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: "Når Sjælen Brænder: En guide for transkønnede" (When the Soul Burns: A Guide for Transgender People) by Michelle Klæstrup.
For many years, Michelle Klæstrup struggled with anxiety, low self-esteem, and lack of self-confidence, fighting for her surroundings to perceive her as normal and completely ordinary. She did not dare to tell and involve others in the many terrible problems that were part of her daily life during these many years.
Today, she has freed herself from most of her demons, and now shares with readers her many years of experience.
This publication touches on the topics of gender identity, sexuality, and not least, psychological and physical influences.
2015,
Danish,
Michelle Klæstrup,
Original title: "Om Så falt brikkene på plass" (Then the pieces fell into place) by Marion Arntzen and Kari Kahrs.
The purpose of the book is to disseminate knowledge about gender identity and gender expression in order to contribute to greater openness and humanity in all of us. It happens through very personal life stories. Some talk about the difficult time in primary school, others talk about what it is like to become a mother and later in life to become a man.
They talk about grief and love, what it feels like to be a boy when the girl's body reaches puberty with breasts and menstruation. Maybe you think that it can't be that hard to be a boy born as a girl. You just have to dress masculine?
2015,
Kari Kahrs,
Marion Arntzen,
Norwegian,
Original title: "Le ventre des volcans" (The Belly of Volcanoes) by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay.
The Belly of Volcanoes is the result of more than five years of writing and rewriting. Understanding love, loving beyond love, these are mysteries that this book tries to elucidate.
This collection is an intimate portrait of universal struggles: to free oneself from daily anxieties, to deal with one's obsessions, to survive the falls to better recover in the righteousness of the waking day, to live one's life as honestly as possible. In this book, the author tackles heavy themes with a disconcerting sensitivity and a palpable, neurotic vulnerability.
2015,
Canada,
French,
Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay,
Gabrielle Tremblay,
Original title: "Kallion kuningattaret" (Queens of the Rock) by Tarja Surakka.
The gritty glittering life stories of two divas, Jari Vihinen and Morgan Devereaux. On stage, divas have been allowed to shine as drag queens, dancers, and actresses. Jari and Morgan co-founded Finland's first drag queen groups and dressed at a time when homosexuality was first a crime and later classified as a disease.
In the underground world of the rock, they lived a glamour life - snatching a poke for themselves from restaurants, and sometimes also directly from the street. There were men buzzing around who liked the "girls" dressed in the dress. Offstage, life has been a fierce struggle for space as an artist, for a living, and for the opportunity to live in peace as oneself.
2015,
Drag queen,
Finnish,
Jari Vihinen,
Morgan Devereaux,
Tarja Surakka,
Original title: "La novia de Sandro" (Sandro's girlfriend) by Camila Sosa Villada.
Sandro's bride, the hopeless lover, the bottomless hole where hope disappears, the passage to the edge of the precipice, the one entrusted to the Virgin of the Transvestites, the one who knows men because she was one of them, comes to rescue the essence of poetry: to put her finger on the wound, to sing the wound of love or of the times, make us feel beautiful or pathetic (that is what we are), remove the patina that makes us respectable so that we shine at last in the face of some true fire, of those who burn and shine, of those who reduce us to ashes and entrust us to the last truth of the wind.
The one who wants to ask for forgiveness, the one who wants to cure his evil of loneliness or company, conjure his particular evil or his evil of all, the one who wants like Vallejo to show the bad his little bit of good and vice versa, the one who does not want to die of thirst or blindness without finding the puddle in which to drink or in which to look. Celebrate this book: because poetry dries up if every now and then a Camila Sosa Villada does not appear to put words back into circulation. Yes. Poetry dries up. As Córdoba was impoverished until Camila Sosa Villada arrived from Mina Clavero with her Carnes tolendas, to revitalize us, deepen us, show us the light and the shadow, and be pointed out as beautiful and miserable. - Jorge Marzetti
2015,
Argentina,
Camila Sosa Villada,
Spanish,
Original title: "AntoloGaia. Vivere sognando e non sognare di vivere: i miei anni Settanta" (AntoloGaia. Living dreaming and not dreaming of living: my seventies) by Porpora Marcasciano.
