Theme: Coming Out LaterSome women have always known they were gay, and some have to go through a fai
Theme: Coming Out LaterSome women have always known they were gay, and some have to go through a failed marriage/engagement before something clicks, so here’s a collection of books about women who had that sexual epiphany later than a lot of us. She Is Me by Cathleen Schine : Greta is 53 years old, has been married to her husband for 32 years, has two grown children, one grandchild, and a mother with skin cancer, and she’s falling in love with a woman. Cue the confusion and wondering about whether this means she’s a lesbian now, should there have been signs before this, is it possible to wake up and suddenly be in love with someone you wouldn’t have glanced at the day before? Oh, and she also has cancer. This book shifts perspectives between Greta, her mother Lotte, and her daughter Elizabeth, all of whom are completely different and completely fascinating in their own way. If you like some good classic chick-lit with mother daughter drama and some casual adultery, but wished it could be gayer, this may be the book for you. Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women edited by Candace Walsh and Laura André : I won’t say a ton because the title is relatively self-explanatory, but this really is a fascinating collection. Walsh and André did a great job selecting women with a wide variety of experiences; some knew from an early age they were attracted to women and got married/engaged to a man anyway, and some were decades into a previously happy marriage and realized they needed something/someone else. There were women who left their husbands and some who instead opted for an open marriage and some sexual exploration. I was disappointed that although this book was a finalist for the Bisexual Nonfiction Lambda Literary Award it doesn’t mention bisexuality once, except for a few women who mentioned and then discarded the label. Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult : I’ve mentioned this book several times lately but it’s just because it’s honestly one of my favorites. Zoe desperately wants a baby, but after several rounds of in vitro fertilization, her husband just isn’t sure anymore. Cue a dramatic fallout that leads to their divorce, after many happy years of marriage. Now Zoe’s job as a musical therapist has her working with one incredibly troubled high schooler all while she’s falling in love with someone entirely unexpected. After realizing she’s a lesbian and deciding to have a baby with her new partner Zoe attempts to retrieve the frozen embryos left over from previous IVF treatments, only to be dragged into court by her ex-husband and his fundamentalist Christian relatives. Also, this is the review that made me want to read it, so thank you Karen:When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri : Katie is lawyer from Kentucky living in NYC. She has the perfect life with the perfect fiancé, except for the part that where he’s cheating with her closest friend. Now she’s alone in the big city, and so grudgingly accepts an invite out with a contract negotiation adversary, not expecting to find herself falling in love with the woman. I have to say this was not my favorite book, and I was honestly surprised to flip to the back cover and see that the author was a gay woman. I’d expect to love the sharp-dressing butch Cassidy but she often felt like a fairly superficial character. Reading the book I thought that she was based loosely on stereotypes and not given much personality beyond that. Katie I enjoyed much more; she’s the sweet southern girl who’s become a city dweller, and is now going through another major upheaval in her life realizing she’s not all straight. She’s really the girl who’s never felt something for a woman before and is coming up short trying to explain it, but is deeply and truly in love. -- source link