Music From Another World

Music From Another World by Robin Talley is a discovery of new ideas as two students in California are assigned as pen pals by their conservative religious high schools. 1977

Tammy Larson, in Orange County, attends a conservative Christian school started by her aunt. To try to process what she is being asked to do, she starts a diary to Harvey Milk.

Sharon Hawkins, in San Francisco, has just found out her brother is gay. She joins him for a protest of an anti-gay bills passage in Florida. The protest is led by Harvey Milk, who is running for office. 

Sharon and Tammy find they have something in common - punk music. Sharon goes to a club in the Castro and hears local punk women and Tammy has found Patti Smith. Neither had heard music that matched their feeling before. 

Talley is a historical fiction master. She always chooses interesting times to set her novels of strong young women. 

Talley, Robin. (2020). Music From Another World. New York: Inkyard Press.

Pulp

Pulp by Robin Talley is a series of stories of young lesbians - one in present day, and one in the 1950s.

Abby Zimet has to choose a topic for her senior project - a full year on something where she produces a work. It can be anything, but she has not chosen because she is preoccupied by her parents' relationship dying and the break up with her girlfriend. When she discovers the lesbian pulp books from the 50s and 60s she decides to write her own.

Abby's favorite so far is a book by Marian Love. The first (fictional) book where one of the main characters did not have to die to appease the censors of the time. She wants to find out more about the woman who wrote it.

Janet Jones picked up a book in the train station. A story of two women in love who have a hard time and then ultimately break up so that one of them goes back to her male fiancée. Janet is so moved that she writes a letter to the author.

But in the 1950s, along with McCarthy's obsession on finding communists, there was the lavender scare. A witch hunt of people turning in anyone who they thought was gay - or they just did not like. Janet's best friend (and crush) just got a job with the State Department.

Talley has written a kind of layered story of young lesbians finding authors who understand them, and they in turn writing a book that someone of a later generation finds. The character of Janet Jones - stuck in the 50s in a religious family - is the best part of this book. She is a strong, strong woman stuck in a dangerous time.

Talley, Robin. (2018). Pulp. New York: Harlequin Teen.

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queen Teens throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell is a collection of short stores about queer characters through history. Beginning in 1870s Mexico and continuing to the 1970s, the collection is diverse in culture and time periods hinting at what queer life was like in other times.

Great authors include Robin Talley, Malinda Lo, Dahlia Adler, Tess Sharpe, Sara Farizan and more.

I will admit, I am not a big fan of short stories. When they are done well, I want more and that makes me sad. So when I get a volume of them, I skim for my favorite authors.

For me the highlights are "The Dresser and the Chambermaid: by Robin Talley and "New Year" by Malinda Lo.

Mitchell, Saundra. (2018). All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages. New York: Harper Teen.

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Our Own Private Universe

Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley.

Aki Simon is spending the summer in Mexico with her church group. Another group of teens from Maryland and one from farther south will be joining them.

What Aki wants to do this summer is test her theory about being bi. And as soon as she meets Christa from one of the other groups, she knows with whom she would like to test it. And her best friend, Lori, can see it on her face immediately.

Over a few weeks, Aki and Christa get to know each other. Aki contemplates coming out to her father. Christa is sure her parents would never understand and is worried that word might get back to them through another member of the church. Either way, they cannot deny they have feelings for each other.

Robin Talley is one of my favorite authors and she does not disappoint with this novel.

Talley, Robin. (2017). Our Own Private Universe. New York: Harlequin Teen.

A Tyranny of Petticoats

A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers, and Other Badass Girls edited by Jessica Spotswood is a short story collection of some of the most popular YA female authors writing historical fiction.

Stories across America - from dogsleds, ships, stagecoaches, trains - from 1710 to 1968 - some great authors tell stories of young women following their own paths in the times when gender roles were more rigid.

Highlights include Andrea Cremer's tale of the supernatural creatures competing to decide which side of the American Civil War they will help, the North or the South. Caroline Tung Richardson tells the tale of a spy for the South hidden among Washington, D.C. society.

