Field Guide to North America

You could take the Lesbian National Parks and Services Field Guide to North America (Pedlar Press) into the woods, but this guidebook, written by Rangers Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, is just as suitable for reading in bed. In fact, under the covers may be the best place to browse through this amusing mix of taxonomy and suggestive wordplay. The section Lesbian Survival Skills includes fire-building, knot-tying—“invaluable in the execution of safe, consensual camping”—first aid and, of course, orientation. Daniel Barrow’s lovely sepia drawings illustrate not only survival tools such as the trash-bag poncho, but also a wide variety of lesbian flora and fauna. In this survey of feral lesbianism, you will learn why “lesbians and insects are not so different” and how botanical heterosexism may be aggravating your allergies. The book is almost unrelentingly cheerful, and even the funniest bits, such as instructions for making queen-size moss beds and biscuits on a stick, are also wonderfully subversive. Wherever you read it, the book’s glossy paper and water-resistant cover should stand up to lots of work in the bush.