If you’re gonna be shopping on Amazon anyhow, one of the easiest ways to support Autostraddle is to do so via our affiliate links. We don’t get any data about who buys things — seriously, none, zero, zip — but we do get data about what’s getting bought and it’s pretty interesting information!
So, dear friends and patrons, these are the books you weirdos are buying in droves when you’re not busy with your boyshorts, Bikini Zone, under-the-bed restraint systems, Orphan Black episodes, vibrators, Diva cups and cocktail strainers!
1. Best Lesbian Erotica 2014, by Kathleen Warnock
“Cleis Press’s annual erotica collection returns with an introduction by Sarah Schulman, co-founder of the Lesbian Avengers.” –Fall 2013 Queer Books Preview
2. Two Knotty Boys Back On The Ropes, by The Two Naughty Boys
“A step-by-step guide to simple and intricate rope bondage” – Bondage 101
3. Two Knotty Boys Showing You The Ropes, by the Two Naughty Boys
“With basic information about safety and rope, illustrated instructions for tying knots, simple techniques, and more advanced instructions.” – Read A F*cking Book About BDSM
4. Blue is the Warmest Color, by Julie Maroh
“A coming of age story, a love story and – well – a couple other stories mixed in there, too.” –We’re Reading Blue is The Warmest Color
5. The Whole Lesbian Sex Book: A Passionate Guide For All of Us, by Felice Newman
“The lesbian sex bible. You can read it on your kindle so nobody has to know. Or you can buy it for someone and then everyone will know, because you’ll be so good in bed or something.” –NSFW Sunday Has 12 Ways to Read About Lesbian Sex, and Photos
6. Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More, by Janet Mock
“Mock took some time out of her media circuit to pen her so-far memoir, Redefining Realness; in it, she finally gets to tell us the full story.” –Janet Mock Redefines Realness: The Autostraddle Interview
7. The Summer We Got Free, by Mia McKenzie
“The Summer We Got Free is a story of family, of generational healing and the power of queerness.” –Read a F*cking Book: Mia McKenzie’s “The Summer We Got Free”
8. Say Please: Lesbian BDSM Erotica, edited by Sinclair Sexsmith
“The questions quickly became, what is BDSM? And what is lesbian? I’m not sure I know the answer in general, but I figured out a context for this anthology to be born into, some parameters about kinks and fetishes and gender.” –Sinclair Sexsmith on “Say Please: Lesbian BDSM Erotica”: The Autostraddle Interview
9. On Loving Women, by Diane Obomsawin
“Her ability to condense complex sad moments into deceptively simple, seemingly unrelated blocks of text means that all of her stories feel fast and alive:” –Read a F*cking Canadian Book, Eh: Diane Obomsawin’s “On Loving Women
10. The New Topping Book, by Dossie Easton
The New Topping Book and The New Bottoming Book, by Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy, are fantastic introductions to the basics of topping and bottoming. Both books are more about thinking and general practices than they are technical guides, and both are a really good place to start (or return to) when practicing BDSM.-NSFW Lesbosexy Sunday Wants You To Read A F*cking Book About BDSM: The Ultimate Guide
11. The Miseducation Of Cameron Post, by emily m. danforth
“Reading it just made me feel like I was at home, moreso than any lesbian novel I’ve read before or since, and the closest I’ve felt to any novel since The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It takes place in Montana, mostly in the 90s, and stars Cameron Post, a bright funny budding lesbian whose parents die in a car accident the same day she kisses a girl for the first time.” –Book Club post (see also Autostraddle Book Club: Emily Answers Your “Cameron Post” Questions And We Throw A Feelings-Fest)
12. Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution, by Shiri Eisner
“Eisner addresses bisexual politics through multiple facets and is informed by feminist, trans* and queer politics, theory and activism.” –Top 10 Queer and Feminist Books of 2013
13. Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, by Julia Serano
“In Excluded, Julia Serano (author of Whipping Girl) discusses how queer and feminist movements challenge sexism but also police gender and sexuality, and what to do about that.” –Top 10 Queer and Feminist Books of 2013
14. My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking and Going With Your Gut, by Hannah Hart (photographs by our very own Robin Roemer)
