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Posts tagged with "sarah waters"
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Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - I cannot stand Jeanette Winterson. As an author. I’m sure she’s AWESOME as a person and probably bakes cookies for her friends when they’re having a bad day and housesits and doesn’t ask for anything but instead BAKES MORE COOKIES for when you come home. But this book? Jeanette Winterson is the Queen of Vague Writing and General Subtextery. Meaning for this whole novel, I was going “Wait, is she 12? 18? Is she saying she likes ladies? OMG WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THE NEIGHBOR ARE THEY HAVING SEX GOOD LORD I HOPE SHE ISN’T 12.”
Kissing the Witch - These are interwoven fairytales that’ve been kinda redone by Emma Donoghue, who is a badass at writing. I’m on my fourth book of hers and this one is STILL my favorite (the others I’ve read are Landing, which is contemporary and not amazing but not bad, Slammerkin, which I super-enjoyed but is not gay and not as good as this [not because of the not-gay thing], and I’ve started Room, which I am WAY not into).
Tipping the Velvet - This is like the Holy Grail of lesbian novels. Sarah Waters is SUPER-smart AND writes about Victorian England. She said the purpose behind TtV was to show different types of Victorian lesbian relationships, and man, she succeeds. Because the heroine, Nan, is all OVER the place and probably gets like 50 diseases, but they are tastefully not mentioned. And Flo is in it, and Flo is awesome. Kitty is also awesome, but more in a bitchy way that destroys your life.
Fingersmith - (feel free to snicker at the title) This is pretty heavily influenced by The Woman in White, so I’m glad I read it before WiW, because otherwise I might’ve been all indignant instead of “OMG SO MANY TWISTS.” It’s got an insane asylum featured, and who DOESN’T love Victorian novels about insane asylums?
”![[image description: a photo of Sarah Waters in a coffee shop. There is a mug in front of her. She has her hand on her chin and is smiling at something to the left of the camera. End description.]
She has been wearing the crown as king of lesbian fiction since Tipping the Velvet was published in 1998 and arguably became the most important piece of historical gay fiction of all time. But because her writing pulls all readers into intense, rich and atmospheric worlds, she has successfully managed to drop the “gay writer” tag to simply become one of the UK’s most popular authors. She is one of a very few number of writers whose books are not just slotted into the LGBT section at the back of the bookshop, but are firmly on the bestseller piles.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx551amAxv1qce9v2o1_500.jpg)
[image description: a photo of Sarah Waters in a coffee shop. There is a mug in front of her. She has her hand on her chin and is smiling at something to the left of the camera. End description.]
She has been wearing the crown as king of lesbian fiction since Tipping the Velvet was published in 1998 and arguably became the most important piece of historical gay fiction of all time. But because her writing pulls all readers into intense, rich and atmospheric worlds, she has successfully managed to drop the “gay writer” tag to simply become one of the UK’s most popular authors. She is one of a very few number of writers whose books are not just slotted into the LGBT section at the back of the bookshop, but are firmly on the bestseller piles.
And so I wasn’t so very surprised to spot Grayson Perry sitting quietly at the back of the lecture hall on Monday night, listening to Sarah Waters read from and talk about her most recent novel, The Little Stranger. Sarah Waters is one of my favourite writers, not least for her ability to conjure a whole world and invite us in to be entertained.
Both these artists are deservedly popular; both have made mincemeat of the trend for minimalism, restraint, cynicism and world-weariness. Like Grayson Perry, Sarah Waters was funny, engaging and honest, answering questions and staying behind to sign books after the talk, despite the efforts of the organiser to whisk her away.
Blake talked of artists ‘seeing a world in a grain of sand’. Some artists seem to have misinterpreted that as meaning they can just show us the grain of sand, and we’ll get the reference. Grayson Perry and Sarah Waters take the grain of sand and paint the world on it. Long may they, and their art, prosper.
”(Source: bloomsburybluestocking.wordpress.com)
![[image description: a person with curly hair and glasses covering most of their face with The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. End description.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lugokmw3XG1qce9v2o1_500.jpg)
[image description: a person with curly hair and glasses covering most of their face with The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. End description.]
![[image description: cover of Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. The cover is mostly black, with pink, old-fashioned, high-heeled shoes in the middle.]
knowhomo:
LGBTQ* Books To Keep On Your Radar
Tipping The Velvet — Sarah Waters
“Lavishly crammed with the songs, smells, and costumes of late Victorian England” (The Daily Telegraph), this delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler. When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on “Grease Paint Avenue”, Nan follows as her dresser and secret lover, and, soon after, dons trousers herself and joins the act. In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education - a sort of Moll Flanders in drag - finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places. Drawing comparison to the work of Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters’snovel is a feast for the senses - an erotic, lushly detailed historical novel that bursts with life and dazzlingly casts the turn of the century in a different light.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr3zpaI7rV1qghfy5o1_400.jpg)
[image description: cover of Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. The cover is mostly black, with pink, old-fashioned, high-heeled shoes in the middle.]
LGBTQ* Books To Keep On Your Radar
Tipping The Velvet — Sarah Waters
“Lavishly crammed with the songs, smells, and costumes of late Victorian England” (The Daily Telegraph), this delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler.
When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on “Grease Paint Avenue”, Nan follows as her dresser and secret lover, and, soon after, dons trousers herself and joins the act. In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education - a sort of Moll Flanders in drag - finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.
Drawing comparison to the work of Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters’snovel is a feast for the senses - an erotic, lushly detailed historical novel that bursts with life and dazzlingly casts the turn of the century in a different light.
Be sure to click through to page 2 for the interesting stuff. (via the Lesbrary)
