feature image via ideeley
Most free and/or cheap ebooks fall into one of four categories:
1. Classic literature
2. Trashy romance
3. Bad trashy romance
4. Self-published works of varying quality
The following books fall mostly under #1 and #2, with a little non-fiction and a lot of lesbians and queer people thrown in for good measure.
Odd Girl Out, by Ann Bannon
Ann Bannon’s Odd Girl Out and two of its sequels, I Am a Woman and Women in the Shadows, are all $1 each. If you read about her for Herstory Month but don’t want to invest in the paperbacks, these versions are an excellent decision.
Spring Fire, by Vin Packer
Spring Fire is widely recognized as the first real lesbian pulp fiction book, and inspired Ann Bannon, not to mention the rest of the genre. (Though if you’re willing to go up to six or seven dollars there is SO MUCH lesbian pulp fiction appearing on Amazon, like Twilight Girl, These Curious Pleasures, The Sex Between, In The Shadows, and Three Women.)
I Can’t Think Straight, by Shamim Sarif
Before it was a movie, it was a novel. If you want to picture Tala as Lisa Ray and Leyla as Sheetal Sheth anyway, though, no one will blame you.
Herland and Other Works, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Herland is about a utopian country of women that live and reproduce sans men. There is a weird male-gaze element since the narrator is a male sociologist with two buddies and very objectifying views of women, but the entire book is about the social construction of gender roles, which is pretty neat. (Ammonite, by Nicole Griffith, is a modern sci-fi adaptation. It is not under $5, but it is worth it.).
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
There is no reason to not read this book.
So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, edited by Steve Berman
So Fey includes stories by Christopher Barzak, Holly Black, Craig L. Gidney, Melissa Scott, and Steve Berman, all of whom are excellent speculative fiction writers. Because sometimes “fairy” means gay and flying magical person.
Susie Bright’s Lesbian Sex World and Big Sex, Little Death, by Susie Bright
Susie Bright’s Lesbian Sex World is the lesbian sex guide you never knew you wanted. Her most recent memoir, Big Sex, Little Death, about a “fearful Irish Catholic Girl Scout to gun-toting teenage revolutionary […] her early involvement with notorious high school radicalsThe Red Tide as well as the magazine she co-founded in the 1980s, On Our Backs — the first-ever erotic magazine created by women, which turned the lesbian and bisexual community upside down before it took the ‘straight’ world by storm,” is also under $5.
Report for Murder, by Val McDermid
Report for Murder is the first in a series about “cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist” slash detective Lindsay Gordon.
I just got the best idea ever. EVER.
CAN WE START A BOOK THING? Like, where we mail each other books all around the country/world!? I just wanna read books that aren’t theology books, because I’m starting grad school in the fall and my girlfriend already has her masters in theological studies and CAN WE SO MY BRAIN DOESN’T MELT!?
I like this idea, but at the same time I just moved to a town w/ little access to books and I can’t bear the thought of parting with any of my own… Would it be ok if I bought used copies of books that I like from Amazon and sent them? Because I would really love to do that.
EFF YEAH.
I also like this idea a lot.
Can we do a queer book thing in Denver, too?
Hana, you sweet angel, YES.
yesyesyes this is SUCH a good idea!
PLEASE! I have a few feminist scifi and legit lesbian/queer speculative stuff I would love to share in return for other awesome books!
They do have website that I use to trade books. It’s paperbackswap.com. Basically you post 10 books you’re willing to swap and you get 2 initial book credits. Then, when someone requests a book from your list, you send it, they receive, and you get another credit. Each book you request costs 1 credit. All you pay is shipping but only if someone is requesting from you. If you request from someone else, it’s free:) Good way to purge some existing books you no longer want and get some you do. It’s worth checking out. They have a pretty vast inventory. Also, you can add books to your wish list, so if it’s not already in the system, you will be notified once it becomes available.
A lesbian e-book that falls into category 4, self-published, and clocks in a highly reasonable $1.75 is Thalia Fand’s “Aurora Awakening”; it’s a short read, but it’s supernovatastic. You can read the whole story on her website, but the e-book is more convenient and you’re supporting an up-and-coming writer. Check it out:
http://www.amazon.com/Aurora-Awakening-ebook/dp/B0085MJ3J4
When Women Were Warriors by Catherine M. Wilson. The first book is free online!
I really enjoyed this whole series.
I was expecting this book to be bad and only tried it because it was free; I ended up buying the two sequels. Interesting and engaging as well as a good romance!
big sex, little death is legitimately one of the best books i have ever read. it has everything in it, and i totally admire susie bright for being courageous, resourceful, committed to community & justice, and all-around awesome.
I just read ‘the girls from Alcyone’ by Cary Caffrey which was great and $3.
Science fiction rules.
Omg, Susie Bright for less than 5 dollars? Win.
i had to read Herland in a high school Am. Lit. class. i thought it was good then, but i wonder what my perception of it would be now that i’m out. Maybe i’ll reread it?
Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes
I must read So Fey *___*
Under $5 is $5 too much. I was hoping a few of these would be free. I’ve been a fan of Gilman for a few years, though…
Oooh, I really want to read So Fey. Damn you, library, why don’t you have a copy I can check out?
I didn’t know Ammonite was based on Herland! So cool!
I WANT THIS QUEER BOOK TRADE. YES PLEASE. I even have a copy of Ammonite to spare!
I love Val McDermid. One of the best books I’ve read.
Let me just say – Vin Packer? Foxy as hell for an octogenarian, and chaaaaarmiiing. She came to my university back in 2007 for our lesbian pulp fiction class. Lady has game.
I’m just saying – I wish I had half the charm at 24 that she had at 80.
There’s such thing as a lesbian pulp fiction class?? Where do you go to school? That’s totally way way waaaay cool.
I don’t know if it’s under $5, but I bought “Waiting in the Wings” not too long ago for my Kindle. It was great. Completely worth every cent.
Though it reminded me vaguely of Faberry fanfiction just in the sense that it was about Broadway. And lesbians.
Ann Bannon also wrote “Bebo Brinker”. It might be more than $5 though. :)
And in category no.4, for 99 cents, is “Lesbian Crushes and Bulimia: A Diary on How I Acquired my Eating Disorder” (www.amazon.com/dp/B007NZRQAC)
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