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< Sierra City > < Gulf Breeze > < Behind the Pine Curtain > < The Rainbow Cedar > < The Target > < Coyote Sky > Gerri Hill

price： 259
Bella Books
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customer 's review
(Good book)

(Pretty scenery riddled with cliches and convention; possibly 2.5 stars)

(Another Winner From Gerri Hill)

(Why Did I Wait So Long To Read It???)

(a book that you can't put down)

I thought Sierra City was a very good book. Gerri Hill did a wonderful job with the characters. I felt myself wanting to see them succeed. I would recommend this book, it was a good read.
Nothing blew me away about this book, but nothing severely annoyed me either. Pretty average to below average, really. Some cool scenery (typical of Gerri Hill), interesting occupations (Chris is a park ranger/search and rescue and Jessie is a mystery author who always kills of the mother in her books), a little bit of SAR (search and rescue) action in the mountains (like a dramatic blizzard rescue). The supporting cast was generally amusing or interesting. There was a hunting-impaired cat to be endearing. Also the relationship develops with enough stops, starts and obstacles that there's a hint of realism.

Overall the book tripped over cliches a bit too much for my taste and felt practiced and formulaic, and the solutions were pretty pat, even to complex emotional issues and traumas. You wanted good things for the characters, but there was a lot about the conversations and set-up in many instances that was just less than fresh-feeling, and sometimes I just didn't believe reactions and motivations: they were sold too softly. Also there was a ton of wine and beer consumed in this book, and sometimes I wondered if these characters were flirting with alcoholism. Certainly not Gerri Hill's strongest offering, but provides enough to be entertaining for a couple of afternoons, with some escapism and a happy ending. At least for her fans.

If you're looking for something new and interesting, this is probably not the book for you. If you've read very little lesbian fiction you'll probably be entertained.
I have never read anything from Gerri Hill that I didn't like, and this book was no exception.
Although Gerri Hill is one of my most favorite authors, Sierra City sat on my shelf for a long time before I decided to tackle it. What was I thinking? What excuse did I have for ignoring it for so long? I don't know, but I'll never do it again. This was a fantastic book with a great story, lovable characters, and a memorable setting. I'm sorry I waited so long to enjoy it.

Chris McKenna is a search and rescue forest ranger who has recently relocated to relatively-untouched Sierra City from the busy Yosemite National Forest. Her goal was to get back to a simpler life and to leave the hustle and bustle of thousands of tourists behind. Chris is a big fan of author Jessica Stone and has fallen in love with her cover photo, but she doesn't have much of a love life otherwise. As Chris starts getting to know her new community, she meets the reclusive Annie Stone and they become fast friends. Chris discovers Annie's estranged daughter is Jessica Stone and subsequently gets mixed in more than she can (almost) handle.

Jessica Stone has spent many years writing successful novels in which the mother always meets an untimely and grueling demise. This stems from her hatred of her own mother, a hatred she can't seem to move past despite seeing countless therapists over the years. She is finally convinced to go back to Sierra City and confront her mother. Posing as someone else, the novelist rents a cabin next door to Chris. Chris recognizes Jessica from her picture, but also respects her need for privacy and doesn't say anything to Anna. Chris and Jessica begin to fall in love, but there seem to be many roadblocks keeping them apart.

Time, open communication, and undeniable love finally bring these two women together in a compelling story with many different levels of complexity. Once I picked up this book, I couldn't stop reading until it was done. This is a masterpiece that will forever remain in my personal collection.

It's a book that I've read at least 3 times now.
Chris McKenna gladly escaped the crowds of Yosemite to work as the new Search and Rescue in tiny Sierra City, nestled just west of Lake Tahoe. A loner by nature, she didnt mind the seclusion of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Jessie Stone, a successful but reclusive writer, is haunted by memories of her childhood and finally returns to Sierra City after sixteen years of estrangement from her mother. The odd assortment of residents of this small mountain town bringsthem together but it is Annie Stone, a woman Chris has grown to admire and a woman Jessie still feels hatred for, that binds the two. Through lies and deception, they still cannot deny the growing attraction that will brighten both their lives . . . if only they will allow it. As Chris fights forher life in a winter blizzard, Jessie comes to terms with her past and her mother, finally accepting the love that Chris willingly offers her.
Rerations
< Sierra City > < Gulf Breeze > < Behind the Pine Curtain > < The Rainbow Cedar > < The Target > freaks

