James Miranda Barry
Patricia Duncker
£ 6.99
At the turn of the 19th century, ten year-old James Miranda Barry enrolled as a medical student in Edinburgh, the start of a glorious career as a military surgeon. Across the Empire, Barry achieved fame not only as a brilliant physician but also a legendary duellist and a celebrated social figure. But James Miranda Barry was also a woman. Her greatest achievement of all had been to 'pass' for a man for more than fifty years. Patricia Duncker's novel tells Barry's story for the first time, in a richly inventive and entertaining tale of dark family secrets, adultery, questioned parternity and colonial history. Very well reviewed.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
The Teahouse Fire
Ellis Avery
£ 7.99
A spellbinding tale of love and turmoil in nineteenth century Japan.
'When I was nine, in the city now called Kyoto, I changed my fate. I walked into the shrine through the red arch and struck the bell. I bowed twice. I clapped twice. I whispered to the foreign goddess and bowed again. And then I heard the shouts and the fire. What I asked for? Any life but this one.'
When Aurelia flees the fire that kills her missionary uncle and leaves her an orphan, she knows but a few words of Japanese. She hides in a teahouse and is adopted by the family who own it: gradually falling in love with both the tea ceremony and with her young mistress, Yukako. As she grows up, Aurelia remains devoted to the family through its failing fortunes and to Yukako, although her love will never be reciprocated. As civil war and western intervention change Japan and tensions in the house gradually mount, Aurelia begins to realise that, to the world around her, she will never be anything but an outsider. To order call 0207 278 7654.
'The Teahouse Fire is a novel as exquisitely intricate and carefully presented as the tea ceremonies it depicts. It is a masterful act, and a most captivating portrait of a changing society. A book to savour.' - Matt Haig
When We Were Bad
Charlotte Mendelson
£ 7.99
The celebrated author of 'Daughters of Jerusalem' and 'Love in Idleness' reads from her new novel, 'When We Were Bad', a dazzling portrait of a family in crisis. The Rubin family, everybody agrees, seems doomed to happiness. Claudia Rubin is in her heyday. Wife, mother, rabbi and sometime moral voice of the nation, everyone wants to be with her at her older son's glorious February wedding. Until Leo becomes a bolter and the heyday of the Rubin family begins to unravel.
'As intelligent as it is funny. A beautifully observed literary comedy as well as a painfully accurate description of one big old family mess. A joy' - The Observer.
'When We Were Bad' is a warm, poignant and true portrayal of a London family in crisis, in love, in denial and - ultimately - in luck.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Disobedience
Naomi Alderman
£ 7.99
Ronit has left London and transformed her life. She has become a cigarette-smoking, wisecracking, New York career woman, who is in love with a maried man. But when Ronit's father dies she is called back into the very difficult world of her childhood, a world she thought she had left far behind. The orthodox Jewish suburb of Hendon, north London is outraged by Ronit and her provocative ways. But Ronit is shocked too by the confrontation with her past. And when she meets up with her childhood girlfriend Esti, she is forced to think again about what she has left behind. As read on Radio 4. Winner of the Orange Award for New Writers 2006. To order call 0207 278 7654.
