Greetings from Amazon.com Delivers Lesbian Studies FEATURED IN THIS E-MAIL: * "Lip Service" edited by Jess Wells * "Electric" edited by Nicole Foster * "Straight Parents, Gay Children" by Robert A. Bernstein * "The Trouble with Normal" by Michael Warner * "Secrets of the Flesh" by Judith Thurman "Lip Service: Alluring New Lesbian Erotica" edited by Jess Wells http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555835031/entertainmentsit Dark and naughty visions abound in "Lip Service," a new collection of short erotic tales that's a little heavy on roleplay and S/M, but rich in the unexpected. The heroine of M. Damian's "The Wedding Present" explains that it's been a month since her last lifelong relationship; she has no idea that her quick pickup in the ladies' room is the blind date she's been waiting to meet. In Renette Toliver's vampire story, "Chosen," a woman named Tanya learns not to inquire too closely into the ingredients of a nice, warm glass of wine. The best piece in the book, Anne Seale's "Rural Free Delivery," is not just erotic but slightly mad, the story of an obsession with a postal-delivery person who appears, each day, only as a shapely arm reaching from a car window into a rural mailbox. And finally, a reward for all who agree that erotica about a certain warrior princess is long overdue. After bringing her sidekick "Arielle" to yet another Olympian climax in Kate Dominic's "A Real-Life Superhero," the amazing Jeena makes it plain that "Superheroes get to have super sex. Now, close up your top and listen to my plan for dealing with the burghers tomorrow." "Electric: Best Lesbian Erotic Fiction" edited by Nicole Foster http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555835007/entertainmentsit Once is rarely enough. In Alyson's collection of its hottest erotica published over the past 10 years, you can savor again the butch-femme attractions of Leslea Newman's mischievous "Me and My Appetite" and Marcy Sheiner's "Riding the Silver Meteor" (surely one of the few stories ever to contain the flatly descriptive line "The woman had balls"). Luxuriate in forbidden contact between student and teacher in Ouida Crozier's "Merry Christmas, Katherine" and between old college buddies in Deborah Abbott's "Eating Out at Cafe Z." Explore the link between language and lust in Susan Kan's exquisite "Petal Sweat." The book also includes a teasingly brief excerpt from Jess Wells's novel, "The Price of Passion." As with most collections of this nature, the stories are of uneven quality, but even the less-inspired pieces are worth a quick read. In the words of Stephanie Rosenbaum, from her story "Shine," "Every minute is like wobbling a loose tooth around with your tongue. It hurts, but you don't exactly want to quit, either." "Straight Parents, Gay Children" by Robert A. Bernstein http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1560252294/entertainmentsit The courageous and level-headed "Straight Parents, Gay Children," Armistead Maupin comments, "shows the parents of gay children how to stop merely tolerating their kids and start being their heroes." Robert A. Bernstein made this essential move to "heroism" himself after his daughter Bobbi came out to him and her stepmother in the mid-1980s, when she was 19. Soon after, they attended a meeting of P-FLAG (Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays) at a nearby church and realized that he had joined a small but powerful group of people unable to support the continued oppression of their gay loved ones. Bernstein brings together stirring quotes (even from such unlikely sources as the late Senator Barry Goldwater) and inspiring stories, like those of Jane Spahr, the first openly gay minister to be called as a pastor of the Presbyterian church (and later denied the post) and of Dr. Roscoe Thorne, a former lumberjack and weightlifter who spoke to a packed room at a military hearing set up to discharge his son from the Navy despite his brilliant career as a "Top Gun" pilot. A useful book for therapists, clergy, and educators, and an essential resource for parents of gay and bisexual children. "The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life" by Michael Warner http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684865297/entertainmentsit "The Trouble With Normal" argues passionately against same-sex marriage, but here's the twist--not because it denigrates the institution of marriage, but because it perpetuates the cultural shame attached to sex between consenting but unmarried adults. When gay men and lesbians try to claim that they're just like "normal folk," Michael Warner writes, they do a profound disservice to other queer folk who choose not to live in monogamous or matrimonial bliss and who believe that the solution to being stigmatized for your sexuality is not to pretend it doesn't exist. Same-sex marriage advocates, he continues, often seem to be willfully blind to the cultural ramifications of their position, viewing marriage as "an intensified and deindividuated form of coming out"; they don't seem to realize that if society validates *their* relationships, other types of relationships will by necessity be invalidated. (He also makes a strong case for the fight against sexual shame's being more than a queer issue, citing 1998's presidential impeachment crisis: "[Bill] Clinton, certainly, was not the first to discover how hard it is in this culture to assert any dignity when you stand exposed as a sexual being.") Extending his analysis, Warner shows how the championing of married gays and lesbians as "normal" is part of the same cultural climate that leads to "quality of life" crackdowns against queercentric businesses--as is already underway in New York City--and a deliberate sabotage of safer-sex education that puts millions of Americans at continued risk of exposure to HIV. Warner's precise, straightforward argument is enlivened by numerous sharp zingers, as when he accuses Andrew Sullivan of "breath[ing] new and bitchy life into jesuitical pieties" about sexual morality. "The Trouble with Normal" is a bold, provocative book that forces readers to reconsider what sexual liberation really means. If "The Trouble with Normal" interests you, you may also want to read Michael Bronski's "The Pleasure Principle." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312156251/entertainmentsit "Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette" by Judith Thurman http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/039458872X/entertainmentsit Judith Thurman shrewdly disentangles fact from legend during the course of Colette's long and turbulent life, yet she doesn't question the author's right to mythologize herself. The fictions Colette created about herself were part of a lifelong attempt to make sense, not just of her own experience, but of the "secrets of the flesh" (Andre Gide's phrase in an admiring letter), the bonds that link women to men, parents to children, in an eternal search for love that is also a struggle for dominance. Chronicling Colette's scandalous life--male and female lovers, a stint in vaudeville, an affair with her stepson, a final happy marriage to a younger man--Thurman makes it clear that the writer's adored yet dominating mother and exploitative first husband made it difficult for her to conceive of amorous equality. Yet she nonetheless created a satisfying, creative existence, firmly rooted in the senses and filled with artistic achievement, from the bestselling Claudine novels to the mature insights of "The Vagabond" and "Cheri." Thurman assesses with equal acuity the bleakness of Colette's worldview and a zest for life that it never seemed to dampen. ****** You'll find more great books, articles, and interviews in Amazon.com's Gay & Lesbian section at Browse Book ****** Looking for power tools? From screwdrivers to scroll saws, our brand-new Home Improvement Store offers the planet's best selection of tools and more. Home Improvement ******
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