A random collection of over 1910 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.
Original title: "Batido de Trolo" (Trolo Milkshake) by Naty Menstrual."Naty is not dizzy in the lukewarm lights of the biggest publishing houses, or the book fairs where it is measured who has the longest time, or the meetings in which four or five poets or writers look at each other's faces in a bookstore in Palermo Soho to read their "unpublished" books and applaud each other while they call each other beings of light (even if they want to devour each other) and believe that if one improves the typography and reads while Nina Simone plays, the texts seem better written. Naty is not one of t
2005,
Argentina,
Naty Menstrual,
Spanish,
Original title: "Jiūzhèng shàngdì de cuòwù" 纠正上帝的错误 (Correcting God's Mistakes) by Wu Xingren 吴兴人.Essayist Wu Xingren set foot in the world of transgender people, which lasted 15 years, and wrote "Correcting God's Mistakes", published by Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House.Sina.com serialized "Corrected God's Mistakes" on the Reading Channel, which attracted the attention of netizens.
15 years ago, the author befriended He Qinglian, the director of plastic surgery at Changzheng Hospital. When Professor He Qinglian completed the first male-to-female transsexual surgery of Qin Huiying
2005,
Chinese,
Wu Xingren,
Original title: "Fenomena dan tingkahlaku pondan di daerah Kuala Terengganu" (Transgender phenomenon and behavior in Kuala Terengganu district) by Kamaruzaman Yusuf.The book covers transgender phenomenon and social aspects of transgenderism in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
2005,
Kamaruzaman Yusuf,
Malay,
Full title: "With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India" by Gayatri Reddy."With Respect to Sex is an intimate ethnography that offers a provocative account of sexual and social differences in India. The subjects of this study are hijras or the “third sex” of India - individuals who occupy a unique, liminal space between male and female, sacred and profane.Hijras are men who sacrifice their genitalia to a goddess in return for the power to confer fertility on newlyweds and newborn children, a ritual role they are respected for, at the same time as they are stigmatized for t
2005,
English,
Gayatri Reddy,
India,
Original title: "Jangan Lihat Kelaminku!: Suara hati seorang waria" (Don't Look at My Genitals!: The voice of a transhender) by Merlyn Sopjan."Merlyn herself underwent an inner struggle for quite a long time before her family’s acceptance. She began to feel “different” as a child, but she could never define herself because public discourses about gender dysphoria and transwomen were not yet widely held at the time. With the lapse of time, she realized her female mind, but she had been physically born as a male. Merlyn kept this awareness to herself.When Merlyn was 21, her father asked Merlyn
2005,
Indonesian,
Merlyn Sopjan,
Full title: "Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions, and Imperialism" (2005) by Viviane Namaste. The second edition of the book was published in 2011."The book provides readers with an introduction to contemporary transsexual politics in Canadian and Quebecois contexts. Through different case studies relating to the law, human rights, health care, and prostitution, Dr. Namaste exposes readers to the complexity of the issues involved in thinking about transsexual politics in relation to feminism.Written in accessible language, and using a variety of forms, including i
2005,
Canada,
English,
Viviane Namaste,
Original title: "Yōkoso, kabā.-Chan kitchin e" ようこそ、KABA.ちゃんキッチンへ (Welcome to KABA-chan's Kitchen) by Kaba-chan KABA.ちゃん. The book is a cookbook presented by Kaba-chan, born in 1969, in Yanagawa, Fukuoka, a Japanese transgender woman, and choreographer.According to Wikipedia, after studying dance in the USA, she became known in Japan as a member of the musical group Dos with Taeco Nishikawa and Asami Yoshino. Being a celebrity in Japan, Kaba-chan was open with her sexuality. While she was already known for her flamboyant character in Dos, she came out as a gay man publicly on televi
2005,
Japanese,
Kaba-chan,
Full title: "Crossing Sexual Boundaries: Transgender Journeys, Uncharted Paths" by J. Ari Kane-Demaios and Vern Bullough."'Transgender' has become a convenient umbrella term to cover a collectivity of individuals (including cross-dressers, transvestites, transsexuals, and intersexuals) who do not conform to traditional norms of gender identity or behavior. Until recent centuries, transgender behavior has rarely been the subject of scholarly or public attention.During the 20th century, medical advances in hormone therapy and reconstructive surgery, the worldwide publicity generated by the Chri
2005,
English,
J. Ari Kane-Demaios,
Vern Bullough,
Full title: "Casa Susanna" by Michel Hurst and Robert Swope."Some time ago, while at a New York flea market, inveterate collectors Michael Hurst and Robert Swope discovered a large body of snapshots: album after aged album of well-preserved images, taken roughly between the mid-50s and mid-60s, depicting a group of cross-dressers united around a place called Casa Susanna, a rather large and charmingly banal Victorian-style house in small-town New Jersey.The inhabitants, visitors, guests, and hosts used it as a weekend headquarters for a regular “girl’s life.” Someone - probably “Susanna” or t
2005,
Casa Susanna,
English,
Michel Hurst,
Robert Swope,
Full title: "Peninsula of Lies: A True Story of Mysterious Birth and Taboo Love" by Edward Ball."Peninsula of Lies is a nonfiction mystery, set in a haunting gothic locale and peopled by fascinating and eccentric characters. Its hero and heroine is Dawn Langley Simmons, a British writer who lived in Charleston, South Carolina, during the 1960s and became the center of one of the most unusual sexual scandals.Born in England, Dawn began life as a boy named Gordon Langley Hall, the son of servants at Sissinghurst Castle, the estate of Vita Sackville-West. In his twenties he made his way to New Y
2005,
Dawn Langley Simmons,
Edward Ball,
English,
