Current mood:	enraged
Entry tags:	amazon.fail

wow, it's weird to be back here
which you can tell by the fact that when I logged in it said I last updated my journal 76 weeks ago, when I got on the ballot for the 2008 Grammy's. I'm on Facebook much more often, if anyone is looking for me. And my personal profile there is under my full name: Caera Aislingeach. I also have a music page there, under "Caera".

So what got me back to Live Journal? I can't believe this -- censorship! Of GLBT books. On amazon.com!?! Check these out:

http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html
http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html

To clarify, amazon.com is not pulling the books from being sold. They have removed the sales rank, which is what makes them come up quickly when you use the site's "search" feature. Now, you have to insist you know what you're looking for, in what format, by exact title and author, in order to find these books. It will still cross-reference some once you've found one, but you can't browse as easily, and for things where there are straight books in the same genre or with the same keywords, the straight books will come up in your search and not the queer ones.

A gay male author caught this first, and apparently was first finding more m/m books removed than f/f, but since word has gotten out, it really has affected books with any GLBT themes, and some poly books too. I signed into LJ specifically to add some more books that I went looking for, inspired by what he's already got there:

The Queer Parent's Primer by Stephanie A. Brill
http://www.amazon.com/Queer-Parents-Primer-Families-Navigating/dp/1572242264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239573134&sr=1-1
This is one of the best books I know of to prepare potential parents for the changes having kids will bring into their lives, as well as an excellent book that goes through things to consider as a queer family, down to little details a lot of her clients didn't even think of until _after_ they had kids. The author is a midwife in the SF Bay area, and the book is based on her actual experiences with GLBT families -- she has a lot of experience with her own clientele in lesbian insemination (known donor, anonymous donor, and other means), plus she runs support groups for queer families and has supported many families (2 dads, 2 moms, as well as poly) who used adoption as well. I had to try 4 times to even find it now that amazon.com fucked up the search feature for it. WTF?!?

The same author's other books got their sales ranks removed too:
The New Essential Guide to Lesbian Conception, Pregnancy, and Birth
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Lesbian-Conception-Pregnancy/dp/1555839401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239575635&sr=1-1

AND
The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals
http://www.amazon.com/Transgender-Child-Handbook-Families-Professionals/dp/1573443182/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239575719&sr=1-2

WTF!?!!!!! These are awesome books. I so wish that last one was more common knowledge and more commonly accepted when I was growing up dealing with all kinds of stupidity for being a "tomboy". And especially where these books deal with protecting kids from the fucked up shit we had to grow up with, WTF amazon?!? (personal note: I got shit for being a "tomboy" while my girlfriend was raised by a lesbian mom, so more than one of these books could effectively help keep kids from going through some of what both of us went through)

Women in Love: Portraits of Lesbian Mothers & Their Families by Diana Herrera: http://www.amazon.com/Women-Love-Portraits-Lesbian-Families/dp/0821225235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239574911&sr=1-1 has also lost it's rank, and when I searched just the main title ("women in love") it did not come up. I had to search "women in love lesbian families" to find it.

I searched 5 times for one of my favorite books, Lesbian Sacred Sexuality by Diane Mariechild, before I finally found it: http://www.amazon.com/Lesbian-Sacred-Sexuality-Diane-Mariechild/dp/0914728814/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239575206&sr=1-1 . Since my books are all still in storage, I'm doing these searches by memory. Searching for "Lesbian Sacred Sexuality" did not pull it up at all. Searching for "lesbian sacred sexuality mariechild" (I could only remember the author's last name) only pulled it up when I specifically searched under "books". It did not come up when searching "all departments".

I'm going to get my sweetie to look for more gay and lesbian parenting books, since she knows way more of them than I do. If anyone wants to join the search and add your results, gay author Mark Probst is collecting the list here:
http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html


I got curious about poly books too. The Ethical Slut still has a sales rank, but isn't available for sale here:
http://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Slut-Infinite-Sexual-Possibilities/dp/B001TK45QU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239574368&sr=8-3

The same is true for Love Without Limits: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Without-Limits-Sustainable-Relationships/dp/188078906X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239574601&sr=8-1 . I'm aware it's possible they're not directly available for sale through amazon.com because they were published independently, much like my music (which I no longer sell there because of how they screwed that up).


There are some poly books on Mark's list already. If anyone who knows more of them wants to try searching and share the results, I am curious. I am limited by 2 reading disabilities that make it painfully slow for me to get info through reading books. But I do get through some, just very slowly. I know the voracious readers around me can very likely do better than I just did, especially those who can look at books on their own bookshelves. To add, post a comment at:
http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html

He's up to 6 pages of comments in 12 hours since he first posted about this.

I reiterate a sentiment Cristovau expressed a few years ago:
You'd think a company named "Amazon" could do better for lesbians. WTF?