Happy Transrights Rights Readathon! March 20-27
Today while scrolling through Instagram, I learned that this week is the Transrights Readathon. I had no idea that such a thing existed but I’m excited about it. It was started just this year by trans author Sim Kern, author of Depart, Depart and Seeds for the Swarm. Several independent bookstores have suggested reading lists on their web pages and/or in-store displays of books by trans authors. You can participate by reading books, donating money to trans rights organizations, or both. This article from Book Riot has more details about it.
In perusing my Goodreads shelves, I found that I am lacking on books by transgender authors so I will be reading at least one this week. On my shelf, I have just three, and two are by the same author.
Melissa (formerly titled George) is a middle-grade book about Melissa, a fourth-grader who was born a boy but knows in her heart that she’s a girl. She hasn’t told anyone, not even her best friend. Every day is a struggle. She comforts herself by looking at the models in her secret stash of fashion magazines when she gets home from school.
The fourth-grade school play is Charlotte’s Web. Melissa desperately wants to play Charlotte and decides to audition for the part. She knows she’d be perfect. Unfortunately, her teacher is not open to a “boy” playing a female role.
Gino has several middle-grade books that look really good.
Secondly, I have two books by Jennifer Finney Boylan. The first is Parenting in Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders. It’s a memoir of her experience was parenting her two boys as a male while going through transition to a female and then as a female. She has a previous memoir, She’s Not There, that is the detailed story of her life as a transgender person and her transition to female. I haven’t read that book yet.
The other book I’ve read by her is Long Black Veil. It’s a novel and completely different from Stuck in the Middle. Long Black Veil starts off in 1980 with six friends sneaking into a closed, run-down prison. They get locked in and one of them goes missing. Thirty-five years later, her remains are found and her husband Jon Casey is the prime suspect of her murder. His old friend Judith can attest to his innocence. We meet Judith in 2015 after the remains are found. Her connection to Casey is actually more of a mystery than who the murderer is.
What trans authors do you like? Leave your suggestions in the comments – I’d love to hear your recommendations!
