Sharp, funny and totally Sweet!

As a proud-as-heck long-term Sugar Rush fan (well, for the 3 years or so Burchill's wonderful characters have been allowed to assault public morals with their binge-drinking, drug-taking, lustful antics) and being utterly gutted when the fabulous TV series was axed to make way for the ever-more-festering Big Brother, I was delighted to get the news that Burchill finally wrote a sequel to the eponymous novel that started the whole roller coaster ride. After a rather sad year of being Sugar Rush-less, this punchy, smutty and surprisingly moving novel doesn't disappoint. In a nutshell, Sugar is back after a stay in the clinker, and having discovered her religious hubby Mark has done a runner with their daughter, starts a new chapter of her life in her own inimitable way. Before long Sugar has kicked her way into the lives of a couple of gay fashion designers, a foxy abortion doctor, a shy but sexy Pakistani Christian and a rowdy hen party - all the while keeping one eye open for her baby daughter, and another eye open for the now-absent Kim Lewis...This read made me howl with laughter several times, and kudos to Burchill for having the guts to be as thought-provoking and non PC as ever. However, it's apparent to the reader well-versed in the TV series that Burchill has tried to combine both TV series and previous book, and this is no surprise considering she wrote the book on the strength of having loved Leonora Critchlow's depiction of teen hell-raiser Sugar on the small screen. So, continuity wise, the story is rather all over the place, (for example, Saint being removed completely from the book even though she was 'the love of Kim's life' in both book and TV: perhaps because she changed age, context and race in the book/TV cross-over) while there are several lines in the text that have been taken straight from the TV script (a brief account of when Kim and Sugar steal Stella's credit card crops up, despite the fact that in the book, Stella had had her affair long before Kim met Sugar and would therefore not have been around for the girls to take her card). This is rather unsatisfying if you love both book and TV series, particularly as the TV show tried so hard to retain continuity over a supposed long period of time. Despite this I'm hoping against hope that the popularity of this latest addition to the Sugar Rush franchise pushes the TV executives into making Season 3. Even if they don't, though, we should thank Burchill for having made the final phase of the Sugar Rush saga so darn memorable.

Not as good as Secret Edge

I bought this after reading Robin Reardon's first novel, A Secret Edge. This is a harder read, and not nearly as good. It takes a long time to get going, and only really gets exciting at the end. It's also a bit preachy....The setting of the book - a religious group, Straight to God, who 'straighten' people out - gets a bit boring. <br /><br />I was going to give up on this book, but, although it was hard work at times, it did get better. But not a classic. Here's hoping Reardon's 3rd novel is more like the first!

Great Read

When You Don't See Me<br />I've read a few gay books, and they never really live up to my expectations - never really match what you can read in the mainstream... until now!<br />Excellently written, warm, fully fleshed out characters and a great story.<br />What else do you want?

One of my favorite Lesbian Romance Novels....

Cam and Blair are two strong women in the process of understanding and accepting the strength of their feelings for each other. The process is complicated by the fact that one of them is the daughter of the US President, and the other is the head of her secret service detail. Politics, passion, fear, romance, and some steamy love scenes…Radclyffe characters are totally believable. You will fall in love with Blair and Cam.

'Honor Bound', the second book in Radclyffe ’ s “ Honor ” series does not disappoint.

Secret Service Agent Cam Roberts is once again put in charge of the security team guarding the US President ’ s Daughter, Blair Powell. They had finally become lovers after Cam took a bullet meant for Blair.
This time around, Blair is unwilling to accept Cam ’ s willingness to risk her life to protect her. Cam tries to put aside her feelings for Blair and focus on protecting her erstwhile lover from a deadly, resourceful stalker who has succeeded in killing one of her agents. Unfortunately, Blair is still the same headstrong woman who feels suffocated by the walls of security mounted around her, and succeeds in eluding even her own security chief time and again. She tries to understand Cam ’ s dedication to her job, but doesn ’ t feel anyone should lose his or her life for her, much less the woman she loves.

I highly recommend the other two books in the “ Honor Series ” , ‘ Above All, Honor ’ , and ‘ Love and Honor. ’

Enjoyable read

This is a cut above the usual romance novels in that personally, (and obviously this is an individual thing) you can relate to the characters. They are smart, strong, feminine (if you like that kind of thing) and speak their mind. I found the writing easy to read and enjoyable and look forward to reading many more of her books. Her humour made me chuckle no end.