'Rich, fresh, fascinating. A wonderful novel.' Sunday Times
The Spanish Pearl
Catherine Friend
£ 11.99
When Kate Vincent and her partner Anna travel to Spain, Kate is accidentally transported back in time...to 1085. What does Kate do in a world of no antibiotics, no feminism, no Diet Coke? She denies it as long as possible, then sets her mind to getting back home. Things don't go well. Kate is captured by a band of mercenary soilders and becomes an unwitting pawn in the violent conflict between the Catholic kings and Islamic Moors. In her struggle to stay alive, Kate must flee exotic harems, filthy dungeons, and treacherous Moorish courts. But when a sword-brandishing champion with an astonishing secret sweeps into her life, Kate is suddently torn between two women - and between two centuries. The Spanish Pearl is an epic adventure spiced with humor, lust, and danger - a story with surprising twists that will capture your imagination just as Kate's dilemma captures your heart.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Wish I was Here
Jackie Kay
£ 7.99
This fierce, funny and compassionate collection of stories explores every facet of that most overwhelming and complicated of human emotions: love. With winning directness, Jackie Kay captures her characters' greatest joy and greatest vulnerability, exposing the moments of tenderness, of shock, of bravery and of stupidity that accompany the search for love, the discovery of love and, most of all, love's loss.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
"So immediately engaging that it reads as though she is speaking to you at a bus stop." Irish Times
Behind the Pine Curtain
Gerri Hill
£ 9.99
Ostracized from her hometown and banished from her family at the age of seventeen because she is gay, Jaqueline Keys hitch-hikes to Los Angeles and work nights to put herself through college. Now fifteen years later - long after she's written her first best-selling book No Place For Family- Jackie is persuaded to return to the tiny town of Pine Springs after her father's death. The quick trip she'd envisioned turns into weeks as she learns that her father's business is suddenly hers to manage. And soon she is face-to-face with Kay, the woman who had been Jackie's very first crush all those years ago. It doesn't take long for them to fall back into their old habits, and soon Jackie is fighting off the same feelings she had struggled with as a teen. Gerri Hill is the best-selling author of Artist's Dream, Dawn of Change, Gulf Breeze, Hunter's Way, The Killing Room and Sierra City.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Wild Dogs
Helen Humphreys
£ 8.99
Every evening, Alice and five others gather at the forest's edge, trying to call back their dogs, abandoned by others in their lives. Becoming more involved in the group, Alice moves to a cabin owned by Malcolm, whose motives in having her there are suspicious. As she falls for the wildlife biologist whose wolf has gained lead of the pack, she feels the tug between love's wild power and her desire to domesticate it. After a tragic accident, all must rethink thier lives and find their places in an untamed world. Wild Dogs is the co-winner of the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Fiction.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
"A sensual, romantic, and brutally wise novel that will leave readers gasping. Every senstence Humphreys writes is a blow to the heart." Emma Donoghue, author of Life Mask.
Sleep With Me
Joanna Briscoe
£ 7.99
Richard and Lelia's child is conceived in a moment of giggling chaos as they dress for a Christmas party. They arrive rudely late and still glowing, and barely register a slight, drab woman in the hall. Sylvie. As their baby grows, so does the presence of Sylvie - she seems to be nowhere, yet everywhere, harmless yet sinister. Richard is seduced by her subtle, inexplicable charm, while Lelia, struggling with Richard's sudden ambivalence towards their baby, finds that she is haunted by painful memories. And Sylvie remains as invisible as she wants to be - that is the source of her power.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
"Elegiac, beautiful, evocative...Sleep With Me works in much the same way as an obsession...you may wish to escape, but have already become addicted." Anita Sethi, Daily Telegraph
The Iron Girl
Ellen Hart
A Jane Lawless Mystery
£ 9.99
After years spent mourning the death of her partner, Christine Kane, Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless thinks she's ready to move on. That is, until she finds a gun amoung Christine's belongings. The night before Christine died of cancer, three members of the Simoneau family, Christine's real estate clients, were murdered. The timing of their deaths appeared coincidental and Jane always assumed Christine knew nothing about the family's secrets. But as she searches for clues to understand what really happened, the gun and a few other discoveries begin to convince Jane otherwise. Where past and present collide, Ellen Hart's latest mystery in this Lambda and Minnesota Book Award winning series proves that she remains one of the genre's greatest.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Idaho Code
Joan Opyr
£ 9.99
Burned by love gone wrong, Bil leaves college in Seattle and returns to Cowslip, Idaho, population 23,000. It ought to be the perfect place to lick her wounds but unfortunately Bil's terminally ill brother has embarked on a petty crime spree, Cowslip has become ground zero in the battle over an anti-gay initiative and it looks as if Bil's mother might have been involved in a long ago murder. This is where family therapy comes with a shovel and an alibi.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Alchemy
Maureen Duffy
£ 7.99
'A novel that bristles with ideas.'Sunday Times
Deftly handeld the movement between two worlds, four centuries apart. Her range of cultural reference is dazzling.'Literary Review
A compelling mystery combining the witch trials of the past with a contemporary case of academic intrigue. Solicitor Jade Green's life takes a turn for the bizarre when she accepts an unusual case - that of a university professor accused of Satanism. As Jade delves into the strange circumstances of his dismissal, she finds herself drawn into a seventeenth-century manuscript, the original of which has been stolen from the Professor's briefcase at the university. It is the diary of Amyntas Boston, a young woman awaiting trial for dabbling in the black arts. The two stories intertwine as Jade fells mysterious echoes of the trial in her own life, and resonances of Amyntas' experience four hundred years before. Well written and a popular favourite.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Turn Back Time
Radclyffe
£ 11.99
Radclyffe's excellent and gripping novels can prove very hard to get hold of, so that's why we now import and stock her whole back catalogue.
