Is It a Date or Just Coffee? by Mo Brownsey

Most heterosexual couples find it easy to tell a date from a non-date, and apparently, so do homosexual men. But homosexual women can have a hard time deciding if what they are on is a date, or just coffee.

Well, comedian and Lesbian Mo Brownsey is here to come to your aid with this book, subtitled "the gay girl's guide to dating, sex and romance". Included in her discussion of love, romance, sex and relationships are amusing lists that are also true, such as "The ten things you don't want to hear on a first date", one of which being the words "restraining order" in any context...

First, of course, you must consider whether you are really ready to date, and Mo includes a quiz in the front of the book for determining just that. Once there, she goes over the pitfalls, pratfalls and disasters of dating other girls. One being that unless you live in a major city and go to different bars a lot, you are going to run into the exes or exes of exes of people you have already dated. And yes, they will talk about you. Since there are so few lesbians (somewhere around 5% of the population, according to her) lesbians run into this problem most frequently.

And there are other pitfalls on the road ahead. Dating inside or outside your own age bracket, Long Distance Dating... and so on. And that doesn't even cover having to decide if you are butch, butchy, femme, femme-y or somewhere in between. (Although according to a friend of mine who is a lesbian, that isn't so much of a concern any more.)

This was an interesting look at dating from a point of view of a lesbian. Though not inclined that way myself (I am entirely too interested in men to be either lesbian or bisexual), this was a cute, funny book that seems to cover the ground well, and provided tons of laughs, to boot. In addition to discussing things in a third-person kind of way, Mo Brownsley brings a lot of her own dating history to the table, and reveals all in the way you'd tell your girlfriends after one-too-many drinks at a party in your own place.

So, while I'm completely ignorant of what it's like to be a lesbian, I really can recommend this book as at least something funny that imparts wisdom along with laughter. Yes, I'd recommend it, for the funny at least.