A random collection of over 1994 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: "My Treasure Chest: A Journey to Find the Key to My Happiness" by Paola Elena Flores. The book was originally published in Spanish under the title "Mi Cofre del Tesoro: Un viaje para encontrar la llave de mi felicidad".
In her deeply moving memoir My Treasure Chest: A Journey to Find the Key to My Happiness, Paola Elena Flores invites readers into an intimate exploration of identity, faith, and self-discovery. Originally published in Spanish under the title Mi Cofre del Tesoro: Un viaje para encontrar la llave de mi felicidad, the book opens with a simple but profound metaphor. Each of us, Flores explains, arrives in this world with a treasure chest brimming with joy, hope, and happiness. Inside are the things that make life meaningful: love, connection, creativity, and purpose. Yet this chest is locked, and to access its riches, we need the right key.
In her narrative, Flores examines the ways we often inherit keys from others. Parents, teachers, pastors, and relatives, acting out of love and good intentions, hand us their versions of happiness. They tell us that their faith, traditions, and lifestyles will unlock our own chests. We believe them, because we trust them, and we try to make their keys fit. Sometimes they open a small corner of the lid, revealing a glimpse of what lies within, but more often they do not work at all. Flores captures the heartbreak of realizing that the tools given to us by others cannot always open the lock meant for us.
2025,
English,
Mexico,
Paola Elena Flores,
Full title: "The Bitch in the Mirror: Silence, Survival, and Liberation" by Alessia Burst.
Alessia Burst’s The Bitch in the Mirror: Silence, Survival, and Liberation is not the kind of memoir that tiptoes around discomfort or softens its truths for polite company. It is a punch in the gut and a hand reaching out all at once. From the first page, Burst makes it clear that her story will not whisper. It will scream, laugh, bleed, and dance its way through the wreckage of addiction, silence, and shame until only survival remains. Written with a mix of dark humor, sarcasm, and naked vulnerability, this memoir captures the paradox of being a trans woman in a world that prefers quiet compliance. Instead, Burst chooses noise.
Growing up queer in Montana, Alessia Burst learned early that silence was both a weapon and a survival tool. Her upbringing was steeped in unspoken rules about gender, family, and sin. When she married, it was not love that guided her but the crushing weight of expectation. Her descent into alcoholism was not a sudden fall but a slow, methodical erasure of self. The bottle became both her armor and her escape, until her body finally rebelled and she was told she had five years left to live. For many, that would have been an epitaph. For Burst, it became a deadline for rebirth.
2025,
Alessia Burst,
English,
Full title: "Trans Anthology Project: Reflections of Self-Discovery and Acceptance" by Heather H Kirby and Chrissy Boylan.
The Trans Anthology Project: Reflections of Self-Discovery and Acceptance, edited by Heather H. Kirby and Chrissy Boylan, is a remarkable book that brings together over two hundred firsthand accounts from transgender and nonbinary youth, as well as from parents striving to understand and support them. The book serves as both an anthology and a guide, blending deeply personal reflections with educational insight. It stands as a compassionate, courageous, and illuminating collection that not only documents diverse experiences of gender but also nurtures understanding and empathy in a world that continues to struggle with acceptance and inclusion.
The power of this anthology lies in its honesty. Each story, written in the authentic voice of its author, invites the reader into the deeply personal terrain of self-discovery. Some contributors speak of early childhood awareness, others of the long and winding path toward self-acceptance. The voices of parents reveal their own parallel journeys, often beginning in confusion or fear and evolving toward unconditional love and advocacy. These accounts remind readers that the process of understanding gender diversity is not a single moment of revelation but an ongoing dialogue between the self, family, and society.
2024,
Chrissy Boylan,
English,
Heather H Kirby,
Full title: "A Letter to Pawtone: From Barrio to Transgender Pioneer" by Arlina A.