Read it if you want to feel good about people, love and the goings on in a woman's mind.

Sequel to innnocent hearts

Dr. Vance Phelps lost everything in the War Between the States--her professional future, her place in Philadelphia society, and her faith in herself. She travels to New Hope, Montana with no hope of happiness and no desire for anything except forgetting. Mae is a frontier madam, used to standing alone. She fiercely guards the well-being of the lost young women who come under her care--she just never expected one of them to be a doctor, wounded in body and soul. <br /><br />Can two outcasts find refuge in one another's hearts? <br />

Brilliant

This is Isherwood's finest piece of writing. Chanced upon it in a library, having heard about his Berlin novels and decided to give"Single Man" a go.<br /><br />Isherwood's brilliance is his attention to detail, bringing to the reader's attention the world with an almost visceral quality, whilst retaining a resounding subtlety that makes this book really stand out. It is truly outstanding and a book for those who know about books.<br /><br />Easily read in one sitting it is a book you can return to every now and again without feeling like you could be doing something better with your time.<br /><br />The story revolves around an old man, lecturer at an LA university and a stranger to his neighbours. The people he meets during his routine are cause for much of the story's development, addressing key themes in the process.<br /><br />This is my favourite book. It is well worth a read. If at all interested in North American literature (J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Plath, Douglas Coupland to name a few) and its concern with lonliness and the search for meaning and identity then this will be a book for you.

Gerri Hill does it again!

When Kate Winters, author of the mystery series The Masters, develops writer's block, her old friend, wealthy widow Brenda Granbury, invites her to spend the summer in Coyote, New Mexico, to clear her mind. Leaving behind the Dallas heat--and her live-in girlfriend--Kate retreats to the high mountain desert, and finds herself surrounded by Brenda's eccentric friends and artists, including the somewhat cultish Harmony, Sunshine and Starlight. But it's the local sheriff, Lee Foxx, who holds her attention. Lee, however, has a penchant for only dating the young tourists that flock to the river canyon each summer. She has no intention of ever settling down.<br /><br />Soon, the women develop a friendship, despite Kate's repulsion of Lee's dating habits, and Lee's distaste of Kate's so-called girlfriend, Robin. Over the summer months, their friendship threatens to evolve into more, and Kate tries to maintain her conviction that she is in a committed relationship and will not become one of Lee's"groupies".<br /><br />Harmony, Sunshine and the Fates intervene, slowly pushing the two women together. When they finally give in to their attraction and desire, an unexpected visit by Robin sends everyone scrambling. Kate is torn between her perception of the safe relationship she has with Robin, and her overwhelming desire to be with Lee. Lee, on the other hand, is trying to cope with the realization that she has fallen in love for the first time. And fallen for someone who is technically unavailable. Will Lee fight to keep Kate in Coyote? Or will she let her escape back to Dallas with Robin? <br /><br /><br /><br />

Learning about the Down Low

I was engrossed by J L King’s book and its revelations about African-American sexual sub-culture. I was particularly struck by the statistic that straight African-American women are 18 times more likely to be HIV positive through sex with their partners than straight American white women. It raises the question of whether same sex encounters between"straight" African-American men are disproportionately high, and, if so, why. The explanation could lie partly in the high number of African-American men in US prisons who become HIV+ and infect their partners on release. However, the statistic also suggests (and it would be interesting to have data on other ethnicities) that the more repressive a majority belief - in this case that homosexuals should fry in hell - the more likely it is to be secretly transgressed. King makes the point that many African-American Christian pastors preach homophobic sermons monthly, and the more virulent they are, the more likely the pastor is to be"on the DL". Hypocrisy and its consequences are ubiquitous, but thanks to King’s courageous revelations, they will hopefully have a less disastrous effect on African-American family and community life in the future.

conceptual building blocks for a better world

Iris Young makes us think about justice not as a set of debts we owe other individuals but as a set of relations between social groups. In a just society, no group is oppressed. Her chapter"Five Faces of Oppression" is a classic. She brings new insights to debates about welfare, affirmative action, and disability. This book also offers a thought-provoking discussion of community. Young argues that we have based our idea of community on the rural life of an earlier age and that city life is where we should look for ideas about how community thrives in diversity.

Young tries to write for a general audience as well as for scholars. Sometimes, she succeeds, although the parts of the book that address particular groups and their predicaments or particular social policies are more accessible than the parts in which she critiques other theories. I would recommend this book for second-year students in college and up. It marks a turning point in social and political thought.