< Once > < Falling Star > < Homecoming > < A Place to Rest > < Remember Tomorrow > < Web > L.T. Smith

price： 512
P.D. Publishing, Inc.
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customer 's review
(About learning to trust again)

(A Feel Good Story)

Relationships can be very damaging. If your partner tells you you're unattractive and leaves you for someone else, it tends to make you believe her words. Beth Chambers knows exactly how that feels, only her experience was worse because she found her lover having sex with another woman as if to emphasize the point. Beth isn't sure she'll ever trust another woman, but that's OK because she has Dudley. Beth may have no self confidence, but she knows Dudley loves her unconditionally. After all, that's what dogs do. Which is why, when Dudley gets away from her one day during his walk and Beth is sure he's chased his ball right into the river, she doesn't hesitate to plunge into the icy water fully clothed to save her friend. That's where Amy Fletcher finds her. Standing in the middle of the river, soaked to the skin, crying desperately as if her world has come to an end. Amy has only gone there because the handsome little dog with the ball in his mouth that ran into the café where she was having coffee was insistent that she follow him. In Beth's eyes, Amy has it all, beauty, personality, a good job, she's everything that Beth isn't. They might be friends, but nothing else could ever come from them spending time together. Even when the friendship begins to show signs of something else, Beth can't believe that she's worthy of someone like Amy or ready to trust herself in another relationship. What she doesn't know is that Amy has been hurt also and needs Beth just as much. It begins to look doubtful that the women will realize what is happening between them, but never underestimate the power of Dudley.

Once is a nice story about two women trying to learn how to trust again, which many women will be able to relate to. They have been hurt by the actions of someone they thought they were close to and looked for some fault in themselves to blame. Beth and Amy are sympathetic characters and their struggle to believe in each other has a ring of reality to it. They almost lose everything because they are afraid to say what they feel and take a risk, which is a situation many have experienced.

Once isn't a romance loaded with sex scenes, but it can be an enjoyable afternoon or evening spent watching these women work out their feelings. And then there's Dudley the scene stealer. Two lesbians and a cute dog. It's pretty difficult to go wrong with that

The 'leftovers' from Beth and Amy's past relationships take a toll on each of the women. Following an emotion filled meeting in the park, a friendship blossoms and grows. Will this new friendship give Beth the support that she needs to find her way back to the woman that she once was? Beth and Amy's story is a sweet love story. I like the characters very much.
'Whether you feel the victim or the offender, you might, in fact, be a little of both.' Once upon a time, there was a woman called Beth Chambers. She wasn't a princess, by any stretch of the imagination, nor did she live in a fairytale kingdom far far away. What she did have was a broken relationship, a broken spirit, and a shattered view of life. After four years in a destructive relationship, Beth decides enough is enough. Then she meets Amy Fletcher, the woman who has it all . the woman whom she believes would never want more than friendship. But what she fails to realise is that everything is relative, and there is definitely two sides to every story.
Rerations
< Once > < Falling Star > < Homecoming > < A Place to Rest > < Remember Tomorrow > freaks

< City of Night (Rechy, John) > < About My Life and the Kept Woman: A Memoir > < Numbers > < The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary (Rechy, John) > < Giovanni's Room > < Faggots > John Rechy

price： 480
Grove Press
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customer 's review
(on the road with john rechy)

(LOOKING FOR LOVE)

(A Night Without End)

(A gay "classic" enhanced by an eerily prophetic ending set in New Orleans)

(FIGHT THE POWER!,)

i have never read or, for that matter, heard of john rechy prior to reading a review of his latest book. after doing a bit of research, i found that this is his most well known book. i must admit, it was well worth the time and research. i love this book! it's very sad, often funny and always insightful. the author has a nice way of observing situations and moving through their center to gain some understanding of the characters motivations, his own reactions and motives and, thereby, ours. this isn't always evident at first and often will take time to reveal. he has a great way of relating events in his early life to later events and discerning the pattern there. something we all should have done, should be doing, hopefully, in our own lives. get this book!
Rechy, John. "City of Night", Grove Press Reprint, 1994

