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: "Mann er da kvinne" (Male is then female) by Marion Arntzen and Kari Kahrs.
After the Golden Route winning TV series of the same name, "Jentene på Toten" became a concept. Stensveen resource center at Kapp, run by Marion Arntzen and her husband Harald Sundby, has for 14 years supported many transgender people in living as who they define themselves as.
After the TV series, the whole of Norway got to experience what it means that all people have the right to define themselves. The girls at Toten received the Homofryd Award 2010. Marion and Harald were awarded the YS Gender Equality Award 2010. In Male is then Woman, we meet transgender people who are at different places in their processes. In diary form, they tell of the struggle to understand themselves, their joys and sorrows. Man is then woman is a unique story about individuals who fight to be able to respect themselves and to be respected for who they are.
2011,
Kari Kahrs,
Marion Arntzen,
Norwegian,
Original title: "Emma" by Emma Ellingsen and Kaja Storrøsten.
Emma Ellingsen was born as Tobias, but always knew she was a girl. She grew up in an ordinary family in Tønsberg with a twin brother and two older siblings. While his twin brother was into football, Tobias would rather dance and dress in girls' clothes. It'll pass, Mom and Dad thought.
By the time the two brothers started 5th grade, they had become brother and sister. At the age of 19, Emma tells her very special story about what it's like to be born in the wrong body.
2020,
Emma Ellingsen,
Kaja Storrøsten,
Norwegian,
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: "¡Muxe! Du treng ikkje å vere kvinne for å vere dame" (¡Muxe! You don't have to be a woman to be a lady) by Stephen J. Walton.
The book presents the gender system in the Isthmo de Tehuantepec. This system is a variant of the multi-genus systems that existed all over America before the European conquest. The reasons why it has survived there lie in the deep economic and political structures and not least in the habitus and the strong social position of the women.
Sex, gender, and sexuality are dynamic fields in modern society, and the system is also changing rapidly in the isthmus.
2020,
Norwegian,
Stephen J. Walton,
"Slemme piker" (Bad Girls) is the Norwegian 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.
2020,
Argentina,
Camila Sosa Villada,
Norwegian,
Original title: "Det sterke kjønn: Min kamp for å bli kvinne" (The stronger sex: My struggle to become a woman) by Marianne Nordli.
Summer 1981. Karl Ole wins the Northern Norwegian championship in the javelin. Well-trained, masculine boy, but only on the outside. In her heart she has no doubts, she is a woman and wants to live as a woman. That's enough now.
Today, Marianne is a successful businesswoman, speaker, and candidate for the Storting. In this book, she talks about her struggle to have her gender corrected and be able to live as the woman she has always been. Marianne also shares unique experiences about being a woman in a male-dominated professional life.
2017,
Marianne Nordli,
Norwegian,
Original title: "Janni: slik ble mitt liv" (Janni: this is how my life turned out) by Janni Christine Wintherbauer.
'Janni: That's how my life turned out. German youth - transgender queen of The Neighbourhood. From the shadow side of the post-war welfare society. For over fifty years, Janni worked by selling her body, after she came to Oslo as a 13-year-old boy. After all, a "German" didn't need schooling either...
Thousands of men paid for her services, even before her gender reassignment surgery. After lucrative years as a call girl in her own apartment with up to fifteen customers a day, Janni had to endure the derision of the other girls in the Neighbourhood when she reappeared on the street corners. At the same time, she stood up with dignity for something condemned by society. And she didn't let herself be broken by all the adversity. When she had to leave her single-family home, or her 20-year marriage to a much younger man from a wealthy family disintegrated. Severance packages were discussed, but what should a 66-year-old call girl do? The girls in The Neighbourhood still call her "mommy"...'
2010,
Janni Christine Wintherbauer,
Norwegian,
