Broken Not Shattered


Rita Potter - 2021
    Jill is trapped in an abusive marriage, while raising two young girls. Her husband has isolated her from the world and filled her days with fear. The last thing on her mind is love, but she sure could use a friend.Alex McCoy is enjoying a comfortable life, with great friends and a prosperous business. She has given up on love, after picking the wrong woman one too many times. Little does she know, a simple act of kindness might change her life forever.When Alex lends a helping hand to Jill at the local grocery store, they are surprised by their immediate connection and an unlikely friendship develops. As their friendship deepens, so too do their fears. In order to protect herself and the girls, Jill can’t let her husband know about her friendship with Alex, and Alex can’t discover what goes on behind closed doors. What would Alex do if she finds out the truth? At the same time, Alex must fight her attraction and be the friend she suspects Jill needs. Besides, Alex knows what every lesbian knows – don’t fall for a straight woman, especially one that’s married…but will her heart listen?

Silk Poems


Jen Bervin - 2017
    This poem, written from the perspective of the silkworm, explores the cultural, scientific, and linguistic complexities of silk written inside the body.

My Sister's Keeper


Mavis Applewater - 2004
    She just wants to be in love. Sound simple? Well, there's a catch. She wants to be deeply in love with someone who is also deeply in love with her. Jenny must face the past and the present when she discovers her lover's infidelity and her first love walks back into her life. Her life becomes even more complicated when old feelings surface for her first love -- the woman who broke her heart as a teenager, then entered the church and became "Sister Rachel". In her third published book, Mavis Applewater brings to the printed page a perfect combination of heat and romance, with just the right amount of adventure.

People in Trouble


Sarah Schulman - 1990
    The film Rent stole most of its best plot points from this novel.

In Her I Am


Chrystos - 1993
    This is an amazing collection of erotic pleasures.

Love Haiku: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion, and Remembrance


Patricia Donegan - 2009
    While haiku most often depicts the natural world, when focused on the elements of love and sensuality, haiku can be a powerful vehicle for evoking the universal experience of love. In this elegant anthology, love is explored through beautiful images that evoke a range of feelings—from the longing of a lover to the passion of a romantic relationship. Written by contemporary Japanese poets as well as by haiku masters such as Basho, Buson, and Issa, these poems share not only the haiku poets’ vision for love, but their vision of the poignant moments that express it.

Never Anyone But You


Rupert Thomson - 2018
    Suzanne Malherbe, a shy seventeen-year-old with a talent for drawing, is completely entranced by the brilliant but troubled Lucie Schwob, who comes from a family of wealthy Jewish intellectuals. They embark on a clandestine love affair, terrified they will be discovered, but then, in an astonishing twist of fate, the mother of one marries the father of the other. As “sisters” they are finally free of suspicion, and, hungry for a more stimulating milieu, they move to Paris at a moment when art, literature, and politics blend in an explosive cocktail.Having reinvented themselves as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, they move in the most glamorous social circles, meeting everyone from Hemingway and Dalí to André Breton, and produce provocative photographs that still seem avant-garde today. In the 1930s, with the rise of anti-Semitism and threat of fascism, they leave Paris for Jersey, and it is on this idyllic island that they confront their destiny, creating a campaign of propaganda against Hitler’s occupying forces that will put their lives in jeopardy.Brilliantly imagined, profoundly thought-provoking, and ultimately heartbreaking, Never Anyone But You infuses life into a forgotten history as only great literature can.

Knit One, Girl Two


Shira Glassman - 2017
    Outspoken, passionate, and complicated, Danielle herself soon proves even more captivating than her artwork...Fluffy Jewish f/f contemporary set in the author's childhood home of South Florida

Bidding War


Julia P. Lynde - 2013
    Sam is in trouble after a last minute cancellation of one of the bachelorettes, so Pamela demands to be allowed to help. The only thing is, she doesn't ask the right questions.What ensues is at times funny, poignant, playful, and adventurous as Pamela learns a few things about herself, and about what it might be like to love the right person. Or people.This novel of 84,000 words features warm, sometimes troubled characters, sweet and lovely dates, and perhaps a little bit of hot, graphic sex.

