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: "Den Abgrund immer vor Augen: Tagebuch einer Frau, die nicht als Frau zur Welt kam" (The abyss always in sight: Diary of a woman who was not born a woman) by Lena-Angelique Stachat.
"This book was written over a period of six years. It was never meant to be written. And yet it came about after many encouragements from friends. First and foremost, it should help me to come to terms with my difficult life path. After numerous conversations, the desire arose to tell other people a part of my biography.
I was born a boy, but for some reason I don't understand, I've always felt more connected and related to the opposite sex.
In order not to attract attention, I lived as a man without ever having communicated myself to others. It was a normative life. But it wasn't my life. And in a single moment, everything I knew until then was completely turned upside down. From now on, I became a minority of society. I was fighting for my life and for recognition as a woman. I had to assert myself against resistance from within and without. The journey is an ongoing process that has not stopped with this book."
2009,
German,
Lena-Angelique Stachat,
Original title: "…endlich ungeschminkt!: Ein transsexueller Roadmovie in Prosa" (Finally without make-up!: A transsexual road movie in prose) by Leonora Kurzeja.
When my body began puberty in the early 1970s, I had already been taught the basic intricacies of the differences between women and men through sixth-grade biology lessons. In Bravo, I learned details of interpersonal physical relationships from Dr. Sommer. Surprisingly, every now and then I find myself smooching and exploring new territory with curious hands in the arms of a girl. That's exciting.
But I'm faced with a mystery I'd rather not know anything about: my body feels different from the inside than it looks from the outside. Where the so-called penis hangs out of me, I feel exactly an entrance. A pussy. I've tried umpteen times, when my body unmistakably demands touch, to imagine fucking with a girl. Labour of love in vain. My body longs to receive. To take something in. A tail? From a boy? Even though it is pleasurable when I touch my butt, I feel that this is only an alternative, but cannot be a substitute for the vagina that I feel so real. Am I crazy? And if it does, maybe it doesn't matter as long as no one knows. But I know. Am I a miscarriage? Babies are born with three arms and two heads, maybe I'm such a misconstruction.
2009,
German,
Leonora Kurzeja,
Full title: "Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men" by Lori B. Girshick.
"In this extraordinary book, based on 150 in-depth interviews, Lori B. Girshick, a sociologist and social justice activist, brings together the voices of sex- and gender-diverse people who speak with absolute candor about their lives. Girshick presents transpeople speaking in their own voices about identity, coming out, passing, sexual orientation, relationship negotiations and the dynamics of attraction, homophobia (including internalized fears), and bullying.
She exposes the guilt and the shame that “gender police” use in their attempts to exert control and points out the many ways transpeople are discriminated against in daily life, from filling out identification documents to gender-segregated bathrooms. By showing us a variety of descriptions of diverse real lives and providing a thorough exploration of the embodied experiences of gender variant people, Girshick demonstrates that there is nothing inherently binary about gender, and that the way each of us experiences our own gender is, in fact, normal and natural."
2009,
English,
Lori B. Girshick,
Original title: "Le Choix de Juliette" (Juliette's Choice) by Juliette Jourdan.
It's about Juliette, her roommate, her girlfriends, Tours, her mother, a cat (her name is Marilyn), femininity, what it means: being a woman, becoming a woman (if you can do it), how and why.
Juliette is twenty years old and lives in Tours, a transsexual, transgender capital of France. Her student life is comparable to that of an average student: she lives in a roommate with a girlfriend, shops with her mother, flirts, works to pay for her studies and rent, parties, and prepares her bachelor's thesis.
Apart from these small notable originalities, inherent in the character and the trans environment in which Juliette is brought to evolve, she is "normal". It is with sincerity and sensitivity that the author tells us about her life, partly fictionalized, and testifies to the chaotic journey of any teenager.
2009,
French,
Juliette Jourdan,
Original title: "Haruna Ai fāsuto shashin-shū “I ♡ AI” Haruna ai no tsukurikata" - はるな愛ファースト写真集『I♡AI』はるな愛のつくり方 (Ai Haruna's first photo book "I♡AI" How to make Ai Haruna) by Ai Haruna (はるな 愛).
This is the fourth book of Ai Haruna; it is mainly a photobook. Born Kenji Onishi in 1972, she is a Japanese TV celebrity and actress, singer, businesswoman, beauty pageant queen, and transgender activist. Her childhood was a happy time but her family was poor. She has a younger brother.
At school, she was known for her musical talent, performing at different school and cultural events. When she was in junior high school, she was bullied because of her feminine manners, so she could hardly study and her grades were poor.
2009,
Ai Haruna,
Japanese,
Full title: "A Year with Misty" by Manders Smith.
"A true and poignant story of two "gurlz" who met and eventually fell in love. A rare thing in the transitory world of TVs where love takes a back window and everything is fueled by sex, parties, prostitution, alcohol, and drugs. They even had run-ins with the police.
