A Poem For What's Her Name by Dani O'Connor

Publisher:      Spinster's Ink

What happens when you give up on love?  Doc is a professor and the head of the English Department at the college where she works.  She tries to find love, even to the point of enrolling herself in Internet dating.  What follows is a hilarious series of the worse dates ever endured by anyone and Doc is convinced the kind of woman she is looking for just doesn’t exist.  Just as she adjusts to the idea that she will spend her life alone, Doc meets a young woman who changes her mind.  Not only do they form a relationship, but they end up making a life-long commitment.

This is a romance and a comedy.  Some of the dates Doc finds herself on will have the reader howling with laughter.  There’s nothing complicated about the story or that requires any deep thinking.  It’s just to be enjoyed.

If someone is looking for a book with which to have a good time, A Poem For What’s Her Name is that book.

Vera's Still Point by Ruth Perkinson

Publisher:                 Spinsters Ink


"Have you ever been somewhere or with someone and it was such a wonderful experience that it was like time was not moving forward or backward? You were just standing still, taking in all of the moment's beauty….there is the dance, the dance of life, what we all live for but what most of us don't recognize. We are mired in the past and pulled centrifugally into the future. However, it is the small dancing moments that evade time that we need to touch like a spirit fleshed out before us." Vera's Still Point, p. 104

Vera Curran was living a life where she missed most of the still points. She wasn't completely to blame for this because she was a forty year old lesbian librarian at a public high school in Virginia, a state that unfortunately is well known for being gay-unfriendly. Vera made the decision that the only way to protect her job was to live her life as a complete denial of her sexuality and follow a rather mundane and mind-numbing routine. She thought she was relatively happy living like that, until she met Frankie Bourden. Frankie was a former military pilot who decided to become a teacher with a mission to change the world, or at least her little corner of it. Frankie represented everything that Vera taught herself to be afraid of; she was out and proud and determined to shake up the system. And Vera couldn't resist her. 

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens in real life, the relationship is doomed to be of short duration because the reader learns on page 2 that Frankie dies from cancer, but, instead of being sad, the end of the book is uplifting. It tells the story of two women, how one awakened the life in the other and how the survivor learned to go on without her. The chapters alternate from the present when Vera is telling their story to her nephew Kyle and flashbacks of how the improbable relationship developed, beginning with cryptic questions on Post-It Notes. In the end, Vera would learn from Frankie that it's the still points and the people who make them for you that give richness to your life and she loved her for it.

Vera's Still Point is not a typical romance. There is a love story involved, but it's overshadowed by other themes. The first is the cost of living in an environment that will not let a person be who she truly is. People who do not live in one of the extremely conservative states may have trouble understanding Vera's fear about what could happen to her career if it becomes known that she is a lesbian. Virginia has been dominated for many years by the presences of the Rev. Pat Robertson and the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and was the birthplace of the Moral Majority.

Perkinson, a former teacher, captures the repression of living in such an environment and the destruction it can wreak on a person's soul to be forced to live in the shadows. Vera's fear of discovery is real, which makes Frankie's openness either heroic or foolhardy, depending on how you view the outcome. The fact that Vera is so obviously unhappy in her personal life without realizing it will cause readers who have been in similar circumstances to consider what "still points" they have also failed to experience. There is a certain sadness in wishing that everyone could be as fearless as Frankie and knowing that it sometimes can't be so in real life. 

There is the theme of how family dynamics shape a person's behavior or fail to shape it. Vera and Frankie's mothers make an interesting contrast of people who don't approve of something, but choose to deal with it in different manners. One interesting question that never quite gets answered is why Vera, who appears to have the more accepting family, doesn't have the courage to be more of a fighter for her life. 

Also there is the theme of love discovered and lost. Or is it? The reader will be left to ponder whether the cessation of life has to be the cessation of love. Can love be sustaining when one person is a memory? And what happens if you are the one left behind? It would be expected that Vera, after so many years of cutting her emotions off and then finally discovering the deep joy that love can bring, would become bitter when it's taken away too soon or that she would retreat to her former behavior. Neither of those happens however and the book makes a powerful statement about drawing strength from the past to face the future.

Vera's Still Point is a thoughtful book told with humor and insight. While it tells a love story, it will also lead the reader into reevaluating life and what really matters. Hopefully, it will lead the readers to also be more aware and appreciative of the still points that they personally experience and the people who help to cause them.

