A random collection of over 2078 books and audiobooks authored by or about my transgender, intersex sisters, and gender-nonconforming persons all over the world. I read some of them, and I was inspired by some of them. I met some of the authors and heroines, some of them are my best friends, and I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing some of them. If you know of any transgender biography that I have not covered yet, please let me know.
Full title: "Je Me Souviens: One Person's Experience with Male-to-Female Sex Reassignment Surgery" by Jean Vermette.
Jean Vermette’s book Je Me Souviens: One Person's Experience with Male-to-Female Sex Reassignment Surgery is an unflinchingly honest account of a life lived largely in silence, and of the long, careful journey toward embodiment, integrity, and wholeness. Drawn from lived experience rather than theory, the book offers readers not an abstract argument about transgender lives, but a deeply human narrative shaped by memory, patience, spirituality, loss, and quiet courage. It stands as both personal testimony and historical document, rooted in a time when language, resources, and social understanding around transgender identity were scarce or nonexistent.
Vermette traces her awareness of herself as female not as a sudden realization, but as something that simply always was. One of the earliest memories she recounts is from the age of three, when she put on a piece of her mother’s clothing and looked at herself in the mirror. There was no sense of experimentation or rebellion in the moment, only a feeling of rightness, coupled immediately with an unspoken understanding that this truth was not something the world would welcome. That combination, of inner certainty and outer danger, becomes a defining pattern throughout her life. From that moment forward, her femininity is something lived quietly and privately, carefully hidden even from those closest to her.
1999,
English,
Jean Vermette,
Original title: "In...confidências mineiras e outras histórias" (Minas Gerais inconfidences and other stories) by Ruddy Pinho.
When we turn to the literature of trans authorship in Brazil, the name Ruddy Pinho inevitably surfaces as one of its earliest and most vibrant voices. Known widely as “A Maravilhosa,” Ruddy was not only a celebrated hairdresser to Brazil’s elite but also a writer who brought her personal history, humor, and resilience into the literary scene. Her book In...confidências mineiras e outras histórias (Minas Gerais Inconfidences and Other Stories), a collection of short stories awarded by the National Library, stands as one of her most important contributions to Brazilian letters, blending sharp social observation with the intimate details of her lived experience.
Born in Sabinópolis, Minas Gerais, and raised in Belo Horizonte, Ruddy Pinho began her working life at just 16, cutting hair in the bohemian quarters of the city. By the 1960s, she had moved to Rio de Janeiro, where her talent, charisma, and bold style quickly made her one of the most sought-after hairdressers in the country. She transformed the look of countless stars, including Marília Pêra, Odete Lara, and Susana Vieira. Her invention of the “lioness cut,” immortalized by singer Simone Bittencourt, became a cultural phenomenon of the 1980s.
Yet Pinho was never confined to one role. She was also an actress, appearing in Neville de Almeida’s Navalha na Carne and later in Leandra Leal’s celebrated documentary Divinas Divas. Her ability to move seamlessly between salon, stage, and screen reflected the same fluidity that characterized her life story.
1999,
Brazil,
Portuguese,
Ruddy Pinho,
Full title: "Transsexuals: Life From Both Sides" by Lynn Hubschman.
This book "brings needed information about the world of the transsexual (TR) to all those who are interested: to the spectator who wishes to know more, to the gender confused, to the transgender person who has set upon this path, to their families and friends, and to professionals who wish to deepen their understanding or perhaps to learn the many practical ways to help the TR.
Hubschman has counseled TR for decades, & discusses the history & definition of TR, along with standards for surgery & medical procedures, and issues. First-person accounts from people who are TR -- post-operative males and females -- and their families. Color photos of TR, and reconstructed genitalia."
1999,
English,
Lynn Hubschman,
Original title: "Att Leva Som: En Bok Om Att Leva Som Transperson Och Som Partner Till En Transperson" (Living as: a book about living as a transgender person and as a partner to a transgender person) by Helena Lindström.
"The book contains powerful stories of transgender people about their own lives as and in relation to a transgender person. It also addresses the scientific aspect of being transgender and provides some practical advice and tips for transgender people. At the end of the book, there is also a list of addresses to various organizations.