In 2016, Porpora Marcasciano published the second edition of the book with a slightly different name: "AntoloGaia. Sesso, genere e cultura degli anni '70" (AntoloGaia. Sex, gender and culture of the 70s).
Porpora Marcasciano starts with herself and, through her biography, tells us about the seventies from a special point of observation. Hers is a deviant and scandalous experience, a "continuous crush", made up of manifestations, passions, fears, dreams, and sexuality, in which she crosses many small and large characters, builds the first LGBT communities, the first "pride" and the nascent gay movement, which enters into a relationship with the revolutionary movement of those years pushing it to become aware of itself and its body. A reality in which trans, gays, lesbians, and women revolutionize not only their lives but consequently the whole world.
2015,
Italian,
Porpora Marcasciano,
Original title: "Arinomama no watashi" ありのままの私 (Who I am) by Ayumu Yasutomi 安冨 歩..
Known for her many books, including "The Nuclear Power Plant Crisis and the University of Tokyo Talk," "Who Killed the Little Prince: The Trap of Moral Harassment," and "The Art of Living," Ayumu Yasutomi has become a hot topic for appearing on TV as a professor at the University of Tokyo dressed as a woman.
Professor Yasutomi started wearing women's clothes after successfully dieting and losing weight. And she realized that wearing women's clothes gives her an extraordinary sense of security.
This is a book that describes the history of the process of dressing as a woman, and what she felt and thought about the process.
What she learned from that experience was the discovery that "pretending to be not yourself" is the "root of all violence"!
2015,
Ayumu Yasutomi,
Japanese,
Original title: "Trans: Storie di ragazze XY" (Trans: Stories of XY girls) by Monica Romano.
"Are you male or female?" It was 1986 when Ilenia heard this question asked for the first time. At the moment she doesn't know what to answer, she doesn't want to be different, she just is. The search for a true answer will accompany her all the way through adolescence and towards adulthood. Hers is the troubled journey of a girl who seems to have only one destination for society and for the right-thinking people, prostitution.
But Ilenia is a person who does not give up and immediately upsets the cards of destiny: despite bullying, discrimination, physical and verbal violence, she graduates, finds a job and an unexpected love, that for a woman. We can witness the fears, battles, wounds, and goals of a young trans woman, who like many other XY girls, fights for a peaceful and authentic life, towards gender freedom and the full right of citizenship for transgender people in civil society.
2015,
Italian,
Monica Romano,
"Jag är Jazz" is the Swedish language edition of "My name is Jazz" by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings (2015). A nice book for children with the story of Jazz Jennings.
"From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boy's clothing.
This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way. Jazz's story is based on her real-life experience and she tells it in a simple, clear way that will be appreciated by picture book readers, their parents, and teachers."
2015,
Jazz Jennings,
Jessica Herthel,
Swedish,
Full title: "Men's Shirts Lady's Skirts: My Life Crossdressing" by Amanda Smith.
"I am seen by everyone around me as nothing but what is expected as a man. But deep down, Amanda or Mandi as I like to be known, hides the biggest secret of my life and that is my crossdressing/transgender feelings.
This book details my honest and true account of my need to crossdress throughout my life. As you read this book and if you are a Transgender or Crossdresser yourself, you will relate to some and if not the majority of my journey and what Amanda E Smith (Mandi) has been through.
Even to this day, Mandi is still trying to cope with the need to crossdress and the gender issues that are deep within, however this book gives you a detailed account of the stages throughout Mandi's life and the need to crossdress. I share with you my enjoyment of crossdressing, but also my deep inner feelings that go beyond just wanting to dress in women's clothes."
2015,
Amanda Smith,
Crossdressing,
English,
"Daneza" is the Romanian 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.
2015,
David Ebershoff,
Lili Elbe,
Romanian,
Original title: "Wordt mijn zoon mijn dochter?" (Will my son be my daughter?) by Leah Maas.
"In this book, a mother describes the life of her child, who was born as a boy. You read the ups and downs, the whole transition process of her child, and what they faced as a family.
Also what went easy, the good and not so good times. Her child's life has not been about roses. Together they fought to get to where they are today."
Original title: "Aiban no issho joshi sengen" - IVANの一生女子宣言! (IVAN's Lifelong Woman's Declaration!) by IVAN.
