Books and other such creatures
May. 15th, 2009 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
effex[looks despairingly at To Read pile] Have I really read all my new books (I mean, the ones I want to read and didn't just buy to read 'someday')? This is making me antsy, y'all, I think I need a book run *stat.* Will comb the rec lists that have been going around, but does anyone have any particular suggestions? I'm really kinda jonesing for lesbian genre fiction - mysteries, romance, scifi, anything fun and awesome (if someone can hook me up with a lesbian superhero romance, I will love you forever).
Currently Reading:
Cunt by Inga Muscio (I don't take this one on the bus with me for, lo, I am a wimp, and it's been regulated to strictly bathroom reading. But I'll finish it someday!)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Finished Reading:
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (reread)
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
Girl Meets Girl: A Dating Survival Guide by Diana Cage
To Read Pile:
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Girl Meets Girl was fantastic! I am a horrible, horrible lesbian (don't date much, totally out of touch with the community, socially awkward) and I really wish time travel existed so I could put this in the hands of my 19 year old self - it covers everything from joining the local community, meeting people, dating, relationship advice, sex... and very open about gender identity, sexual identity, and the different ways one can be a women interested in dating other women (and men who are biologically female, and women who are biologically male). And through it all I was like, huh, this would be useful for writing (fan)fiction [facepalms]. Also made me think Deep Thoughts about gender expression, the butch/femme dichotomy, and what being female and queer means to me, so!
These Old Shades is my... fourth? Heyer book - I read and loved The Grand Sophie and Cotillion and never quite finished The Corinthian - I had issues with it, mostly age issues, and also I think Richard prefers men (and possibly Penn prefers women). It's been a while, though, I'll have to reread. I just, they never really worked for me as a couple.
These Old Shades had the same age issues (more? I think the Duc of Avon's older then Wyndham), and also crossdressing (and a lot of behavior that's pretty homoerotic, from my 21st century perspective, if you don't know there's crossdressing going on. There *had* to be people thinking Justin was diddling his page), and a real power imbalance and class issues, omg, and I almost put it down a couple of times but... the longer I read the more it worked for me. Heyer wrote Léonie so *subtly,* so much of her character and growth was hidden beneath her temper and flash and wide eyed innocence (not so innocent, after all), that I admittedly missed most of it until Justin pointed it out in passing. So *much* of the romance in this book was beneath the surface, it's incredible. And yet, when the resolution came, I was happy for both of them. Also, "I like being a married women, I think" (paraphrased) is totally code for "yay, sex!"
Those class issues, though. Just, I'm sorry, Heyer, but a desire to farm is *not* intrinsic to the children of farmers. Nor is cloddishness, dim intellect, or a lack of grace. In the same way, grace, beauty, and wit is not intrinsic to those of noble birth [shudders].
Currently Reading:
Cunt by Inga Muscio (I don't take this one on the bus with me for, lo, I am a wimp, and it's been regulated to strictly bathroom reading. But I'll finish it someday!)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Finished Reading:
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (reread)
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
Girl Meets Girl: A Dating Survival Guide by Diana Cage
To Read Pile:
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Girl Meets Girl was fantastic! I am a horrible, horrible lesbian (don't date much, totally out of touch with the community, socially awkward) and I really wish time travel existed so I could put this in the hands of my 19 year old self - it covers everything from joining the local community, meeting people, dating, relationship advice, sex... and very open about gender identity, sexual identity, and the different ways one can be a women interested in dating other women (and men who are biologically female, and women who are biologically male). And through it all I was like, huh, this would be useful for writing (fan)fiction [facepalms]. Also made me think Deep Thoughts about gender expression, the butch/femme dichotomy, and what being female and queer means to me, so!
These Old Shades is my... fourth? Heyer book - I read and loved The Grand Sophie and Cotillion and never quite finished The Corinthian - I had issues with it, mostly age issues, and also I think Richard prefers men (and possibly Penn prefers women). It's been a while, though, I'll have to reread. I just, they never really worked for me as a couple.
These Old Shades had the same age issues (more? I think the Duc of Avon's older then Wyndham), and also crossdressing (and a lot of behavior that's pretty homoerotic, from my 21st century perspective, if you don't know there's crossdressing going on. There *had* to be people thinking Justin was diddling his page), and a real power imbalance and class issues, omg, and I almost put it down a couple of times but... the longer I read the more it worked for me. Heyer wrote Léonie so *subtly,* so much of her character and growth was hidden beneath her temper and flash and wide eyed innocence (not so innocent, after all), that I admittedly missed most of it until Justin pointed it out in passing. So *much* of the romance in this book was beneath the surface, it's incredible. And yet, when the resolution came, I was happy for both of them. Also, "I like being a married women, I think" (paraphrased) is totally code for "yay, sex!"
Those class issues, though. Just, I'm sorry, Heyer, but a desire to farm is *not* intrinsic to the children of farmers. Nor is cloddishness, dim intellect, or a lack of grace. In the same way, grace, beauty, and wit is not intrinsic to those of noble birth [shudders].
