I’ve now profiled several books on being transgender on this blog including a few memoirs. I seriously debated including another one right now but, after reading the book I’m profiling today, I just had to share.
Dave had it all. He was a world class college athlete. He married well. He was a professional at the top of his game. He had nice homes (yes, plural) and nice cars. To everyone on the outside looking in, it was the perfect life. Yet, for him, on the inside looking out, he was a mess. He’d always known his true gender identity was female but he played the game the way he was expected to for 40 years and he played it well.
One day, Dave’s wife gave him an ultimatum. She basically told him, stop this nonsense about wanting to be a woman or get out. Dave left. He was transgender and he would no longer deny it. He would later have both facial feminization surgery and sexual reassignment surgery and he would become Donna Gail Rose. Her book, Wrapped In Blue: A Journey of Discovery
She tells a compelling tale and she tells it well. She has a gift for writing. Much of the book is written as a journal. It almost felt like peering into her personal diary. I do have one caution; the parts that detail the facial surgery are not for the squeamish. Guys, you may want to skip that. Women, if you’ve born children, you may already be familiar with the level of pain discussed! The reassignment surgery gets less attention but, if you really want the down low on that, there are several books out there that discuss it.
I was engrossed throughout this book but I actually cried over the epilogue and the Christmas letters Donna’s mother and sister wrote to family and friends. Such understanding and compassion is truly amazing.
I’m waiting for the sequel. How about it Donna Rose?
, by Mildred L. Brown, Ph.D. (a clinical sexologist and therapist) and Chloe Ann Rounsley (writer, journalist, transgender researcher). It’s a nice combination of medical, clinical and personal that I found most interesting. Additionally, right at the beginning, their book has three distinct sections that are very helpful: the childhood years, the teen years and the adult years. It’s the first book I’ve seen that addresses all three phases of life in one volume for those who are transgender.
, was published in 2009 by the University Press of New England but it’s still one of the hotest selling books in the trans genre to date.
authored by journalist and science writer (Johns Hopkins University) Deborah Rudacill. Rudacill began her research all because a friend had decided to transition and she wanted to know more. As a science writer she take a look at the detailed science behind gender make up but, as an investigative journalist she also looks at the very real human emotional issues. She accomplishes the latter by, among other things, interview six transgender “subjects” in depth about their lives and experience. It’s pretty compelling stuff.
and her 2007 follow-up to that, 
.
by Chaz (formerly Chastity) Bono, offspring to the late Sonny Bono and the previously mentioned world famous celebrity, Cher. Now, I’m just young enough that I only vaguely remember the Sonny and Cher television variety show. Trying to recall the little blond moppet that was their then daughter Chastity as she appeared on the show completely escapes me. You could really say that I have no recollection of Chaz when he was actually Chastity other than the “butch lesbian” shots I’d occasionally see in a magazine or clips on a news or infotainment show over the last couple of years.
, was finally released on DVD last week. I’ve been waiting for it, as my prospective male friend did not get to see it when it originally aired and neither did my wife due to her work schedule at the time. All agree, it was definitely worth the wait.
and 
by Kate Bornstein (with S. Bear Bergman on the 2nd book), focused on voices of the “gender queer” in the broadest sense; what my mother’s generation would have called “gender benders”. Those books focused primarily on people who had transitioned but also shone a light on some who had not transitioned and who were not planning to do so but who were living lives that did not necessarily reflect their birth gender.
or my 
, you know that my wife can best be classified – if we have to label things – as gender queer. She was, of course, born as a woman but her gender identity leans more male than female.
.
, about her transition from male to female and about the role of gender in western society as a whole. Her book was considered groundbreaking when it appeared in 1995. It has no less relevance today, as the debate over male and female roles in society rages on. All the major newsites carried stories just last week of the couple whose child was turning two who’s sex was known only by the parents and the doctor who performed the delivery. They did not want their child sterotyped by gender norms.
. It’s climbing the best seller list quickly. Is it worth a read? In a word: Yes.
Recent Comments