I Need A Book...

So this is kind of like a post I put in a different thread but I have figured you all will be able to help me out better than anyone else.
I am new to this thread but I am glad I was lead to it! :)
So here it is, I live in a very small town so me finding books with lesbians in it is EXTREMELY difficult. And the local library I work at doesn't list any of the books saying they have a lesbian character or anything, so I just kind of flip through and hope I get lucky. So...can you all give me some suggestions of books to read. I read any genre but I am not a huge teen fiction reader, I read that in middleschool and enjoyed it then. But now not so much...
I have read Rubyfruit Jungle, Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith, Sing You Home, Wolfcry and a lot more right now I am reading The Diaries of Miss Ann Lister.
Help me out please :)

Have you read any of the Jane Lawless Mysteries by Ellen Hart, there are tons of them. Or the Kate Martinelli mysteries by Laurie R. King (She also has the Anita Blake mysteries too, although I think Blake is bi not lesbian).

Does your town participate in a greater library network? That might help if you can easily ILL some stuff too...

Oh, and if you have some sort of keyword search or publisher search in the catalog look for ones published by New Victoria, or Bold Strokes Books, or Bella Books, or Regal Publishing (to just name a couple).

Okay, thank you! I have read the Anita Blake series she is more straight if we go by the Kinsey scale lol but still pretty good books and the author is AWESOME!
We do have ILL actually I work the ILL but I don't really want anyone I work with to see my reading materials first hand since it is a small town and very closed minded. Only two people I work with know my orientation and I want to keep it that way because I don't think anyone else would be so understanding if you catch my drift.
But I will for sure see if we have a publisher search...I don't think we do though...

>2 DanieXJ: We can search by publisher but nothing came up for them... :(

Oh and Anita Blake is written by Laurell K. Hamilton ;)

Oh, right. Laurie R. King writes the crazy Shakespeare's (or is it Sherlock's) lady friend series. But... she also does write the Kate Martinelli series. Martinelli is a cop in SF and most definitely gay.

I'll keep thinking too.... and, I get what you mean about the small town.

Kate Calloway? Has a bunch of numbered books, first...., second.... etc.

Diane Davidson? Deadly rendezvous.

(and if at any time you want me to stop I will.... :))

Carry The One by Carol Anshaw?

Some of Emma Donoghue's stuff is lesbian also.

Or Brendan DuBois' mysteries that are set in New Hampshire, the lesbian cop isn't a humongous character, but not a little one either.

J.A. Pitts, A trilogy, Black Blade Blues, Honeyed Words, Forged in Fire

The Hours

Oh, and you might find some stuff by Katherine V. Forrest there too... she has a couple of different 'mainstream'ish serieses.

Last one before I go have dinner. There's always Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe Total classic, and I thought, tons better than the movie!! :)

One great way to find recommendations is to pick a library with an large LGBTQ collection & browse their books. I've found lots of new authors that way. Thank the gods for librarything :)

My public library doesn't have a lot, like we have Sarah Waters but it is her non-lesbian material we have. Same with Emma Donoghue it is her non-lesbian books we have.
We have some LGBTQ books but not a lot, I have read and watched The Hours I really enjoyed it.
The other library near us has some choices but I don't particularly like the librarians there they are very uppity.
For Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe I have seen the movie (Mary Louise Parker *wolf whistle* She is gorgeous) but I haven't read the book yet. I believe we have that.
I have read The Color Purple and scene the Broadway musical, I LOVED IT!!
Thank you for all of the suggestions! Please keep them coming!!

Have you tried typing "lesbian fiction" into the LT search box and then going to the tags section? It will show you LT books tagged as "lesbian fiction" (just an example, you could also check out "lesbian romance" "lesbian mystery" etc.)

The great thing is the book covers come up on a "bookshelf" so it's rather like browsing at a library . . . of all books on one topic :) Then you can go to any that look interesting and see how many people have them, how they are rated, read descriptions . . .

We all have our favorites, but it's difficult to pick for someone else. Though I will second the Jane Lawless Mysteries by Ellen Hart!!

You might also browse the libraries of folks in this group. I have a Collection called "LGBT-Purple Bookshelf". In the real world it's a beautiful purple bookshelf in my purple room and it contains some, but not all, of my LGBT fiction. :)

Happy Reading!

>9 LucindaLibri: Thank you! The sad thing is I have been searching every author and book I find, we will have the authors books but none of their LGBTQ books. I find it really upsetting, and I want to go to the director about it but the thing is only two people I work with there know I am a lesbian well one things I am sexually fluid but oh well...either way with it being a small town I wish not to be all that out because word will go around...and I would get a lot of heat, more than what I do get.
I already know if I suggest it that I will instantly be treated differently and questioned almost as it were.
So I am left to having to purchase a lot of books and on rare occasions do an interlibrary loan for the books.

Ooh, definitely read Fried Green Tomatoes, I'm not usually a buy-er of books. I'm addicted to the library 'cause then once I'm done reading them I can return them... :) But, Fried Green Tomatoes, after I read that one I just had to get it. The movie is good, the book is awesome!!!

I have to say though, even in some bigger libraries, or middling sized libraries sometimes the LGBTQ representation isn't that great. Especially the gay men themed books, romance or otherwise. That topic seems even more taboo than the lesbian themed ones.

