Welcome to Litsy!

In light of the executive order made by our uninformed new president, declaring that there are only two genders, I would like to help fellow readers become better educated. Here are six books written by and/or centering on the experiences of non-binary and transgender people. I wish I had a recommendation with some intersex representation, but I can‘t think of anything at the moment. Feel free to suggest other great books in the comments below.

Fittingly, I finished this book last night while my baby slept on my chest. What a gift S. Bear Bergman's work is. I will refer back to this guide many times. Topics include transitioning from one activity to another, gender and heteronormativity, talking to kids about difference and diversity, key values to pass down to your kids, food, and replacing the idea of a family tree with a family garden. Practical, honest, vulnerable, compassionate.

A brutal, brilliant, unsettling masterpiece that upends the typical haunted house novel. The story focuses on Ezri and their two sisters, who grew up in a McMansion in a white suburb of Dallas, where strange and increasingly terrible inexplicable things happened. There's a lot here about trauma, memory, racism/segregation, and parenting. As a parent, I found this book very impactful but simultaneously difficult to read. CW: childhood sexual abuse

More satire and less horror than I expected, this was painfully real in its portrayal of immature tech bro masculinity and so-called allies who can't be bothered to get something as simple as someone's pronouns right. It had me cringing. I loved Sammie as a character and the art style was fun! #TransBooks #QueerBooks #HorrorBooks

Kai Cheng Thom's collection of essays displays her trademark combination of searing intellect and critical thinking with deep empathy and compassion. I admire her work so much! She discusses and unpacks a lot of issues inside leftist and queer social justice communities, from #MeToo, suicide, activists' tendency to demand perfection and correct rhetoric over learning and inclusion, white queers asking for her "trans ethnic story," and more. ?

Okay, WOW WOW WOW. This collection of letters -- which sometimes take the form of poems, prayers, spells, and prompts -- is going to become my new spiritual guide to life. It's generous, fierce, sad, hopeful, inspiring, angry, loving, and incredibly powerful. Addressees of the letters range from trans femmes of colour to TERFs. This is an instant new queer classic and the kind of book that makes you feel alive, and glad to be. Dynamic #audiobook!

Well this was a delight. It felt like getting to sit around with Casey Plett at the kitchen table after dinner talking, except with the luxury of citations. Plett shares a lot of her own life, and the many communities she has been a part of. Smart, vulnerable, and thoughtful. It doesn't present any judgement on community being an ultimate force for "good or bad" --it explicitly doesn't want to-- but I left feeling hopeful about community anyway.

So far I love this book! A novel in verse told in sonnets -- so old fashioned -- but about contemporary queer trans women and their relationships, drama, and community. So fun and funny!

"Ripeness is just the beginning of rot"
"Someone has to tell them what zines to read!"
#TransBooks #QueerBooks

This was great! A fascinating life story from a gifted storyteller who just oozes charm and charisma. Geena Rocero has lived many lives, as a teen trans beauty pageant queen in her native Philippines, a stealth model in the U.S., and as a public speaker, businesswoman, and trans advocate most recently. Recommended in audiobook format, read by the author! #TransBooks #QueerBooks #LGBTQBooks #LGBTQ #Trans

This memoir is so good!! It traces the author's journey from being a trans beauty pageant queen in the Philippines in her youth to a move to the US and a stealth modeling career to coming out publically as trans. She is very charming and charismatic and reads the #audiobook herself!