DROWN ME IN LADY BOOKS, pt. 1
Dec. 24th, 2025 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeMori: I done got my periodic need for books about queer ladies, so I have been wallowing in lady books. Here’s what I read!
Nearly Roadkill, by Kate Bornstein and Caitlin Sullivan. We read the 1996 and 2025 editions side by side for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
pluralstories because the editions are significantly different and we like comparing and contrasting like that. Two genderfucking netizens cybersex their way into an accidental revolution and Internet general strike in reaction to ad agencies running the Internet and demanding registration of your “real” identity so they can market to you more effectively. This book is prescient, though I ain’t sure I’d call it well-written; the authors readily admit a lot of it was their RP chat logs and then they had to find a plot for it. Still, if you like queers pontificating about the nature of self and identity while fucking their way across Usenet, BBS, and AOL, boy howdy is this book for you! Glad we read both editions, but despite the crunchiness of the ‘96 edition, we liked it better. Whoever did the type design on it deserves a fucking medal; the 2025 edition stuck with mainly one typeface and it was easy to get lost. ‘96 version now in the sci-fi library!
Carmella, by Jewelle Gomez. Two vampires (mom and daughter) escaping slavery via Underground Railroad... but their enslaver is also their sire, so they have both slavecatchers AND angry vampires after them. Gomez writes vampirism in a way that really makes us care, with these lady vampires learning to treat blood-sharing as acts of consensual reciprocation, rather than tools of violence and enslavement. Normally we don’t like vampire stories, but every one we’ve read by Gomez is gold. We’re still eagerly awaiting our order of her earlier book, the Gilda Stories.
Clicking Stones, by Nancy Tyler Glenn. A girl discovers that tapping a stone of hers against someone else’s makes them both glow, but only some people can see it. (Others hear or feel it instead.) Did not finish; I found the protagonist too passive and just wasn’t able to enjoy a book about a woman who accidentally starts a stone-clicking cult and after a hundred or more pages showed no sign of engaging with the reality of it. (Oh, okay, she owns a horse and a nice car and her offices are taken care of by unpaid follower labor, all of which are people who can’t perceive the glowing stones. Oh, so it’s all the evil gay man’s fault. No thanks.)
Edited Out, by Lisa Haddock. Lesbian mystery where an Oklahoma copy editor gets sucked into a closed case from years before, where a young girl was found raped and murdered in her lesbian teacher’s house; the teacher killed herself soon after. A little rough towards the end, but satisfying; I especially appreciated the complexity of the relationship between the heroine and her cantankerous, racist, homophobic grandma, the latter of whom could’ve so easily been a stereotypical boogeyman. Haddock released a revised edition recently, and there was also a sequel; I might check them out. This was her first book, I think, and I’d like to see how her writing evolved.
Mrs. Porter’s Letter, by Vicki McDonnell. Lesbian mystery where our heroine buys an old desk, only to discover a mysterious hidden bundle of ancient (and illicit) old love letters inside. Totally bounced off this one and no clue why; I really liked a later book in this series! May try again later.
Clenched Fists, Burning Crosses, by Cris South. Yowsa! This book, I wasn’t sure I’d like at all, and it’s been my favorite so far! Lesbians fight the Klan in North Carolina! Terrible things happen! The law is corrupt! Triumph, healing, and power come not from cops and lawyers, but themselves! The most cathartic ending I’ve read in a long time, holy shit! Me and Biff devoured this fucker, couldn’t put it down. I just wish, wish, wish we’d gotten to see more of Laura, the main black character, her thoughts and feelings while all this is going on. I so badly wanted to see her have a “break down crying” scene and getting comforted by the women who love her. At least she gets to watch her girlfriend (SPOILERS). This one’s a keeper!
And now I feel a craving to make a lady zine. I BELIEVE IN ME!
Nearly Roadkill, by Kate Bornstein and Caitlin Sullivan. We read the 1996 and 2025 editions side by side for
pluralstories because the editions are significantly different and we like comparing and contrasting like that. Two genderfucking netizens cybersex their way into an accidental revolution and Internet general strike in reaction to ad agencies running the Internet and demanding registration of your “real” identity so they can market to you more effectively. This book is prescient, though I ain’t sure I’d call it well-written; the authors readily admit a lot of it was their RP chat logs and then they had to find a plot for it. Still, if you like queers pontificating about the nature of self and identity while fucking their way across Usenet, BBS, and AOL, boy howdy is this book for you! Glad we read both editions, but despite the crunchiness of the ‘96 edition, we liked it better. Whoever did the type design on it deserves a fucking medal; the 2025 edition stuck with mainly one typeface and it was easy to get lost. ‘96 version now in the sci-fi library!Carmella, by Jewelle Gomez. Two vampires (mom and daughter) escaping slavery via Underground Railroad... but their enslaver is also their sire, so they have both slavecatchers AND angry vampires after them. Gomez writes vampirism in a way that really makes us care, with these lady vampires learning to treat blood-sharing as acts of consensual reciprocation, rather than tools of violence and enslavement. Normally we don’t like vampire stories, but every one we’ve read by Gomez is gold. We’re still eagerly awaiting our order of her earlier book, the Gilda Stories.
Clicking Stones, by Nancy Tyler Glenn. A girl discovers that tapping a stone of hers against someone else’s makes them both glow, but only some people can see it. (Others hear or feel it instead.) Did not finish; I found the protagonist too passive and just wasn’t able to enjoy a book about a woman who accidentally starts a stone-clicking cult and after a hundred or more pages showed no sign of engaging with the reality of it. (Oh, okay, she owns a horse and a nice car and her offices are taken care of by unpaid follower labor, all of which are people who can’t perceive the glowing stones. Oh, so it’s all the evil gay man’s fault. No thanks.)
Edited Out, by Lisa Haddock. Lesbian mystery where an Oklahoma copy editor gets sucked into a closed case from years before, where a young girl was found raped and murdered in her lesbian teacher’s house; the teacher killed herself soon after. A little rough towards the end, but satisfying; I especially appreciated the complexity of the relationship between the heroine and her cantankerous, racist, homophobic grandma, the latter of whom could’ve so easily been a stereotypical boogeyman. Haddock released a revised edition recently, and there was also a sequel; I might check them out. This was her first book, I think, and I’d like to see how her writing evolved.
Mrs. Porter’s Letter, by Vicki McDonnell. Lesbian mystery where our heroine buys an old desk, only to discover a mysterious hidden bundle of ancient (and illicit) old love letters inside. Totally bounced off this one and no clue why; I really liked a later book in this series! May try again later.
Clenched Fists, Burning Crosses, by Cris South. Yowsa! This book, I wasn’t sure I’d like at all, and it’s been my favorite so far! Lesbians fight the Klan in North Carolina! Terrible things happen! The law is corrupt! Triumph, healing, and power come not from cops and lawyers, but themselves! The most cathartic ending I’ve read in a long time, holy shit! Me and Biff devoured this fucker, couldn’t put it down. I just wish, wish, wish we’d gotten to see more of Laura, the main black character, her thoughts and feelings while all this is going on. I so badly wanted to see her have a “break down crying” scene and getting comforted by the women who love her. At least she gets to watch her girlfriend (SPOILERS). This one’s a keeper!
And now I feel a craving to make a lady zine. I BELIEVE IN ME!
