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: " Pohlavní štvanci: Od Johanky z Arku až po současnost" (Sexual Pursuits: From Joan of Arc to the Present) is the Czech language edition of "Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman" by Leslie Feinberg.
"This groundbreaking book - far ahead of its time when first published in 1996 and still galvanizing today—interweaves history, memoir, and gender studies to show that transgender people, far from being a modern phenomenon, have always existed and have exerted their influence throughout history.
Leslie Feinberg - hirself a lifelong transgender revolutionary - reveals the origin of the check-one-box-only gender system and shows how zie found empowerment in the lives of transgender warriors around the world, from the Two Spirits of the Americas to the many genders of India, from the trans shamans of East Asia to the gender-bending Queen Nzinga of Angola, from Joan of Arc to Marsha P. Johnson and beyond."
2000,
Czech,
Leslie Feinberg,
"Tahle kniha je teplá" (This book is warm) is the Czech language edition of "This Book Is Gay" by Juno Dawson.
"Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Intersex. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who's ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBTQ also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations."
"You will be entertained. You will be informed. But most importantly, you will know that however you identify (or don't) and whomever you love, you are exceptional. You matter. And so does this book."
2022,
Czech,
Juno Dawson,
"Zřídlo" is the Czech language edition of "Freshwater" by Akwaeke Emezi.
I liked Gina Maya's review a lot, so let me quote her: "Transgender narrative this may be, but it's far removed from Western, U.S.-based definitions in spite of its primary location in the U.S. The story follows the young life of Ada, a Nigerian child who travels to America to study, but her whole life involves psychical interaction with the indigenous spirits who vie for control of her. Is Ada Ogbanje too?
By the end, she appears to embrace this self-conception as an offspring of the Universal Creator Ala, visualized as cosmic python – the source of the spring from which all freshwater comes from its mouth. Yet Ada for almost the novel's entirety is also the human, engaged in an uneasy relationship with otherworldly spirits who inhabit her mind, visualized in turn as a room of marble, perhaps not unlike the Kaaba of Mecca. The most powerful, possessive, and controlling of the spirits is Asughara, occasionally presented as Ada's pernicious alpha. At times, Asughara blocks out Ada from consciousness, either to protect or punish Ada."
2020,
Akwaeke Emezi,
Czech,
Nigeria,
"Štěstí ve dvaceti" is the Czech language edition of "Twenties and Happy: A complete guide to happiness in a little pocketbook" by Pavie Valsa.
"Twenties and Happy is a beautiful pocketbook designed to uplift and empower you so you can love and accept yourself just as you are. Every page carries a powerful message that will reconnect you back to your joy and unconditional love for self.
Author Pavie Valsa knows rejection and loneliness all too well. Having come out twice in one lifetime, once as gay and a second time as a trans woman, Pavie’s desire to show you how to love yourself at a soul level shines through every page as she lovingly guides you through simple steps to unlock the happiness and power that has lived inside all along."
2020,
Czech,
Pavie Valsa,
"Stephanie z muže ženou: Autobiografie transsexuála" (Stephanie From Male to Female: The Autobiography of a Transsexual) is the Czech language edition of "Stephanie: A Girl in a Million" (1988) by Stephanie Anne Lloyd.
"This is Stephanie’s autobiography. It tells the story of Stephanie Anne Lloyd, the founder of Transformation and one of the first openly transgender women to speak out about the struggles and achievements of someone who is openly transgender.
At the age of 68, I have lived just over 50% of my life as a woman and the other half as a man. If women knew how much easier it is for men I am sure there would be a revolution. Hopefully, this very personal and honest account will give a unique perspective of the real differences between the sexes and also make the path of those who follow in my footsteps somewhat easier in these more enlightened times.
1994,
Czech,
Stephanie Anne Booth,
Stephanie Anne Lloyd,
Alexandra tells her life with relentless openness in this book. It is the confession of a woman who lived in a male body and who thus became the outsider of a society that rejects everything that goes beyond the framework of the "normal". The harrowing fate of a transsexual who never got a real chance in life. Early on, Alexandra landed in the red light district. To endure the suitors, she took heroin. In order to have the money for the addiction, she stole – again and again until she ended up behind bars. There she was examined. The result: AIDS. A book that is deeply moving.
"Temná komora" is the Czech language edition of Susan Faludi and Patricia Piolon's bestseller "In the Darkroom".
Let me quote the 2016 article from The New York Times: ""In the Darkroom" is Faludi's rich, arresting and ultimately generous investigation of her father, who died in 2015. It is partly an inquiry into the meaning of gender, a subject Faludi, the famous feminist, sees very differently from Stefánie, who hewed to traditional notions of masculinity and femininity both as an overbearing patriarch and as a coquettish old woman."
"But in trying to understand her inscrutable father - Jewish Holocaust survivor and Leni Riefenstahl fanatic, man and woman, a sly fantasist whose tallest tales turn out to be true - Faludi transcends feminist debate. The book, which traces the decimation of her father's prosperous, assimilated Jewish clan during World War II, his improbable survival and then reinvention in Denmark, Brazil, and America, and his gender metamorphosis at 76, becomes a complex act of forgiveness."
2018,
Czech,
Stefánie Faludi,
Susan Faludi,
Original title: "Jsem tranďák!" (I'm Trans!)
Tereza Spencerová, one of the prominent figures of the Czech journalistic community, went through the process of gender transition. Her book 'I'm Trans!' is only the second book in the history of the Czech transgender community.
A book authentically deals with transgender issues through the eyes of the author's experience. But if you're waiting for an autobiographical story full of depression, unhappiness, and nostalgia for the injustice of nature, you will get none of this. Tereza grasped the theme with ease, bravura, and humour.
'A transgender person is anyone who, with their behavior or sense of self, goes beyond socially accepted ideas about women and men, and does not want to consider themselves only the subject of sexological diagnoses, such as transsexuality or transvestism.
2000,
Czech,
Tereza Spencerová,
"Dánská dívka" is the Czech language edition of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff. It was published twice in the Czech language in 2011 and 2016.
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.
The book is based on facts but there are some tiny differences. The Dane Einar, a landscape painter of Jutland, and the American Greta, a well-known portraitist, met during their studies in Copenhagen and got married. Their life together is gradually disrupted by Einar's tendencies to cross-dress.
In female disguise, she becomes the model for Gerda's recognized portraits. However, his sexual bipolarity means an enormous psychological burden in intimate coexistence. When the couple can no longer resist the condemnation of the Danish conservative society, they settle in Paris. Einar's mental and health condition intrigue many specialists, they propose various solutions, until finally a German surgeon takes up the case and in Dresden in 1931 Einar's dream comes true as she becomes a woman, she takes the name Lili Elbe, but their marriage falls apart.
2011,
2016,
Czech,
David Ebershoff,
Lili Elbe,
