What we’re about
Meet other fans of Lesbian Literature here in Seattle. Chat about books while meeting fellow queer ladies who like to read and socialize. You can jump in and join anytime!
Meeting Structure: The meetings are structured to discuss the books and get to know each other. We start with introductions, something we thought about the book (longer than a paragraph, shorter than a page), then we launch into discussion. We discuss the book and the issues discussed in the book for about an hour and a half. Then we end with our names again, last thoughts on the book and any activities/events/announcements people want to share with the group.
You are welcome to attend the meeting if you haven't read the book or haven't finished the book, especially if you're trying to determine if it's the right fit for you. We have on average about 20 women at every book club, often more, sometimes less.
Where we meet: We meet at Gay City Health at 400 E. Pine St.
After book club: Many of us head over to Elliott Bay Book Store where we pick up the next month's book. We're an official book club with Elliott Bay, so they have enough books in stock for our group and we get a 20% discount. To get the book, simply go to the front counter and tell them you are there to get the Seattle Lesbian Literature Book Club Book. It's often helpful to know the title of the book. (They usually stock our books one or two months in advance.)
After Elliott Bay: Many of us go out for dinner after we pick up the next month's book. Sometimes during the summer it's just ice cream. We decide together where we go for dinner on the spur of the moment.
Occasional changes to meeting space: In the summer, we may head over to Cal Anderson Park and will discuss the book in the sun. Because Seattle weather is unpredictable, we try to post something a day before about the change in meeting space. We also put a note where we had previously said we would meet and one of the organizers typically meets people at the original meeting space and walks over while the other organizer starts the meeting. Other times of the year, we occasionally have a scheduling conflict with the other events that Gay City puts on, we try to make sure people know about this and the alternative space we are meeting.
Parking Advice: Seattle Central Community College has a lot on Pine and Harvard that is $15 all day and evening, so you don't have to worry about parking meter duration.
Picking Books: We are always on the lookout for for books that might be good. If you have any book suggestions, please fill out this form https://forms.gle/f3i2ikEYXgm62qBq8.
Upcoming events (4)
See all- May Book Club - "The Future Is Disabled"400 E Pine St, Seattle, WA
"The Future Is Disabled" by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/6nvBPLOyqFhl_ih6RAWvZg
In The Future Is Disabled, Leah Laksmi Piepzna-Samarasinha asks some provocative questions: What if, in the near future, the majority of people will be disabled - and what if that's not a bad thing? And what if disability justice and disabled wisdom are crucial to creating a future in which it's possible to survive fascism, climate change, and pandemics and to bring about liberation?
Building on the work of their game-changing book Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Piepzna-Samarasinha writes about disability justice at the end of the world, documenting the many ways disabled people kept and are keeping each other - and the rest of the world - alive during Trump, fascism and the COVID-19 pandemic. Other subjects include crip interdependence, care and mutual aid in real life, disabled community building, and disabled art practice as survival and joy.
Written over the course of two years of disabled isolation during the pandemic, this is a book of love letters to other disabled QTBIPOC (and those concerned about disability justice, the care crisis, and surviving the apocalypse); honour songs for kin who are gone; recipes for survival; questions and real talk about care, organizing, disabled families, and kin networks and communities; and wild brown disabled femme joy in the face of death. With passion and power, The Future Is Disabled remembers our dead and insists on our future.
- June Book Club - "Roses, In the Mouth of a Lion"400 E Pine St, Seattle, WA
"Roses, In the Mouth of a Lion" by Bushra Rehman
https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/3Czr8TaWU99glfUCcNaK2A
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice * An NPR Best Book of the Year * A Padma Lakshmi Book Club Pick
For fans of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, an unforgettable story about female friendship and queer love in a Muslim-American community.
“Stunningly beautiful.” —The New York Times Book Review
“An unforgettable voice that moves you from the start.” —People Magazine
Razia Mirza grows up amid the wild grape vines and backyard sunflowers of Corona, Queens, with her best friend, Saima, by her side. When a family rift drives the girls apart, Razia’s heart is broken. She finds solace in Taslima, a new girl in her close-knit Pakistani-American community. They embark on a series of small rebellions: listening to scandalous music, wearing miniskirts, and cutting school to explore the city.
When Razia is accepted to Stuyvesant, a prestigious high school in Manhattan, the gulf between the person she is and the daughter her parents want her to be, widens. At Stuyvesant, Razia meets Angela and is attracted to her in a way that blossoms into a new understanding. When their relationship is discovered by an Aunty in the community, Razia must choose between her family and her own future.
Punctuated by both joy and loss, full of ’80s music and beloved novels, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a new classic: a fiercely compassionate coming-of-age story of a girl struggling to reconcile her heritage and faith with her desire to be true to herself.
- July Book Club - "She is a Haunting"400 E Pine St, Seattle, WA
"She is a Haunting" by Trang Thanh Tran
https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/R888A8PhO_6MQQSdnSWpggWilliam C. Morris Debut Award Finalist
Instant New York Times and Indie BestsellerThis house eats and is eaten . . .
"A riveting debut from a remarkable new voice! Trang Thanh Tran weaves an impressive gothic mystery in which Jade's father is determined to restore a decrepit home to its former glory and Jade is the only person who feels the soul-crushing devastation of colonialism lingering within its walls." --Angeline Boulley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Firekeeper's Daughter
A House with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic.
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She's always lied to fit in, so if she's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.
But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don't belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can't ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves cryptic warnings: Don't eat.
Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house--the home they have always wanted--will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house's rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.
- August Book Club - "Yerba Buena"400 E Pine St, Seattle, WA
"Yerba Buena" by Nina LaCour
https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/3Czr8TaWU9_6oq2OH4VjcA
FROM BESTSELLING AND PRINTZ-AWARD WINNING AUTHOR NINA LACOUR, PERFECT FOR READERS OF WRITERS AND LOVERS
“A study of complex, modern love… Expertly illuminates the trauma that Sara and Emilie are both wrestling with, as well as their hope and healing… Lingers like a perfectly mixed cocktail.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“A Carol for our times.” —Harper’s Bazaar
Sara Foster runs away from home at sixteen, leaving behind the girl she once was, capable of trust and intimacy. Years later, in Los Angeles, she is a sought-after bartender, renowned as much for her brilliant cocktails as for the mystery that clings to her. Across the city, Emilie Dubois is in a holding pattern, yearning for the beauty and community her Creole grandparents cultivated but unable to commit. On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena.
The morning Emilie and Sara first meet at Yerba Buena, their connection is immediate. But soon Sara's old life catches up to her, upending everything she thought she wanted, just as Emilie has finally gained her own sense of purpose. Will their love be more powerful than their pasts?
At once exquisite and expansive, astonishing in its humanity and heart, Yerba Buena is a testament to the healing qualities of a shared meal, a perfectly crafted drink, a space we claim for ourselves. Nina LaCour’s debut adult novel is a love story for our time.
