Every once in a while a book comes along that leaves you breathless. You want everyone you know to read it just so you can talk about it, assess it, hunt out hidden meanings and recall what moved you most. Emma Donoghue’s latest, Room, is an absolute must. If ever there is such a thing as “essential reading”, this is it.

Celebrating 15 years of fabulous music making! Gloria, Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir return with their unique mix of Musicals, Madrigals, Classical and Camp. The evening of fun and music is hosted by the fabulous Miss Panti.

Do you think you have a busy life? Yes? Have you written three books, made two films, married, raised two children, started your own production company and launched the careers of some singers? Then had time to pen poetry, short stories and keep a blog up to date? How about winning awards for nearly all of the above? If you answered yes, you are either lying (naughty) or are Shamim Sarif (hi!).

Portugal’s highest court has today issued a ruling that expanding the definition of marriage to include same-sex relationships is permissible. This is in the context of Portugal’s constitution, which obliges the state to uphold and protect marriage and the family.

The first time you looked at the cover of one of Ann Bannon’s books, you probably laughed, or groaned, or just put it back. On the cover of Ann Bannon’s book, Odd Girl Out, the blurb reads,

Suddenly they were alone on an island of forbidden desires.

Right. Next?

Psychotherapist and psychoanalyst Susie Orbach’s recent book Bodies examines the current ‘beauty terror’ and how it manifests itself in various forms of eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Orbach published a hugely popular and influential book in the late 1970s called Fat is a Feminist Issue and founded the Women’s Therapy Centre in London.
What has this got to do with a lesbian blog you may well ask…?

Name some gay superheroes. G’wan have a go; Batman circa 1960 obviously, Wonder Woman (in my mind), Anole from X-Men for the geeks, would Xena be considered a super-hero? Anyway, there are a few but not many which is odd considering the camp as knickers potential in super universes. One man who, probably, got sick to the back-teeth of having no gays in the super-hero village is Martin Eden, the man behind Spandex; the world’s first gay supe troupe comic.

What gives a greater insight into a city than its bookshops…? Here’s what we found in Bluestockings: bookstore, fairtrade cafe and activist center, nestled by a vegan restaurant in East Village, New York. Though only 10 years old, on first impression the shop seems a little anachronistic- a throwback to 1970s and 1980s activism.

Yesterday saw the launch of “The Beaut.ie Guide to Gorgeous” by one half of the beaut.ie team, Aisling McDermott. Whether you’re a stone butch dyke, a totally femme lipstick lesbot, a straighty katie, drag queen, or anywhere along the spectrum in between, there just may be something in this book for you.

Sarah Waters is a lesbian book-lover’s dream; not only is she a hell of a writer but she’s as out as a person can be. As a result we have five books which, had she been a lesser writer and just a lezzer writer, would be in our library but not the mainstream. With Sarah, lesbian culture is brought to the wider world.

If you’re looking for something easy, fun and quick to read on your holliers this year, you could do much worse than Mari SanGiovanni’s debut. Our heroine, Marie, is starting to think that she may be just as nuts as her crazy, American Italian family. She has started obsessing over Hollywood actress, Lorn Elaine and is in a realtionship which died years ago.

When we meet Nora, she is a grumpy old woman getting ready to die. Although that may sound like the most depressing opening to a book, don’t let it put you off Days of Grace. This sad, warm, funny story is so full of heart and love , you’ll be thinking about it for weeks after finishing. Through it, Catherine Hall manages to tell story of love, desire and repression and how forgiveness is sometimes the most important thing in your life.

Carol Ann Duffy, out lesbian, mother, playwright and poet has just been named as the first female Poet Laureate in the UK. She follows in the hallowed footsteps of people such as John Dryden, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, William Wordsworth and, more recently, Ted Hughes.

In the last few days, dozens of LGBTQ books have disappeared from sales rankings on the site, with many writers calling foul.

Born in Washington DC in 1961, AM Homes is a novelist, short-story writer, journalist, memoir writer and has a whole host of awards and achievements. She is also a television writer and producer for the L Word

Shock and horror, ladies! Sarah Waters’ next book will be without lesbians. “What is the world coming to?” I hear you ask, “has she suffered from the literal version of lesbian bed death, no longer feeling the attraction of the fairer sex?”

Being something of a bookworm, I leapt at the opportunity to do a list of the best lesbian books this Christmas… The task proved a little trickier than expected!