Looking for Love

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

John Rechy's "City of Night" is one of the classics of gay literature and I am amazed that reading it again now I find that it still mesmerizes as it did when I read it the first time in 1963 (I really am an old person it seems). When it was first published in '63 it was a national best seller and it caused uproar as well as ushered in a new age of gay literature. Rechy's account of the big city and its underworld of male prostitution sent waves through society. His unflinching view of "Youngman" (as his main character is called) and the world of hustling and drag queens and all kinds of men were shocking and honest. Our narrator traverses the United States and gives us an unforgettable picture of gay life. Written in the slang of the period, it is an authentic look at the world of twilight men with extreme clarity and realism minus self-pity and sentimentality. Rechy passionately tells the truth and in doing so liberated many who had up until this point lived in the shadows of a larger society.
When I first read this book I had to hide it for I was afraid that someone might discover y secret. By the time I finished it, I did not much care who knew about me--I felt liberated. Rechy's story of the world was one that I had always hoped existed but I was not man enough to go and look for it. By chance, I sat back yesterday and reread the book. For the second time, I could not stop reading and when I closed the covers I could not help think about how far we have come. I am sure that whoever read "City of Night" in the year of and the years after its publication finally felt that he had something to identify with. The novel has lost none of its power some thirty-four years after it was written. Rechy shows his love for his language in his writing and he wastes no words in telling his story. Even with the many metaphors ad poetic style, Rechy manages to clearly and honesty portray what gay life was like back "in the day".
I felt like I had been hit by a train as I read. I felt as if I was living the situations I was reading about and it fascinated me. Rechy shows great generosity for the human race as he tries to understand and then explain to the reader about those men that were (and still are in many cases) on the fringe of society--sexual minorities, hustlers, bums, drunks, drag queens, junkies. He gives an unforgettable portrait of the "love that dare not speak its name".
The vividness of gay life that Rechy paints was new to many people in the 60's and I was walking next to the author as he took me on a tour of it. "City of Night" is something more than just a gay novel; it is a look at a world within a world.
The main character is an embodiment of an everyman. He sees all, does everything and learns nothing from it, His behavior is arbitrary; he has no motivation ad he makes nothing happen--everything, instead, happens to him. His subculture is one of oppression ad internalized homophobia (didn't we once hate ourselves and lurk in the shadows of the night?).Rechy opened societal eyes and as much as we have changed, we really see that we haven't really changed that much. I know this sounds contradictory but this is the only way I can put this. On one hand, things appear better, on the other, things have not really changed that much. We, gay men, are still confused and still suffer from mental turmoil. Many of us are out but many still hide. We need to open our eyes and realize that if we really want change, we must become more aware of whom we are and accept that. We must never forget that we are human and we are important and we all want to be loved.
Rechy's story is sad but beautiful. Some of us still hate ourselves for being gay like "youngman". Many of us, like him, still live on the fringe of society and we all have one thing in common--the desire to be loved.

Someone once remarked that great artists remake the same works over and over, likening them to musicians who play variations on the same riff.

John Rechy would fall into this category of literary artist.

Take his first novel, for instance: CITY OF NIGHT. After one has read this novel and gone on to Rechy's other works, one sees the same themes and concerns sounded again and again in almost the same register - the note of erotic desperation played in high lyricism and despair. Still, he's such a virtuoso with this instrument, and tells such a compelling story, one doesn't mind.

CITY OF NIGHT, as noted, is the book that got the ball rolling for Rechy. It's a stark, unsentimental portrait of a male hustler's sojourn through the underbellies of numerous big towns - NY, LA, Chicago, and New Orleans. The section in New Orleans, with its depictions of "floods" of people during Mardi Gras racing ahead of impending doom, is eerily prophetic of the recent fate of that great city.

Although the point of view is first person, Rechy also incorporates the voices of the men and women the protagonist encounters in his carnal odyssey - the fellow hustlers, the scores, the drag queens, the closet cases, etc. - and the song they sing is usually one of vast loneliness and unfulfilled desire.

This is a seminal work but not without flaws. At times Rechy's prose bows to the worst inclinations of creative writing class cliches - comparing buildings and trees to giants, for instance, and waxing more than a little purple at times. One wants to shout, "Please, sir, you ARE a good writer. No need to show off." Also, one cannot help but tire at times of the repetitiveness of the unnamed narrator's adventures, but that may be Rechy's point about this kind of life.