The Venus Vendetta by Rose Pry

Publisher:                    Spinsters Ink

The Venus Vendetta spans a period of three decades twisting together events of different periods  to create a story of revenge, retribution and adventure.

Reggie and her “brother” Jazz find themselves thrust into a nightmare world when they are kidnapped from their hippie family by a religious cult called the Enclave.  As they grow up among other “lost children” they are subjected to mental and physical abuse, especially at the hands of the lead minister’s son Clovis Hawk. Reggie proves to be too clever for the Enclave though and, after mutilating Clovis for his mistreatment of Jazz, arranges for them to escape and expose the cult to the authorities.  As the other kidnapped children are reconnected with their families, Reggie and Jazz are placed with a foster family and it seems they are meant to lead happy lives from then on.

Flash forward twenty-seven years and members of the Enclave have reappeared.  Clovis has changed his name and resurrected as an evangelical minister with tremendous power and a massive church.  Another member has been released from prison after spending years there for an assault committed at the cult.  Meanwhile, the Internet has brought together Reggie, other female Enclave members and women who are tired of society not truly punishing men who are sexual predators.  They form a group called Poetic Justice with the purpose of changing that.  Reggie’s profession is hairdresser and one of her clients is Gillian Waters, a very successful suspense fiction writer.  Due to their friendship, Gillian is drawn into the situation and works with Jazz and Rachel Bracken, a very attractive private investigator, to track Reggie and the other women to discover what they are planning to do.  Along the way, they will find themselves reassessing their own beliefs about justifiable actions and what exactly is “poetic justice.”

The Venus Vendetta is Rose Pry’s first book and it is intense.  The story is very compact, but touches on a number of issues, including the role in society of conservative Christian leaders, the sexual abuse of women and the frustrations those women feel with society.  There are times when the story seems about to drift off into non sequiturs; then Pry brings the threads back together to make sense.  The reader suspects what the members of Poetic Justice intend to do and is forced to confront the conflicting reality of legality versus morality.  The book doesn’t preach about the issues, but it does force you to think.  The most interesting character is Gillian Waters.  She shows remarkable growth as she changes from a woman who turned into an agoraphobic after the death of her partner into a person who rediscovers her adventurous side and possibly a new chance at love.  She makes a nice counterbalance to Reggie and the other women who are still locked into the emotions that were formed years before.

The description on the back of the book calls it a mystery thriller.  That category really only applies to the last few chapters of the book.  It might be more appropriate to label it as an adventure book involving highly topical issues.  It certainly lacks the romantic theme that drives most lesbian fiction, but that’s not a weakness in this particular novel.  This is a thoughtful, well-crafted story that doesn’t make light reading.  The reader will have to concentrate on the story and contemplate about what it is saying, but should feel that it was worth it in the end.  For those readers who say they are looking for a “meatier” story, this is the book.

The Side Door by Jan Donley

Publisher:                 Spinsters Ink

New Moon Falls is a place where people like conformity and secrets are to be kept.  Fifteen year old Melrose Bird has trouble with all of that.  With her bristle haircut, baggy cargo pants and androgynous appearance, Mel certainly doesn't conform to the image most people have of a girl and there's a secret she just won't leave alone.  On her first day of high school she sees the mother of Alex Weber sitting on a bench just staring at the school.  Alex hanged himself five years before, but no one in the town wants to talk about it.  Mel and her friend Frank become obsessed with Alex, his grave and why no one seems to care about what happened to him.  As Mel and Frank struggle to come to an awareness of themselves, they come to expect little help from their peers or the adults who surround them.

The Side Door is a well-written story because it captures the way a fifteen year old sees the world with great accuracy.  Mel has the conviction of someone with a limited world view because of her age.  From her perspective, she is the only one who is seeking the truth, anyone who disagrees with her is wrong, anyone who won't help her is a coward.  She faces situations with great bravery, but also with a total disregard of the feelings of other people, just like a fifteen year old.  No one will keep Mel from doing what she thinks is needed, even if she's wrong.

This book isn't a typical coming out story.  Mel doesn't find her true love and experience her first sexual encounter.  Instead it's a picture of kids discovering the uglier side of being gay, trying to change that against great odds and being partially successful.  It also has an interesting contrasting character in a teacher Mel turns to for support.  She represents a generation of women who created the atmosphere where Mel can be herself, but didn't experience it themselves.  The book misses a real chance to be richer by exploring that character a little more.

