The Virtual Living Room

The VLR is a place where readers and writers of lesbian literature in its permutations (books, e-books, comics, etc) can come together and discuss the works and the topics within them, as well as celebrate the community that lesbian fiction readers can be. 

Whether reader or writer, membership AND participation is not based on any aspect of gender, sexuality, identity, creed, nationality, culture, ethnicity, or any other incidental of being a human being scattered somewhere on the planet. The requirement of membership is merely this: that the member be a supporter of lesbian literature. Fan fiction is nice, erotica is topic we cover from time to time, but there are other forums that focus on that specifically; we are not that. 

We encourage and celebrate the accomplishments of the readers and the authors, from first contracts to new ones, first published work to (hopefully) 100th and actively seek to share these wonderful bits of news, which are vital to us as a reading community. 

Civility is not only also encouraged, it is EXPECTED, because more than anything else, the VLR is, again, a COMMUNITY which means we all share in responsibility for making this a comfortable, welcoming, and enjoyable space for all.

That said,the VLR has a focus on Lesbian works; this is by definition Lesbian safe space and a safe haven for all respectful to our focus on lesfic may they be LGBTQ or straight. It is in fact *the* reason for this joining and celebration.

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Virtuallivingroom/info

 

It's okay to be gay - Celebrity Coming Out Stories

It’s okay to be gay – just ask the Celebs

Available:  Amazon

A short collection of coming out stories from some of the most well known members of the UK LGBT community.

The personally told stories span the decades and differing periods of political and legal enlightenment, by celebrities from sport, media, comedy and arts. 

More than just ‘this is how I told so and so’ the context of the stories is equally important. The political and social climate, as well as work situation, have played a role in all of these stories. Being in the public eye and making the decision to be out publicly, where as little as 10 years ago this could have a major impact on career success, let alone personal safety further back in the decades gives strength to many of us that have faced challenges and discrimination in life.

Published by Accent Press, Edited by Alison Stokes, It’s Okay to be Gay is a set of stories of hope. Coming out is still a big deal for an individual. Everyone has their own story, whether the challenges are internal, fear, from loved ones, or societal. What’s important is that coming out is what helps overcome those challenges. Whatever the result, it does get better after, whether soon or eventually.

Stories are told by some of our favourite Lesbian personalities including Val McDermid, Rosie Wilby, Stella Duffy, Jane Czyzselska and Alice Arnold.

By Katie

Book review: Trumpet – Jackie Kay

Millie had a fantastic life and the perfect marriage, at least that’s how she remembers it now. Her famous husband Joss has just died and the secret they’d been hiding for over 40 years is out. Joss Moody, the male jazz musician, had been born a woman. Now Millie is all alone and in hiding, with even her adopted son Colman refusing to take her calls.

When the author, Jackie Kay, heard the story of Billy Tipton, she was inspired to turn his story into a book. Billy was a talented jazz musician from the 1920’s who enjoyed his life as a man, only to have his female gender discovered as he lay dying on the floor. Indeed history is littered with women who successfully changed their sex, but whether these women were gay or transgender has been lost to time. Jackie Kay sidesteps this discussion entirely by beginning her story two days after Joss Moody’s funeral.

Trumpet is a beautiful and descriptive novel, which despite its examination of grief, is really a book about love; the unconditional love of Millie for her husband, the love of a son for his father, and the love of a man for the music. If this book has anything to say, it is that love is ultimately more important than gender.

Review by Ida Raine

Book review: I Can't Think Straight - Shamim Sarif

After 3 failed engagements, Tala has finally found the perfect husband. During preparations for her rapidly approaching wedding, Tala meets Leyla and suddenly starts to doubt her love for her fourth fiancé.

I Can’t Think Straight is both a movie and a novel. Set in Jordan and England, the story centres around the lives of two Middle Eastern women trying to do the right thing by their families. In some ways Tala and Leyla's lives seem to overlap; they both come from highly religious and wealthy families, they are both beautiful and well-educated, and they both have a younger and rebellious sister. But Tala is an outgoing and vibrant Catholic from Jordan, while Leyla is shy, Muslim and living in London where most of this story takes place. While British born Leyla has secretly imagined loving and being loved by another woman, Tala cannot. Tala knows that such a relationship is an impossibility in her world, so is ready to walk down the aisle with the man who adores her and has made her mother proud.

Despite the cheesy title and inelegant writing, the book is great! The families of both Tala and Leyla make this book shine, and the author manages to convey human relationships, both family and romantic, in a realistic and recognisable way. This isn’t a book where the main characters are tortured by their sexuality only to die in the end. Rather their lives are moving along smoothly, with neither girl fully aware that anything is amiss, until the day they fall in love. From that initial contact, they soon find themselves in a race against time to reconcile their new feelings, against their respective cultures, before Tala gets married. Their families pitch into the drama as families do, some well-meaning, some supportive, and some downright conniving. Ultimately the book has the ending you expect, but it’s well worth a read.

Review by Ida Raine

Book review: Sexual Fluidity - Lisa M Diamond

In 1995, 100 women were recruited for a ten year project, in order to study how female sexuality changed over time. 43 of the women were lesbian, 11 were heterosexual and the rest were bisexual or non-heterosexual. Rather than settling into their chosen labels as expected, two thirds of the women relabelled themselves at least once, with 1/3 changing their identity twice or more. In fact the most consistently used label by 2005 wasn’t a label at all, but ‘unlabelled’ or the rejection of the need for a label.

When Lisa Diamond, the woman behind this project, began her research on variations in female sexuality, she already thought she knew what she was going to find. Ten years later she realised she was wrong. Rather than sexual identities and behaviour greatly differing from woman to woman, instead she found it could also vary wildly in the same woman, sometimes repeatedly. Straight women could date women, bisexuals could swing from gay to straight and lesbians could drop labels altogether. Historically such women were considered confused, unstable or immature, a view Lisa Diamond no longer agrees with. In Sexual Fluidity she uses her own research along with the research of others to make the case for female sexual fluidity.

This is not to say that Lisa Diamond believes that sexual orientation can be changed, rather this fluidity allows some women greater flexibility with their sexuality than their orientation would suggest. Nor does Lisa consider her research a criticism of the gay identity, pointing out that female fluidity is not an unknown concept in the lesbian community, but one that has been neglected by mainstream media and scientists.

If you’ve ever wondered about female sexuality or felt you were the only one to feel a certain way about your own sexuality, this is the book for you. It’s well researched, well written and a fantastic read for gay and straight alike.

Review by Ida Raine