of 1920s Paris.  In her day, an 'indecent' woman who pursued sexual needs - of any kind - was condemned to tragedy.  Stephen's first love, for a frivolous American girl, ended bitterly.  And when Stephen found the love of her life, she had to sacrifice the woman to a man who could offer respectability.
---
The Well of Loneliness was instantly banned on two continents but the literary world's reaction was favorable.  The New Republic said, 'Miss Hall's treatement of her subject, serious, honest and dignified, is a challenge to the crude mind of a class which sees no solution of social problems except prohibition and censorship.' The Saturday Review said, ' Miss Hall's appeal is a powerful one, and it is supported by passages of great force and beauty.' The New Statesman called it 'a brave book,' while The New York Herald Tribune praised its 'passionate plea for the world's understanding and sympathy.' Today, this haunting novel is judged one of the finest portraits of women in love ever created.'"

Re-reading the blurb about this makes me want to re-read this book.  It's been a long time.

[Brown Eyes]

Heya,
I'm back to recommend a fun, "gossipy" book about lesbians in the film industry and historic Hollywood.  I remember coming across this book when I was a TA for a couple film history/theory courses in graduate school.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6657222-674.jpg" border="0" />

It's called The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood by Diana McLellan (2000)

And, here's the blurb from Amazon:

From Publishers Weekly
Chill out, Ellen and Anne: flagrant lesbianism has been afoot in Hollywood for decades. This saucily written look at the lives of prominent lesbian and bisexual actresses from the 1920s to the '40s brings together old facts and gossip with new details and a cohesive analysis of the relationships between sexuality, feminism and power in the film industry. Drawing on standard biographiesAsuch as Gavin Lambert's Nazimova, Maria Riva's Dietrich, Brendan Gill's Tallulah and Barry Paris's GarboAas well as interviews, trade and movie magazines and studio publicity, McLellan focuses mainly on the lives of Garbo, Dietrich, Mercedes De Acosta and their circles. While the writing has a tinge of movie magazine breathlessness (e.g., "When Mercedes drove Greta to the studio for the first day's shooting on Conquest, Greta was in tears"), McLellan has an astute eye for psychological detail and a fine sense of industry power plays. Most importantly, this syndicated columnist and editor at Ladies' Home Journal understands that these women's sexuality and their innumerable affairs, flirtations and romances were not exotic, superficial dalliances, but integral to their lives, identities and art. Although basic information about Garbo, Dietrich and De Acosta has been available in the past, McLellan's investigations into such varied topics as Salka Viertel's political interests and Tallulah Bankhead's career and her affair with Hattie McDonald, bring a broader context and new sense of scholarship to the subject.

[Lumière]

She has an upcoming novel called Risk, set for release in April 2009.




From Amazon.com:
Risk is a beautifully told story that spans the years from the mid-eighties to the post-9/11 world. Carol is an idealistic, Berkeley-educated, Jewish lesbian living in Oakland, California. Downwardly mobile, the Berkeley grad makes her living by tutoring high school students. Through Carol’s life, Dykewomon explores the changing times and values in America.

This book is finally available to order.
In fact, I received my copy from Amazon today.
I've been looking forward to this since I saw it listed on amazon a while ago. 

[Brown Eyes]

This book is finally available to order.
In fact, I received my copy from Amazon today.
I've been looking forward to this since I saw it listed on amazon a while ago. 

Thanks for reviving this thread Milli!

I can't believe the last post before yours was from February!

Anyway, I'm excited to read more of this author's writing too.  So thanks for the heads up!   It'll be on my list after reading the new Waters book.

[sel]

Hi Lumière and Amanda,

I am new to gay literature. So far I have read BbM and The Front Runner. Have never read a  lesbian themed story. What would you recommend my first one be?
I own the DVD of Aimée and Jaguar, it was reccomended to me on the BbM  IMDb board  as the feminine equivalent to BbM in terms of a powerful and very well made movie. I liked the film, although I ought to watch it again, I have a few questions about it, but I wouldn't be interested in reading the book.

Thank you.

[Brown Eyes]

Hi Lumière and Amanda,

I am new to gay literature. So far I have read BbM and The Front Runner. Have never read a  lesbian themed story. What would you recommend my first one be?
I own the DVD of Aimée and Jaguar, it was reccomended to me on the BbM  IMDb board  as the feminine equivalent to BbM in terms of a powerful and very well made movie. I liked the film, although I ought to watch it again, I have a few questions about it, but I wouldn't be interested in reading the book.

