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.
Full title: "In Between: A Memoir" by Kate Birdsall.
"Just after World War II, a child in Detroit found no words to describe the mismatch between body and soul. It would be decades before Kate Birdsall claimed her true self and transitioned, at 65.
In Between is Kate’s story. As Kate made her way through jobs, homes, and relationships, she and our culture slowly developed the vocabulary to express who she was.
By turns practical and personal, In Between shares a story more often lived than told.
When Kate finds the love of her life as her true self, it proves that not every transgender story is a tragedy. Now adapted as the feature film, Strictly for the Birds, Kate’s story is an inspiration for anyone who has ever been relegated to the category of Other."
2021,
English,
Kate Birdsall,
USA,
Full title: "My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely" by Kate Bornstein.
"Gender isn't just about "male" or "female" anymore - if you have any doubts, just turn on your television. RuPaul is as familiar as tomato ketchup with national radio and television shows, and transgendered folk are as common to talk-shows as screaming and yelling. But if the popularization of gender bending is revealing that "male" and "female" aren't enough, where are we supposed to go from here? Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender, but none provide a hands-on, accessible guide to having your own unique gender. With My Gender Workbook, Kate Bornstein brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender."
1997,
English,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
USA,
Full title: "The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation" by Raquel Willis.
"In 2017, Raquel Willis took to the National Women’s March podium just after the presidential election of Donald Trump, primed to tell her story as a young Black transgender woman from the South. Despite having her speaking time cut short, the appearance only deepened her commitment to speaking up for communities on the margins.
Born in Augusta, Georgia, to Black Catholic parents, Raquel spent years feeling isolated, even within a loving, close-knit family. There was little access to understanding what it meant to be queer and transgender. It wasn’t until she went to the University of Georgia that she found the LGBTQ+ community, fell in love, and explored her gender for the first time. But the unexpected death of her father forced her to examine her relationship with herself and those she loved. These years of grief, misunderstanding, and hard-won epiphanies seeped into the soil of her life, serving as fertilizer for growth and allowing her to bloom within."
2023,
English,
Raquel Willis,
USA,
Full title: "Eternal Rainbow Dawn: A Trans Woman Realized" by Rhiannon Tibbetts.
"This is a story of perseverance in the face of pain, ostracism, and oppression. The author has worked hard to fully become who she always was deep in her heart, body, and mind. She has had scant resources in her quest to become fully female, and she has also had to wage an ongoing battle with mental illness throughout her life.
She has an abiding faith that has guided her and supported her along the way. She has maintained her deep connection with Christ, despite the fact that many in her transgender community feel troubled with the treatment that some folks that call themselves Christians show towards people in the trans community. Rhiannon has finally found some peace and satisfaction in her golden years after having struggled on so many fronts throughout much of her life."
2021,
English,
Rhiannon Tibbetts,
USA,
Full title: "The Lady and the Dale car: The true story of a con-man who desguised as a woman to create a false car in 1970s America" by David Serero.
The book presents Geraldine Elizabeth "Liz" Carmichael, an American automobile executive and convicted fraudster. During the 1970s energy crisis, she promoted a prototype for a low-cost fuel-efficient car via Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation, but fled with investor money. She was captured in 1989, and served 18 months on fraud charges.
She was born Jerry Dean Michael in Indiana in 1927. She grew up in Jasonville, Indiana, later moving to Detroit, Michigan with her family.
According to Wikipedia, Carmichael married four times while identifying as Jerry Dean Michael. She was charged with desertion for leaving her first wife, Marga, whom she met while stationed in Germany, and their two children.
2023,
David Serero,
English,
Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael,
USA,
Full title: "An American Girl" by Debbie Browne.
"A transgender family story. Alice Jenkins is 9 years old and she has written a book. This book. She wanted to tell her story to all her classmates about her dad. About her unconditional love and support. You see Alice discovered something different about her dad. He wants to be a girl. Her mum didn’t like that idea, or her brothers."
"Things start to go wrong in the family and Alice struggles to cope. She confides in Chelsea her doll when she is upset. The relationship with her dad becomes closer as she learns about life and why her dad is the way he is. She loves him even more but she fears for the future of her family. How will they ever be happy again?"
2020,
Debbie Browne,
English,
USA,
Full title: "My Next Husband Will Be Normal: A St. John Adventure" by Rae Ellen Lee.
"In My Next Husband Will Be Normal, Lee and her husband ditch their sailboat and fly to the U.S. Virgin Islands with a down payment for a mom-and-pop business on St. John. The plan: when they aren’t sewing canvas bags at their little shop, The Canvas Factory, they’ll be beach potatoes.
But there are risks to living in paradise one cannot anticipate, especially on an island where residents bask in the mantra: You can do anything you want, as long as the rest of us know about it."
"For soon after unpacking their flip-flops, the husband - a former Republican state legislator with a silver crew-cut and solid traditional values - realizes he is really a she. Convinced the world needs more humor, Lee rations the angst in favor of the picturesque and absurd.
Adding heat to the story is a cast of colorful cats, customers, and Caribbean personalities. Toss in a few sex toys, some steel pan music, a pinch of voodoo - and stir."