The Side Door is not the type of book to give to teenagers to help them figure out why they feel different and it doesn't speak to the experiences of all young gay people.  Instead, it's a book that might help an adult understand better what it means to be one type of those kids and how adults appear through their eyes.

The Secret Keeping by Francine Saint Marie

Publisher:                     Spinsters Ink


The Secret Keeping is not a book for the casual reader. It challenges your attention and requires patience as the story develops, but the wait is worth it.

Dr. Helaine Kristenson, AKA The Love Doctor, feels she is somewhat of a hypocrite. Through her best-selling book and her practice, she helps other people solve problems in their relationships, but she can't solve her own. She is trapped in a loveless long term affair with the internationally famous model Sharon Chambers, who ignores Helaine while she has numerous liaisons around the world, but who Helaine can't seem to get out of her system. When Sharon is home, the sex is abusive and unfulfilling for Helaine and she can't help but agree with friends who tell her she's a fool for not ending the situation. 

Lydia Beaumont is an extremely successful investment strategist with a high powered firm on Wall Street. Although she is skilled in the bedroom, she has found her various affairs to be unsatisfying, so she has devoted herself to long hours in the office and focusing herself on her career. Lydia is going to the top quickly. One of her few distractions is to meet with her friends at a bar/restaurant not far from the office and there she becomes intrigued by the woman she sees every time she is there who sits alone at a window table reading books. As her interest grows, Lydia is shocked to realize that, for the first time, she is falling for a woman and she has absolutely no idea what to do about it.

Eventually, Helaine and Lydia are drawn together, in great part due to the helpful machinations of a friendly waiter, and then the trouble starts. Sharon Chambers is not the kind of woman to let a lover walk away from her and she sets out to prove it. The book moves through palimony suits, corporate intrigue and the harassment of a "free press." The question finally is whether the relationship of two women who are basically very private can survive very public exposure and what are they willing to pay to make that survival happen.

The Secret Keeping can be a difficult book to grasp when you first start it. The first third tells the story from Lydia's point of view and is written in a style verging on stream of consciousness. Sometimes scenes aren't understood until you get to the end of them or even until the next scene. When Helaine's story picks up as the second third of the book, the pattern switches to long, fast paced conversations with other characters that require the reader to be paying close attention to who is talking. If you're used to quickly reading through a book, this one will force you to change your habits. 

The first few chapters can be very trying, but it's worth the effort. The story is unique and told in an engrossing manner. The reader will suddenly realize at some point that a story that seemed difficult to follow has turned into a fascinating story that can't be put down. You will have to focus on this book right until the last pages to grasp all of its complexities. In a recent book, Jane Vollbrecht suggests that lesbian literature should become more sophisticated and offer depth in addition to the girl-gets-girl formula. The Secret Keeping meets those criteria. The girl story is still there, but it's told in a more elaborate manner than most lesbian novels. You may find it confusing at first, but stick it out until the end. You'll be glad you did.

Commitment To Die by Jennifer L. Jordan

Publisher:            Spinsters Ink

Lauren Fairchild had lunch with her sister and her adored niece, picked up a picnic lunch of her favorite foods, drove three hours, hiked a mile up to a mountain lake, spread out her things and swallowed fifty pills. According to everyone who knew her, Lauren was happy with her life and was making plans for her future. So why did she do it? 

That's the mystery that part-time private investigator Kristin Ashe is hired to answer. Lauren's sister is convinced she is murdered and she wants Kristin to prove it. Kris wants to help Patrice Elliott, Lauren's sister, but she has problems of her own. Her lover, lesbian activist Destiny Greaves, wants them to move in together and start a committed relationship, something Kris is not sure she's capable of doing. Kris comes from a severely dysfunctional family, at the center of which is her handicapped brother David. When David is found in a coma from multiple epileptic seizures, Kris is thrown into a family drama that she would just as soon avoid. It's no wonder that she is drawn deeper and deeper into the enigma that was Lauren Fairchild's life. Even after it becomes clear what actually happened, the looming question is why. As Kris and her hilarious friend Fran Green, an irrepressible lesbian ex-nun, uncover Lauren's motivation, Kris also begins to learn more about herself and how she interacts with her family and Destiny.