A Letter to Pawtone: From Barrio to Transgender Pioneer by Arlina A. is an intimate, heartfelt autobiography that captures one woman’s extraordinary journey of self-discovery, courage, and transformation. Through diary entries that begin when she was just seven years old, Arlina chronicles a lifetime of experiences shaped by culture, faith, and the quiet but unshakable desire to live authentically. Born in 1934 in Phoenix, Arizona, to Mexican immigrant parents, she began life as Arnold, a child growing up in the Golden Gate Barrio. Her early years were marked by the warmth of a large family and the richness of cultural traditions that offered comfort amid the struggles of poverty and prejudice. The barrio was alive with music, laughter, and the sounds of a community that held together through love and faith. For young Arnold, those years were also a time of quiet confusion, as he sensed a profound difference between how the world saw him and who he knew himself to be.
The book captures this duality beautifully, drawing readers into the vivid world of postwar America through references to the movies, television shows, and music that filled Arlina’s youth. Popular culture became both an escape and an expression of hope, something she shared with her siblings and friends. Yet beneath the surface of everyday joys lay a deeper longing that no amount of playacting or pretense could suppress. Arlina describes how she preferred the company of girls and found solace in imagination, where she could explore her true self without fear or judgment. These reflections offer a window into the emotional complexity of growing up transgender in a time when such words were barely whispered.
Full title: "Brave: Story of a Trans Woman" by K. K.
In an era when the voices of transgender people are finally beginning to take their rightful place in mainstream literature, memoirs have become vital windows into the lived experiences of communities too often misrepresented or silenced. Among these narratives, Brave: Story of a Trans Woman by K. K. stands out as a striking testament to the power of truth-telling, resilience, and unapologetic authenticity.
At its core, Brave is more than a memoir; it is a declaration of selfhood. It captures the tumultuous, often painful journey of a transgender woman who grew up with the weight of misalignment between body and identity, endured the scars of a dysfunctional and abusive childhood, and nonetheless found a way to step into her fullness with dignity and joy. Through her words, readers are invited into both the struggles and the radiant triumphs that shape the trans experience.
The book opens with the raw emotional reality of living in a gender that does not align with one’s inner truth. K. does not shy away from describing the loneliness, shame, and confusion of her early years. Her childhood, marked by instability and emotional harm, becomes the backdrop against which her resilience shines even brighter. While the pain of being unseen and misunderstood echoes through these pages, the memoir never settles into despair. Instead, it moves steadily toward a narrative of transformation, showing that even in the darkest environments, the spark of authenticity can never be extinguished.
Full title: "Gender Explorers: Our Stories of Growing Up Trans and Changing The World" by Juno Roche.
Juno Roche’s Gender Explorers: Our Stories of Growing Up Trans and Changing the World is one of those rare books that feels like both a mirror and a window. It is a mirror for young trans people who have rarely seen themselves represented with such honesty, joy, and hope, and it is a window for everyone else to see what is possible when children are supported in their gender journeys instead of being stifled by fear or prejudice. The book opens with a striking belief that sets the tone for everything that follows: children who are questioning and exploring their gender are the gender bosses we so desperately need, they are our future. In this spirit, Juno offers a collection of interviews that let trans children and young people speak in their own words, not as case studies or statistics, but as whole human beings with dreams, fears, humor, and a vision of their lives.
The structure of the book is deceptively simple. Juno sits down with trans children, teenagers, and their families, and together they talk about the things that matter most to them: what it feels like to come out, what kinds of support have been essential, what makes them hopeful, and what worries they carry with them. The voices of parents and carers are included as well, showing the way love and acceptance from family can transform what might otherwise be a hostile world into a place where flourishing is possible. The result is a moving chorus of voices, each one unique, but together painting a picture of resilience and joy. These are not tragic tales of suffering that dominate so much of mainstream media when it comes to trans lives. Instead, they are affirmations of existence, proof that with love, recognition, and space to explore, trans children live fully and dream boldly.
2020,
English,
Interview,
Juno Roche,
Full title: "From 'Ka' To 'Ki' - Biography Of A Transgender Woman: A 'Transformation Through Strength And Resilience" by Lakshmi Ajoy.
Dr. Lakshmi Ajoy’s book From “Ka” To “Ki” – Biography of a Transgender Woman: A “Transformation Through Strength and Resilience is not merely a biography; it is a mirror reflecting both the cruelty and the hope of our world. At the heart of this work lies the extraordinary life of Deepika Naiduu, a woman who endured unimaginable pain yet rose to claim her identity with courage and grace. Her life is one of survival against betrayal, abuse, and relentless social rejection, but it is also one of rebirth, love, and resilience.