Thank you.

Hi sel!!  It's nice to see you on this thread Bud!

I really liked the film of Aimée and Jaguar and I own a copy.  I haven't watched it for a while, but I think it's very well done.  I have the book too, and it's very, very poignant.  Of course, it's such a tragic true story.  In a way, the book reads and feels more like non-fiction (which it is). 

What are your questions about the film?  It might be fun to have a discussion about it.

You may have noticed our other thread in Culture Tent about the books (and films) of Sarah Waters http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,16313.0.html .  She's a really talented, contemporary writer who writes very compelling novels with historical settings that usually involve a lesbian protagonists.  Part of her goal, at least in several of her earliest books, seems to be to re-insert lesbian figures into the types of stories and literature that usually, historically has erased or excluded gay characters and perspectives.

I'd recommend starting with Sarah Water's book called Tipping the Velvet.  It's the book that caused Waters to become well-known and it's a very fun book... as well as very well-written.  Of her books, it's the one that focuses the most on the issue of being a lesbian (lesbian identity,etc.), relationships, lesbian society and culture (in 19th century England/ London). 

Some of her other books have lesbian characters, while at the same time the issue of "being a lesbian" isn't necessarily the main theme or subject. 

There are lots of classic lesbian books out there, but I really would suggest starting with Tipping the Velvet I think. 

[Lumière]

Howdy Sel,

My first recommendation would have to be one of my fave books by Sarah Waters.
A very (very) good place to start.. 


Tipping the Velvet





From Amazon.com
The heroine of Sarah Waters's audacious first novel knows her destiny, and seems content with it. Her place is in her father's seaside restaurant, shucking shellfish and stirring soup, singing all the while. "Although I didn't long believe the story told to me by Mother--that they had found me as a baby in an oyster-shell, and a greedy customer had almost eaten me for lunch--for eighteen years I never doubted my own oysterish sympathies, never looked far beyond my father's kitchen for occupation, or for love." At night Nancy Astley often ventures to the nearby music hall, not that she has illusions of being more than an audience member. But the moment she spies a new male impersonator--still something of a curiosity in England circa 1888--her years of innocence come to an end and a life of transformations begins.

Tipping the Velvet, all 472 pages of it, is as saucy, as tantalizing, and as touching as the narrator's first encounter with the seductive but shame-ridden Miss Kitty Butler. And at first even Nancy's family is thrilled with her gender-bending pal, all but her sister, best friend, and bedmate, Alice, "her eyes shining cold and dull, with starlight and suspicion." Not to worry. Soon Nancy and Kitty are off to London, their relationship close though (alas for our heroine) sisterly. We know that bliss will come, and it does, in an exceptionally charged moment. A lesser author would have been content to stop her story there, but Waters has much more in mind for her buttonholing heroine, and for us. In brief, her Everywoman with a sexual difference goes from success onstage to heartbreak to a stint as a male prostitute (necessity truly is the mother of invention) to keeping house for a brother and sister in the Labour movement. And did I mention her long stint as a plaything in the pleasure palace of a rich Sapphist extraordinaire? Diana Lethaby is as cruel as she is carnal, and even the well-concealed Cavendish Ladies' Club isn't outré enough for her. Kitting Nancy out in full, elegant drag, she dares the front desk to turn them away. "We are here," she mocks, "for the sake of the irregular."

Only after some seven years of hard twists and sensual turns does Nancy conclude that a life of sensation is not enough. Still, Tipping the Velvet is so entertaining that readers will wish her sentimental--and hedonistic--education had taken twice as long. --Kerry Fried

[Lumière]

Amanda, your post came in same time as mine.

Motion carried unanimously - Tipping the Velvet is the best start. 

[Brown Eyes]

Amanda, your post came in same time as mine.

Motion carried unanimously - Tipping the Velvet is the best start. 

  Yeah, I think so.  It contains a good mixture of serious topics and fun.  And, it really does seem to be the novel by
Waters that focuses the most intently on the subject of being a lesbian... in addition to simply having lesbian characters present in a given narrative.

[sel]

Amanda, your post came in same time as mine.

Motion carried unanimously - Tipping the Velvet is the best start. 

Well girls,  Tipping the Velvet   then will be! 

