A wealthy history of the Lesbian queer history story. I loved the pictures as well as the detailed encounters of finding where queers could belong. This was a wonderful non-fiction piece with bones and has been building since the beginning.

A Place of Our Own is a great introduction to six different spaces central to the cultural history of queer women.

June Thomas is writing from a place of personal experience which I think makes this book really special. To have lived and participated in the 70s-90s queer/lesbian scene and been at the emergence of various movements is amazing. It makes me reflect on all the history of progress and what has happened and realize the history we continue to live today as we work towards further acceptance and community building.

Thomas mentioned the importance of third places and how being queer/lesbian is not something typically taught to us like other cultural aspects of ourselves like religion or ethnicity, so queer people are left to figure out the community on their own and what is culturally happening. Through the six spaces she talks about - bars, bookstores, softball to name a few- it is evident the scope of the lesbian community and how it is necessary to have a variety of spaces for all interests.

The chapter on feminist bookstores was interesting and the reiteration that when supporting chain bookstores the narratives and censorship of what is carried impacts the ability to really learn, engage and get a message out there. Supporting independent bookstores typically means supporting more members of the community writing books, zines etc and there is less restriction of ideas.

There were some photos and visuals throughout the book, I think a few more archival photos to go with the text would've been cool to see.

This was a great read, if you are looking for a place to start learning about queer history with a focus on spaces for queer women, feminism and US locations start with this book!

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC.

An important read for any queer person or historian. This was well researched and I enjoyed the writing style.

A place of our own, which may be a reference to Virginia’s room of one’s own is about the places that lesbians have been able to call their own, especially during the 70s to the 90’s, a time when the author was herself a young woman trying to find her place in the lesbian sphere.
The places are bars, feminists bookstores and sex stores, softball, “lesbian land”, and vacation destinations.
Some very good points, others not so good. First I understand that since it’s a US editor, I should have expected it, but the fact that this is mostly about American lesbian culture was a little disappointing especially since the author is British. The title made it seem like it was more of a universal cultural thing I guess. I also found the chapter about lesbian land to be quite disappointing, the author is old enough to know about how separatism came to exist (we can agree or not agree with it) and yet the way she talks about it really lacks some of the context.
Now on to what I really liked. I really liked that there is talk about the reality of capitalism and how it can impact lesbian and feminist businesses (which are usually women owned), I feel like we also don’t talk enough about the fact that today, we have less and less “third spaces” that are free (and that’s true for everyone, not just lesbians). I really can’t blame business owners for wanting to make a profit - cause we all need money to live - but it does mean that many of those places are not accessible to people who may need it the most. While I did appreciate the mention of capitalism, it makes me realise that none of the spaces mentioned in the book are “free”. So that’s probably what I’m gonna take away from my reading, where do young and poor lesbians or bisexuals women find community now? Probably the internet but it’s not exactly the same as meeting people in real life.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.