I assume that you've done a quick turn through the catalog in the teen section? I'm always hit or miss when it comes to the teen lgbt books since I'm not longer one and I read more adult books than teen ones when I was that age... :)

And definitely check out my tags/bookshelves (if you can figure them out mwahahahahaha ;))

If you can scare up a copy, Dorothy Allison's Trash is a fantastic story collection. One of my favorite stories in there is called "A Lesbian Appetite" where a woman is remembering her various lovers by the different meals she ate with them.

One very inexpensive, easy way to get more lesbian books is to join Paperbackswap.com . Unlike Bookmooch, the site allows you to buy credits from other members (typically 2.40 to 2.60 each) in addition to earning credits by sending your unwanted books out. One credit= one book, whatever it is, and it's free to join. Use the "books posted... genre... LGBT" search function to see a list of all LGBT books up for grabs. Or search "books posted today... genre... LGBT" for the ones posted that day. There's always a huge selection. You can even put up to 200 books on a wishlist, and you'll be emailed when your turn comes.

So you get a book sent privately to your home for about 2.50 total. Nice deal. Unfortunately, books can only be sent and received within the USA. Sorry, everyone else.

Drop me a note if you have questions, anyone.

(What am I thinking, increasing competition for all the lesbian books? *slaps forehead*)

You can also try searching for the publishers Naiad, Alyson, and Cleis. Arsenal Pulp has a lot of queer lit, too. Jeanette Winterson is a good bet to find in a library. Autostraddle just put out a list of the top 100 lesbian(ish) books, which gives you a good sense of popular/well-known lesbian book, which would probably be more likely to be found in a library (http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/27443.100_Best_Lesbian_Fiction_Memoir_Books_Of_All_Time). For general recommendations, I of course would recommend browsing The Lesbrary (lesbrary.com)

Adding my rec to 7Sister's about Paperbackswap. Also try Bookmooch. If you don't want to keep the books you receive, you can trade them for different ones.

The problem is I don't really have any to swap, I have a few that I have purchased recently because I loved them. But sadly an ex of mine took about 90% of the books I did have and has no plans of ever giving them back since we haven't spoken in like a month. So I have nothing I want to get rid of at the moment.
>14 Danneeness: My library doesn't have any books by Winterson, I already looked since I love her books.
I will look up all of these sites! If nothing else I can go to the used book store they don't have everything but I can always browse.
:)

Also, I don't know if you read Comics/Trade paperbacks, but there are some DC comics titles that have or had leading ladies who were lesbian. Batwoman (the red head, not the crazy animated 'Mystery of the Batwoman' thing..), then there was Renee Montoya, she (as well as Maggie Sawyer, another one who likes the ladies) were in the GCPD series Gotham Central, and then she also had some stuff as 'The Question', although I haven't been able to find those collections of issues yet, still working on it. Then there's the Secret Six series that had Vandal Savage's daughter Scandal Savage in it, she's gay. I think that she was also in one called Villains United.

Anyway, there I go again, going on and on and I don't even know if you like comic books... I think there's also someone who's maybe bi in Watchmen and then there's also the Strangers in Paradise series by Terry Moore.

I also have a problem with book swap sites, although mine isn't that I have none to swap, it's that I use the library so much that if I want to own a book and buy it, there's no way I'm passing it on to someone else. :)

Just throwing in the obvious one we've all managed to forget so far - The Colour Purple.

You may be able to get some of Rita Mae Brown's lesbian-themed books through ILL.

>18 Booksloth: I do believe MEGerman said she read it, but I'm too lazy to go look a few messages up to see if I'm right or not, so I will chime in with... I've been meaning to read that one myself for years, but it never seems to get to the top of my TBR pile.

You might also want to try one of my favorite sites for cheap used books...
www.thriftbooks.com

Especially if you are concerned that folks are going to balk at your choices, you can build your own library privately. Prices are very reasonable & it's usually free shipping.

Good luck!

Thank you so much to everyone!
I have read and seen the broadway of The Colour Purple...I loved it!
I have read Rita Mae Brown's books, we have those I only liked two of her books that were lesbian themed as it were.
And thank you >21 TinaV95: I have been using ebay but it gets expensive on there the last book I bought cost me 15 dollars for a paperback! But it was a great book and worth it, and I do prefer to go out and buy books which if I buy one and I don't like it then I can use that swap site! But yes I don't really want people to see my reading material because I don't want to have harassment or be treated any differently in my work place.
So again thank you guys for the suggestions!

Also (sorry, I'm a librarian, that sorta means that sometimes people have to put tape across my mouth to make me stop talking about books).

If you're looking for better priced fic online (I don't know where you are exactly) but, Bella Books also has something called Scratch and Dent - http://www.bellabooks.com/Book-Scratch-and-Dent-cat.html I've gotten a few of older things Kate Calloway stuff for one.

You might be interested in The News in Small Towns, by Iza Moreau. It is about a small-city journalist who finds her self falling for another woman. But odd things are happening all around her. The sequel, Madness in Small Towns, continues the saga in fine fashion. And as you probably know, in small towns this is still a love that dareth not speak its own name.