It was a real roller coaster of a ride with so many emotional highs and lows, but they got there in the end. They found a love that transcended sex, and as Misty said most gurlz would give their back teeth for a relationship like that. But life is fragile and Misty's husky voice became her biggest challenge.
2009,
English,
Manders Smith,
Original title: "Il mio nome è Lucy. L'Italia del XX secolo nei ricordi di una transessuale" (My name is Lucy. Italy in the twentieth century in the memories of a transsexual)
"The short century with different eyes: those of Luciano, born in 1924, first a restless child from the Piedmontese province, then a "different" teenager in fascist Bologna, and immediately after being a deserter on September 8, deported to Dachau and freed by the allies, and after the war migrated to Turin on the wings of the economic boom, where she changed sex in the eighties and then returned, as a mature woman, in the house and in the neighborhood that knew him as a boy.
An eighty-year-long history that is intertwined with that of our country and its social, cultural, and political turns, and sheds light on its most shadowy sides, on the expedients, places, languages, transformations of sexual diversity, always poised between secrecy and exhibition, between insecurity and the full claim of a conscious otherness."
2009,
Gabriella Romano,
Italian,
Lucy Salani,
Original title: "Verzaubert in Nord-Ost: Die Geschichte der Berliner Lesben und Schwulen in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow und Weißensee" (Enchanted in north-east: The history of the Berlin lesbians and gays in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow, and Weißensee).
A queer history of the Berlin districts of Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow, and Weißensee. This book wants to enchant and give insights into the hundred-year history of Berlin lesbians and gays in the northeastern districts of Pankow, Prenzlauer Berg, and Weißensee.
The book tells of the beginnings of the imperial era, the Weimar Republic, and the existence-threatening situation during National Socialism. Examples show how the homosexual and transgender scene in East Berlin lived and loved despite repressive measures taken by the Stasi communist secret police.
2009,
German,
Sonntags-Club,
Original title: "Tsubaki izen" - 椿姫以前 (Before Tsubaki) by Ayana Tsubaki (椿姫彩菜).
Born on July 15, 1984, in a male body, from an early age, she felt uncomfortable with her male gender. In 2002, she entered Aoyama Gakuin University and she felt that the gap between her mind and body was real, so she took a leave of absence in the summer of her second year. Around that time, she learned about the "Gender Identity Disorder Special Cases Law," which allows changing the gender description in the family register if you meet certain conditions, and she decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
While working in Shinjuku and Kabukicho, she saved money and counted the days until her surgery. In 2006, she underwent the surgery in Phuket, Thailand and changed her family register to female. Finally, she was a woman and she returned to Aoyama Gakuin University. In 2008, she wrote an essay titled "I am from an all-boys school." (Poplar Publishing). It received a great response and became a bestseller with over 100,000 copies. She appeared in many TV programs. She produces various brands and products such as sweets, legwear, and kimonos based on the concept of "producing women's happiness". She plays the piano and speaks French.
2009,
Ayana Tsubaki,
Japanese,
Original title: "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, which ended ten years ago on the verge of a definitive change, resumes today to explain that there are new, or perhaps old reasons why that journey has not come to an end. Perhaps because the goal was already reached without having yet understood it.
Today talking about trans has become a recurring phenomenon, we do not know if for real sensitivity to the problems of these people or for creeping morbidity. The fact is that when Sonia and the author found themselves behind a table to build that monologue, in the now distant 1999, the topic was not so obvious and not even easy to deal with and to accept. Listening and updating the story of this journey, after so much water has passed under the bridge, can perhaps help someone, in a very difficult choice that leads to breaking with the previous life, and perhaps someone else, to a greater understanding.'
2009,
Italian,
Simona Segalini,
Original title: "Rabupawā Haruna ai no koi bana" - Love Power はるな愛の恋バナ (Love Power: Haruna's love) by Ai Haruna (はるな 愛).
This is the third book of Ai Haruna, mainly related to her love life. Born Kenji Onishi in 1972, she is a Japanese TV celebrity and actress, singer, businesswoman, beauty pageant queen, and transgender activist. Her childhood was a happy time but her family was poor. She has a younger brother.
At school, she was known for her musical talent, performing at different school and cultural events. When she was in junior high school, she was bullied because of her feminine manners, so she could hardly study and her grades were poor.
2009,
Ai Haruna,
Japanese,
Original title: "Mit allem, was ich bin: Mein Leben" (With Everything I Am: My Life)
'Born as a man, a star as a woman: the most candid autobiography of the year. Already at the age of five, Gloria Gray knew that she was born in the wrong body.
In her autobiography, she sensitively and disarmingly candidly describes her path from the little boy who was teased and humiliated to the successful artist and mysterious entertainer of show business.
