pickslay
My picks for February.
Honorable mention for Nella Larsen's Passing . I watched the movie last night with friends.
#12DaysofChristmas, #12Booksof2022, @Andrew65
Fairest: A Memoir | 
My picks for February.
Honorable mention for Nella Larsen's Passing . I watched the movie last night with friends.
#12DaysofChristmas, #12Booksof2022, @Andrew65
I'm not in step for #foodandlit2022, but I finally finished Fairest:a memoir for the Philippines. (Was that December?) Not gonna finish the other two in time for January & February, but maybe I'll skip March & catch up.
Intriguing connections between two books I recently finished, Fairest: a memoir by Meredith Talusan and Passing by Nella Larsen.
Fairest is about a Filipino boy who grows up to be a woman, an anak araw who can pass for white in the US.
Passing is the classic novella by Nella Larsen, made into a movie in 2021.
Here is a YouTube video about passing, the & now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4M5SiX5gDI
From the prologue - interesting how identity is shaped, in part, by our expectations & what we can imagine
What is gained? What is lost?
#foodandlit, @Texreader , @Butterfinger, #Philippines
Check out this info graphic for some reads set in various countries around the world.
https://geediting.com/most-iconic-book-set-in-every-country/
#foodandlit, @texreader, @butterfinger, #Phillipines
pickA thought-provoking memoir of a non-white trans woman with albinism who moved from the Philippines to the USA when she was in her teens. A member of my feminist book club chose this because she is half Filipino & had never read anything by someone from the Philippines. It sparked one of our best discussions ever, because of its nuanced portrayal of appearance, passing & identity. Also, the way queer culture has changed. #LGBTQ
I felt a pang then, my conscience, but the collective voices of my photo professors drowned it out, with stories of how Diane Arbus woke subjects up at sunrise to get them at their most vulnerable, how Nan Goldin took out the door to her bathroom so she could take pictures of people having sex or doing drugs, and how the French artist Sophie Calle even worked as a maid at a hotel just to take pictures of guests‘ private belongings.
Gender transition provided me with much greater freedom of expression, the ability to determine the forms of femininity I wanted to embody, instead of feeling like I had to negotiate every feminine accessory or mannerism with a strict gay church that constantly threatened to reject me. I would have probably been bakla had I stayed in the Philippines, remained in that more indeterminate space in a culture where that was possible.
pickMeredith is a transgender albino Filipina who often passes as white. This memoir covers her childhood there, her immigration to the US as a teen, her living as a gay man at Harvard, and her transition to female as an adult. There is A LOT to unpack in the memoir between culture and passing and opportunities afforded her due to white skin. There is also a lot about being transgender in Filipino culture and in US academic circles. Highly recommend!
Every week, I highlight #lgbtqauthors #TheRainbowShelf 🏳️🌈 Meredith Talusan has written for numerous publications in her journalism career, including the New York Times, The Guardian, and VICE Magazine. Their memoir, out this year, explores their experiences growing up male and albino in the Philippines, immigrating to the US, and transitioning. She's also the founding executive editor for @ them. #lgbtq #transgender #bipocauthors #lgntqvoices
HOLY CATS do I love BOOKS. I mean, I always love books, but some days I feel so extra about them that I just want to make a big pile of books and roll around on them like a dog in the grass. Books are everything. 📚❤️📚
pickA memoir about the life of a writer/artist trans woman with albinism from the Philippines who immigrated to the US as a teen. This book sails right past conventions of the typical trans and immigrant memoir; she's perceived as white but is Asian, and she didn't always know she was a girl. Her writing is beautiful. She boldly looks right at herself, sharing complexities, inconsistencies, and flattering and not so flattering moments in her life.
"That womanhood itself might be the vessel that best contained my being."
#TransBooks #QueerBooks