Deepika was born into a world that could not accept her truth. She grew up carrying the weight of rejection, enduring physical and emotional abuse that would have broken many spirits. The shadows of cruelty followed her, yet amidst the bleakness she found small islands of compassion. A handful of people, who saw her not as an outcast but as a human being worthy of love and respect, gave her the strength to keep moving forward. Their belief in her became the scaffolding on which she built her new life. Through them, she learned to embrace her true identity, ultimately transitioning and stepping into the fullness of who she had always been.
2025,
Deepika Naiduu,
English,
Lakshmi Ajoy,
Full title: "Being Ellen: A Second Chance at Life" by Ellen Krug.
How often does anyone get a second chance at life? For most people, life is a continuous journey with only one opportunity to become the person they are meant to be. Ellen Krug, known to friends and readers as Ellie, experienced that rare and extraordinary gift. After living fifty-two years presenting as a man who often prioritized career and societal expectations over personal authenticity, she embraced her true self and transitioned into the woman she had always known herself to be. Being Ellen: A Second Chance at Life is a deeply intimate and inspiring account of that transformation, detailing the challenges, triumphs, and profound lessons Ellie encountered along the way.
In Being Ellen, Ellie reflects on her journey with honesty, humor, and courage. She chronicles the moments of uncertainty and fear, as well as the joy of finally inhabiting her authentic self. Transitioning later in life brought unique challenges, from learning the subtleties of womanhood to navigating relationships that had been formed under her former identity. Ellie emphasizes the importance of chosen family, particularly her enduring friendship with Thap, a bond formed in eighth grade that remained a source of unwavering support throughout her life. Through these relationships, she discovered that love and allyship often appear in unexpected forms and that the people who truly matter will walk with you even when everything else changes.
2025,
Ellen Krug,
English,
Interview,
USA,
Full title: "16,000km or so" by tyrnyr x.
In 16,000km or so, tyrnyr x takes the reader on a journey that is at once deeply personal, culturally specific, and universally resonant. This second collection, following Ulysses: an odyssey in poetry, situates itself within the tradition of road narratives, yet it refuses to conform neatly to expectation. Echoes of Kerouac’s freewheeling spirit, Krakauer’s obsession with escape, and Sanchez’s lyrical urgency are evident, but tyrnyr folds them into a distinctly queer landscape of desire, grief, resilience, and laughter. Even Britney Spears’ cinematic detour in Crossroads becomes part of the book’s constellation of influences, reminding us that pop culture has long been a secret map for those looking to find themselves on unfamiliar terrain.
The premise is deceptively simple. Three queer people, bound together in romantic entanglement, take to the highways of the United States in the summer of 2022. What they seek is not just scenery but healing, and what they pursue is not simply freedom but the elusive presence of Tori Amos, that spectral figure of artistry and queer devotion. Yet the road is more than a backdrop; it becomes a living witness to the turbulence of its time. The trip unfolds amid Pride celebrations that feel both defiant and fragile, as monkeypox spreads and the legal aftershocks of Roe v. Wade’s overturning reshape bodies and futures. The specter of Trump’s first presidency lingers even as the country insists it has moved beyond it. The pandemic, still raw, haunts every public space with a reminder of isolation and loss. And, though unspoken in its immediacy, the book exists on the edge of subsequent global crises, capturing a fleeting interval when America felt both exhausted and restless, weary yet still mythologized.
2025,
Australia,
English,
tyrnyr x,
Full title: "Ten Years: A Transexual Memoir" by Tara Hudson.
Tara Hudson’s book Ten Years: A Transexual Memoir is both a profoundly intimate personal narrative and a sharp indictment of the systems that failed her. Written with honesty and urgency, it recounts a decade of her life in which she endured not only the ordinary struggles of living openly as a transgender woman but also the extraordinary injustices of being placed in a male prison despite her identity. What emerges is a powerful chronicle of resilience and survival, but also a plea for compassion, justice, and lasting change.