It's easy to see why this book caused such a sensation when it was published in 1963. It's not because of the sexual descriptions, which are neither remotely erotic nor all that graphic--even for the early 1960s. Nor is it because of the Beat-genre prose and the in-your-face nihilism. Instead, "City of Night" brought to the light of day the darkest corners of the "gay underworld" (and, yes, Rechy uses the term "gay" here), and the book does it in a way that highlights the insecurities and the pretenses, the profligacy and the humanity of even the most jaded hustlers, "scores," and "queens" who fervently frequent the bars and speakeasies in metropolitan America.

The unnamed narrator has fled his hometown of New Orleans, initially for New York, and he finds himself both bored of the "respectable" jobs he manages to find and intrigued by the easy money (not to mention the ready drugs, the nervous thrill, and the artificial freedom) that comes from being a male prostitute. Like many of his associates, the narrator tries to convince himself that he is only "gay for pay"--that his activities are no more than a job and that in the real world he would sleep with women. But gradually he realizes that this conviction, for him and for most of the others, is little more than a pose. Among the book's many themes is the tension between the futility of the closet and its ultimate necessity (let's not forget that, in much of the country, it was illegal for two men to dance together or to wear women's clothing).

Each chapter scrutinizes the bar scene and focuses on a different type (sometimes bordering on stereotype), from the flamboyant drag queen to the aging hustler to the married man to the older women whose guilt over a long-kept secret motivates her to tend to street boys. There are passages and scenes that will, of course, seem dated (or--to use a less loaded term--of historical interest), but many of the characters are, forty years later, hilariously and scarily recognizable.

Finally--for reasons Rechy could not have fathomed--the most disconcerting section of the book is the last one, which is set in New Orleans. The eeriness of finishing this book at a time like this (early September 2005) is that certain passages take on a prophetic tone. The environs around the French quarter are "merely the remnants of what may have been; a city scarred by memories of an elegance and gentility which may have never existed. A ghost city." And later: "An almost Biblical feeling of Doom--of the city about to be destroyed, razed, toppled--assaults you." The narrator's love-hate relationship with the Big Easy--with its celebratory abandon and its remorseful gloom--instills the novel's finale with an intensity both haunting and unforgettable.
John Rechy's book, City of Night, was published in 1962 just before the Supreme Court opened up the floodgate to the publishers of cheap porn in 1965. He will most likely be remembered as a gay male writer who was a brutal and lyrical recorder of the sexual underworld in pre-Stonewall times. It must be difficult for anyone who didn't live through those times to grasp how heavily the threat of censorship hung over America's authors and publishers.

He describes this world with brusque frankness. There is an easy understanding of who and what his characters are; they are presented without sentimentality or self-pity. At the beginning he writes about being a shy child who read a lot and sat by the hall window and looked out to see the world. We hear about the death of his dog and about the suffocating attention of his overly affectionate mother

Rechy uses the window theme and carries it throughout the book. He's letting us look into and onto the dark underworld of the City of Night . . . wherever that may occur. He's also into looking into mirrors as he looks at himself and at what his narrator has become.

I liked the very believable flip dialogue of the drag queens and the hustlers . . . the text was almost like it was recorded.

His narrator takes us on a journey through a world of forbidden love. Here, sex is a job, not an identity. This masculine hustler moves from city to city, searching for business and a sense of self-worth and love. While he actively avoids the lives and world of the self-admitted and well-adjusted gay men he encounters, he pursues the outcasts, the maladjusted and self-loathing instead.

Rechy's representations of gay life are often bleak and the lives of this extraordinary collection of characters are filled with drugs and liquor. There are two types of chapters in this novel: there are accounts of the narrator's wanderings and character sketches of the people he meets as a hustler. Each sketch builds an understandable person for the reader. I've been on the fringes of this culture a few times and didn't like it at all, but believe me they seem very real. Each narrative chapter pulls the reader away and moves them onward.

Rechy was brought up as a devout Catholic. His book is full of symbolism . . .especially of angels in the form of beautiful young men.

Well, surprise, a lot of this world still exists. The people of the night haven't changed all that much since John Rechy wrote his eye-opening novel 40-some years ago. Anonymous sex, hustlers, dirty bookstore sex, cruising, rough trade, druggies, dealers, hustlers, bartenders, cops and robbers still abound. There are still sexy boys from the country who will soon be dead from HIV/AIDS . . . or something else like in the old days . . . an overdose, a knife fight, or a car crash. Not much has changed. This is a compelling early account of "the life" that I believe gays and non-gay people will enjoy; the book still has a fun, underground feel to it. It's still a very cool book, kind of like "On the Road." But decide for yourself. Pick up a copy! (...)

