A few of my favourite books…

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson’s award-winning novel is the story of a girl adopted by working-class evangelists in the North of England in the 1960′s – and leaves at the age of 16 for the woman she loves. The book (and subsequent BBC mini series) are loosely based on Winterson’s actual life in Accrington, Lancashire. While the story is written in first person, Winterson claims the story “isn’t autobiography in the real sense.”… Read more

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

Brown’s novel, which often parallels with her own life, is first and foremost about growing up as a lesbian in America. Or, as the cover says quite nicely, “being different and loving it.” Molly Bolt – fearless and feisty – grows up dirt poor in the South where she realizes early on that she is attracted to girls. The story follows her escapades as she attempts to find herself and actively takes pride in what makes her so “different”. Bonus: The term “rubyfruit jungle” is slang for lady parts… Read more

Ain’t Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice by April Sinclair

The book Ain’t Gonna be the same Fool Twice by April Sinclair is the sequel to Coffee Will Make You Black. These books are very interesting, they were about a girl named Jean Steveson. In Coffee Will make you Black,Jean was growing up and graduating from high school. While this slow time period passed, she thought she was gay. She caught herself looking at women. At first she thought that it was natural for other women to look at other woman. Her junior year she had a crush on her nurse Mrs. Horn. She loved the way Mrs. Horn walked, talked, laugh, and smiled. She goes through college with the same insecurity and doubt. This story is a very interesting, once you start reading it, you don’t want to stop because you want to find out what’s happening next. What Jean is really trying to say is her sexuality is a journey and she is still on the road… Read more

Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

A story-within-a-story, two women meet in a nursing home and develop a friendship through the older woman’s fantastic telling of her life – particularly her story about two women named Ruth and Idgie. For anyone who has seen the film, you already know how perfectly the two stories play off each other, each taking place in very different time periods (the mid-1980s and 1920s). Both sides of the novel remind you that family is something you choose, not something you’re born into. Grab a box of tissues for this one and maybe make some fried green tomatoes of your own… read more

Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters

The heroine of Sarah Waters’s audacious first novel knows her destiny, and seems content with it. Her place is in her father’s seaside restaurant, shucking shellfish and stirring soup, singing all the while. “Although I didn’t believe the story told to me by Mother–that they had found me as a baby in an oyster-shell, and a greedy customer had almost eaten me for lunch–for 18 years I never doubted my own oysterish sympathies, never looked beyond my father’s kitchen for occupation, or for love.” At night Nancy Astley often ventures to the nearby music hall, not that she has illusions of being more than an audience member… read more