Hudson begins by reflecting on her childhood and the early awareness that she was different from those around her. She describes the years of self-discovery that followed, including her work as a make-up artist, where she built a career while continuing her transition. Yet the memoir’s most searing sections revolve around her incarceration in 2015, when she was sentenced to prison and initially placed in HMP Bristol, an all-male facility. What should have been a short custodial sentence turned into a national controversy after more than 150,000 people signed a petition demanding that she be transferred to a women’s prison.
2025,
English,
Tara Hudson,
UK,
Full title: "The Woman Inside: From Outer Space to Inner Peace" by Bobbi Waterman.
There is a rare kind of courage that does not announce itself with fanfare, it moves quietly and persistently through a life lived in service of others, it surfaces in small acts and big decisions alike, and it is the quiet engine behind Bobbi Waterman’s memoir, The Woman Inside: From Outer Space to Inner Peace. This book reads like a voyage, not only across geography and career milestones, but deeper, into the territories of identity, belonging, and what it means to become oneself after a lifetime of roles that were assigned long before the author could consent. If you come for rockets and the steady, exacting world of NASA, you will find them, vivid and technically grounded. If you come for the inner life of transition, you will be met with honesty, nuance, and the kind of reflective clarity that only decades of lived experience can produce.
Waterman organizes her story around a life spent at the edge of human possibility, she spent thirty four years at NASA, a detail that could intimidate a reader who thinks of astronauts and mission control as being far removed from the intimate struggles of gender and self. Yet this is precisely what makes the narrative powerful, the contrast between the institutional, objective world of rocket launches and the deeply personal, subjective world of gender transition creates a tension that the book handles with compassion and intellectual rigor. The tasks of launching payloads, leading teams, and traveling to remote sites around the world become, in Waterman’s hands, metaphors for the stages of self discovery, each mission echoing a small rehearsal for the larger, riskier mission of becoming who she truly is.
2025,
Bobbi Waterman,
English,
USA,
Full title: "Thanuja: A Memoir of Migration and Transition" by Thanuja Singam.
Thanuja: A Memoir of Migration and Transition by Thanuja Singam is a work that defies easy categorisation, because it is at once a story of exile, survival, self-discovery and profound transformation. At its heart is the experience of a Tamil refugee fleeing the violence of the Sri Lankan civil war, making her way first through India and then to Europe. The journey is shaped by political turmoil, family ties and the dislocation that comes with forced migration. Yet woven into this narrative is another journey that is just as urgent and life-altering, the recognition and affirmation of her identity as a woman. The two stories unfold together, making the memoir both a chronicle of geopolitical conflict and a testament to the intimate struggles of gender transition.
Thanuja’s recollections are infused with the pain of displacement and the relentless search for belonging. She describes the bewildering process of adapting to new countries and cultures while carrying the trauma of violence and loss. Her path is not linear. It is filled with moments of confusion, of unexpected pleasures, and of sharp betrayals from people and institutions she hoped might offer understanding. These conflicting experiences shape her gradual acceptance of her womanhood, showing that self-recognition is never a simple act but a process complicated by the expectations and prejudices of others.
2024,
English,
Sri Lanka,
Thanuja Singam,
Full title: "I Was an Abomination: A Story of Trans Survival in Conservative America" by Sheryl Weikal.
Sheryl Weikal’s memoir I Was an Abomination: A Story of Trans Survival in Conservative America arrives at a moment when public debate about the very existence of transgender children is louder than ever. For years, figures like J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have insisted that trans identities in children are the result of external influence, that young people are not capable of knowing who they truly are, and that transition is always prompted by adults.
Sheryl Weikal’s life story dismantles that narrative with unflinching honesty. Raised in a deeply conservative homeschooling family, she knew from her earliest memories that she was a girl. At eight years old, she even crafted a doll that represented herself in her true gender, a gesture both innocent and profound, one that expressed what words could not yet carry. Her memoir reveals how even the strictest isolation from progressive ideas could not erase her own sense of self.
2025,
English,
Sheryl Weikal,
Full title: "Debbie's Secret Life: The Transgender Experience" by Deborah Ballard.