Pearce Rifkin is a woman with a plan, and it doesn't include a serious relationship. Chief Surgical Resident is just a stepping stone to her lifelong goal - chairmanship at one of the top medical centres. She is determined to follow in her father's footsteps, even though she isn't the son he dreamed of. Wynter Thompson, barely recovered from a failed relationship, struggles to balance the demands of her surgical residency and personal life. She is focussed on work because another chance at love isn't in her game plan. Two women with a shared passion for surgery clash at every opportunity, but could something more be brewing?
Radclyffe, author of over seventeen lesbian romances, is the recipient of the 2004 Alice B. Award for a career "distinguished by consistently well-written, realistic, and inspirational novels." A practicing surgeon as well as full-time author she lives in Philadelphia with her partner.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Babyji
Abha Dawesar
£ 8.99
"I loved Babyji. It's a cunning lithe defiant sexy tiger's roar of a book." Ali Smith, author of Hotel World
Sexy, surprising, and subversively wise, Babyji is the story of Anamika Sharma, a spirited student growing up in Delhi. At school she is an ace at quantum physiscs. At home she sneaks off to her parent's scooter garage to read the Kamasutra. Before long she has seduced an elegant older divorcee and the family servant and has caught the eye of a classmate coveted by all the boys. With the world of adulthood dancing before her, Anamika confronts questions that would test someone twice her age. Ebullient, unfettered, and introducing one of the most charming heroines in contemporary fiction, Babyji is irresistible.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
There's definatly an invasion afoot in this latest installment in Alison Bechdel's award winning series, but just who's invading whom is unclear. Are Mo and her friends having an impact on the world or merely splattering on its windshield? Mo is forced to work her way through library school by slinging bestsellers at Bounders Books-N-Muzak. Sparrow is ambivalent about new motherhood. Clarice and Toni discover 10-year-old Raffi jacking cars and picking up prostitutes on his best friends computer. And Sydney's first mammogram yeilds some very bad news. If this isn't enough to turn your hair gray, it all unfolds against the grim rainbow-colored backdrop of the Homeland Security Advisory System. As the depredations of the Bush administration mount and the USA grows increasingly polarized, the characters' lives begin to mirror the political climate. Join our conflicted friends as they struggle to save this fragile, fearful planet with attachment-parenting, patriotic dissent, good sex, library cards, and a dedicated resistance to the forces of order and decency wherever they rear their ugly heads! To order call 0207 278 7654.
The eagerly awaitied fourth Micky Knight mystery. Micky is the fearless, fast-moving New Orleans private dick with a difference. She's on two cases: a widowed mother is searching for her estranged daughter, and an adopted young drag queen, who was thrown out of his home for being queer, searches for his mother. This all leads Micky to the question of her own mother, who split when she was five. In this latest adventure Micky is still a deliciously complicated and contradictory character. An absorbing and gratifying read. To order call 0207 278 7654.
Susan Sterling wanted nothing more than to escape her life...and her marriage. The family's secluded cabin in King's Canyon National Park seemed the only place for her to find peace. But it took Shawn Weber coming into her life for her to find the courage to make changes. The budding friendship between the two women strenghtens into an intense emotional bond, a bond that soon eclipses friendship. Despite pressure from her family to reconcile with her husband, Susan can't deny the feelings that Shawn stirs within her. But will Susan forsake her entire family for a chance of love with Shawn? Intensely engrossing and deliciously readable. To order call 0207 278 7654.
