Carry the One by Carol Anshaw

Carry the One by Carol Anshaw

Simon & Schuster, 2012.

Overview: Hooo boy, this one's a downer. After a self-imposed shotgun wedding, the groom's sister, the bride's sister and brother,  and a friend and her married lover all pile into a car driven by the extremely high new girlfriend of the bride's brother, and she hits and kills a ten year old girl. As you might expect, the guilt all the connected parties feel shapes their lives, and determines the course of the novel, which covers the next 25 years.

My reaction: This book is utterly tragic. I spoiled the entire book for the Lesbrarian, since she wasn't planning to read it, and it probably took me ten minutes to list all of  the depressing things that happen in it. I swear that there is not a single completely happy page. That said, this book was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for a reason! (The announcement of the winner is June 3rd.) While it was extremely dark throughout, Anshaw's writing brought wonderfully authentic characters to life, and sprinkled the book with humor that never overwhelmed the sadness. In other words, don't read this for the laughs; while I doubt I could have kept reading without those little glimmers of light, I felt like I was being sucked down deeper and deeper by the characters' intense guilt and unhappiness with every chapter I read. I'll tag this as recommended since it was great writing, but with the caveat that it's not going to be a fun read! (Sometimes un-fun reads are necessary  of course, and if you need that now, here's a great one!)

The Other Side of Silence by Joan M. Drury

The Other Side of Silence by Joan M. Drury
Spinsters Ink, 1993. 

Overview: Tyler Jones, a lesbian feminist journalist, takes her dog to the park by her house one morning to find the body of an abusive man hidden in the bushes. Well, her dog finds it, but it is Tyler who stands to be charged with murder! Using her connections as a journalist, Tyler works to prove her innocence. A warning: there are multiple detailed descriptions of domestic violence. While there have been other books that I have contemplated tagging with a warning, domestic violence is so central to the plot and to the protagonist's work (she is compiling a book of survivors' stories that is periodically excerpted) that I felt I would be truly remiss if I didn't in this case.

My reaction:  I was pretty sure that I'd be able to rate this one a "decent" until the last few pages. I won't spoil the ending in case you still want to read it for fun (because while it really annoyed me, the heading was kind of entertaining anyway), but it was absurd enough that I'm shaking my head writing this review. I'm tempted to read the next book in the series to see just how Tyler managed to clear her name with the police (and no, it's not obvious to anyone who thinks about it for a second how she was going to prove the truth with any real evidence), but I'll probably pass. This one definitely takes the cake for both the Most Unsympathetic Murder Victim, Weirdest Domestic Violence Organization Acronym (W.I.N.K.), and Bizarre Mystery Solution, though.

The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar

The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar
HarperCollins, 2012.

Overview: The World We Found follows four Indian women who were extremely close friends in college, but trace their drift apart to the Hindu-Muslim riots. When Armaiti, the only one of the group to move to the United States, discovers she is dying of a brain tumor, she asks her friends to visit her. Most of the book revolves around the dredging up of the past, as Laleh and Kavita reconnect with Nishta, who had not been in touch with any of them for years, and Armaiti reflects on her girlhood and that of her American daughter.

My reaction: This was an amazing  book. I enjoyed Umrigar's writing so much that I want to read the rest of her books, regardless of whether they have lesbian characters. This was not the "gayest" book reviewed here, but the lesbian content wasn't negligible. There were some really beautiful scenes that pulled my heartstrings in a good way, and felt so natural. To be honest, the relatively small word count devoted to this part of the story was actually a nice change of pace; with some of the more "decent" and "meh" books, I feel like authors rely on the character's sexual orientation being something of a novelty in fiction to carry the story. Obviously, I don't mean to suggest that all books should function like this one, because I'm all for well-written books that have a predominant focus on lesbian characters, but it was good to see a book where lesbian sexuality is a significant part of a character's life without it being THE THEME. I wouldn't put any of my"recommended" titles in this category, even The Night Watch, which was mostly about lesbian Londoners in the 1940s, since those characters (in my opinion) were shaped more by the war than their queerness, although that obviously played a large part in their identities as well.

Yes, Umrigar's character had to grapple to come to terms with her sexuality, but the real crux of the story focused around the friend whom none of them had been in touch with for years. In other words, I'm a huge fan of multi-dimensional lesbian characters dealing with life!

On that score (and just about every other), I highly recommend The World We Found.

Report for Murder

Report for Murder by Val McDermid

Spinsters Ink, 1998. 2nd ed. Originally published in 1987. 

Overview: Lindsay Gordon, a Scottish freelance journalist living from paycheck to paycheck, gets a call from a friend asking her to write a piece on a girls' school's fundraising efforts. She agrees with some reservations, but takes the gig. Not long after arriving, she finds herself at a murder scene--and her friend is the prime suspect! With the help of her new lover, Lindsay investigates the murder when it becomes apparent that the police are certain they've arrested the culprit.