My town library has an excellent selection of books in English, I will check there first, if it is not there I will either get it in London, all being well I planning to go there at the beginning of summer, or will order it through Amazon. I wouldn't want to read in Italian unless I found the English rather difficult. Funnily enough the one author who I find no easy at all to read in English is Annie Proulx, ended up reading the Shipping News in  Italian.

Amanda,

I will watch Aimée and Jaguar again as it has been a while since I watched it, and will get back to you with a list of questions.

[Lumière]

Okay, time to revive this thread. 
Amanda, you with me on this? 

[Lumière]

I recently ordered the following books, which I think are relevant to the subject of this thread...


Two Friends And Other 19th Century Lesbian Stories By American Women
by Susan Koppelman





[Amazon.com]
From Library Journal
This collection describes romantic attachments between women. The subject would not be extraordinary had the stories not been written in the late 19th century by some of the most respected American authors, including Mary Wilkins Freeman, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, and Sarah Orne Jewett. Lesbian love was not a conventional theme of 19th-century American literature and had to be muted in these stories. Thus, Phelps writes about a woman torn between being fulfilled in the spiritual realm after she leaves her body and being separated from her one true love, the woman mourning beside her casket, in "Since I Died." Writer/historian Koppelman (May Your Days Be Merry and Bright, NAL/Dial, 1991) carefully documents the professional and personal lives of these authors to put their work in literary and historical perspective. Most important, she decodes elements and symbols in the stories that were popular in the 19th century but might be unfamiliar to contemporary readers. This exceedingly important contribution to the study of women's history and lesbian literature in America is highly recommended for academic and large public libraries.
Lisa Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

[Lumière]

A Century of Lesbian Erotica
by Susie Bright [et al.] , Susie Bright





[Chapters.ca]
Follow the development of lesbian erotic writing through the past hyperactive 100 years and have fun while you`re at it with this anthology. During the last century gay men and women have gained acceptance, freedom and rights on many different levels. At the same time erotic art in the gay community has flourished. With some of the fears of persecution off their shoulders, authors such as Susie Bright, Lizbeth Dusseau and Alison Tyler have felt free to openly explore their sexuality. The result is a collection of sensual, loving stories in A Century of Lesbian Erotica.   

[Lumière]

These next two books have been added to my wish list.

This one is of particular interest to me at the moment, since I am currently reading: 
Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century by Graham Robb.  Amanda, I got it on your recommendation and it is a very interesting/informative read so far. 


Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present
by Neil Miller




[Amazon.com]

From Publishers Weekly
Bachelor lawyer Abraham Lincoln shared a bed with Illinois storekeeper Joshua Speed for three years starting in 1839. Because of its portrayal of a lesbian "Boston marriage," Henry James's The Bostonians was omitted from the 26-volume Scribner edition of his works published 1907-1917. The facts recounted in this chronicle of gay and lesbian history from Walt Whitman to the movie Philadelphia range from the trivial to the interesting to the revelatory, with chapter-length narratives on the Harlem Renaissance and Paris in the 1920s; the Oscar Wilde and Radclyffe Hall trials; the romantic relationships between Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok; homosexual entanglements among the Bloomsbury set; and Native American men who dressed and lived as women. Miller (Out in America) uses a conventional textbook style that at times infuriates with the simplicity of its tone. Although he uses fairly well-known primary source material, his excerpts are intriguing: A moving passage from Marvin Leibman's Coming Out Conservative illustrates his experience with discrimination in the military during WWII; Gide's autobiography recaptures his impression of meeting Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas at 25. This overview shows how some recent advances merely reprise gains made and lost in the past; while some past activities outdid anything in the present. Photos not seen by PW.  Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

[Lumière]

   
Golden Age of Lesbian Erotica: 1920-1940
by Victoria Brownworth (Editor)





[Amazon.com ]
Product Description
Lesbian erotica of the 1920s through the 1940s had a bold new cast to it. Unlike the tender and affectionate eroticism of the Victorian era with its naughty schoolgirls, convent antics and ladies-in-waiting, these 20th Century tales brought verisimilitude and fantasy together. While Radclyffe Hall was being prosecuted for obscenity for her depiction of "sapphics" and "inverts" in the classic lesbian novel *The Well of Loneliness,* her friend Natalie Barney was riding naked through the streets of Paris on horseback with her lover, the poet Renee Vivienne and Anais Nin were penning lurid and lustful tales of very bad girls while yearning for Henry Miller's sensual wife, June.