John Rechy, recipient of the Publishing Triangle’s William Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award, wrote City of Night in 1963. This radical and daring work, which launched Rechy’s reputation as one of America’s most courageous novelists, remains the classic document of the garish neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and men on the make who inhabited the homosexual underground of the early sixties.

Rerations
< City of Night (Rechy, John) > < About My Life and the Kept Woman: A Memoir > < Numbers > < The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary (Rechy, John) > < Giovanni's Room > freaks

< A Renaissance In Blood (Book VII of The Master Chronicles) > < Dominion (Book VI of The Master Chronicles) > < Chaos&Communion (Book V of The Master Chronicles) > < Under My Skin (Books I&II) > < Forgotten Song > < PsyCop: Property > Jamie Craig

price： 1600
Amber Quill Press, LLC(2008-09-18)
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What happens to love when you experience a rebirth and become new again? Jesse Madding wakes up one morning to discover everything has changed and he is completely alone, with both Gideon and Emma gone. Betrayed by the last person he'd expect, he realizes the life he once had is over, and somehow he must forge a new existence. Aching with the loss, Jesse vows to do everything he can to overcome the lies, return home, and locate the vampire that makes his life worth living.
Rerations
< A Renaissance In Blood (Book VII of The Master Chronicles) > < Dominion (Book VI of The Master Chronicles) > < Chaos&Communion (Book V of The Master Chronicles) > < Under My Skin (Books I&II) > < Forgotten Song > freaks

< A Single Man > < Christopher and His Kind > < Tropic of Orange > < The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin (New Directions Book) > < Mildred Pierce > < Locas: A Novel > Christopher Isherwood

price： 510
University of Minnesota Press
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customer 's review
(A single man as Everyman)

(Identity Literature)

(READ THIS BOOK!!!)

(Read this book!)

(Didn't do it for me)

Because of "Cabaret," Christopher Isherwood is mostly remembered for his "Berlin Stories" and its inimitable Sally Bowles. But "A Single Man" is, I think, far and away his masterpiece--a Southern Californian counterpoint to "Ulysses" and (especially) "Mrs. Dalloway." But, if you're intimidated by stream-of-consciousness prose, don't let the references to Joyce and Woolf put you off; this novel is nearly a breezy Malibu beach read by comparison.

Isherwood details twenty-four hours in the life of an aging college professor who had lost his younger lover the previous year. "Waking up begins with saying 'am' and 'now,'" opens the first chapter, which describes the emerging corporal awareness of this initially anonymous id and which closes with the line, "It knows its name. It is called George."

The novel sticks to the mind of its protagonist as he embarks on his daily rituals: preparing for a class he must teach (Huxley's "After Many a Summer" is the subject and the students' apathetic ignorance provides much of this section's mirth); lunching with his colleagues; visiting a dying friend in the hospital; going to the gym and flirting with its teenaged patrons.

His routine begins to leave its expected track when he meets an old friend for dinner and they get uproariously drunk. Afterwards, he intends to head home but, "How to explain, then, that, with his foot actually on the bridge over the creek, George suddenly turns, chuckles to himself, and with the movement of a child wriggling free of a grownup," he heads to the local "nonconformist" dive--and runs into one of his students.

Like Clarissa Dalloway readying for a party, George lives a lonely, lackluster existence occupied with petty details, inconsequential annoyances, and unanticipated pleasures. But Isherwood instills every sentence with beauty, every character with immediate empathy, and every encounter with so much tension that "A Single Man" is, indeed, Everyman. The unique particulars of George's declining years may not be familiar to many of us, but the struggle between hopefulness and disenchantment is.
Well written, certainly, but this is identity literature: if you want to step inside the world of an aging homosexual lecturer, grim, drinking, depressed, at a mediocre college, with an occasional crush on some of his students, this may be a suitable book. It is richly furnished with all the details, sensitivities and grumblings. I did find it excessively preoccupied with itself and that particular perspective. It is an account of a peculiar solitariness, with a few good moments. If you are trying to read something within this distinct genre -- perhaps only for a change of perspective -- this book may be worthwhile. But expect that you may not be swept off your feet if you cannot empathize sufficiently.

