American Hoax

Charles Firth. 2006.

One of the Chaser team goes to the USA to live. He sets up a series of identities -- a left wing commentator, a right wing commentator, and so on -- and lets them lose on the nation.

Charles has quite a bit of good fun with the characters, and this makes for a good read. But Charles also needs a decent editor; dropping one hundred pages would have made it a cracker of a book.

Jane's World

Paige Braddock.

An extended-plot comic series -- or graphic novels if you must -- about a group a women making their way through the world of work and love. Nice illustrations, good plotting and a relaxed pace. A fantastic read for a quiet day.

A few of the women, including Jane, are lesbian. But that neither adds nor detracts from the wonderfullness. Ms Braddock does the best lesbian sex illustrations I've ever seen -- she gets the atmosphere just right [and if you are wondering how a man knows what a lesbian sex scene looks like, well I'm not telling tales of my mis-spent youth in share housing].

Found in the "graphic novels" section of the local library. That seems fair -- in Semaphore all women are assumed to be gay upon first acquanitance. I still remember the shock of learning that one of my social friends wasn't gay nor bi, but straightly married with two kids. And the complete shock on the face of a petite lesbian girl whom I kissed after she had been flirting with me terribly, based on her assumption that I was gay and so she would face no consequences (because all "single", muscled, well-dressed, literate men are gay, right?).

Anyway, go read one of these comic books. It's For better or for worse for grown-ups.