Casey is taking a look back at 2016, sharing some of her favourite bisexual books in this post, which was original posted on Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian.
My Favourite Bi+ Books of 2016
2016 was a great year for diverse books, and in particular I found a bunch of great books by and about bisexual/pansexual people. These book are all either written by bi/pansexual authors and/or have bi/pansexual characters. Tell me about any bi+ books you read last year in the comments!
Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming
I just finished listening to the audiobook version of this memoir, read by the author. The narrating was just as amazing as I’d expected, given that Cumming is a seasoned actor AND has a Scottish accent. What more could you ask from a narrator, really? It’s a fascinating and sometimes brutal book about Cumming’s relationship with his abusive father and how being asked to appear on a celebrity genealogy show opened up more than one can of worms in his family history. Throughout it’s lovely to hear a bisexual person talk about his life (his ex-wife, his current husband) as if it’s just all normal and no big deal.
All Inclusive by Farzana Doctor
This is a character-driven novel about Ameera, a woman in her late twenties who’s been living in Mexico and working in the tourist / travel industry for years. Since Ameera arrived, she’s discovered she’s bisexual and enjoys having sex with (mostly man-woman) couples, many of whom identify as swingers. She’s from Hamilton, ON and was raised by a single (white) mother, having had an absent (Indian) father. She is totally lost. It’s such a joy to watch her slowly reconnect with herself and her history as the novel progresses. It’s also remarkable to watch Doctor tackle issues like all-inclusive resorts, bisexuality, swinging and polyamory, spirituality, death, and terrorism, somehow making it all work in the same book.
Corona by Bushra Rehman
Corona—referencing the neighbourhood in Queens, NY, not the Mexican beer—is a “novel” that to me feels more like a collection of inter-related short stories about Razia, a young bisexual Pakistani-American woman, at different stages in her life. It’s beautifully written, for one thing: “Ravi was sitting in a corner, apart from the crowd. He was going back to India in less than a year, so everything he observed was for the warehouse of his mind. He’d seal the box, label it ‘My Time in America,’ and draw stories from it now and then to entertain the literary crowd in Delhi. That was the night I fell into the box.” There’s a great sense of place, character, and emotion in the book, and damn is it also really funny sometimes, even amidst sadness.
Long Red Hair by Meags Fitzgerald
A graphic memoir about growing up in Canada in the late 80s and 90s, Long Red Hair should incite lots of nostalgia for queer girls of that generation: it’s full of fun pop culture references of the time, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hocus Pocus, Labyrinth, etc. Meags (like me) is a kid interested in spooky stuff, so there are also reference to sleepover games you may remember like Bloody Mary, séances, and dressing up as witches. Coming out is one focus, and young Meags describes the process in perfect teenage agony: “I just want to be gay or straight. Being bisexual is way too confusing … If I’m bi that means I don’t have a soulmate and I’ll never be satisfied loving just one person for the rest of my life. It’d be like … a curse.” The memoir is also a mediation on relationships and the potentials of celibacy. Bonus!: the sepia-toned art is gorgeous.
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