About the Author
Victoria A. Brownworth is the author of nine books, including the award-winning *Too Queer: Essays from a Radical Life* and editor of 14, including the award-winning *Night Bites: VampireTales of Blood and Lust. * A syndicated columnist, her work has appeared in numerous mainstream, queer and feminist publications, including the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Village Voice, the Advocate, OUT and Curve. Her erotic writing has appeared regularly in anthologies and magazines, and she is a former contributing writer to the lesbian sex magazines, *On Our Backs* and *Bad Attitude.*  ...

[Lumière]

That's all for now... More later.

 I've been thinking of doing a Beyond the Pale re-read at some point in the near future.
But I have quite a few books sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read, so it hasn't happened yet.

Amanda, got any good books on the go at the moment? 

[sel]

Hi Lumière and Amanda,

Never having read a lesbian themed story, a few posts back (and a few months back) I had asked you to suggest one. You both suggested Tipping the velvet.
I am back to report that I have read it and enjoyed it.
I never had, at least to my knowledge, had any female gay friends, knew hardly anything about the lesbian world, hence every page was a discovery.
I like Sarah Waters's writing style, some passages have been beautifully written. I won't say more as I feel I would inevitably give out spoilers.
Proud to say I read it in English.

[Brown Eyes]

Hi Lumière and Amanda,

Never having read a lesbian themed story, a few posts back (and a few months back) I had asked you to suggest one. You both suggested Tipping the velvet.
I am back to report that I have read it and enjoyed it.
I never had, at least to my knowledge, had any female gay friends, knew hardly anything about the lesbian world, hence every page was a discovery.
I like Sarah Waters's writing style, some passages have been beautifully written. I won't say more as I feel I would inevitably give out spoilers.
Proud to say I read it in English.

Hi Sel!!

Thanks for this report!  I'm very happy to hear that you enjoyed Tipping the Velvet.   I recommend watching the movie (actually a 3 part BBC mini series on DVD) if you get the chance, it's really fabulous and the source of a lot of the pictures that we've posted over on the Sarah Waters thread.

[sel]

Hi Sel!!

Thanks for this report!  I'm very happy to hear that you enjoyed Tipping the Velvet.   I recommend watching the movie (actually a 3 part BBC mini series on DVD) if you get the chance, it's really fabulous and the source of a lot of the pictures that we've posted over on the Sarah Waters thread.

Hi Amanda!

Have just been over to the Sarah Waters thread, there's plenty to read. I will go back to it when I am not running out of time.

[Lumière]

Another title to add to the list of period, lesbian novels.
Pretty much every review I have read of this book has been good.


The World Unseen
by Shamim Sarif




Amazon.ca
In 1950's South Africa, free-spirited Amina has broken all the rules of her own conventional Indian community, and the new apartheid-led government, by running a café with Jacob her 'coloured' business partner. When she meets Miriam, a young wife and mother, their unexpected attraction pushes Miriam to question the rules that bind her and a chain of events is set in motion that changes both women forever. The World Unseen transports us to a vibrant, colourful world, a world that divides white from black and women from men, but one that might just allow an unexpected love to survive.

About the Author
Shamim Sarif lives in London with her partner Hanan and their two children. She was born in the UK, and is of South African and Indian descent. This heritage formed the starting point for her first novel, 'The World Unseen' which won a Betty Trask Award and the Pendleton May First Novel Award. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


This book has also been adapted into a movie..

I recently purchased a box set of two movies adapted from two novels by Shamim Sarif:
The World Unseen and I can't think straight.  She wrote the screenplays and directed the movies herself.

Both movies were good but I enjoyed The World Unseen more.  The novel is wonderful and translated very well onto screen.
Check it out. 

[Lumière]

Reviving this thread to say....


The BBC is coming out with the much anticipated 90-minute TV adaptation of Anne Lister's life: "The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister".


"The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister".

Bold and passionate drama telling the story of Anne Lister, 1791-1840, a Yorkshire landowner, industrialist, traveller and diarist. She was a lesbian, who, despite needing to keep her orientation secret from society at large, in private defied the conventions of her times by living with her female lover.

Anne kept a detailed account of her life, her loves and her emotions in a fascinating and painfully honest 4,000,000-word journal. A sizeable portion was written in code, and the recent deciphering of the diaries provides an astonishing insight into the life of the woman who has been called Britain's first modern lesbian.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00snjmd




ALSO:


Check out this article on AfterEllen.com for the trailer and other details!