The mystery in Commitment to Die isn't really so much about why Lauren Fairchild died on that mountain. The mystery in the book is about what motivates people in their lives, why do they behave the way they do and how do their interactions influence that. The book is almost a psychological study of human relationships, but without being heavy. It is interesting to see the relationships develop between Kris and Destiny, Kris and her family and to see the special relationship Lauren had with her sister and her niece and why. 

This isn't a traditional mystery, but it is an interesting book in the other story that it tells.

Selective Memory by Jennifer L. Jordan

Publisher:               Spinsters Ink


In Selective Memory, another offering in the Kristin Ashe Mystery series, Kristin is hired to find a missing person by the person who is missing. Alexandra Madigen was involved in a serious car accident and suffered brain trauma, including a prolonged coma. Her memory is coming back in disjointed flashes and she needs help in putting them back together properly. Alexandra wants to know who she was before the accident because she doesn't trust what she's being told by the people around her. The reason she doesn't trust them is that she remembers more than she is telling Kristin and she wants to see whose version will be confirmed. 

Kristin uncovers details she's not sure she should share with a woman who is so seriously ill, including a twenty year obsession with another woman, so she finds herself caught in an ethical bind as to what to do. Meanwhile, Kristin's associate, the irrepressible Fran Green, has decided they should expand their business by going into "decoy" work. They can be hired by people's spouses or partners to "tempt" them as a test of their fidelity. Kristin isn't comfortable with this at all, especially when she learns that she is going to be the first "decoy" for a lesbian couple. This presents her with an ethical dilemma of an entirely different sort. Both of these cases will have Kristin wondering at times if she needs to rethink her choice of profession. 

Once again Jennifer Jordan delivers an alternative mystery. The puzzle here is not to solve a crime but to understand relationships. The central story is the relationships that revolve around Alexandra Madigen, which at first appear to be rather cold, even unpleasant, except for the incongruous obsession with the other woman. When that takes an unexpected twist near the end of the novel, the reader is forced to go back and reevaluate everything. 

The decoy business calls up the question of what happens in a relationship when one partner doesn’t trust another one and things have broken down so far that, instead of talking about the problem, you hire someone to deliberately tempt the person to cheat. What if the partner really hadn't cheated before, but does now because the bait was put out there? Then who is the real guilty party? 

Finally, there is the evolving relationship between Kristin and Fran. Those who have read the earlier books in the series know that Fran Green started out almost as a comic relief in the stories. While she can still be funny, in this book she begins her own public access television show, and a more puzzling side is also beginning to emerge in the character. At times Fran appears to be the voice telling Kristin to take a risk, move further out to the edge, then she's telling her not to go somewhere. It's as if Fran is playing both roles of angel and devil sitting on Kristin's shoulders. The reader might wonder how much of this tug of war the friendship can endure.

Selective Memory is an easy read that will also cause you to think.

Qualities of Light by Mary Carroll Moore

Publisher:               Spinsters Ink

It was supposed to be a routine summer at Cloud Lake, but the Fisher family is coming unraveled.  When Molly and her little brother Sammy disobeyed their father and took a boat out onto the lake, they had no way of knowing that an accident would leave Sammy lying in a hospital bed in a coma.  Their parents' marriage was tenuous at best with their father absorbed in his painting and mother waiting for a chance to take off in her plane and leave them all behind.  Instead, her parents are keeping a vigil at the hospital, focusing all of their attention on their son and Molly is left on her own to deal with her guilt, her parents and the strange feelings she's developing for Zoe Novato.  Zoe is unlike anyone fifteen year old Molly has ever met - funny, vivacious and not afraid to kiss a girl.  Molly's father is distant and her mother distracted, so she has no one to talk to about why she is more attracted to a girl than to Chad who would like to be her boyfriend.  As the summer progresses Zoe practices her waterskiing, Chad is confused, and Molly learns to deal with her feelings, both for her parents and Zoe.  And they are all waiting, waiting for Sammy to wake up.

Qualities of Light is a sensitive, deftly told story of an adolescent trying to cope with her emotions.  Molly's hormones should be raging, but what throws her is that they're drawing her towards a girl and Molly doesn't want to be different from everyone else.  She's struggling to reestablish her relationship with her parents, who aren't making it easy, and she doesn't need anything to complicate that more than Sammy's accident already has.  Moore shows Molly as a child-woman who alternates between immature behavior and overwhelming maturity as she deals with her family and friends.  Those who remember their passage through that age will find much that taps into their memories.