Deceptively simple, this classic of gay literature from 1964 is a funny, sad, smart, political, and strangely prophetic read. A dynamic character study and day-in-the-life novel of cantankerous George, a 58 year-old gay widower and literature professor living, lusting, and loathing in California. The book engagingly explores the various roles he plays and displays to the world and hints at the reality of the role we all play as human beings. A SINGLE MAN is utterly fascinating, full of intriguing observations, poignant, and just as deep as you want it to be. It's a true work of genius.
This short novel follows one day in the life of George, a 58-year-old English professor at San Tomas State College in Los Angeles, CA. From the moment he wakes up and shuffles to the bathroom, we are immediately thrust into his perception of life both as a gay man in the 1960s, and without his partner Jim who died in a car accident. His views are based upon both of these events, sometimes viewing the world as a big, happy joke, and other times as a very hostile place.

It's a great character study into something I think we don't read about too often: the life of a gay man in his fifties. Too often, gay books deal with men in their twenties and thirties, and if someone older than that appears, he's a caricature or stereotype of the dirty old man. George is very human and is presented in a very realistic manner.

Beautifully written. Definitely worth reading.
I dunno why this one just isn't one of my favorites. I think the writing was gorgeous, the characters were fabulous, and the story was good enough to keep me hooked. And I realize that the point of the book is to be rather mundane and maybe alittle melancholy (?) but it wasn't something I particularly enjoyed reading. It seemed like instead of focusing on some kind of story or plot it was focusing on ridiculous details. Plus there's nothing particularly deep about it. I was left at the end like,"Oh, ok . . ."

But if you're into that kind of book then go for it, honey!
Fiction

The author's favorite of his own novels, now back in print!

When A Single Man was originally published, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, and determines to persist in the routines of his daily life; the course of A Single Man spans twenty-four hours in an ordinary day. An Englishman and a professor living in suburban Southern California, he is an outsider in every way, and his internal reflections and interactions with others reveal a man who loves being alive despite everyday injustices and loneliness. Wry, suddenly manic, constantly funny, surprisingly sad, this novel catches the texture of life itself.

"A testimony to Isherwood's undiminished brilliance as a novelist." Anthony Burgess

"An absolutely devastating, unnerving, brilliant book." Stephen Spender

"Just as his Prater Violet is the best novel I know about the movies, Isherwood's A Single Man, published in 1964, is one of the first and best novels of the modern gay liberation movement." Edmund White
Rerations
< A Single Man > < Christopher and His Kind > < Tropic of Orange > < The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin (New Directions Book) > < Mildred Pierce > freaks

< Passing For Black > < Purple Panties: An Eroticanoir.com Anthology > < Too Little, Too Late: A Novel > < Just Too Good to Be True: A Novel > < Hungry For It > < One in a Million > Linda Villarosa

price： 280
Dafina
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customer 's review
(Don't really get what the title has to do with the book)

(Passing)

(tstroman)

(A Triple Minority)

(Whose To Say?)

It was an ok read. More so about a woman coming out than passing for black. Angela struggled with her lesbian feelings for a long time and then finally they are exposed when she meets Cait who fuses her fire. Now her long time engagement to her boring finace' Keith is ruined and she is in love with a white woman. Ok maybe if the title was different it would have made the book more interesting. This does not make me want to read diverse literature. Not like an E. Lynn Harris story by far.
Angela Wright's coming out story sounds so much like many of ours; painful
scary and confusing. "Passing for Black" could have easily been titled
"Passing". Several characters were not only passing for black but also
passing as an ally, passing as straight and passing as royalty.

Coming out is one tidal wave to successfully swim through without drowning, but when you add race, sex, love&identity to the mix drowning seems more like a reality than a successful swim. Ms. Villarosa carefully weaved a tale of what happens when you free yourself totally and walk into a new world.

As I read "Passing for Black" I felt proud and excited to be able to read a book which blended the reality and some stereotypes of "Same Gender Loving" relationships. Dance with Angela as Caitlyn takes her on a roller coaster ride of emotional freedom.

Missy
Readers Paradise

I really enjoyed this book. There where so many levels to this book that brought about thought and dialog with my friends and family.
Angela Wright, the daughter of a doctor and television newscaster, is a successful journalist for Desire` magazine. She is engaged to Keith Redfield, a professor of African Studies, with whom she has been in a relationship for six years. She never felt comfortable in her skin because she was always teased about not being "black" enough. She is also uncomfortable with her feelings for other women, which she has suppressed for years. But meeting Cait, a white lesbian, invokes feelings in Angela so strong she can't ignore them. Her obsession with Cait leads her down a path she is not sure she wants to take.