2012,
English,
Rae Ellen Lee,
USA,
Full title: "Gender Variation: A True Testimony" by Robbie Dee Ewens.
"This booklet sends a clear message to people who judge against people that are gender different, Truly there is a lack of knowledge by many on this subject which has lead to many, especially in the Christian church, to judge such people. Robbie Dee takes the reader through the process if addressing our traditional beliefs and presenting some of the facts medically and through the scriptures.
She shows how many of us have not really thought this through enough to see that people such as transgender people should be fully accepted in society and in the church. Her testimony is out in full in her book "At Last! Free to be Me" published in 2015 which has caused quite a stir where she lives, Oklahoma, the heart of the Bible belt.
2018,
English,
Robbie Dee Ewens,
USA,
"Olá Mundo Cruel!" is the Portuguese 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.
2011,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
Portuguese,
USA,
Full title: "Biography of Nikita Dragun: Everything you need to know about Nikita Dragun" by Ashley Moris.
"YouTubers are becoming increasingly well-known in this day and age. These YouTube stars have stirred up quite a stir in people's lives, just like the Hollywood celebrities. Nikita Dragun is one such YouTuber. Nikita, who is she? How does she act? Does she date anyone?"
According to Wikipedia, Nikita Nguyen was born in 1996 and she is known professionally as Nikita Dragun, a YouTuber, make-up artist, and model. She was born in Belgium and studied in Virginia, United States. She is of Vietnamese and Mexican descent and came out as trans when she was a teenager. In several of Nguyen's YouTube videos, she has spoken openly about her gender identity.
2022,
Ashley Moris,
English,
Nikita Dragun,
USA,
Full title: "Crossing the Gender Divide: A Life in Two Worlds" by Rachael Evelyn Booth.
"Imagine knowing at the age of five that you were a girl, and everyone told you that you had to be a boy. Think about what it would be like to live a lie every day of your life. This is the story of a woman’s forty-year struggle to finally become her true self.
Told through her memories of being a confused child and her experiences as an adult trying to fit into what society said she should be, her tale is recounted with sometimes embarrassing honesty and with the clarity of hindsight. It is a heartbreaking and uplifting story that will make you cry quietly and laugh out loud. If you want to understand more about what it means to be transgender, this book is for you."
2022,
English,
Rachael Evelyn Booth,
USA,
Full title: "A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today" by Kate Bornstein.
"In the early 1970s, a boy from a Conservative Jewish family joined the Church of Scientology. In 1981, that boy officially left the movement and ultimately transitioned into a woman. A few years later, she stopped calling herself a woman—and became a famous gender outlaw.
Gender theorist, performance artist, and author Kate Bornstein is set to change lives with her stunningly original memoir. Wickedly funny and disarmingly honest, this is Bornstein's most intimate book yet, encompassing her early childhood and adolescence, college at Brown, a life in the theater, three marriages and fatherhood, the Scientology hierarchy, transsexual life, LGBTQ politics, and life on the road as a sought-after speaker."
2012,
English,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
USA,
Full title: "Walking Towards Cordelia: A story of becoming, accepting, and the journey to get there" by Eleanor Anne Dote.
"For much of his life, Darryl knew that there was something different about him. Femininity came naturally, but being a boy was hard. The kids on the playground would tease him about it, and the assumption by many people - including himself - was that he was destined to be gay. Finding an escape in the church, Darryl eventually found himself married with three children and in full time ministry when his world completely began to crumble around him. "Walking Towards Cordelia" is the personal story of transgender experience and LGBTQ+ identity and coming to terms with that in the midst of a culture and religion that forbids it."
"For as long as I can remember, I’ve always related to girls. My best friends in kindergarten were girls, and that trend continued on all through my adult life. Now, you might think that this is perfectly normal for a girl – except that’s the problem: I wasn’t one."
2022,
Eleanor Anne Dote,
English,
USA,
Full title: "Farm Boy, City Girl: From Gene to Miss Gina" by John "Gene" E. Dawson.
"Farm Boy, City Girl: From Gene to Miss Gina details John "Gene" E. Dawson's life growing up in Depression-era Iowa in a poor farming Irish-Catholic family and his adult years spent living on the LGBTQ cultural edge in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and St. Louis. The book offers a rare glimpse into the Mid-20th Century history of both rural Iowa and of LGBTQ individuals in Middle America--told by one who was there."
"Part One, Farm Boy 1931-1949: Gene recounts his years growing up in the Great Depression, moving with his family from rental farm to rental farm until his parents could afford to purchase their own land and home. Life was difficult and often brutal for anyone during this time, but especially so for a gender-fluid gay child/teenager."
2020,
English,
John "Gene" E. Dawson,
USA,
Full title: "Mercury Stardust Book: The Biography Of Mercury Stardust - American Tik Toker, Transgender Activist Burlesque Performer, Home Repair And Maintenance Educator" by Stephen Walter.
