Uterish Book Club Picks of the Year 2023
Did you tune in every month and read our Uterish Book Club Picks on The Provocateur? Is this the first you are hearing of it? Welcome to our full round-up of each book we selected and wrote about on The Provocateur, our monthly newsletter, in 2023!
JANUARY
Alex and Greta’s Pick —
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg is a seminal work that follows Jess, a Jewish butch lesbian, from childhood through adulthood as she navigates the world as a gender nonconforming person in the 60s and 70s in upstate New York.
"Feinberg’s historical fiction provides a personal view into the pleasures and dangers of moving through life in a fugitive embodiment, a margin of the gender binary, and an in-between identity. More, it uncovers the ways in which class, community, performance, sexuality, legibility, and state violence co-inform how gender is lived. Jess’ story also connects to one of my favorite pieces of queer theory!" – Alex
"One thing I love about Stone Butch Blues is its focus on what it means to see and be seen, to be legible and comprehensible to one another. Jess at one point remarks ‘I needed my own words—butch words to talk about butch feelings.’ Often mediated through a critique of class/labor relations, the book explores how marginalized people might find common language and ways of relating, making community through shared forms of resistance." — Greta
FEBRUARY
Alex’s Pick —
The first novel of N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy tells the story of a world defined by the cyclical occurrence of catastrophic climate disasters, referred to as seasons. Despite ethnic, cultural, and geographic diversity on this planet, one group of humans remains at the bottom of all social hierarchies: the Orogenes, who possess the power to control energy and earth matter itself. The Fifth Season follows characters with the gift, who have been marginalized by their society out of fear, as they navigate one of the deadliest seasons yet and use their skills to mitigate earthquakes and natural disasters.
The Fifth Season won the 2016 Hugo Award, making Jemisin the first Black author to receive the award. The story works in the speculative fiction genre and with afrofuturist themes to tell a story of innate power, societal precarity, and solidarity.
MARCH
Greta’s Pick —
In Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt, a pandemic is ravaging North America. Anyone whose testosterone levels are too high (a group including cis men, trans women, cis women with PCOS, and more) is affected by a virus that will eventually mutate them into barely recognizable, feral, ravaging wild animals––called men––hungry for human flesh. The book follows Beth and Fran, two trans girls trying to stay alive, as they forage in the New England forests, avoiding the men, avoiding the virus, and avoiding the militaristic bands of TERFs looking to kill. This is a deeply satisfying and genuinely shocking apocalyptic horror novel exploring the intersections of fantastical doomsday scenarios and the very real and lived horrors of our society today. I loved it, though a note to the queasy: it’s gory!
APRIL
Alex’s Pick —
In Ursula Le Guin’s pioneering feminist science fiction work, The Left Hand of Darkness, a diplomatic envoy named Genly Ai embarks on an interstellar mission to the reclusive and cold planet Gethen to represent an interplanetary trade group. Genly Ai must overcome his cultural biases to persuade the nations of Gethen to join the trade group. However, the Gethenians’ cultural ideas about gender, child-rearing, romantic relationships, reproduction, and family structures completely refute the norms Genly Ai was socialized to believe in.
Le Guin’s rich and provocative world-building makes it easy to become consumed by the story itself while still sitting with the larger feminist, philosophical questions raised in the book. It is a must-read!
MAY
Greta’s Pick —
Described to me by a friend as the “horniest book ever,” We Both Laughed in Pleasure is a collection of activist Lou Sullivan’s diary entries from childhood until his death in 1991. Sullivan was a leader in the queer community, largely for his activism as an out gay trans man during a time when sexuality and gender were conflated even within queer spaces. His diaries are at turns revelatory, mundane, shattering, and celebratory––as I read the entries, I was struck by how comprehensive they are, and what a rare treat it is to get such a full, intimate view of someone’s life. To learn more about the editors’ process of compiling this book out of the many cubic feet (!) of entries Sullivan left behind after his early death in 1991 due to AIDS, I highly recommend this interview.