“YouTube series My Drunk Kitchen’s Hannah Hart‘s first cookbook combines recipes and photography by Autostraddle photographer/A-Camp co-director/perfect human Robin Roemer with life advice, emotional baggage, drawing, cooking tips and more.” –Read a F*cking Book: Late Summer Reading For Queers and Feminists
15. Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent In Drag, by A.K. Summers
“Pregnant Butch depicts a queer pregnancy with undertones of memoir. Summers investigates reconciling female masculinity with hyper-feminine pregnancy tropes and the intersection of birth and gender. ” –Ten Books For Queers & Feminists To Read This Spring
16. And Playing The Role Of Herself, by K.E. Lane
“Actress Caidence Harris plays a lead detective on 9th Precinct, a new police television drama that is reminiscent of Law & Order. Her co-star, Robyn Ward, is a tall, husky-voiced lady with an angular face and slightly cleft chin who is reminiscent of every actress who has ever starred in Law & Order. These are their stories. DUN DUN.” –Top Ten Lesbian Romance Novels (Currently On My Kindle)
17. Pages For You, by Sylvia Brownrigg
“Read Pages if you’ve fallen in love (hard), tried to smoke cigarettes to look mysterious (and failed), or dreamed of finally realizing your lesbian powers on a leaf-strewn campus far away from home.” –Riese & Green Read Books: Lesbionic Young Adult Novels, Part #1
I read Blue is the Warmest Color and I absolutely adore it. Hands down my favorite love story.
This is excellent. I like that you include little blurbs from past articles AS has published about each of these books!
Pages for You is one of my favorite books of all time–how cool that it made the list.
Not gonna lie, I totally bribed myself into investing in some boring household goods (like a new vacuum) by letting myself order Hannah Hart’s book along with them.
I have over half of these books on my Kindle ripe-for-reading right now! Adding Pregnant Butch to my reading list.
I may or may not have just used this list to construct a shopping list for my next Amazon splurge. (Though, I already own quite a few of these).
I can proudly say I have read most of #13. :-) But, thank you for this list.
SO many on this list I need to read! I got “Blue is the Warmest Color, by Julie Maroh” for my bestie for Christmas, though! She said she was gonna lend it to me but she moved across the state before I could, so I’ll just have to buy it again but for myself.
I love Pages For You so so much
Is it sad that seeing The New Topping Book made me crave frozen yogurt? I kinda think it’s sad…
i bet the entire book is just about Magic Shell
While we’re on it…Anybody has a recommendation or five for good gay fiction? I decided to give the genre another chance this fall, after cringing through countless “After making love to her all night, the tall,slim, undeniably sexy CEO, who was also a baroness, went running for two hours and brought back breakfast, before heading off to work,after some more lovemaking, of course.The literature professor from Canada had never counted herself so lucky.” Written by a literature professor from Canada.” Kind of books, when I came out a few years back. I’ve been sticking to Jeanette Winterson, who got a little too funky sometimes, and I adore Sarah Water’s “Fingersmith”. So, any recs? Please?
I can totally and unabashedly recommend “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin, by the way, it’s about guys, but legitimate classic literature by a great writer.Not to be recommended in that vein is Hemingway’s “Garden of Eden”, which is surprisingly frank, but just doesn’t sit right.He never published it,either, while alive, and there are a few things about trans and bisexuality he doesn’t really get.
I would recommend Ali Smith’s Hotel World. I loved that book and i loved Fingersmith.
Sort of similar recs:
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenis
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
I’m sure I’m forgetting other great ones, too.
I need to read ‘Giovanni’s Room’.
Fingersmith is amazing. Have you tried Sarah Waters’s other books? Emma Donoghue is another excellent author, especially Kissing the Witch (lesbian fairy tale retellings). Also, The Nude by Ellis Avery. If you’re up for YA, The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m danforth is amazing, as is Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth Griffin. Sarah Waters is my favourite author, and Jeanette Winterson was before that, so I feel pretty confident I can steer you in the right direction.
Pages for you is one of my favorite books ever. So glad to see it here. I’ve also definitely bought and read about half of these.