PASSING FOR BLACK carries a two-fold message of being black in a racist society and being gay in a heterosexual world. It is hard to fathom what is more profound in the novel: racial intolerance or discrimination due to sexual preference. Just as there is discrimination within the race, there is also intolerance within the gay community against other gays. Angela's struggles with her sexuality is no different than the tale of others. Her character came off as rather selfish at times, which didn't allow me to empathize with her, nor agree with her decisions. It also took some time for me to get into the rhythm of the book. Although Villarosa is an established author, this is her first novel.

Reviewed by Paula Henderson
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers
Passing for Black by Linda Villarosa gives us a clear view of how confusing it can be for an African-American, trying to be a `Real Black,' whatever that means, and struggling with her sexuality at the same time. Angela Wright, a journalist is not sure who she is, sometimes feels she is not the right kind of black and other times feels she does not know how she identifies. She has chosen journalism because her mother, Janet, is a very successful reporter. Angela is engaged to successful professor, Dr. Keith Redfield, because he is a good man, and the right man for her, according to everyone, but her. As much as Angela has she feels out of sorts and is lacking something in her life. Secretly, she feels her longing for female love might be the problem. However, she has tamped those feelings for years, because she knows it is the right thing to do. Or is it? When she meets one of Keith's colleagues, Professor Cait Getty, she is immediately attracted and cannot get the woman out of her mind.

Angela finds a way to talk to Cait, she goes on an undercover assignment to a lesbian convention and immediately she and Cait connect. Once Cait discovers Angela is a journalist, she is angered by her duplicity and decides not to see her. Of course, Angela pursues her and a tryst unfolds. Immediately, the reader is pulled into the complications surrounding this love affair, including Keith's discovery and how Angela's parents feel about her choices.

Ms. Villarosa wrote a provocative, sometimes funny and very human account of a woman's sexual identity unveiling. The only stumbling block for me was Keith's one dimensional, almost stereotypical, bumbling maleness. I would have loved for him to be more dynamic, thus proving Angela's desires were more due to natural desires than to his inadequacies. Having said this, I truly enjoyed Passing for Black and recommend it to all readers who enjoy a well-written novel that will make them think.

Angelia Menchan
APOOO BookClub

Being black, the right kind of black, was difficult. It was like being in a cult--a secret society with rules as fluid as waves...

In the six years that Angela Wright has been with her fiancé Keith Redfield, her life has settled neatly into place. Keith, a professor of African-American history, has helped her become comfortable in her own skin. And Angela's career at Désire magazine is thriving. She's got nothing to worry about--or so she thinks...

Angela's best friend Mae is always there to ground her, whether they're joking about the importance of good hair or gossiping about their rival Tatiana Braithwaite--a milk chocolate Barbie with beauty, breeding, and an irritating knack for perfection. Mae reminds Angela how lucky she is to have found a successful, single brother. But when a chance meeting leaves Angela consumed with desire for an intriguing stranger, she impulsively decides to follow wherever it may lead--from outrageous underground sex parties to intimate encounters that are both torrid and tender.

Now everything Angela has come to believe about sex, love, identity, and race is called into question as this explosive new passion blows her world wide open...

"Passing for Black is Kissing Jessica SteinmeetsGood Hair.The characters are outrageous and real and heartfelt. Linda Villarosa has written an important, entertaining debut. Brava!" --Benilde Little, author ofWho Does She Think She Is?

"Passing for Blackweaves issues of identity and sexuality into an engaging tale of love, passion and family. Finally the story we've been waiting for, delivered in page turning, finely written prose by one of my favorite writers." --E. Lynn Harris,New York Timesbestselling author

"Passing for Blackis a lively page turner that follows the complicated process of coming out as African-American and female and middle-class. It is a sweet, romantic, and sometimes funny tale, brushed nicely with issues of race, class and sexuality. As Angela tumbles along her journey to self discovery, I found myself rooting for her to find the way." --Staceyann Chin
Rerations
< Passing For Black > < Purple Panties: An Eroticanoir.com Anthology > < Too Little, Too Late: A Novel > < Just Too Good to Be True: A Novel > < Hungry For It > freaks

< Skin Deep > < The Target > < Flight Risk > < When Dreams Tremble > < The Cottage > < Sumter Point > Kenna White

price： 279
Bella Books
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