Original title: "C'était du spectacle: L'histoire des artistes transsexuelles à Montréal, 1955-1985" (It was a show: The history of transsexual artists in Montreal, 1955-1985). The book was published both in English and French.The sixties and seventies were decades of social change in Quebec. It was a show! tells the story of the first generation of transsexuals who underwent sex reversal surgery. Namaste examines working conditions in cabarets, prostitution, police abuses of power towards transsexuals, the role of organized crime in the city's nightlife, and access to health care. It was a s
2005,
Canada,
French,
Viviane Namaste,
Original title: "Aku Perempuan: Jalan Berliku Seorang Dorce" (I'm a Woman: The Winding Path of Dorce) by Dorce Gamalama and FX Rudy Gunawan.The book is a biography of Dorce Gamalama, a legend of the Indonesian transgender community, prominent transgender entertainer, singer, talk show host, comedienne, and celebrity, that passed away on 16 February 2022.According to the University of Melbourne's website: "Dorce was born in Solok, West Sumatra, in 1963. She began her career as a member of an all-trans-women dance group known as The Fantastic Dolls, eventually leading to her first national
2005,
Dorce Gamalama,
FX Rudy Gunawan,
Indonesian,
Full title: "She's No Lady: The Story of Jamie Lee Hamilton"."Barb Daniel's biography She's No Lady: The Story of Jamie Lee Hamilton portrays Hamilton as an imperfect heroine against a Dickensian backdrop of social decay, elevating Hamilton's presence beyond the occasional sound bite or provocative quote." Zagria presented the most extensive article about Jamie Lee Hamilton (1955-2019), a Canadian sex worker, activist, and politician. According to Zagria, she became Jamie Lee in 1975. "Her father, who had been reading up on transsexuality, gave his blessing though on his deathbed in 1979
2005,
Barbara Daniel,
Canada,
English,
Full title: "Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs" by Jonathan Ames."In Sexual Metamorphosis, Ames presents the personal narratives of seventeen gender pioneers. Here is Christine Jorgensen, the first celebrity transsexual, greeting thousands of well-wishers from the stage of Madison Square Garden. Here is Caroline Cossey, former model and Bond (as in James) girl, being outed in the tabloid press.Here is novelist and English professor Jennifer Finney Boylan discussing her impending transformation with her heartbroken spouse and supportive yet confused colleagues. The resu
2005,
Caroline Cossey,
Christine Jorgensen,
English,
Jennifer Finney Boylan,
Jonathan Ames,
Renée Richards,
"Rien n'arrive par hasard" (Nothing happens by chance) is the French language edition of "Tiǎozhàn shàngdì de cuò: Jīnxīng de wǔmèng rénshēng" - 挑戰上帝的錯：金星的舞夢人生 (Challenging God's Mistakes: Venus' Dancing Life), published by Jin Xing in 2004.Jin Xing (Chinese: 金星; pinyin: Jīn Xīng) was born in 1967 in Shenyang, China, to an ethnic Korean family. She is a Chinese ballerina, modern dancer, choreographer, actress, founder, and artistic director of the contemporary dance company Shanghai.In addition, she is a transgender celebrity and icon of the Chinese transgender community. This unusual memoir
2005,
China,
French,
Jin Xing,
Full title: "Alice in Genderland: A Crossdresser Comes of Age"."Alice in Genderland is the first ever memoir by a crossdresser who is not content to live behind closed doors—and who takes it much further than his straighter, more circumspect peers might ever care to go. Most of the time, Harvard-educated psychiatrist Richard Novic is Rick, a man at the office or a husband and father at home. But one night a week, he is Alice, a woman about town, shopping, dining, dancing, and dating a man for nearly a decade.In contrast to the life he leads today, Rick Novic suffered since his sporty, nerdy b
2005,
English,
Richard Novic,
Original title: "Eindelijk vrouw: Dagboek van Gerda Gabrielle Gros" (Finally a woman: Diary of Gerda Gabrielle Gros).'In this diary, Gerda, now a woman, describes the long road she had to go until she became what she had long been in her heart. The examinations, the hormone treatments, the operations, the struggle for the children, the adjustment problems of her environment, and the joy that she could get when she could actually be herself.'
2005,
Dutch,
Gerda Gabrielle Gros,
Original title: "On'na wa tsuitachi ni shite narazu" - 女は一日にしてならず (A woman was not made in a day) by Maki Carrousel (カルーセル 麻紀, Karūseru Maki).This is the second biography of Maki Carrousel, a Japanese actress, singer, and legend of the Japanese transgender community. She was born Maki Hirahara in 1942, in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan. She is said to have been the first person to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Japan and a pioneer in changing the family register from male to female. After dropping out of school, she ran away from home at the age of 15 and started working at gay bars fi
2005,
Georges Burou,
Japanese,
Maki Carrousel,
Full title: "No Man's Land: The Story of a Man who Became a Woman". The first 2005 edition of the book was published under the name of Paula Goergen."The true story of a girl born into a boy's body and her struggle to find her real identity in a conservative family. Born a boy in post-war Germany, Paula Goergen uprooted to live in Ireland and was constantly on a voyage of self-discovery, struggling to find her true gender identity while trying to maintain a normal life, which finally culminated in gender transition and re-alignment surgery.Now under self-imposed exile in the UK, Paula tells t
2005,
2007,
English,
Paula Goergen,
Paula Grieg,
Full title: "The Zenith Experience: Encounters and Memories in a Transgender Setting".T"The Zenith Foundation was founded to provide a cohesive platform from which socially responsible members could develop programs and projects that could benefit fellow members and the transgender community at large. Zenith was an unusual organization in several ways. It preferred substance to noise. It avoided the overly colourful, strident and boastful often associated with street demonstrations. Under Castle’s leadership, it established direct communications with government and professional practitio
2005,
Canada,
English,
Stephanie Castle,