Can't wait to see this. 

[Sophia]

sounds like something I would like to see, Jane austen period in combo with feministic/gay angle how more cool can it be. Hope I will be able to see it
soon. Thanks for sharing!

Reviving this thread to say....


The BBC is coming out with the much anticipated 90-minute TV adaptation of Anne Lister's life: "The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister".


"The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister".

Bold and passionate drama telling the story of Anne Lister, 1791-1840, a Yorkshire landowner, industrialist, traveller and diarist. She was a lesbian, who, despite needing to keep her orientation secret from society at large, in private defied the conventions of her times by living with her female lover.

Anne kept a detailed account of her life, her loves and her emotions in a fascinating and painfully honest 4,000,000-word journal. A sizeable portion was written in code, and the recent deciphering of the diaries provides an astonishing insight into the life of the woman who has been called Britain's first modern lesbian.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00snjmd




ALSO:


Check out this article on AfterEllen.com for the trailer and other details!


Can't wait to see this. 

[Brown Eyes]

Hey M!!  Thanks for this info!  Sounds amazing!    So great to see you here Bud! We've missed you around here.

Reviving this thread to say....


The BBC is coming out with the much anticipated 90-minute TV adaptation of Anne Lister's life: "The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister".


"The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister".

Bold and passionate drama telling the story of Anne Lister, 1791-1840, a Yorkshire landowner, industrialist, traveller and diarist. She was a lesbian, who, despite needing to keep her orientation secret from society at large, in private defied the conventions of her times by living with her female lover.

Anne kept a detailed account of her life, her loves and her emotions in a fascinating and painfully honest 4,000,000-word journal. A sizeable portion was written in code, and the recent deciphering of the diaries provides an astonishing insight into the life of the woman who has been called Britain's first modern lesbian.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00snjmd




ALSO:


Check out this article on AfterEllen.com for the trailer and other details!


Can't wait to see this. 

[Front-Ranger]

What are your thoughts on the book Middlesex? I read an excerpt from it that was very good. I understand that John Gallagher was reading it recently.

I'm reading this now. It's extremely well written!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Britain's first modern lesbian.

I'm sorry, but I find that phrase kind of funny. Like, as opposed to what? Britain's last ancient lesbian?

[Brown Eyes]

Heya!  I'm so sorry to have gone missing from this thread (and BetterMost in general) for a little while.  I just needed a break from forums for a bit.

I've recently joined a lesbian bookclub in Pittsburgh and we're trying to build a reading list, so this thread is super useful!!  I'm wondering if people have more recommendations of full-length books?  There are a lot of anthologies listed throughout this thread, but I would love to hear more about full novels that folks have enjoyed. 

Thanks in advance for help on this!

[Penthesilea]

Heya!  I'm so sorry to have gone missing from this thread (and BetterMost in general) for a little while.  I just needed a break from forums for a bit.

Hi Amanda! Great to see you here again!
I've missed you.

I've recently joined a lesbian bookclub in Pittsburgh and we're trying to build a reading list, so this thread is super useful!!  I'm wondering if people have more recommendations of full-length books?  There are a lot of anthologies listed throughout this thread, but I would love to hear more about full novels that folks have enjoyed.  

Thanks in advance for help on this!

Your reviving this thread made me check out some age-old favorites of mine. No lesbian fiction among it, but some great feminist non-fiction. Most of them only in German though, I'm afraid. One I remembered, which has an American original, is Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will.
I haven't read it in 20 years or so, thus I can't say how it holds up nowadays. From the viewpoint of a discussion group, this may be not the worst thing.


My favorite feminist book always was Ursula Scheu: Wir werden nicht als Mädchen geboren, wir werden dazu gemacht (We're not born as girls, we are made into girls). I don't think it was ever translated into English however. But who knows, maybe at some point someone will read this post who can read German.



As for fiction: If I think of our small BBM fandom, there are so many good stories in such a small fandom. There ought to be a plethora of stories online of lesbian fiction/erotica. There must be some good stuff among it.

Are you on goodreads? They have book groups/clubs, rec lists for almost anything, and plenty of tags. I think if you're looking for specific genres, this is a good place.
Their lists are really a great tool. If you look up a book, you get themed lists where this book is on, and can go from there. You can really get lost in their lists and surf from book to book, from list to list for hours. It shows you only two lists at a time by default, so don't forget to click "more lists with this book", you'll get plenty.

www.goodreads.com