Hi friends! After 17-odd years, we’re making a tiny little change to our name. We’ve heard from some in the community that it wasn’t inclusive enough. We mulled over lots of big changes but in the end we’ve settled for subtle. From here on, we’re Edmonton Lesbian+ Book Club. We hope this keeps us in your search engines but also lets our enby and trans friends know this group is open. Just to reiterate WHO WE ARE: We welcome queer women of all ages, genders, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and socio-economic classes to attend. We also welcome the presence of their families, friends, and community members who get it. We wish to specifically extend a welcoming invite to Indigenous and Black women, disabled women, fat women, trans men and women, bisexual women, non-binary peeps, people of colour, and asexual women. We commit to doing our best to engage with parts of our communities that have been excluded. As such, there will be no identity policing and we trust that each and every one
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Probably around 1000? We’ve started doubling up on shelves. As in, a row of books on a shelf shoved to the back and another row of books in front. We need more bookshelves.
2. Last book bought:
Po Man's Child, by Marci Blackman
The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown
Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch
Creative Techniques for Photographing Children, by Vik Orenstein
3. Last book read:
This Wild Silence, by Lucy Jane Bledsoe
4. Five books that mean a lot:
Zami: A New Spelling of my Name, by Audre Lorde
For the Time Being, by Annie Dillard
When Fox is a Thousand, by Larissa Lai
The Bone People, by Keri Hulme
Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, by Lauren Slater
-Kim
I went to Melbourne last weekend and bought a bunch of books. Including Ann Bannon's I Am a Woman, thinking it was the book this month and I could tell you my thoughts on it from Australia. I miss the book club. So I have been ploughing through it thinking Maria would love this book. There is no moss, just real live sex so far. Don't give away the plot, I haven't finished it yet. Ailwin lead me astray - I am sure in her last note she mentioned this book. Oh well. I love lesbian trash novels I have to admit. Probably not much discussion about it because it doesn't seem too literary. Just right for me. Did you see the documentary by NFB Forbidden Love? I have it at home - it is excellent and interviewed Ann Bannon. From her forward, it sounds like she is now a lesbian. Is this true? Where were these books when I was growing up in small town Alberta. I would have started reading these books, and who knows, my career path may have changed. I hope you are still having fun. Lets have book club at my house next February. What do you say. I try to be sure my mom isn't upstairs next time.
In the meantime, and in between time, keep on reading. I will read my trashy murder mystery lesbian novels. Happy solstice, happy Canada day, happy summer (its god damned cold down here), happy reading.
Deanna