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.
"Hello, monde cruel: 272" is the French language edition of "Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws: 101 Alternatives to Teen Suicide" by Kate Bornstein.
"Celebrated transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein has, with more humor and spunk than any other, ushered us into a world of limitless possibility through a daring re-envisionment of the gender system as we know it.
Here, Bornstein bravely and wittily shares personal and unorthodox methods of survival in an often cruel world. A one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive outside the box, Hello, Cruel World is a much-needed unconventional approach to life for those who want to stay on the edge, but alive.
Hello, Cruel World features a catalog of 101 alternatives to suicide that range from the playful (moisturize!), to the irreverent (shatter some family values), to the highly controversial. Designed to encourage readers to give themselves permission to unleash their hearts' harmless desires, the book has only one directive: "Don't be mean." It is this guiding principle that brings its reader on a self-validating journey, which forges wholly new paths toward a resounding decision to choose life.
Tenderly intimate and unapologetically edgy, Kate Bornstein is the radical role model, the affectionate best friend, and the guiding mentor all in one.
2018,
French,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
USA,
Original title: "Les immigrés du sexe ou le 5ème sexe" (Sex Immigrants or the 5th Sex) by Dr. Louis Vidal.
Transsexuals live apart, they cannot do certain jobs. The main problem for them is to find a job that they like. Isn't happiness about feeling good about yourself and living the life you want? A transsexual does not have this happiness. I give it to them.
2010,
French,
Louis Vidal,
Original title: "Entre les Lignes d'une Vie: Le Parcours d'une Femme Transgenre" (Between the Lines of a Life: The Journey of a Transgender Woman) by Léa Dumont.
Discover the poignant story of Léa Dumont, a transgender woman who gives us a vibrant and authentic testimony of her journey. Through this biographical book, Léa plunges us into her childhood and her gradual discovery of her gender identity, her first emotions in love, and her challenges as a transgender person in her relationships.
She also tells us about her life choices, including her experience as an escort girl and the lessons she learned from this experience.
Léa also shares her fight against the prejudices and stereotypes surrounding transgender people, as well as her hopes for a more inclusive and understanding future.
2023,
French,
Léa Dumont,
Original title: "Manifeste d'une femme trans... et autres textes" (Manifesto of a trans woman... and other texts) is the French language edition of "Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity" by Julia Serano.
The book analyzes the sexism, misogyny and transphobia that lead to the discrimination of transsexual women and the devaluation of femininity in general. The precision of its analysis and the deciphering of the mechanisms of oppression of trans women make it a valuable work for the French-speaking public. Starting from the analysis of literature, films and TV shows, but also from her own experience, the author takes an innovative and relevant look at the condition of trans people... And does not hesitate, either , to question the functioning of non-trans people to support his point and update transphobia. In a context where reactionary and anti-feminist ideas are making a comeback, this book is not just a breath of fresh air. It brings new elements to French-speaking reflections on feminisms and helps us to completely rethink the construction of genres.
2014,
French,
Julia Serano,
USA,
Original title: "Trajectoires Trans" (Trans Trajectories) by Julia Pacifico.
"Raerae". In Tahiti, everyone knows at least one. Everyone knows what that means. Directly associated with the idea of drugs-alcohol-prostitution, the life trajectories of trans people on the island all seem to be mapped out.
The author spent time with them and after collecting their testimonies, the word "raerae" takes on a whole new meaning. It echoes a stigma, that of their femininity. Marginalized from an early age, they constantly build and legitimize their feminine identities in a society that discredits their practices. Being trans in Tahiti is not just about being a raerae. This book gives them a voice to understand the complexity of their life trajectories.
2019,
French,
Julia Pacifico,
Tahiti,
Original title: "Quelque chose en moins... ou en plus" (Something less... or more) by Galia Salimo.
Ten days already. Ten days without sunshine, but without a shadow of regret. Ten days since I left Marseilles for Paris where I knew I had an appointment with my destiny. Ten days that I said goodbye to my childhood, and that I definitively left this disguise of a boy, with which I had been decked out. Ten days since I gave up the idea of walking in someone else's shoes.
Born a boy in Marseille, Galia Salimo recounts the exhilarating and earthy beginnings of her life as queen of Parisian nights. From the festive capital of the 1970s to stages around the world – Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Hiroshima... – she tells it all: the red-light districts of Antwerp, the palaces of Jakarta, the competition between transformist artists, her friendships and her loves, the shows and their backstage at Madame Arthur, at the Carrousel and at the Alcazar... We have fun, we smile, we are also moved when she talks about the difficult search for her true identity. Laughing on the verge of tears, humor slung across the shoulder, defying the taboos and diktats of post-68 society, in ten years, the caterpillar has transformed into a butterfly convinced... that nothing is impossible.
2022,
French,
Galia Salimo,
Full title: "Frissons au Carrousel" (Chills at the Carrousel) by Marie-Pierre Pruvot.