Deborah Ballard’s Debbie’s Secret Life: The Transgender Experience is not just the story of one girl forced to live in hiding, it is a deeply human account of what it means to carry a truth so profound and yet so dangerous that it must be concealed at all costs. At its heart lies Debbie, a girl with a secret. To the outside world she appears to be a boy. Even her parents are uncertain about her identity, and she quickly learns that revealing the truth could bring consequences so severe that they might cost her everything, even her life. In this world of silence and fear, the question becomes whether she will ever find the strength and freedom to be herself, or whether her struggle will become a catalyst for changing the way the world sees transgender people.
The book weaves together personal testimony, raw emotion, and social critique, offering a voice to the millions of transgender children and adults who have had to live in the shadows. Debbie’s story is not one of fantasy or invention. It comes from the lived experience of Deborah Ballard, an American IT architect consultant, writer, and activist whose own life has been marked by both extraordinary professional accomplishments and the often-painful realities of growing up transgender in a world that did not understand or accept her. She was one of the early pioneers in the commercialization of the Internet during the 1990s, helped advance Linux and Open Source technology in the following decade, and played a key role in globalization initiatives that reshaped international business. Yet behind those achievements was the secret life of a girl who knew her identity from the age of two but was forced to conceal it.
2012,
Debbie Ballard,
Deborah Ballard,
English,
Interview,
Full title: "One Perfect Daughter: He Was The Perfect Son. Until She Wasn't" by Jane Foster.
This memoir by Jane Foster titled One Perfect Daughter: He Was The Perfect Son. Until She Wasn’t is a wrenching, honest chronicle of how a family comes apart and slowly, painfully reassembles itself around a child’s truth. Foster begins from a place many parents know well: pride in an accomplished son, admiration for his brilliance, hopes for his future.
Julian is smart, well‐behaved, full of promise. She loves him, expects him to follow the path she and so many others imagine for a child like him. Then one evening across the dinner table he hands her a note: “Please don’t be disappointed. This doesn’t change who I am.” She reads, confused. He says, “I’m transgender.” That moment becomes a fulcrum on which everything tilts. The future she saw for Julian, the person she thought she knew, begins to shift, to slip in ways she does not yet understand. The story that follows is raw. Uninhibited. Foster allows us into the collapse of her certainties. She admits to shock, grief, confusion. She grapples with what it means for her child to change identity, how that affects their relationship, how it changes her view of herself as a mother. The emotional currents are turbulent. There is denial, there is acceptance, there is resistance, there is reconciliation. There are late‐night arguments, anguished tears, moments of fierce love that transcend everything else.
2024,
English,
Jane Foster,
Full title: "Do You Still Like Football: From Harley-Riding Rancher to Fashion Icon: A Journey of Courage and Reinvention" by Andrea Leigh.
Andrea Leigh’s memoir Do You Still Like Football: From Harley-Riding Rancher to Fashion Icon: A Journey of Courage and Reinvention is a story that refuses to fit neatly into one category. It is part life story, part manifesto, part guide to self-discovery, and part love letter to authenticity. What begins as the account of a rancher, husband, father, and pharmaceutical executive soon unfolds into something far deeper: the journey of a woman who dared to look into the mirror and acknowledge a truth that had been waiting for her all along.
By all standard measures, Andy, as she was known then, had built the American Dream. A successful career in the pharmaceutical industry brought security, while a marriage and family life on a ranch grounded in sustainable practices offered both beauty and meaning. Yet beneath the outward picture of success was a persistent sense of incompleteness, a quiet calling toward something more. That unspoken longing would eventually lead Andrea to confront herself with honesty, vulnerability, and ultimately, courage.
2024,
Andrea Leigh,
English,
Full title: "Dance Naked with God" by Barbara Marie Minney.
Barbara Marie Minney’s Dance Naked with God is a collection that challenges readers to immerse themselves in the raw, multi-layered rhythms of human emotion. The work unfolds in language that is emotionally fractured yet intricate, each poem resonating with intensity and vulnerability. Partway through, Barbara poses the question, “How do poets love?” and in doing so, she invites readers to consider love not as a simple, singular experience but as a force that is complicated, all-encompassing, and profoundly human.