"Mercury Stardust, also known as Help is at hand from the Trans Handy Ma'am! For too many people, the simple act of contacting a plumber or repair person can feel like a game of chance. As a transwoman and a professional maintenance technician, Mercury Stardust has discovered (the hard way) that we live in a world with much to fear. If you've ever felt panicked about opening your home to strangers in order to fix a maintenance issue, this book is for you."
"Mercury Stardust is a Professional Home Maintenance Technician, author, performer, and award-winning activist. Known widely as the Trans Handy Ma'am, her unique brand of compassionate education in the Home Repair space has earned her internet fame. With over 2 million followers on TikTok, Mercury spreads DIY knowledge with love. Her expertise includes rental maintenance, landlord negotiations, clogs, drywall, painting, minor electrical repairs, caulking, and more."
2023,
English,
Stephen Walter,
USA,
Full title: "Tar Hollow Trans: Essays (Appalachian Futures Black Native & Queer Voices)" by Stacy Jane Grover.
"Raised in southeast Ohio, Stacy Jane Grover would not describe her upbringing as "Appalachian." Appalachia existed farther afield―more rural, more country than the landscape of her hometown.
Grover returned to the places of her childhood to reconcile her identity and experience with the culture and the people who had raised her.
She began to reflect on her memories and discovered that group identities like Appalachian and transgender are linked by more than just the stinging brand of social otherness.
In Tar Hollow Trans, Grover explores her transgender experience through common Appalachian cultural traditions.
2023,
English,
Stacy Jane Grover,
USA,
"Ein schädlicher Einfluss: Die wahre Geschichte eines netten jüdischen Knaben, der bei Scientology landete und zwölf Jahre später zu der hinreißenden Lady ... ist. Mein mutiges Leben" is the German language edition of "A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today" by Kate Bornstein.
"In the early 1970s, a boy from a Conservative Jewish family joined the Church of Scientology. In 1981, that boy officially left the movement and ultimately transitioned into a woman. A few years later, she stopped calling herself a woman—and became a famous gender outlaw.
Gender theorist, performance artist, and author Kate Bornstein is set to change lives with her stunningly original memoir. Wickedly funny and disarmingly honest, this is Bornstein's most intimate book yet, encompassing her early childhood and adolescence, college at Brown, a life in the theater, three marriages and fatherhood, the Scientology hierarchy, transsexual life, LGBTQ politics, and life on the road as a sought-after speaker."
2013,
German,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
USA,
Full title: "In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life" by Amy Schneider.
"In eighth grade, Amy was voted “Most likely to appear on Jeopardy!” by her classmates. Decades later, this trailblazer finally got her chance. Not only did she walk away with $1.3 million while captivating the world with her impressive forty-game winning streak, but she made history and won an even greater prize - the joy of being herself on national television and blazing a trail for openly queer and transgender people around the world.
Now, she shares her singular journey that led to becoming an unlikely icon and hero to millions. Her super power: Boundless curiosity and fearless questioning. "In the Form of a Question explores some of the innumerable topics that have fascinated Amy throughout her life - books and music, Tarot and astrology, popular culture and computers, sex and relationships - but they all share the same purpose: to illustrate, and celebrate, the results of a lifetime spent asking, why?"
2023,
Amy Schneider,
English,
USA,
Full title: "Behind Enemy Lines" by Nichol Collins.
"In her riveting autobiography, Nichol Collins shares transparently about her life. Once a transgender lesbian and drug dealer affiliated with gangs in Los Angeles, California; her lifestyle was a complete shock to her mother who raised her in church. Known by the nickname "Esko" in the streets, she gained notoriety among her peers. This story will keep you on the edge of your seat. Esko lived a life that spelled out PARTY & PERVERSION.
Her abuse of drugs and alcohol caused her to live in a constant fog. She hung out with celebrities, "down low men," and held a high-ranking position in an underground gay society called "Houses" that will astonish her readers. Your heart will pound as you live through her close calls with death, worldly excursions, and demonic forces assigned to assassinate her. She had rebelled against everything instilled in her from childhood. However, she lived in fear of missing the return of the Lord. In spite of her disobedience, God showed mercy toward her. She walked out alive with the devil's secrets."
2017,
English,
Nichol Collins,
USA,
Full title: "Transister: Raising Twins in a Gender-bending World" by Kate Brookes.
"Transister is the story of a family in transition. Not a prescriptive narrative but an affirming one. A raw, honest, sometimes humorous account of author Kate Brookes’s journey as her young child grapples with gender identity and becomes her authentic self.
Brookes has longed to become a mother for as long as she can remember. And for almost as long, she has harbored a fierce determination to parent her children differently―better―than her own mentally ill mom parented her. To create the “normal” family she’s always wished for.
And when she gives birth to twins after two years of fertility struggles, she is, admittedly, hugely relieved that she’s found herself with two boys. There will be no need for her, a decidedly un-girly girl, to braid hair, buy Barbie dolls, or pick out party dresses for her kids. Boys. Easy. Right?
But by the time her twins are eight, Brookes has had two realizations: 1) her obstetrician’s “it’s another boy” announcement was flat-out wrong, and 2) there is no such thing as a “normal” family―and that’s a beautiful thing."
2023,
English,
Kate Brookes,
USA,