Coccinelle was a living legend. She owed it to her beauty, her overflowing femininity, her incomparable brilliance both in the city and on the stage. Her character imposed herself by another aspect: she was "something never seen before".
The anecdote shows her in a difficult moment when she thinks she is losing face by following her own principles of wisdom... But her petulance takes over, her instinct makes her triumph. Everything happens in Marseille. This is an opportunity to evoke the famous Alcazar, a monument of the music-hall, which does not exist anymore.
2013,
Bambi,
Coccinelle,
French,
Marie-Pierre Pruvot,
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: "Roland, Gloria, Diane et moi" (Roland, Gloria, Diane and I) by Peggy Guex.
No pretenses, no self-pity, no regrets. Just the captivating story of an extraordinary life course, the testimony of a deliciously complex and definitely singular being. An astonishing journey between Switzerland, France, Morocco, Lebanon, Netherlands, Italy and so many other lands on the lands of fire of audacity where lukewarmness is foreign. Happiness, strokes of fate. Peaks and abysses, drunkenness and vertigo, burning and ice.
"Roland, Gloria, Diane, and me": behind this title, one soul and only one, a melting pot of entangled personalities, inseparable, united forever, colorful. A strange kaleidoscope of disturbing facets of a protean creature that knew, at all costs, to free itself from constraints and conventions... Then, at the end of the road, beyond the mirrors, after a thousand twists and turns, finally, the conquest of her freedom as a woman and a tremendous desire to live, again.
2014,
French,
Peggy Guex,
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: "Quand j'étais petit garçon" (When I was a little boy) by Galia.
Queen of Parisian nights (Carrousel, Palace, Alcazar, Queen), Galia tells for the first time her childhood... of a little boy like no other. This is the drama of Domino, a little boy with fine features born in Marseille in the fifties, and whose immoderate penchant for his mother's falbalas has a bad effect in the heart of Le Panier, a district where half-tones do not exist, where men must be taciturn and virile, and women more than sensual.
But he chose his clan. He does not like violent games, the warrior spirit of his comrades, preferring the company, the outfits, and the delicacy of the girls. The feminine universe fascinates him; He is convinced that it is his. But how to live it, admit it, say it? Can the ugly duckling become another creature? One of those black swans that his schoolmistress reveals to him one day?
2017,
Alcazar,
Carrousel,
Coccinelle,
French,
Galia Salimo,
Original title: "De son ombre à la lumière" (From the shadow to the light) by Tonya Stenvot.
The book presents the story of Tonya. At the age of 43, she decides to come out as a transgender woman. She calls it "a typical transition of a married transgender". She has 7 children, yet she has decided to assume what she has always felt. This is her story.
2023,
French,
Tonya Stenvot,
Original title: "Trilogie des Transgenres et Travestis célèbres" (Trilogy of Famous Transgender and Transvestites) by Katia Coen.
Today, we are no longer taught, transsexuality has existed since the dawn of time. What if we talked about sex change and psychological effects on transsexual people in a few lines. Because the subject is so vast that it would represent pages and pages of exciting information etc.
Gender change hides and reinforces psychological problems from top to bottom. And this is why it amounts to saying that the origins of the transgender movement, could strongly influence a certain number of transsexuals to have most often resorted to a final sex change surgery often very heavy.
2020,
French,
Katia Coen,
"Les Vilaines" (The Bad Ones) is the French language edition of "Las malas" (The Bad Girls) published in Argentina in 2019 by Camila Sosa Villada.
From the Argentine author Camila Sosa Villada, a book of love and affection: when we finish the last page, we want the whole world to read it too! When she arrived in the city of Córdoba to study at the university, Argentine author Camila Sosa Villada decided to go to Parque Sarmiento during the night. She was scared to death, thinking that the brutal verdict she had heard from her father could come to fruition at any moment: "One day they will knock on this door to warn me that they found you dead, thrown into a ditch." For him, this was the only possible destination for a boy who dressed as a woman.
2021,
Argentina,
Camila Sosa Villada,
French,
Original title: "Manifeste d'une femme trans" (Manifesto of a trans woman) is the French language edition of "Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism" by Julia Serano.
In this collection of essays, Julia Serano, trans woman and activist, analyzes the different mechanisms of cissexual privilege, as well as the sexism, misogyny and transphobia that permeate representations of trans women in the media, the arts and academia.
Her analysis offers new perspectives for interpreting the issues experienced by trans women in continuity with the theories, disagreements and solidarities developed within the feminist movement, and provide keys to building feminism by, for and with all women, whatever their stories and backgrounds.
2020,
French,
Julia Serano,
USA,
Full title: "Le gai cimetière" (The gay cemetery) by Marie-Pierre Pruvot. This is the fifth part of the 5-book series about Marie-Pierre Pruvot's life.
