Valencia


Michelle Tea - 2000
    Through a string of narrative moments, Tea records a year lived in a world of girls: there's knife-wielding Marta, who introduces Michelle to a new world of radical sex; Willa, Michelle's tormented poet-girlfriend; Iris, the beautiful boy-dyke who ran away from the South in a dust cloud of drama; and Iris's ex, Magdalena Squalor, to whom Michelle turns when Iris breaks her heart. Valencia conveys a blend of youthful urgency and apocalyptic apathy.

Lone Stars


Justin Deabler - 2021
    Julian Warner, a father at last, wrestles with a question his husband posed: what will you tell our son about the people you came from, now that they're gone? Finding the answers takes Julian back in time to Eisenhower's immigration border raids, an epistolary love affair during the Vietnam War, crumbling marriages, queer migrations to Cambridge and New York, up to the disorienting polarization of Obama's second term. And in these answers lies a hope: that by uncloseting ourselves--as immigrants, smart women, gay people--we find power in empathy.

The Art of Pretending


Jae - 2008
    She suspects Frankie, a woman who reminds her of Luke. But nothing is as it seems.

Toward Amnesia


Sarah Van Arsdale - 1995
    Bordering on obsessed and unable to make sense of her solitary life, she heads cross-country without a word, resolved to cultivate a new persona by creating her own kind of amnesia. But as time goes by, she is unable to deny hers truest self. Targeted media.

The Tree and the Vine


Dola de Jong - 1954
    Erica, a reckless young journalist, pursues passionate but abusive affairs with different women. Bea, a reserved secretary, grows increasingly obsessed with Erica —yet denial and shame keep her from recognizing her attraction. Only Bea’s discovery that Erica is half-Jewish and a member of the Dutch resistance—and thus very much in danger—brings her closer to accepting her own feelings.

Girl Games


Mia Archer - 2016
    We were totally wrong for each other, so why does this feel so right? Lisa was the good girl. Prom queen. Captain of the cheer squad. Geeky games weren't her thing, but she was home from college and bored. And when she heard Kylie was going to be there she knew she had to at least check things out. Kylie was a proud geek who didn't care what the world thought. Kylie figured it was game night as normal until Lisa stepped into the game room reigniting old feelings she never thought she'd nave to deal with again after going to college. Two girls who've spent years hiding who they truly were. Two girls afraid to admit how much they need each other. Two girls who are tired of denying who they really are. Especially to each other. What was supposed to be a simple game quickly becomes a game of love that will change both of their lives! But will they be able to let go and finally let it happen?

Alcestis


Katharine Beutner - 2010
    Taking center stage in this debut novel is Alcestis, the fabled ‘good wife’ who sacrificed herself in order to save her much loved husband, King Admetus. In this reworking of the classic legend, a decidedly more complex and restless Alcestis is provided with an intriguing backstory involving her childhood and the untimely death of her favorite sister, Hippothoe. When Admetus is too cowardly to face his own death, Alcestis, hopeful of reuniting with Hippothoe, agrees to take his place in the Underworld. It is here in death that Alcestis wrestles with the true nature of love and loss, as she falls under the seductive spell of Persephone...” --Margaret Fuller, Booklist

In Another Place, Not Here


Dionne Brand - 1986
    . . a work of great beauty and moral imagination," In Another Place, Not Here tells of two contemporary Caribbean women who find brief refuge in each other on an island in the midst of political uprising. Elizete, dreaming of running to another place to escape the harshness of her daily life on the island, meets Verlia, an urban woman in constant flight who has returned to her island birthplace with hopes of revolution. Their tumultuous story moves between city and island, past and future, fantasy and reality.

Wall of Silence


Gabrielle Goldsby - 2003
    A cover up ensues and Foster begins numbing herself with alcohol at a neighbourhood bar. There she meets Riley Meideros, the one person strong enough to hear Foster's painful secret and not turn away.

The Master


Colm Tóibín - 2004
    With stunningly resonant prose, “The Master is unquestionably the work of a first-rate novelist: artful, moving, and very beautiful” (The New York Times Book Review). The emotional intensity of this portrait is riveting.

Shy Girl


Elizabeth Stark - 1999
    a young woman confident, even nonchalant, about her sexual conquests of other women. She works as a body piercer at a full-service tattoo parlor, rides a motorcycle, and has slept with every girl in San Francisco who is so inclined. But none can replace Sasha "Shy" Mallon, the next-door neighbor from her girlhood. As teenagers, they discovered themselves together; then Shy fled to Seattle and entered a relationship with a man. Now Shy has returned, pregnant, to be at her dying mother's bedside. Alta joins her there; and soon they are tending toward intimacy again, in a way that shakes up their notions of who they are, as well as opening up the secrets of their mothers' lives.

La Bâtarde


Violette Leduc - 1964
    When first published, La Batarde earned Violette Leduc comparisons to Jean Genet for the frank depiction of her sexual escapades and immoral behavior. A confession that contains portraits of several famous French authors, this book is more than just a scintillating memoir. Like that of Henry Miller, Leduc's brilliant writing style and attention to language transform this autobiography into a work of art.Violette Leduc was born the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl and was encouraged to write by Maurice Sachs and Simone de Beauvoir. Her first novel, L'Asphyxie (In the Prison of Her Skin), was published by Camus for Gallimard and earned her praise from Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, and Jean Genet. She went on to write eight more books, including Ravages, L'Affamee, and La Folie en tete (Mad in Pursuit), the second part of her literary autobiography.

Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing


May Sarton - 1965
    As it opens, Hilary Stevens, a renowned poet in her seventies, is talking with Mar, an intense young man who has sought her out and whose passionate despair reminds her of herself when young. Mar has had an unhappy love affair with a man. Bewildered by both his sexuality and his writing talent, he flings his anguish against Hilary s brusque, sympathetic intelligence."

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


Lillian FadermanSarah Orne Jewett - 1994
    This landmark work of scholarship offers an enlightening review of the shifting concept of "lesbian literature," followed by examples of six different genres: Romantic Friendship, Sexual Inversion, Exotic and Evil Lesbians, Lesbian Encoding, Lesbian Feminism, and Post-Lesbian Feminism.Faderman examines works as diverse as Willa Cather's My Antonia and Virginia Woolf's Orlando; poetry by Gertrude Stein and Amy Lowell; fiction by Carson McCullers, Helen Hull, and Alice Walker. In addition, Chloe Plus Olivia contains writing by men who focused on women's relationships. These writings are included in the early section of the book and were, in various ways, important to the development of lesbian literature, since men were far more likely than women to achieve publication in other centuries.It would be impossible to identify a single "great tradition" of lesbian writing, since it is in constant metamorphosis, reflecting changing social attitudes and women's voices. Chloe Plus Olivia, with its historical scope enhanced by Faderman's own personal search for a definition of lesbian literature, makes this the first book of its kind; it is certain to become the point of reference from which all subsequent studies of lesbian literature will begin.

The Far Pavilions (Vol. 1) Part 1 Of 2


M.M. Kaye - 1978
    Kaye weaves a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war. Spanning 25 of the 19th century's most turbulent years, it is a story of hatred and bitter combat; of courage, cowardice and sacrifice; of the star-crossed wedding of East and West; and, above all, of a love that transcends time and place."One of the great literary triumphs of 20th century letters and the screen. Stands with the Forsyth Saga and other great narrative epics of our era. Unconditionally recommended." (B-O-T Editorial Review Board)