This is the second biography book of IVAN, a Japanese fashion model, musician, and actress. She was born Liera Manuel Ivan in Mexico in 1987. Her father is half Japanese and half Spanish, and her mother is Mexican. She was bright up in Japan.
In 1998, she was selected as the only male contestant in the 1st Okinawa Actors School National Audition Grand Prix, and took singing and dancing lessons for about a year. After that, she moved to the United States and went to high school in California. After graduating, she returned to Japan and started modeling.
In 2004, she was selected as a male model for the Paris Collection. In 2007, she began her musical career. In 2013, she came out as a transgender woman and became a TV celebrity.
Full title: "Venus Lux Diaries (Venus Rising Collection Book 1)"
"Over the last couple of years, ‘Venus Rising’ has been hailed as one of the most popular columns consumed by the adult industry. One part advice column, one part “sexpose”, and one part soap box for me to stand on, it has been a more than pleasurable experience. I am honored and humbled by the attention it has received.
Writing ‘Venus Rising’ allows me the chance to explore and share my journey as a transsexual female as well as educate, inform and assist those going through their own transformations and the people that love them.
The column has also allowed me to get intimate with my fans and colleagues and I am ever appreciative of that.
I have put together this collection of column highlights from the 2014 year of publication and I hope you enjoy reading every word as much as I did compose them."
2015,
English,
Venus Lux,
Original title: "Meer dan een jurk: Het levensverhaal van een transgender" (More than a dress: The life story of a transgender person)
"After being married for a number of years, Christiaan notices that he is not comfortable in his own skin. He has a short fuse, but does not know why. He notices that washing women's clothes makes him happy and that he likes many things that are mainly liked by women.
Christiaan begins to doubt whether he is actually a man or whether he is a woman after all. From that moment on, she started wearing women's clothing more and more often. She visits a psychologist and tells her wife what's going on. Christiaan discovers that she is transgender. An operation follows, after which Christiaan goes through life as Yessica in the future. As a woman, she can enjoy life again."
2015,
Dutch,
Yessica Vermeer,
"Das dänische Mädchen" is the German 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.
2015,
David Ebershoff,
German,
Lili Elbe,
Original title: "Eén ziel, twee levens: Mijn zoektocht als transgender" (One soul, two lives - My quest as transgender)
'One soul, two lives is a true story, a search for inner strength. Being born into poverty, as a boy. Discovering my true identity: a female soul. Boy or girl, man or woman?
No easy questions. Experience the transformation from M to V, with the necessary ups and downs. Developing gender identity is a long-term and complex learning process. Being a trans woman is not a hype. One is a woman for life!'
2015,
Dutch,
Marlene Mulkens,
"Cô ấy không ở đó" (She is not there) is the Vietnamese language edition of "She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders" by Jennifer Finney Boylan.
"When she changed genders, she changed the world. It was the groundbreaking publication of She's Not There in 2003 that jump-started the transgender revolution. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Boylan – a cast member on I Am Cait; an advisor to the television series Transparent, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times -- explores the territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of love and family.
She's Not There was one of the first works to present trans experience from the perspective of a literary novelist, opening a door to new understanding of love, sex, gender, and identity. Boylan inspired readers to ask the same questions she asked herself: What is it that makes us---ourselves? What does it mean to be a man, or a woman? How much could my husband, or wife, change—and still be recognizable as the one I love?"
2015,
Jennifer Finney Boylan,
Vietnamese,
Full title: "Boston Electrolysis® Memoirs©: The Electrologist"
"Boston Electrolysis® Memoirs© is a compelling story about finding strength to survive in a world opposed to your existence. Through this autobiography, Kimberly Williams recounts in detail the struggles she faced from her family, schools, and doctors, struggles she faced simply because she was born a transgender individual.
Despite strife at every stage of life, Kimberly manages to complete her transition and become a successful electrologist. Boston Electrolysis® Memoirs© is a touching story that highlights transgender success. It is a story of ups and downs that will make you resent humanity for their neglect of others, but it is also a testament to the strong will of the individual."
2015,
English,
Kimberly Williams,
"Tanskalainen tyttö" is the Finnish 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.
2015,
David Ebershoff,
Finnish,
Lili Elbe,