What drives some people to live as the opposite sex? There are few Swedish books about the phenomenon of transvestism, transgenderism, transgender, crossdressing or whatever you want to call it. At the cinema, cabaret, and on stage, we occasionally meet mainly gentlemen in more or less imaginative women's creations. The film's imitators of women and the female characters of the After Dark gang have both amused and worried. Common to them all, however, is the parody, the joke, and the slightly ridiculous thing about gentlemen in women's clothing."
1999,
Helena Lindström,
Swedish,
Full title: "Inside out: An Australian collection of coming out stories" by Erin Shale.
"An anthology of real life stories from the Australian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. Drawn from a wide range of experiences, cultural backgrounds and age groups, the collection explores the challenges and rewards of finding a way out of the closet and living a life of truth and integrity... Contributors include Monique Brumby, Dorothy McRae-McMahon, Sue-Ann Post, Bob Brown, and Ian Roberts."
"One of the most important achievements of adolescence and a crucial step towards becoming a happy, productive adult, is the process of identity formation. This involves defining who you are, what you value, and the direction you choose for your life. This search for self is becoming increasingly difficult for many young people, as is evidenced by the current record levels of substance abuse, depression, deliberate self-harm, and suicide.
1999,
Australia,
English,
Erin Shale,
Original title: "Uit een oude jas vol stenen: de geboorte van een vrouw" (From An Old Coat Full of Stones: The birth of a woman) by Renate Stoute.
In the book, Renate Stoute sheds light on the history of support for the transgender community in the Netherlands, the solidarity, the disinterest from the feminist camp, the discrimination, the coming out of trans women and the slowly changing attitude of the outside world. But above all, she tells the harrowing history of her own identity.
1999,
Dutch,
Renate Stoute,
René Stoute,
Original title: "Luna, l'altro. Itinerario breve sulla rotta di un cambiamento di sesso" (The Other Moon: Short itinerary on the route of a sex change) by Simona Segalini.
This is the first part of the sequel. In 2009, Simona Segalini published the second part - "Luna l'altro dieci anni dopo. Itinerario sulla rotta di un cambiamento di sesso" (The Other Moon ten years later. Route of a Gender Change).
A short itinerary on the route of a sex change. Sonia and the author found themselves behind a table to build that monologue to elaborate on gender change, one of the most challenging moments in the life of a transgender woman.'
1999,
Italian,
Simona Segalini,
Full title: "None So Pretty: The Sexing of Rebecca Pine" by Rebecca Pine.
"This is the incredible story of Robert Pine's transformation into Rebecca Pine and the shock waves this new persona causes in Scotland where Robert and his wife, Jean, live.
It is also a love story, as Jean struggles to accept the changes in their lives. The story of strength in the face of adversity, of the courage to be true to one's self, None So Pretty is a transexual love story fitting for the new millennium."
1999,
English,
Rebecca Pine,
Scotland,
Original title: "Eine Frau und mehr" (A woman and more) by Romy Haag.
Romy Haag’s autobiography Eine Frau und mehr, published in 1999, reads like a life lived at full volume, intimate and theatrical at the same time, glamorous on the surface and bruisingly honest underneath. The book tells the story of a person who refused to accept the narrow frame assigned at birth and instead turned her own existence into an act of self creation. It is not only the memoir of a celebrated performer but also the testimony of a trans woman who survived violence, exile, desire, fame, and constant reinvention in a society that rarely made room for someone like her. From the very first pages, Haag makes it clear that this is not a fairy tale polished for comfort, even if parts of her life truly do resemble a dream.
Born in 1948 in Scheveningen in the Netherlands as Edouard Frans Verba, Romy describes a childhood marked by fear and alienation. Assigned male at birth but feeling like a girl from her earliest memories, she grew up in a provincial environment that reacted to difference with cruelty. Physical abuse by her father, harassment by peers, and the suffocating pressure to perform a role she never recognized as her own shaped her early years. In Eine Frau und mehr, these experiences are not sensationalized but presented with a calm, almost restrained clarity that makes them even more devastating. Haag shows how early rejection can carve deep wounds, but also how it can ignite a fierce instinct for survival.
Original title: "Man of vrouw, min of meer: Gesprekken over een niet-gangbare sekse" (Male or female, more or less: Conversations about a non-common gender) by Tim de Jong. The book was published in 1999 and republished in 2017.
Transgender people have become more visible in recent years. Nowadays, most people know a trans woman or transman from the TV or in their own environment. People who change gender are becoming more and more accepted. There are also people for whom both male / female boxes fit badly, which is less known. The variety of gender identities is much broader than is often assumed.