She relied entirely on her inner knowledge and, through various operations and hormone treatments, also externally became the woman she has always been inside.'
2009,
German,
Germany,
Gloria Gray,
Original title: "Enfin, la lumière!" (Finally, the light!) by Madeleine Charest.
I came across this book and author in the list of biographies of Canadian transgender women, presented by Zagria on her fantastic blog. I searched the Internet thoroughly but unfortunately, I was not able to find any info about this publication. If you have ever read the book or have any information about it, please let me know.
2009,
French,
Madeleine Charest,
Original title: "Novo rojstvo: iskrena pripoved o trpljenju, ljubezni in preobrazbi transeksualke Salome Ćuća Žentil" (New birth: an honest story about the suffering, love and transformation of the transsexual Salome Ćuća Žentil).
'An honest confession about the suffering, love, and transformation of transsexual Salome Ćuća Žentil.
Salome. A name that evokes mixed feelings. A person who was born as a man, but wanted only one thing in life - to become a real woman.
She decided to try her luck in Ljubljana. But it was not easy in Slovenia, because being different always brings oppression, ridicule, and even aggression.
Salome resisted social prejudices and took a step that many did not dare.
The support of friends and acquaintances made it possible for Salome to first get breasts, and then finally change her gender with surgery. Giving up, collecting money and enduring pain - everything is written in this incredibly cute and honest confession.'
2009,
Salome Ćuća Žentil,
Slovenian,
Tomaž Mihelič,
Original title: "Haruna ai no raburabusōru" -『素晴らしき、この人生』 (What a Wonderful Life!)) by Ai Haruna (はるな 愛).
This is the second book of Ai Haruna, mainly related to her life aspects that she has never talked about in public. Born Kenji Onishi in 1972, she is a Japanese TV celebrity and actress, singer, businesswoman, beauty pageant queen, and transgender activist. Her childhood was a happy time but her family was poor. She has a younger brother.
At school, she was known for her musical talent, performing at different school and cultural events. When she was in junior high school, she was bullied because of her feminine manners, so she could hardly study and her grades were poor.
2009,
Ai Haruna,
Japanese,
Original title: "Nadia Grey. I miei piccoli geni" (Nadia Grey. My little geniuses)
The book presents a biography of Nadia Grey, an Italian escort girl from Potenza. It is a story of a courageous transgender woman that managed to become herself against all odds.
2009,
Italian,
Nadia Grey,
Remo Bevilacqua,
Full title: "The Real Possibility of Joy: A Personal Journey from Man to Woman" by Josephine Emery.
"This is a searing account of the author's physical, spiritual and emotional journey from man to woman. Josie has lived and loved as a man and as a woman. This is the story of her voyage from his days working in desert mining and construction camps through to the struggles with her family and eventual reconciliation with her dying mother.
It is the story of his loves and his marriage as a man, of fatherhood, and his passage through the barriers of gender and sex. The story of the shock of discovering her need - as a woman - to be with a man. An account, as well, of personal spiritual discovery, The Real Possibility of Joy opens up the mystery of what it means to be human and captures the joy of living one's own, hard-won, personal truth."
2009,
Australia,
English,
Interview,
Josephine Emery,
"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 the dramatic story of what it means to struggle with gender identity and the high price to be paid for facing up to the truth."
2009,
Estonian,
Paula Goergen,
Paula Grieg,
Full title: "The Making of Miranda: From Gentleman to Gentlewoman in One Lifetime"
"Miranda was born as Rhodri. This is the tale of her extraordinary transformation from a gentleman into a gentlewoman.
In the Making of Miranda, Miranda Ponsonby tells the extraordinary story of her life. Miranda was born as Rhodri into a renowned family, and educated at a war-time boy's prep school and one of Britain's most ancient public schools, before being commissioned into the Household Cavalry.
Time spent in Africa and Arabia was followed by marriage and two sons, and a settled life spent running a farm in Leicestershire.
It was only when his 30-year marriage came to an end that Rhodri decided to undergo transgender surgery and become Miranda. He had long held the belief that he was actually female, and it was then that he had the courage to act upon it."
2009,
English,
Miranda Ponsonby,
Full title: "A Transgender Diary - Complete Collection of All Six Books (Transition, Transformation & Transcendence)".
"Spanning 20 years, this 1200-page journal is the true transition story of Melanie Anne Phillips, founder of the Transgender Community Forum and of the world's very first transgender support website in 1994.
This trilogy covering Transition, Transformation, and Transcendence is an uncensored work containing six individual books, beginning on Melanie's first day of hormone therapy and continuing through first living in the new gender role, sex reassignment surgery, post-surgical relationships, radical facial feminization surgery in which the bones of the skull are removed, remodeled, and replaced, and concluding with her adjustment to the results of that final step into a whole new identity.
Includes an album of before and after pictures."
2009,
English,
Melanie Anne Phillips,
