This book was my treat and comic relief after a couple of heavy reads. I cannot believe there are only 20 remaining lesbian bars in the entire US of A, but here they are, catalogued in one of the only travelogues I will ever read willingly and joyfully. So it is a bittersweet book, in some ways–I still miss Sisters, the legendary lesbian bar in Philadelphia that closed quite a few years ago, and I had no idea that the Madison Flame in Memphis had shut its doors. The author asks patrons and bar owners in every city she visits why they think so many lesbian bars are closing. There are a few prevailing theories, no clear answers–and, slight spoiler, by the end of her journey the author realizes that new lesbian bars are opening, so the institution (such as it is) is not yet in danger of extinction. In the meantime, those currently standing got a loving, attentive tribute in this book, complete with a dash of local color, a snapshot of post-vax music and fashion, some charmingly self-deprecating fish-out-of-water scenes, and a lot of lovely paeans to the ways lesbian bars can help everyone feel at home.