New in LILAC in 2017


Fiction

Baldwin, Kim; Alexiou, Xenia
Dying to live

British socialite Zoe is is taken hostage by FARC guerrillas while on a business trip to Bogota. Elite Operative Fetch has been living in the Colombian jungle for six months on a mission to infiltrate the FARC ... more

Bledsoe, Lucy Jane
A Thin bright line

At the height of the Cold War (and the McCarthy era), Lucybelle Bledsoe is offered a job seemingly too good to pass up. However, there are risks. Her scientific knowledge and editorial skills are unparalleled, but her personal life might not withstand government scrutiny ... review. Based on the hidden life of the author's aunt and namesake

Bloom, Amy
Lucky us : a novel

A beguiling story of deceipt and survival by half-sisters let down by their families ... more

Duffy, Stella
The Hidden room

Life is good for Laurie and Martha. They have three great kids, a much-loved home in the countryside, and after years of struggle, Laurie's career as an architect is taking off at last. Everything's perfect. Except, it isn't ...

Hart, Lois Cloarec
Kicker's journey

Romantic adventure ... more

Helean, Julie
We the ones

As the 150-year anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi draws near, Charlie - disgruntled with her Pakeha anti-racism group's endless meetings, leadership squabbles and debates over rhetoric - joins her Maori flatmate Kat on a reckless mission to sabotage the 1990 celebrations and the Queen's visit ... more and an interview with the author

Kallmaker, Karin
Finders keepers

Holiday romance ... more

Martin, Marianne K.
Under the witness tree

Dhari's life gets complicated when she inherits an old plantation house from an aunt she didn't know existed ... more

Stratford, Sarah-Jane
Radio girls

A delightful historical novel about the early days of the BBC and the women behind its brilliant programming - in particular Hilda Matheson who created the Talks programming, but was a bit too "Bloomsbury" for the Beeb's conservative director-general John Reith ... more

Vali, Ali
Balance of forces : toujours ici

Lesbian fantasy fiction - Kendal Richoux is from New Orleans, but her life began during the reign of Egypt?s only female pharaoh ... more.
   Battle of Forces : Sera Toujours
In book two of the Forces series, Kendal and Piper return to New Orleans, both now immortal ... more
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Short stories

Green, Sacchi (ed.); Valencia, Rakelle (ed.)
Lesbian cowboys : erotic adventures

Fifteen short stories ... how can you go wrong with lesbians, horses, and all that leather ... more

Newman, Leslea
Every woman's dream : short fiction

Short stories about lesbians and lesbian life

Ortberg, Mallory
Texts from Jane Eyre : and other conversations with your favorite literary characters

Hilariously imagined text conversations - the passive aggressive, the clever, and the strange - from classic and modern literary figures, from the Wife of Bath to Nancy Drew ... review.
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Young adult

Calin, Marisa
Between you & me

Phyre knows there is something life-changing about her new drama teacher from the moment they meet ... more

Cook, Rachel
Closets are for clothes : a history of queer Australia

Some of the first white Australians were lesbians and gay men. This book links today's queer Australia to its history.
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Humour

Pulley, Anna; Beyer, Kelsey (ill.)
The Lesbian sex haiku book (with cats!)

A humorous guide to lesbian sex, dating rituals, and relationships that aims to dispel all myths. Haiku paired with hilarious watercolor illustrations of cats in various stages of sexual awkwardness ... more and an interview with the author with pix from the book
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Detective

Bramhall, Andrea
Under Parr
A skeleton is found, buried in a bunker ... more
Collide-O-Scope

Detective mystery set in the Norfolk Broads. Finalist in the 2017 Lambda Literary Awards for Lesbian Mystery ... more

Cornwell, Patricia
Cruel and unusual

The fourth Kay Scapetta mystery, and one of the best ... more

Holt, Anne
Offline

Another thriller in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series by the queen of Scandinavian crime writing ... more

McDermid, Val
The Wire in the blood

Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished ... more
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Anthology

Ricket, Alison (ed.); Washburn, Amy (ed.); Martin, Angela (ed.); Warriner, Brynn (ed.); Smith-Cruz, Shawn(ta) (ed.)
Celebrating the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (Sinister Wisdom 103)

A celebration of the forty-year legacy of the Michigan Womyn?s Music Festival (1976?2015) ... more

Tibby, Ardy (ed.); Clarke, Barbary (ed.); Huber, Claudia (ed.); Taylor, Jean (ed.); Rayne, Rosalinda (ed.)

