Linsday King-Miller
Spencer Kimble (cover design)
yevgeniy11/ Shutterstock (cover images)
$16.00 (less at Amazon)
Plume/ Penguin 238 pages
A Guide to Sex, Love, and Life for Girls Who Dig Girls
The folks at Penguin Random House sent a copy of Lindsay King-Miller’s Ask A Queer Chick book and I’ve been wondering what to say about it since I as a cis, gay male am quite obviously not the intended audience and how could my opinion of King-Miller’s guide be relevant to the queer chick is addressing. Plus, the book veers from the comics focus of this site. Then again, queer chicks read comics and I remembered how much I love Colleen Coover’s erotic lesbian comic Small Favors from years ago because it was so much fun to read! God, I miss Annie and Nibble! Please forgive any missteps. Here goes!
Lindsay King-Miller has been writing the “Ask A Queer Chick” advice column at Hairpin for some years now and contributing to Cosmopolitan, Bitch Magazine, Buzzfeed, and other media sites. Lending her insight and no nonsense approach to a book format seems like a no brainer kind of great idea. And it is a great idea especially with all new content. I like that Penquin’s PR material said “She does not have an indoor voice”. The author’s writing style is humorous, easily accessible, and non judgmental, and she makes good on the book’s all encompassing sub-title by discussing topics such as coming out, introducing queer subculture to the newbie, the dangers of stereotypes, dating, sex, relationships of all kinds and how to deal with the breakup, and what to do when encountering discrimination. The same applies to the title’s “queer chick”. King-Miller didn’t write this book just for and about lesbians though, hence the “queer”. She discusses sex and relationships with bisexual, pansexual or sexually fluid women as well as with trans women with the same honesty and directness employed with every other topic. At times King-Miller draws on her own experiences, such as the time at age 15 when she felt liberated, tough, cool, and a bad ass by shaving her hair which had been long enough to sit on; and the best first date of her life with the woman who’s now her spouse. Other times she’s consulted other women with particular life experiences to get their unique insights, such as trans related matters. Rounding out the book is a section of resources either online or phone.
The saying about best laid plans going awry may be a cliche but it’s also true. Ask A Queer Chick is full of practical advice, a lot of which seems relevant regardless of gender, and I can see it providing invaluable help to women to better understand themselves to get what they want in life and how to better navigate the situations in which they’ll find themselves.
Take a look inside the book yourself on Amazon!
Ask a Queer Chick: A Guide to Sex, Love, and Life for Girls Who Dig Girls
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