In this book, a diverse group of people speak. They talk about the limitations they experience as a result of the sex division, and about the path they have taken to shape a gender identity that is 'different'. In addition to the life stories, experts give their views on the shifting views on gender, in which the classical dichotomy increasingly has to give way to gender diversity.
1999,
Dutch,
Tim de Jong,
Full title: "Trans Forming Families" by Mary Boenke.
"The book is a collection of stories by parents of adult transgenders, by mothers of very young gender variant children, by spouses and partners, and even by grandparents, siblings, and friends. Written mostly by "ordinary people", who have all struggled from bewilderment to acceptance and even celebration, these 31 stories serve as role models for all those families who are still hurting, rejecting, or feeling isolated -- or who have already "arrived" --and would like company."
"Although all the essays are reasonably well written, given the nonprofessional author list, a few stand out in my mind as favorites. "A Transsexual in Teheran", by Zari Ghasemi, hesitantly discusses the brutal treatment her male-to-female child Noosheen was given while growing up in Iran; you could sense in the pit of your stomach, through her understated narrative, her fear that her daughter would be dead by adulthood, either through murder, execution, or suicide, if they had not left the country."
1999,
English,
Mary Boenke,
Original title: "Rencontre du troisième sexe" (Third sex encounter) by Sandra Dual.
Dying a woman rather than persevering in the error of nature that made her man! To confess this utopia to oneself as to one's family, in one's forties, when one is a doctor with wife and child, is a courage that can be called madness, and to pay for social decay. With extreme willpower and the love of her family, Sandra Dual rose to this challenge and overcome all the obstacles sown by ignorance and fear of difference.
She evokes here, without indulgence, the horrors she has encountered, and the strength of humor and love that allowed her to overcome them and flourish. Happy with her new life, she reflects on this personal drama and tries to analyze what we really are, what we want to be. She laughs at herself and her pronouns, plays with words, plays down by showing others the little landmarks of everyday life that are distorted and is careful not to fall into medical or legal details.
1999,
French,
Sandra Dual,
Original title: "Wer wird als Frau denn schon geboren: Man(n) wird zur Frau doch erst gemacht" (Who is born as a woman anyway: Man is first made into a woman) by Angelique Nagel.
Angelique Nagel’s book Who Is Ever Born a Woman Anyway, Man Is First Made into a Woman is not only a memoir but a quiet act of defiance against forgetting. It tells the story of a life lived against the grain of postwar Germany, at a time when transsexuality was unspeakable, unnamed, and largely unimaginable. Long before public debates, legal frameworks, or cautious acceptance, Angelique Nagel existed, observed herself, and chose to live, fully aware that doing so would cost her safety, certainty, and ease.
Born on June 11, 1950, as Willibald Aschenbrenner, she grew up in Moosburg within the well known Aschenbrenner hairdressing dynasty. The world she entered was rigidly structured, socially conservative, and merciless toward anyone who deviated from prescribed norms. From early childhood, Angelique sensed that the body she inhabited was not her own. She recalls knowing, at the age of three or four, that something fundamental was wrong, not in her feelings, but in the expectations imposed on her. Carnival costumes became early battlegrounds, where she longed to be a princess rather than the comic male characters assigned to her. In today’s language, this might sound familiar. In the Germany of the 1950s, it was unspeakable.
The book traces this early dissonance with remarkable restraint. Nagel does not dramatize her childhood for effect. Instead, she allows the quiet cruelty of social norms to speak for itself. Being born out of wedlock already marked her as an outsider. Educational opportunities were limited, and despite her talent for languages and writing, university or journalism were unattainable dreams. Hairdressing was not a calling chosen freely, but a path dictated by family tradition and social limitation. Yet it would become both her refuge and her stage.
1999,
Angelique Nagel,
German,
Full title: "Fixed for Life: The True Saga of How Tom Became Sally" by Irene Preiss.
"A lot of people know something about transsexualism, but not much. And a lot of what they do know is incorrect.
This book was written for those who are not sure about their gender or sexuality; the family members of those who are not sure of their gender or sexuality; the professional counsellors for those who are not sure of their gender or sexuality; and for those who have absolutely no question about their gender or sexuality, but will eventually interact with those who do."
1999,
English,
Irene Preiss,
Original title: "Gleiche Chancen für alle" (Equal opportunities for everyone) by Helma Katrin Alter.