An eclectic collection of prose and poetry touching lesbian lives through the eyes of 24 lesbian authors ... more
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Biography/Memoir

Coyote, Ivan E.
Tomboy survival guide

A funny and moving memoir told in stories, in which Ivan recounts the pleasures and difficulties of growing up a tomboy in Canada’s Yukon ... review. Video and podcast of Ivan speaking about tht book at the 2017 Auckland Writers Festival

Carlson, Urzila
Rolling with the punchlines : a memoir

Memoir from the South African-born Auckland comedian ... more

Freedman, Jean R.
Peggy Seeger : a life of music, love and politics

Peggy Seeger was born into the first family of American folk music, and blazed her own trail artistically and personally ... review

Levy, Ariel
The Rules do not apply : a memoir

The New Yorker writer had a life that balanced domesticity with intellectual and sexual adventure. Then it fell apart ... review

Renée
These two hands : a memoir

A delightful memoir - 88 patches for the patchwork quilt of Renee's life so far. Too new for a review so check the publisher's website or the Auckland Women's Bookshop. Listen to Kim Hill interviewing Renée on National Radio
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Nonfiction

Bloom, Amy
Normal : transsexual CEOs, crossdressing cops and hermaphrodites with attitude

Three essays about female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual crossdressers and the intersexed ... review

Evans, Marian (comp./ed.); Lonie, Bridie (comp./ed.); Lloyd, Tilly (comp./ed.)
A Women's picture book : 25 women artists of Aotearoa (New Zealand)

About New Zealand women who see themselves as visual artists and have had some sort of connection with the Women's Gallery in Wellington between 1937 and 1957

Godoy, Esther (ed.); Silver, Yossi (ed.)
Butch is not a dirty word. Issue 2, the family edition

12 stunning portraits of women who are proud to be butch. Second issue of an Australian/US zine that celebrates butch identity and culture ... review

Hyman, Prue
Hopes dashed? : the economics of gender inequality

An apparaisal of women's economic status and well-being in New Zealand in 2017 ... review

Jennings, Rebecca
Tomboys and bachelor girls : a lesbian history of post-war Britain 1945-71

Traces the emergence of a vibrant lesbian social scene in Britain, centered on the metropolitan nightclubs of post-war London, but also developing across the country, through lesbian magazines and social organizations ... more

Kerekere, Elizabeth
Growing up takatapui : whanau journeys

Interviews with seven takatāpui rangatahi and their whānau inform this resource about the journey to and the importance of whanau support in a takatāpui young person's life. Available online; free copies at LILAC

Morris, Bonnie J.
The Disappearing L : erasures of lesbian spaces and culture

Investigates the rise and fall of American lesbian cultural institutions since the 1970s ... more

Neret, Gilles
Tamara de Lempicka, 1898-1980

Tamara de Lempicka was a Polish Art Deco painter who flourished in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Her love for beautiful women, elegant automobiles and the modern metropolis provided motifs for her pictures and also influenced her artistic style ... more
Check out the novel The Last nude by Ellis Avery - it is a fictionalised version of a period of Tamara de Lempicka's life in Paris (in LILAC's fiction collection)
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Poetry

Two stunning collections of poems by Scotland's Makar (Poet Laureate)

Kay, Jackie
The Adoption papers

Poems that tell the story of a black girl's adoption by a white Scottish couple from three different viewpoints: the mother, the birth mother and the daughter

Life mask

Poems about love and loss, masks and masquerades. Lambda Literary Awards finalist 2006

McPherson, Heather
A figurehead : a face
The Third myth

Two volumes of poetry by the late Heather McPherson (1942?2017), Spiral founder and co-founder of the Women's Gallery. There are tributes to Heather at medium.com/spiral-collectives.

New DVD

All about e
Australian film that puts a lesbian spin on the road movie genre ... review (93 min. ; region 4)
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New titles in 2018 New titles in 2016