My reaction: This was definitely the best of what I guess I could call "pulp" lesbian mystery: that is, I can read it in a few hours, and generally spend most of that time thinking that the detective is pretty stupid. Report fell into the first category,  but aside from one or two really stupid mistakes, Lindsay is a pretty good amateur detective. There was also a plethora of suspects, and all of them were known to the reader fairly early on, which was great. I hate mysteries where the reader doesn't have a chance to identify the criminal! It was also fun to read about a journalist-detective, since a good journalist has developed skills that are useful in detective work: Lindsay asks the right questions, is observant and thinks critically.  I read on Goodreads that McDermid becomes a much better writer later in her career (the opposite would be depressing...) so I'd be interested in checking out some of her later stuff.

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

Riverhead Books, 2006.

Overview: Sarah Waters (author of Tipping the Velvet, reviewed and recommended here by the Lesbrarian) begins The Night Watch in 1947, in a London still reeling from World War II. The reader is introduced to queer women who drove the ambulances and re-housed families whose homes were destroyed in air raids, a sensitive young man who feels lucky to be working in a factory after a undeserved prison term, and his sister who suffers through an unfortunate affair, and watches their stories unfold in reverse chronological order, ending in 1941.

My reaction:  I really cannot say enough good things about this one! While it is fiction, Night Watch felt incredibly real--I was not surprised to find a bibliography of sources in the back. Heart-rending romance (which I am such a sucker for) abounds, but as much as I ached for the characters, the tragedy of Waters' London kept me reading as well. As you can guess, it's not a happy story generally, but there are moments of beauty, heroism, and all-too-familiar human frailty that filled me up even as I felt crushed by sadness.

On a more technical note, the reverse chronology was a brilliant authorial decision. I was actually so blown away by it that I started reading the book again almost as soon as I had finished it. (I admit that that was partially because I started it at work, and thought I might have missed details--which I had.) By finding out the unhappy "present" of the characters, and then going exclusively backwards in time, we learn exactly how they got there, instead of freeing them from their current circumstances. Like I said, it's not happy, but it's beautifully done. The little intersections of storylines that are thus unearthed throughout the book are enchanting; those chance encounters between characters who are relative strangers to one another before and after serve to turn London and its inhabitants into a sort of living tapestry.

One caveat: as you might guess from the time period it is set in, this novel has some pretty graphic descriptions of gore. Some of them really shook me, and while that is a credit to Waters' amazing writing, I figured it was worth a mention.

HIGHLY recommended.

Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge

Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge

Eos (HarperCollins), 2002.

Overview: At the beginning of Solitaire, Ren “Jackal” Segura is preparing to take up her duties as one of the first citizens (or “Hopes”) of the world when she is wrongly convicted of a massive crime. She has a choice: forty years behind conventional bars, or ten months in virtual solitary confinement. The catch? Those ten months in real-time will feel like eight years in the virtual prison cell. Jackal has to marshal all of her skills and inner strength to survive the experimental technology, and then to re-acclimate to the world outside it.

My reaction: This was a great read. It almost made me cry twice, which doesn’t happen often for me with sci-fi! The idea that Jackal could be locked into a single environment in her mind for what felt like years was fascinating and terrifying to me, and I appreciated the fact that about a third of the book is given over to dealing with the consequences of it. My only quibble with it was the discovery—upon thinking about the whole story a little harder after I'd finished it—that there were some loose ends connected to her conviction. I don’t want to spoil anything, especially since I still enjoyed the actual heart of the book, which was Jackal’s imprisonment and rehabilitation, but if semi-major loose ends bug you into the end of next week, I’d skip this.

Mistress of Dragons by Margaret Weis

Mistress of Dragons by Margaret Weis
Tor Books, 2003.

Overview: Mistress of Dragons tells the story of a High Priestess named Melisande (George R.R. Martin, did you rip this name off?), which, for the curious, is apparently derived from Old French and Old German, and originally meant "animal strength." Huh.  Melisande is gifted in dragon magic, which she and her fellow priestesses use to repel dragons that try to invade their kingdom. Draconas, a "walker"--a dragon with human form--and Braun, a dragon-shaped dragon, suspect that a renegade dragon has taken control of Melisande's kingdom, and cleverly enlist the help of a neighboring king to investigate.

My reaction: Overall, this was a decent read. There were some excellent plot twists, and I enjoyed that the cover art made Melisande's temple warrior lover, Bellona (which means "goddess of battle" and is derived from Latin), look similar to Xena, but for some reason I just didn't connect enough with it to be really motivated to read the rest of the trilogy. Maybe it was the heavy-handed exposition at the beginning, or my resentment over a rather yucky manipulation of the king and Melisande, and and even more disturbing/horrifying scene with an evil dragon...I can't really finger it as any one thing. Honestly, this was pretty close to decent because it did keep me reading and the plot twists both made sense and surprised me, but a couple of scenes and my general indifference to the next books downgrade it to "meh."