Le Gai Cimetière follows La Chanson du Bac. The story takes place while the Carrousel is permanently closed, the troupe dissolved, and the mysterious epidemic already has a name: AIDS. The trouble had already given way to anxiety, the hecatomb causes terror. It is through the ordeal of her friend Lola that Bambi travels through this period. The remaining members of the former troupe strengthen their bonds of friendship and try to fight back. Nothing prevents friends from disappearing in lamentable suffering and conditions. Yet, among so many misfortunes, the troupe never ceases to bathe in this usual humor essential to life, and until death...
2014,
Bambi,
French,
Georges Burou,
Marie-Pier Ysser,
Marie-Pierre Pruvot,
"Le transféminisme - Genres et transidentités" (Transfeminism - Genders and transidentities) is the French language edition of "Transfeminismo" (Transfeminism), published in 2021 by Letícia Nascimento.
Taking up the famous confrontation: Am I not a woman?, the transgender Leticia Nascimento asks: And me, can't I be a woman? If you are not born a woman but become one, then transfeminism has its place in the feminist movement.
This essay calls for the recognition of transidentities - whose construction is no more "artificial" than cisgender identity - and opposes pseudo-scientific discourses on transidentity as deviance or pathology. Denouncing the unequal treatment between cis and transgender women (while some can have their breasts reshaped as they wish, the others must go through the evaluation of multidisciplinary teams), the author insists on the importance of self-determination (“We by ourselves!”) as a mark of rejection of the CIStem. Based on a decolonial and intersectional reflection, her reflection pluralizes the subjects of feminism, including other bodies and gender identities that do not respond to the male/female binary.
2022,
Brazil,
French,
Letícia Nascimento,
Original title: "Elles ... "les travestis": La verite sur les transsexuels" (They ... "the transvestites": The truth about transsexuals) by Colette Piat.
One evening, around midnight, on the edge of the Wood, Colette Piat broke down... Night beauties came to her rescue... After they left, she realized that they were not ordinary "women"... Because of this meeting, the author wanted to question the others, those who are called "transvestites". Marie-Andrée, feminized by Nazi doctors; Eva, a fifty-five-year-old worker, who has been receiving a reduced salary since her operation; Lucretia, chosen among several models for a publicity photograph of a mother; Chimène, enslaved by a companion "phallocrat"; Jeanne-Marie, seduced by the man of her dreams who turned out to be... A woman, all force us to question our ideas, demonstrating, by their very existence, the absurdity of prejudices affecting the feminine condition and homosexuality. Mutants? Afflicted women of a male sex? What is certain is that they are both sought on the sexual level and hunted by the Police, Justice, and the Administration. "You know what society means to us?" one of them asks; "It is a cage like that of Louis XI; You can't lie down, get up, or move, and yet you're alive... »
1978,
Colette Piat,
French,
Original title: "Travesties-kamikaze" (Transvestites-suicide bombers) by Josée Yvon.
What underlies the whole book is that you have to cross-dress to live: to cross-dress to survive, to exist; You can never be yourself, you always have to change your personality to live in a society. - Josée Yvon
"Francine thought of all her friends: the crossers, the killed, the abused, the stupid, the wonderful. These and a host of others are the facets that sparkle, the insects that swarm, caught in the gear of the margins, within transvesties-kamikaze."
"All the situations and characters described in this book are in no way part of fiction and any resemblance to living or dead people or real places is intended and written to represent them."
The fragments of stories, poems, and collages that make up Transvesties-kamikaze make it a charged, degenerate and powerful object. Reality appears in close-up, in pieces; The thread of events dissolves in the night and in alcohol, in rape and stabbings, drugs and medicines. For Francine, Gina, Brigitte, Jasmine, Josée Yvon's furious and pictorial narration is a den, a place pierced by "holes in the plaster that crumbles, but comfortable, warm, weird, attractive, perhaps a family". And she added, 'I'm a claim when I run out of gas.'
2019,
Canada,
French,
Josée Yvon,
Full title: "La chanson du bac" (The baccalaureate song) by Marie-Pierre Pruvot. This is the fourth part of the 5-book series about Marie-Pierre Pruvot's life.
Bambi continues her epic and goes through the upheavals that France is experiencing. May 68 was for her not only a political shock. Awareness pushes her to set other goals for the fulfillment of her life. While the Sorbonne is upside down, Bambi feels the oppressive urge to resume her abandoned studies. She undertakes a brief tour and, without forgetting her role at the Carrousel, she devotes her free time to studying.
Back in Paris, sentimental setbacks, health problems, disappointing experiences, everything seemed to stand in the way of her efforts. How will she achieve her ends? Marie-Pierre Pruvot offers a photograph of France at the end of a reign: the threat of devaluation of the franc, the announcement of a referendum, and sounds of General de Gaulle's fall. Powerless witness to the tumult of life, her character remains compartmentalized in the frivolity of the shows.
2014,
Bambi,
French,
Georges Burou,
Marie-Pier Ysser,
Marie-Pierre Pruvot,