There's A Possibility


Lou J. Bard - 2018
    The only problem? Penelope is straight. Penelope Bennett has been picking up the pieces of Diana's failed and flawed flings since high school and wants for her best friend to find happiness; but is certain that is not with her. A two-month long overseas work excursion puts twenty-four years of friendship to the test when Diana returns home with more than just a new cultural experience and Penelope must decide once and for all if there's a possibility for more between them.

Piece of My Heart


Saxon Bennett - 2016
    Even though she believes true love will never find her, Jenna vows to help other women find their own true loves by opening a dating service. If she can’t find love for herself, she’s determined to find love for her hopelessly inept clients. Through messy mash-ups and zany adventures, Jenna and her best friend and business partner, Dale, help a Turret’s juggler lose her balls, an Elizabeth Taylor impersonator drop her White Diamonds, and a woman with multiple personalities find a girlfriend that adores all of her. Along the way, Jenna discovers that just because she’s given up on love, that doesn’t mean love has given up on her.

Saving Alex: When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began


Alex Cooper - 2016
    At church and at home, Alex was taught that God had a plan for everyone. But something was gnawing at her that made her feel different. These feelings exploded when she met Yvette, a girl who made Alex feel alive in a new way, and with whom Alex would quickly fall in love.Alex knew she was holding a secret that could shatter her family, her church community, and her life. Yet when this secret couldn’t be hidden any longer, she told her parents that she was gay, and the nightmare began. She was driven from her home in Southern California to Utah, where, against her will, her parents handed her over to fellow Mormons who promised to save Alex from her homosexuality.For eight harrowing months, Alex was held captive in an unlicensed “residential treatment program” modeled on the many “therapeutic” boot camps scattered across Utah. Alex was physically and verbally abused, and many days she was forced to stand facing a wall wearing a heavy backpack full of rocks. Her captors used faith to punish and terrorize her. With the help of a dedicated legal team in Salt Lake City, Alex eventually escaped and made legal history in Utah by winning the right to live under the law’s protection as an openly gay teenager.Alex is not alone; the headlines continue to splash stories about gay conversion therapy and rehabilitation centers that promise to “save” teenagers from their sexuality. Saving Alex is a courageous memoir that tells Alex’s story in the hopes that it will bring awareness and justice to this important issue. A bold, inspiring story of one girl’s fight for freedom, acceptance, and truth.

Texas Blues


Ashley Quinn - 2016
    Trying her best to hold it together in Chicago, she is battling both the effects of her mother’s death and the betrayal of her ex-girlfriend. Opting to throw herself into work and the gym, she at first ignores an invitation from her largely absentee father to take some time off at his estate in Texas. He may be the Chairperson of Foster Oil & Gas, but it doesn’t change the fact that he was never part of her life. Besides, she’s up for a big promotion and sees it as the solution away from her one-way track into deep depression. In many ways, Natalie Silva is the complete opposite of London. Where London is pale, Natalie is sun-kissed. In that dark space deep down where London is filled with regrets and bitterness, Natalie radiates warm light. As a Texas native and sort-of Southern belle, Natalie is compassionate, kind and raised with a healthy dose of Southern hospitality. She’s followed her passion for baking throughout her adult life and it’s led her to being a co-owner of Mission Bakery – A popular bakery and food truck she manages with her lesbian aunts and the occasional help from her best friend’s precocious daughter. After a years-old heartbreak, the one lesson she has taken through her life is to never fall for an outsider. You know the type – The mysterious, attractive out-of-towners who offer equal promise of passion and complications. London and Natalie are less than impressed with each other upon their first meeting. But fate and Texas have a very different and much more sensual plan for these two polar opposite women. In the sultry-hot summer heat, they will learn just as much about themselves and their lives as they will about each other…And it might just be everything they want.

Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons


Marilyn Hacker - 1986
    This critically acclaimed sonnet sequence is the passionately intense story of a love affair between two women, from the electricity of their first acquaintance to the experience of their parting.

Trumpet


Jackie Kay - 1998
    Besieged by the press, his widow Millie flees to a remote Scottish village, where she seeks solace in memories of their marriage. The reminiscences of those who knew Joss Moody render a moving portrait of a shared life founded on an intricate lie, one that preserved a rare, unconditional love.