Hemmings, Clare. Bisexual Spaces: A Geography of Sexuality and Gender. New York: Routledge, 2002.
I recently came across a citation of this book and decided to buy it despite its age because I am bisexual and because my research is concerned with space.
With the exception of Moore’s book, which I bought directly from the publisher, I bought all of these books from amazon.com. I bought Hemmings’s book new for $53.95 because there were not any used copies available for a reasonable price. It must be said that it is ridiculous that Routledge has not lowered the price for the book considering that it is seventeen years old (an eternity in academic publishing) and it is also now print-on-demand (I received the book yesterday and it was printed on 14 September), and thus of lower quality than the original paperback printing and also devoid of warehousing costs. I bought it because it feels necessary for me to read (texts on bisexuality are still woefully rare), and I am sympathetic to the struggles that academic publishers face in an increasingly-contracting market, but I haven’t been this annoyed about the price of a book since buying some overpriced textbooks my first semester of college.
Moore, Carley. The Not Wives. New York: Feminist Press, 2019.
I received an email advertisement for this novel and decided to buy it because it is about queer relationship models, something that is treated infrequently in literature.
Shatzkin, Mike, and Robert Paris Riger. The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
As a bibliophile I of course bought this book as soon as I heard about it. I read it the other night and learned from it, though less than I was hoping. It is worth reading for anyone interested in trying to get a book published.
The Book Business provides an illustrative contrast to Hemmings’s book. It is also print-on-demand and is a recently released academic text, and yet it only cost $20.00.
Skeets, Jake. Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2019.
I read about this poetry collection in a recent issue of Poets & Writers and decided to buy it because I am always looking for new queer writers of color.
Zimmerman, Diana R. Certain as Afternoon/ Certa Come il Pomeriggio. Costa Rica: Self-published, 2019.
I enjoy Zimmerman’s memoir Marry a Mennonite Boy and Make Pie, so I decided to buy her new poetry collection about the death of her Italian husband. The poems are printed in both English and Italian.
Daniel Shank Cruz 