Pages of Pride, Chapters of Joy

Pride Shines On

America's Finest City is preparing for their largest single-day civic event in the region - San Diego Pride. Pride season in San Diego proves that LGBTQ+ visibility cannot be contained to a single day or month, and brings a positive wave of queer joy to the sunny streets of Hillcrest, our uptown gayborhood. From the book release party at Gossip Grill for "The Lesbian Bar Chronicles" on July 2nd to the San Diego Pride Dyke March on July 11th, our community continues to create spaces where lesbian, queer, and trans women can safely love and celebrate as their authentic selves.

Entrance to Gossip Grill in Hillcrest, San Diego.

Book Signing

Mirroring this year's official Pride theme, "Pride Shines On", Rachel Karp's new book, "The Lesbian Bar Chronicles: The Living History and Hopeful Future of America's Dyke Dives and Sapphic Spaces", has just hit the streets. Join Rachel Karp for a book signing and community story event at Gossip Grill on July 2nd starting at 6:30PM. Bluestocking Books will be selling physical copies of the book at the event. If you can't attend the event, you can purchase the book at Bluestocking Books and we will get it signed for you and ready for pick up or shipping at our store.

Lesbian Bar Chronicles book by Rachel Karp.

Rachel Karp's Journey

Lesbian bars are so much more than a place to get a drink. For over a century, they’ve acted as community posts, political organizing grounds, and sanctuaries. Yet whereas in the 1980s there were an estimated 200 lesbian bars across the US, the current count sits at a few dozen.

In The Lesbian Bar Chronicles, author and co-creator of the hit podcast Cruising Rachel Karp embarks across the country with her wife and best friend to chronicle the stories of the remaining US lesbian bars. Recent narratives have claimed lesbian bars are dying, but Karp’s group finds many of the places they visit to be thriving, their communities sustaining themselves over decades of change and challenges.

Weaving together over 100 hours of immersive interviews with bar owners, staff, and regulars, Karp highlights places like:

Chicago spot Nobody’s Darling, where readers meet “the mayor” Shirley J, who in the 1970s was instrumental in the birth of house music.

Frankie’s in Oklahoma City, where readers attend a “family night” to learn how a lesbian bar can birth a chosen family.

Redz, a Chicana lesbian bar in East LA involved in the precedent setting court case that followed years of arrests for patrons wearing men’s clothing.

Gossip Grill, a Hillcrest staple and a living legend, this beloved space takes center stage in chapter 17 of The Lesbian Chronicles. The bar is also the official home base for the San Diego King's Club, the longest-running drag king troupe in North America.

A heartfelt reclamation of queer history and queer lives, Karp’s narrative examines how these beacons for community and inclusion can teach us to live openly, cultivate connection, and continue to take up space.

Pages and Progress: Bluestocking Books is More Than a Bookstore

Beyond the bar spaces in our community, Bluestocking Books as also a safe haven where patrons and community members can relax and be themselves. More than a bookstore, Bluestocking Books is a third space, offering sanctuary and human connection.

The staff focuses on maintaining a space of radical inclusivity, where everyone is welcome to browse the literature, discover new perspectives at their own pace, and escape the pressures of the outside world for just a little while. We center diverse voices and progressive ideas by promoting community events and stocking the shelves with an array of subjects. These efforts, of course, include displaying an extensive selection of LGBTQ+ titles spanning history to gender studies and gay and lesbian fiction. In fact, we are told we house the largest selection of lesbian fiction, mysteries, westerns, and romance folks have seen, as well as some premier long out-of-print books. Come visit us during Pride season and all year 'round!