Reading list help please

[catherineldf]

So I'm doing a panel next weekend at Marscon on recent fiction featuring GLBT characters and a colleague cleverly suggested doing a reading list. And thus it began. I culled through my own reading and various award nomination/winner lists and recommendations from friends and created the preliminary list below. At this point I'm looking for book/story suggestions, preferably with major bi and/or trans characters (positive portrayals) that an audience of primarily straight allies who devour sf/f might be interested in. The works should be published in the last 2-3 years and not be primarily romance or erotica; I'm going light on those, given the likely audience. This goes for ebooks as well, since this crowd tends to go for print.

Vellum and Ink by Hal Duncan
Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner
Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
Farthing and Ha’Penny by Jo Walton.
Vintage by Steve Berman (Haworth)
So Fey: Queer Faery Stories (Haworth or Prime Book forthcoming)
Earth Logic series by Laurie Marks
The Future is Queer edited by Richard Labonte and Lawrence Schimel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Sleeping Beauty, Indeed edited by Joselle Vanderhooft (Torquere Press)
Kelley Eskridge, Dangerous Space (story collection – Aqueduct Press)
Spanish Pearl and Crown of Valencia by Catherine Friend (Bold Strokes Books)
Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures edited by Lynne Jamneck (Lethe Press)
Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories edited by Catherine Lundoff (forthcoming May, 2008 – Lethe Press)
Best Fantastic Erotica edited by Cecilia Tan (Circlet Press)
The Very Bloody Marys by M. Christian (Haworth Press)
Dragon's Eye and Dragon's Teeth - James Hetley (Ace)
The Growing - Susanne M. Beck & Okasha Skat'si (P.D. Publishing)
Smoke and Ashes, Smoke and Mirrors, Smoke and Shadows - Tanya Huff (DAW)
The Virtu, Melusine and The Mirador by Sarah Monette (Ace)
Cagebird - Karin Lowachee (Warner Aspect)
The Summer Isles - Ian R. MacLeod (Aio)
Dog Warrior - Wen Spencer (Roc)
Murder of Angels - Caitlin Kiernan (Roc)
Offspring - Steven Harper (Roc)
The Ordinary - Jim Grimsley (Tor)
Reruns - Selina Rosen (Yard Dog)
Spaceman Blues: A Love Song - Brian Francis Slattery (Tor Books)
Wicked Gentlemen, Ginn Hale (Blind Eye Books)
In the Blood, Rick R. Reed (Regal Crest Enterprises)

Comments

[jrosestar.livejournal.com]

ETA - oops, I see you already have "The Spanish Pearl."

I just recently read: The Spanish Pearl (http://www.scp-inc.biz/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=810) by Catherine Friend Publisher: Bold Strokes Books

It's about a woman who travels back into time (El Cid era Spain). The other main character (it's a bit of romance, historical & action) is a woman living as a man...actually as the second in command to El Cid. Primarily historical, with some humor...as you can imagine with a 21st century woman transported back into time.

And my all-time favorite love story: Tiopa Ki Lakota (http://www.scp-inc.biz/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=571) by D. Jordan Redhawk Publisher: P D Publishing

Not sci-fi, and not exactly transgendered either - although the main character is a Lakota "two-spirited" person. Basically man/woman. It's historical romance, primarily based with-in the Lakota tribe. The other main character is a pioneer woman who was kidnapped by another group of Indians. While it is a romance, it's the main one I recommend to straight friends because it has basically very little sex. The romance is mostly mental/emotional. And it shows the difference in acceptance of 'two-spirited' persons and how they live vs the pioneer white Christians.

Don't know if either of these fit exactly what you're looking for though. Mainly I read lesbian romance - and I do not knowingly read any stories involving bi-sexual people. (Not a prejudice on my part, as I have bi-sexual friends - just my preference in reading material)

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

It looks like a fun read and I'll have to check it out for me, but it does seem a bit too romance for this crowd. I'm fudging on Friend because she's a local and that alone may get some folks to read her even though she's technically romance as well.
Thanks for telling me about the book! :-D