“Gleiche Chancen für alle” by Helma Katrin Alter is one of those books whose impact far exceeds its physical size and whose relevance has not faded with time. Written in clear, accessible language, it was conceived as both an introduction and a practical guide, and its structure reflects this ambition. Each chapter is designed to stand on its own, allowing readers to engage with specific aspects of trans identity without necessarily reading the book from cover to cover. At the same time, taken as a whole, the book forms a coherent and carefully thought-out roadmap through a complex social, legal, medical, and human reality.
After an introductory section in which Helma Katrin Alter explains the origins of the book and outlines its conceptual structure, six substantive chapters follow, complemented by an appendix containing key legal texts and landmark court rulings. This appendix alone makes the book an important reference work, especially at a time when reliable, consolidated information on trans issues was scarce. Yet the true strength of the book lies in how it connects lived experience, professional expertise, and social responsibility.
1999,
German,
Helma Katrin Alter,
Full title: "Rhonda: The Woman in Me - A Journey Through Gender Transition" by Rhonda D. Hoyman.
""Rhonda: The Woman In Me", is the journey of Ron's 48-year struggle to find happiness before allowing his true feminine identity to emerge and take steps necessary to achieve a complete sexual transition.
This book is not only for those who have gender dysphoria, but a good example of what can be done by any person who is determined to improve their life."
1999,
English,
Rhonda D. Hoyman,
Original title: "Ich habe viel geliebt: Das rastlose Leben einer transsexuellen Tänzerin" (I've Loved Much: The Restless Life of a Transsexual Dancer) by Verena Mühlberger and Jaquelin G.
According to Anne, the autobiography was written very competently and sensitively by the publicist Verena Mühlberger on the basis of lengthy conversations with Jaquelin.
Jaquelin was born as a boy in Venezuela. She has worked most of her life in nightclubs, first in her home country, then later in Spain, Italy, and finally in Switzerland. Due to her background and circumstances, she had no choice but to live as a barmaid and prostitute in order to be a woman.
1999,
German,
Jaquelin G,
Switzerland,
Venezuela,
Verena Mühlberger,
Full title: "Change for the Better: The Story of Georgina Beyer as Told to Cathy Casey" by Georgina Beyer and Cathy Casey.
"George Bertrand was born in 1957, an ordinary boy who was to become an extraordinary woman. As he grew up, George realised he was a woman trapped inside a male body. Once he discovered that men could live as women, Georgina Beyer was born. This book follows that difficult rebirth, Georgina's time working in the sex industry in the 70s and 80s, a brutal rape in Sydney and her liberation by a sex change operation in 1984.
Since then, Georgina has achieved acclaim as an actress, including a nomination for a GOFTA award for best actress in 1987, has tutored unemployed youth in drama, was elected to the Carterton District Council in 1993, and became the first transsexual mayor in the world in 1995."
1999,
Cathy Casey,
English,
Georgina Beyer,
New Zealand,
"Den danske pige" is the Danish language edition of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.
Having gender reassignment surgery in the 1930s was an unusual and sensational affair, and the man who took the step to do so was the Danish painter Einar Mogens Andreas Wegener, who after the operation took the name of Lili Elbe.
The operation took place at the Institute for Sexology in Berlin, where the male organs were removed. The surgery was performed by Felix Abraham at the recommendation of Magnus Hirschfeld.
Einar Wegener was married to the beautiful, celebrated artist Gerda Wegener. They lived in a highly unusual marriage. Their life fate is told in this book, which is a fiction novel based on authentic events and diary entries from Einar Wegener.
1999,
Danish,
David Ebershoff,
Lili Elbe,
This is the Spanish language edition of "Mémoires de l'abbé de Choisy habillé en femme".
The first edition of the memoirs was published in ... 1736. Yes, it is not a joke. Since then, the memoirs have been published many times in many languages.
Let me quote the introduction from Goodreads: "By a whim of his mother, Francois Timoleon de Choisy—better known as the Abbé de Choisy—was dressed as a girl until the age of 18.
After a short spell in male attire he became, by all accounts, the classic transvestite - a male heterosexual who never attempted to disguise his biological sex while going about in public in full female attire. Choisy's fascination with feminine accouterments made him something of an expert on women's fashions, and prominent society women even brought their daughters to him for advice.
1987,
1999,
2002,
François-Timoléon De Choisy,
Spanish,