This is a serious, but interesting book.  Sometimes it's hard to get a grasp on the emotions that are being expressed, but that may be a device to help the reader relate to what Molly is going through.  This isn't a coming-out love story, but a thoughtful look at the process.  For those looking for a book with some depth, this may be it.

Piper's Someday by Ruth Perkinson

Publisher:             Spinsters Ink


The statement of purpose on Spinsters Ink's web home page contains this sentence: These are the books that recognize our commonality, celebrate our diversity, and honor our strength in the face of adversity. That description certainly applies to Piper's Someday by Ruth Perkinson, which represents another lesbian novel that departs from the standard formula to tell an engaging story. 

Piper Cliff has three holes in her heart, one each for her mother, father and brother. The police report says they were killed in a traffic accident, but Piper knows the truth. God took them because she was mean to some kittens. Piper understands the lessons she received in school about cause and effect and believes that is why she lost her loving family and was left to live with her alcoholic, neglectful grandfather. The one bright constant in her twelve-year-old life is her three-legged dog Someday. Someday is her companion, confidant and the only thing in her fairly dismal life that makes the days bearable. Piper can't wait for the day when she turns 18, can get herself a job as a waitress and have her own apartment to share with Someday. 

Things begin to look up for both Piper and Someday when two young women move into the apartment complex and offer their friendship. Jenny and Andrea accept Piper and Someday completely as they are and provide an escape for the child and dog to get away from the grandfather and his sleazy friend Clover. When her grandfather tries to turn Piper against her friends because they are lesbians, all she needs to know is that they love her. As time passes, Piper's home situation becomes more dangerous and she discovers that she has friends she didn't realize existed who are determined to help her. Ultimately, Jenny and Andrea will risk everything to save Piper and Someday when the courts and the state of Virginia are not willing to act in their best interests.

Piper's Someday touches on a number of issues from today's society – child neglect and abuse, discrimination against lesbians and gays and the inability of courts and governments to solve many societal problems properly. Piper shouldn't be perceived as a victim though. She's a tough little kid who has learned to survive in terrible conditions and that she is still open to relationships of any kind speaks to the strength of her personality. Someday may only have three good legs, but she has the courage to come to Piper's rescue at one point and possesses an innate understanding of the child.

Overall, however, the book speaks to the definition of "family" and the reality that a genetic relationship to someone may not make them as much your family as the people who love, protect and nurture you. Piper's Someday is an moving story that will cause you to think while it's entertaining you. It doesn't take long to read, but every moment is worth it.

Stranded by Blayne Cooper

Publisher:              Spinsters Ink

Rachel Michaels has a very successful morning radio talk show with her ex-husband, but she's not satisfied with the job.  Taking a job as the broadcaster for Denver's new professional women's soccer team seems like a good idea until she's told she has to fly to Venezuela to do a story on the hot new recruit Miranda Gutierrez.  Her traveling companion will be Nora Butler, the team assistant director, and Rachel is sure Nora has a personal relationship with the team's owner.  Things go well meeting Miranda and her family until the three women discover plans have been made for them to go to a remote area for a bonding experience.  On the way there an accident leaves them stranded in the jungle and no one knows where they are.  Rachel, Nora and Miranda learn to depend on each other as they trek through the jungle and fight for their lives.  Rachel also discovers she has feelings for Nora who seems to blow hot and cold towards her.  Fighting to survive and fighting to understand Nora make for very stressful days for Rachel.

Stranded is an adventure story that keeps the tension high and the danger ever present.  When Nora falls sick on their trip through the jungle, the reader can sense the concern the other women have for her safety.  The romance between Rachel and Nora is entertaining, but it's the beauty of the Venezuelan wilderness that really stars in this book.  The personality clashes are interesting to observe, especially as Miranda changes from a rather self-centered teenager to someone who realizes she has to respond to the needs of others.  The reader will sense that she's going to be an even better soccer player because of what she has experienced with these two women.  The drama comes out of Rachel and Nora trying to figure out exactly what their relationship is going to be and that's not resolved until the very end of the book.