JUNE
Hannah’s Pick —
Vagina Obscura (Rachel E. Gross) discusses how Western science has encouraged misinformation about the vagina to perpetuate harm, and uses a combination of personal anecdotes, ongoing scientific research, and historical context to paint a rich and nuanced portrait of the vagina and its many functions. Through her writing, Gross offers a new perspective on anatomy that history and science have tried to shroud in taboo and shame. Vagina Obscura is a great read for those interested in the intersection of science, culture, and gender.
(Image: @spoonbillbooks)
JULY
Alex’s Pick —
Keywords For Gender and Sexuality Studies is part of NYU Press’ Keywords anthologies which gather preeminent scholars in critical, ethnic disciplines (such as Disability Studies, American Cultural Studies, etc) to define key terminology. This edition in Gender and Sexuality Studies features words like “consent,” “biopower,” “flesh,” “carcerality,” and even “gender.” The definition of each word is authored by a different scholar, and this book features writing from feminists such as Hōkūlani K. Aikau, Mel Chen, and Virgie Tovar. Keywords not only situates the reader with the most relevant thinkers and concepts in the discipline today, but also helps demystify some of the more academic and complex topics – though it bears mention that Keywords is still an academic text.
My college advisor worked on the editorial team for this massive effort (and gifted me my copy) so I must include, “Go Aimee!”
AUGUST
Alex’s Pick —
Detours subverts the prototypical tourist guidebook. With a decolonial frame, Detours doesn’t write for the comfort and ease of a tourist but instead centers the storied land of Hawai’i and the kingdom, ecosystems, culture, histories, and people who are in relation with it.
The book intervenes in the tourist’s gaze of Hawai’i through a range of mediums including critical essays, poems, stories, visual art, and more. It is written for Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) readers and visitors alike. Detours reveals the interconnectedness of Hawai’i’s modern tourism industry and settler colonialism, militarism, white supremacist patriarchy, and climate degradation; in doing so, it elevates the rich history of the land and shows a path forward for real solidarity.
SEPTEMBER
Maya’s Pick —
It’s 2008, when Britney Spears makes her first comeback, we start keeping up with the Kardashians, and Amanda Knox is falsely charged with the murder of her roommate. Gossip is fact. This is where we find two New York City art school students studying abroad, beginning to make a name for themselves in Berlin — but their legacy may not be what they initially set out for.
Other People’s Clothes offers a unique perspective on self-definition as a woman, especially when navigating a world that doesn’t really care how you feel (only how cool you look). How much do accusations really matter when people judge solely on appearances? Looks become everything in Other People’s Clothes, alongside explorations of queerness, grief, and vulnerability.
OCTOBER
Greta’s Pick —
Come Together, which collects a majority of the periodicals the GLF published, provides a unique glimpse into the inner workings of a revolutionary organization. It's a compelling record of the frustrations, practices, and conversations that arise within a radical movement, which are very distinct from the types of disputes that arise between a movement and the oppressive body it pushes against. I found it an illuminating read and engaging record of the work of maintaining a cohesive movement for liberation.
NOVEMBER
Taya’s Pick —
Set against the vibrant and hectic background of NYC, Happy Hour follows young friends Isa and Gala through a summer of self-discovery. Despite financial troubles, the duo navigate the city’s social scene with charm, discovering passive love interests and equally fleeting jobs.
As the friends hustle to make ends meet, Isa explores herself as the city thinks she should be, versus who she actually is. The temporary state of her love life, jobs, and even friendships speaks to the relatable vulnerability of being a young woman. Highly recommend it for those who want to read what might feel like parts of your own journal.
DECEMBER
Greta’s Pick —
In Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, we follow Paul Polydoris, a young bartender at the only gay bar in his Midwestern college town. His days are spent cruising, hanging out with his very intellectual best friend Jane, and making zines. Paul is special because he has a secret: he can shapeshift, molding his body and gender to suit him at will. The novel challenges conventions of gender and sexuality as it follows Paul on a cross-country journey to discover who he is and where he fits in. Funny, surprising, and messy, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl reintroduces sex into conversations about gender and vice-versa, in a heartfelt meditation on seeing and being seen, and the mutual recognition inherent in desire.