P.S.--I used the scholarly source thinkbabynames.com to research the name definitions. URLs are below:

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Melisande

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Bellona

The Always Anonymous Beast by Lauren Wright Douglas

The Always Anonymous Beast by Lauren Wright Douglas

The Naiad Press, 1987.

Overview: This book features a detective who is a biiiiiig fan of McDonald’s and other fast food joints. (Seriously, the number of times she goes to McDonald’s alone is impressive.) Caitlin Reece, said fast-food addict, also likes her .357 Smith and Wesson, women, and Shakespeare (the title is a Shakespeare reference). In The Always Anonymous Beast, she investigates the blackmail of a television broadcaster married to an insanely jealous husband and a lesbian professor who studies nonviolent resistance and conflict resolution. This book doesn’t strictly fit our mission statement, since the blackmailer is pretty homophobic and misogynistic, but I just had to reward the absurdity of this book with a review.

My reaction: This wasn’t the best mystery ever, and sadly most of my enjoyment from it came from laughing at the kind of over-the-top nature of the whole thing. You know how you don’t see characters doing necessary functions all the time in books? Well, here I felt like we saw a lot more: and damn, Caitlin’s into fast food! And alcohol. Nothing wrong with either of those things (except maybe alcohol when YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTING MULTIPLE LIVES INCLUDING YOUR OWN??!!), but those tics, combined with the ridiculous interactions with the blackmailer, are part of the reason this is a “meh.” On the other hand, I have to give Douglas props for the most inventive murder I’ve read in a while. It’s a goody!

Lessons in Murder by Claire McNab

Lessons in Murder by Claire McNab

First Published: Naiad Press, 1988 / Reprint: Bella Books, 2004

Overview: Inspector Carol Aston is tall, blond, leggy and falling in love with the prime suspect in the death of a murdered teacher, the ravishing red-head Sybil. Will her emotions prevent her from solving the case?

My Reaction: You might notice that this is the second Claire McNab book I’ve reviewed in a row, but I have a good reason for it, I promise (that is, if writing a rather large paper for a graduate seminar counts). Like Murder Undercover, this book is short, fluffy and extremely entertaining, just what I need to take my mind off the stresses of school work. McNab certainly likes her women Australian, sexy and blond, but who are we to complain when they kick ass too? The cover promises that this is a “compelling, erotic tale of jealousy and murder” which perfectly sums up the book’s appeal.  Plus, if you get hooked, there are at least 16 more titles in the series. Even though they are short, there’s plenty to keep you entertained. 

The Carol Ashton Series:

Lessons In Murder (1988)
Fatal Reunion (1989)
Death Down Under (1989)
Cop Out (1991)
Dead Certain (1992)
Body Guard (1994)
Double Bluff (1995)
Inner Circle (1996)
Chain Letter (1997)
Past Due (1998)
Set Up (1999)
Under Suspicion (2000)
Death Club (2001)
Accidental Murder (2002)
Blood Link (2003)
Fall Guy (2004)
Lethal Care (2012)

The Girl With the Golden Bouffant: An Original Jane Bond Parody by Mabel Maney

The Girl With the Golden Bouffant: An Original Jane Bond Parody by Mabel Maney

HarperCollins, 2004.

Overview: This r0llicking James Bond parody is the sequel to Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy, but stands quite well on its own. (I haven't read the first one, but I plan to!) Jane Bond, the lesbian twin sister of James Bond, is recruited by "N" of the British Secret Service to act as a stand-in for her brother at diplomatic events and photo ops when he is recovering from various avoidable injuries. Aside from her job as window-dressing for the Secret Service, she is an actual spy for Girls in Europe Organized to Right Grievances and Insure Equality, or G.E.O.R.G.I.E., the all-female spy agency started by "Miss Tuppenny," who was fed up with the insufferably chauvinistic male agents. In Golden Bouffant, Jane--a.k.a."007 1/2"--and Sir Cedric Pumpernickel head to the spy convention in Las Vegas, where Jane hopes to steal a secret invention. Jane's girlfriend, Bridget St. Claire, and friend Bibi Gallini, also head to Vegas as back-up, and get into plenty of hilarious adventures of their own.

My reaction: This was a really fun and fluffy read. It will definitely be more enjoyable if 1) you have seen a couple of the Bond movies and 2) can't take them seriously. Jane is a likeable, if semi-incompetent spy, and her friends and enemies alike are immensely entertaining. Sometimes it annoyed me that nearly every sentence felt like a punch line (or at least a chuckle line), but that same excess made it a fun read-aloud. It also helped that while it was fluffy, it was pretty well written.

With the caveat that I recommend it for laughs, and not for any intellectual reason, I’m tagging this “recommended”!