Beth Revis's tale tells of a young woman leaving Chicago to avoid an unwanted marriage - and becoming a teacher to the child who would become known as Annie Oakley.

YS Lee, already a master of historical fiction, tells the tale of two sisters who own a saloon in the Alaskan gold rush - and of the man who tries to steal it.

Elizabeth Wein continues her theme of historical fiction and pilots to follows a girl who idolizes Miss Bessie Coleman, the first black woman in America to earn a pilot's license.

Kekla Magoon and Robin Talley finish out this great collection with stories of the Civil Right Movement. Magoon with a Black Panthers story set in California. Talley's set in Chicago.

A Tyranny of Petticoats is a great collection of short stories about American women, and a great addition to any book collection.

Full list of authors:
J. Anderson Coats
Andrea Cremer
Y.S. Lee
Katherine Longshore
Marie Lu
Kekla Magoon
Marissa Meyer
Saundra Mitchell
Beth Revis
Caroline Tung Richmond
Lindsay Smith
Jessica Spotswood
Robin Talley
Leslye Walton
Elizabeth Wein

Spotswood, Jessica. Ed. (2016). A Tyranny of Petticoats. New York: Candlewick Press.

What We Left Behind

What We Left Behind by Robin Talley is a book about first love and finding oneself.

Toni and Gretchen fell in love the night they met - at a Homecoming dance. Toni walked into the dance a local celebrity after winning a lawsuit against the all girl's school allowing Toni to wear pants. Gretchen came to the dance with a family friend after moving to town the day before - it was her introduction to her new school.


Toni and Gretchen are a couple that everyone envies. They are completely in love, never fight and are going to college in the same city. Except they are not. Gretchen tells Toni the night before they leave that she will not be in Boston because she will be going to New York University.

They are both sure that, though they will be a few hours apart, their relationship is strong enough to make it. Toni starts Harvard, making new friends and joining one of the queer groups on campus. Meeting new friends, including some trans people, has given Toni the idea that maybe instead of being genderqueer, maybe Toni is actually trans.

Gretchen starts at NYU. She meets a couple of new friends and runs into someone she competed against in debate all around the country. She is sad about the distance between herself and Toni, but excited to be back in New York where she grew up.

Talley has written a story of first love, expanding horizons and self discovery. Her debut novel, Lies We Tell Ourselves, established her a brilliant storyteller whose characters are people we would want in our own lives. Her portrayals, both race and queer issues, are thought-provoking and spot on. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. If you haven't yet read either of her books, start one now.

Talley, Robin. (2015). What We Left Behind. New York: Harlequin Teen.

Lies We Tell Ourselves

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley is the story of integration in a Virginia high school in 1959. The story is told in two perspectives - Sarah, one of the ten black students going to the white school, and Linda, a white student whose father is the voice of the town paper and the segregationists.

In February of 1959, the town of Davisburg could no longer postpone allowing black students into the white high school. The mayor had closed the school to prevent integration, but by court order school had to be reopened. Ten of the top honor students from Johns High School transferred to Jefferson High School.

Sarah, a senior, along with nine others had to push their way through the protesting white students to enter the school. From there they were to spend each day being pummeled by spit balls, call names, tripped and when they sat down in class having the white students move away from them. Sarah is put into remedial classes due to the prejudice of the school staff.

Linda has never thought about how the blacks are treated. It has just always been that way in Virginia. When she meets Sarah and sees how she and the other students are treated, she begins to consider whether it is right.

Talley has written a moving story of part of our county's history. Though the school and characters are fictional, they represent real accounts of what lengths racists went to try to prevent integration. There were areas that didn't give in until twenty years after Brown v. Board of Education. This novel is an important reminder of the people who fought to give us the civil rights we have today. It is amazing - read it today.

Talley, Robin. (2014). Lies We Tell Ourselves. New York: Harlequin Teen.