Blayne Cooper has written several books and shows her experience in crafting this story.  She develops the characters gradually and leaves enough surprises to keep the reader wondering what is going to happen.  The dialogue is handled well and balanced with the narrative sections.  Cooper tells an engaging story and keeps the reader turning the pages.  You can't ask for anything better in a book.

Day of the Dead by Victoria A. Brownworth

Publisher:                 Spinsters Ink

If you're of a persuasion to like stories about vampires, succubi and other things that go bump in the night, this is the book for you.

Day of the Dead is a collection of stories in the supernatural genre.  The book consists of five short stories and a novella that are most often set in New Orleans.  Some characters appear in more than one story, but all of the works stand alone.  Vampires are the most common topic, showing them at their most seductiveness.  Hurricane Katrina factors into more than one of the stories showing that nature can be the most horrifying character of all.

People who like their creatures really scary won't find that here.  If anything, what will terrify you is the idea of walking through the fog based on what keeps coming out of it in these stories.  A couple of the stories aren't clear about what exactly the supernatural entity is and the vampire stories are definitely more loaded in the sexuality of the situation than the blood-letting.  Certainly the most evocative selection is "Diary of a Drowning" about a woman who decides to stay in New Orleans during the hurricane.  Some of the stories drag along and the reader may get impatient to find out how they end.  The good thing about this type of book is that you can read one story, move on to something else and return to read another story.

An anthology makes it difficult for a reader to connect with characters that appear and disappear in a hurry.  If you are a fan of this genre though and are looking for some stories to read each night before bedtime, this book will meet that need and they're tame enough that you won't have to worry about nightmares.

Command of Silence by Paulette Callen

Publisher:                Spinsters Ink

This is an amazing book.  It's listed as a mystery, but the mystery that is described in the blurb on the back of the book isn't the one that makes the book.

Two children have been stolen from the same household a few days apart.  The police are at a dead end and desperate to find the little girls.  Desperate enough to call in Shiloh & Company, a most unusual detective agency because the members are different personalities all housed within the body of Isadora.  Each personality has unique skills and they use them together to solve mysteries that "normal" people can't untangle.  Isadora sometimes controls the other personalities and sometimes she can't.  She acquired them because of the severe trauma she suffered as a result of sexual abuse when she was a small child.  The members cooperate, sort of, because of a contract developed for them by Ray Martinez, Isadora's therapist, who is trying to integrate them into one person.  It's Ray's idea for Shiloh to take this case, but it may prove to be a tragic mistake.  As Isadora and her "partners" work their way through the clues and their observations, their tenuous hold on reality is stretched to the breaking point.  They also discover that they are dealing with some very dangerous characters.  Shiloh is determined to find out what happened to these children, but it may cost the personalities their lives, or worse, their joint sanity.

The surface mystery in this story of what happened to the girls is fairly straight forward and Callen does an outstanding job of gradually revealing clues, so that the pieces can't be put together until the end.  The master work at the core of the book however is the story of Shiloh and the mystery surrounding how "it" developed.  Callen reveals each personality in a setting that commands its appearance and explains the role that each one, including sophisticated Hester or motherly Sugartime or scholarly Lance or the terrifying Hawk, plays in the company and in Isadora's survival.  Sometimes the characters switch back and forth quickly, but it's handled in such a way that the reader is never confused as to which one is in command, though the characters confronting each persona can't say the same.  The reader is drawn into an almost hypnotic dance as each personality emerges and contributes to the whole.  Just as the mystery of the children is slowly revealed, the tragedy that created Shiloh is brought out by hints and flashbacks, only to come screaming out at the end in an incident that nearly destroys them all.  Watching Isadora and her personalities work and interact is like watching a moth dance back and forth around a flame and the reader knowing that she can't do a thing about it. 

The power of this book is something rarely experienced in this genre.  The case of the missing children is interesting, but the story of Shiloh & Company is fascinating.  The only lesbian presence in the book is Ray Martinez and her sexuality has practically no significance, but this is an engrossing and very different story.  You don't want to miss it.