Her poems teem with imagery that overlaps and interlocks like scales, creating a shimmering, chameleon-like effect that captures the kaleidoscope of introspection, desire, and spiritual seeking. By the final poem, the reader is left with a sense of renewal, an awareness that passion, grief, and joy can coexist in the same space, transforming the self in subtle yet profound ways. These poems do not offer a neat answer to the question of how poets love, but they illuminate the depth and ferocity of poetic devotion, the ways it can challenge and expand one’s understanding of intimacy, identity, and faith. Reading the collection, I found myself transported into moments of ecstatic reflection and quiet revelation, feeling the liveliness of my own resurrection mirrored in Barbara’s words.
2023,
Barbara Marie Minney,
English,
Interview,
Full title: "Am I Trans Enough?" by Cathy Heart.
In a time not too far behind us, transgender people lived largely in silence, invisible to a society that did not yet have the words, understanding, or compassion to grasp their realities. The cultural landscape was bleak, dominated by misconceptions that being transgender was either a sexual preference or a curious lifestyle choice. Into this difficult world came the early life of Cathy Heart, whose book Am I Trans Enough? reflects not only her personal journey but also the broader struggle of transgender individuals trying to find their place in a society that often refused to see them.
Cathy’s story begins in the pre-internet years, a period when information about transgender lives was scarce and communities of support were hard to find. For many, admitting to oneself that they were living in the wrong gender felt almost criminal. Cathy captures this atmosphere vividly, showing what it meant to grow up with an inner truth that could barely be spoken aloud. Her earliest memories stand out with remarkable clarity, such as being four years old and joyfully wearing a dress in her grandmother’s home. That small but powerful moment carried a sense of rightness that never left her, even as life grew more complicated.
2016,
Cathy Heart,
English,
Full title: "Sincerely, Katherine.: Life, Gender, Inclusivity, and Leadership for the Future" by Katherine Dudtschak.
There are books that entertain, and there are books that quietly shift the ground beneath your feet. Sincerely, Katherine.: Life, Gender, Inclusivity, and Leadership for the Future belongs to the latter category. It is not only the story of a corporate leader but also the unveiling of a truth so deeply buried that acknowledging it required dismantling an entire life and rebuilding it anew.
Katherine Dudtschak grew up in southern Ontario, the daughter of immigrants who survived World War II camps. Her early life was defined by scarcity, post-war trauma, and the kind of challenges that can press a child into becoming either brittle or unbreakably determined. She chose the latter. Despite learning difficulties and the weight of expectation, she carved out a path into one of Canada’s most competitive industries, rising to the upper echelons of banking. To the outside world, she had it all: four children, a successful career, the respect of peers, and material security. But inside, something essential was missing. The man her colleagues and friends saw was a mask, and behind it lived Katherine, the woman she had always known herself to be.
The turning point came unexpectedly, in the most ordinary of settings: her daughter’s university dormitory. There, on a wall, hung a poster about gender inclusivity. To most passersby, it was a piece of student activism, easily overlooked. For Katherine, it was a mirror. In its language, she recognized herself, the truth she had buried for decades rising suddenly, urgently, irrepressibly. That poster did not just open a door; it unlocked a life.
2026,
Canada,
English,
Katherine Dudtschak,
Full title: "I Hardly Knew Me: Following Love, Faith, and Skittles to a Transgender Awakening" by Nia Chiaramonte.
In her memoir I Hardly Knew Me: Following Love, Faith, and Skittles to a Transgender Awakening, Nia Chiaramonte offers an intimate portrait of transition that is striking for its immediacy. Rather than narrating her journey from the safe distance of hindsight, she writes from within the unfolding moments themselves, therapy sessions, late-night reflections, family conversations, and the uncertain but luminous steps toward authenticity. The result is a profoundly human book that refuses simplification, capturing the painful, messy, and beautiful process of becoming oneself.
The title itself, I Hardly Knew Me, conveys the heart of Chiaramonte’s story: years of hiding, even from herself. “I used to be so hidden that even I couldn’t see who I was,” she writes, a confession that resonates deeply with anyone who has lived in silence or fear. That silence eventually breaks, sometimes quietly, sometimes with shattering force, in moments like posting her truth online, enduring the echo of responses and silences, and sharing vulnerable conversations with her wife Katie and their children. Through it all, Nia’s voice is both tender and unflinching, guiding readers through her discovery that authenticity is not only possible but necessary for survival.
2025,
English,
Interview,
Nia Chiaramonte,