Breaking Spirit Bridge by Ruth Perkinson

Publisher:                 Spinsters Ink


Breaking Spirit Bridge returns to the two main characters from Perkinson's earlier book, Piper's Someday. After living in Canada for several years with her guardians, Piper and her three-legged dog Someday return to Virginia so that Piper can attend college on a basketball scholarship. Charlottesville provides an exciting environment for Piper, but not one that can protect her from the trauma of her early years in Richmond. Though she tries to focus on her team, new friends and lover, Piper is haunted by old demons. The memories of her families' deaths and the abuse she suffered afterward are resurrected when Piper is called to Richmond to confront her dying grandfather. Piper begins to experience episodes of losing touch with reality and hearing voices and sounds and there is only Someday, the only solid link to her past and her protector, to keep her grounded. Tragedy beyond Piper's comprehension finally drives her into a mental hospital and she will fight to regain not only her sanity, but her ability to view the future with hope.

This is not an easy book to read in the sense that Piper takes the reader on a difficult journey. Bipolarism is an illness that subjects people to extreme highs and lows and trying to live inside their heads is extremely confusing. It is difficult for them to separate reality from fantasy and trying to follow the train of thought requires the reader to focus more intently than many novels. 

Anyone who is familiar with these characters from the previous book also may find it difficult to cope with what is happening to Piper. At times her disintegration into the illness is at best uncomfortable to watch and many times distressing. The reader wants so much for this young woman to finally have a happy life that to have her suffer so badly can be painful. 

This can't have been an easy book for Perkinson to write either. To be able to express these emotions and the depths of this illness in a way that draws the reader in requires knowledge of what bipolarism does beyond what simple research can accomplish. At times the reader will get an almost uncomfortable feeling that she is being given an insight to the author that is almost too personal.

Breaking Spirit Bridge is well written by Perkinson and presented by Spinsters Ink. This isn't a light romance or an engrossing mystery, but it is a powerful character study. It's an intelligent book that requires the reader to contemplate the impact of mental illness on people and those who care about them. If you're looking for easy entertainment, this isn't it, but, if you're looking for something that is enlightening and a good story, you want to try this book.

Backslide by Teresa Stores

Publisher:                Spinsters Ink


Backslide is the story of lesbian novelist Virge Young who has hit the best seller list with her book Sinner. It's a loosely autobiographical work of fiction based on her life being raised in a fundamentalist Christian home, how she broke away from that teaching and the people she encountered in her hometown as she went through this. The book has stirred up a lot of controversy and caused Virge to receive more than one death threat. No one is prepared for what happens however when she is on a talk show and a member of the audience stands up and shoots her. 

The book then proceeds to tell Virge's story, some chapters going forward from when she is shot (obviously she survives) and some going backward to when she was young. These are interspersed with musings from Virge's mind about an imaginary trip she is making and whether she'll be able to complete it or not. The trip appears to be an allegory for when she is shot and her battle to decide whether to live or not. 

Virge's trip through life brings her into contact with a varied cast of characters who all have an impact on her development, including preachers, a Holocaust survivor, a sharp and straight-talking great aunt, a secret African American friend and her infamous-to-be friend Ricki Ann. She develops from a child who believes totally in the religious message she has been raised with into a young woman who must cope with the fact that a fundamental truth about herself conflicts with that message and the realization that people don't always live according to what they say they believe. She learns that the world is a place of contradictions and trying to find your place in that can put tremendous stresses on your life. 

"Backsliding" is a tricky concept to define. It appears to be when a person is headed in one direction or one set of beliefs and then slips back into what was believed before or to ideas that were held in the past; however, it also encompasses that feeling one has when the mind starts to wander and you're in one place, thinking of yourself in another place or time and you momentarily become confused as to what reality is.


Stores tries to capture this feeling by not following a chronological order in her chapters. In one the reader is learning about Virge's past, then it slips forward to after the shooting, then back to the past or to one of those chapters where the reader is hearing Virge's thoughts about the shooting and its aftermath. The forward chapters have references to events that haven't been explained yet in the chapters of the past, but which will be. The reader begins to develop a feeling of floating in time, shifting backwards, forwards and sometimes sideways. 

The book isn't difficult to follow, but it does require the reader to be alert and pay attention to the story. This isn't a simple romance or mystery that lays out its plot in a linear fashion and just takes the reader along with it. Backslide is more like a jigsaw puzzle where pieces are put into different areas of the puzzle in random order and then they come together to create the whole picture. The lessons it teaches are about growth, forgiveness for past injuries, learning to accept people who are different from you, and that there are people who will not achieve any of these realizations.

Backslide is a thought-provoking book for the reader who likes something a little more complex than the routine story. It can provide a good change of pace for a reading list.