I really enjoy reading, so I'm going to keep a running list of books I would really recommend to others.

 

Jag älskar att läsa, och så jag ska skriva en pågående lista av böcker som jag skulle rekommendera till andra. Alla av mina böcker är på engelska eftersom jag bor i Gringolandia, och vi har inget svenskt läsmaterial i detta land. En bokhandlare sa en gång till mig, "Uh...I think we only have books in English and Mexican. Sorry." God bless Amerikkka...

 

fiction/romaner

• "Little Fish" by Casey Plett

I love this book so much. It might actually be my favorite book? It's about a Mennonite trans woman named Wendy. She lives and works in Winnipeg, and she's struggling to make her rent.

(CW: sexual violence, sex work, chaser/phobe shit)

• "Detransition, Baby" by Torrey Peters

Reese lives in New York, and she's honestly kind of a mess. Her detrans ex comes back into her life to let her know that he knocked up his boss, and he's interested in roping her into their mess.

(CW: chaser/phobe shit, hate crimes, suicide)

• "Small Beauty" by Jia Qing Wilson-Yang

Mei, a Chinese-Canadian trans woman, is staying at a house in rural Ontario that used to belong to her deceased cousin, and her deceased lesbian aunt before him. She's really angry and trying to figure stuff out. The story kind of bounces around a bit (in a good way), and we get to follow along as Mei unpacks her family's baggage with some help from her cousin's deadbeat TERF mom.

(CW: hate crimes, phobe shit)

• "Nevada" by Imogen Binnie

Maria lives in Brooklyn with her girlfriend, but it's not going well. Her job sucks and her relationship is falling apart, and then some stuff happens and she ends up stealing said girlfriend's car to drive across the country. The book is written in present-tense (it's easy enough to adjust to after a few pages!) and is very stream-of-consciousness. My wife read this book and kept telling me that Maria was "literally [me]," and I'm still trying to figure out if that's an okay thing.

(At least Maria is funny and cute... ;_;)

(CW: phobe shit, heroin)

 

social sciences/samhällsvetenskaper

• "Whipping Girl" by Julia Serano

Everybody has to read it. If you haven't read it, then you need to read it. If you read it and you felt like it was bullshit with no redeeming value, then I probably won't want to even talk to you.

• "Invisible Lives" by Viviane Namaste

Viviane Namaste is probably my favorite trans writer. It can be hard to find copies of her books sometimes (at least, in the US), but every one I've gotten my hands on has been a total banger. "Invisible Lives" was my introduction to her, and my wife can attest that I wouldn't shut up about it for weeks. I loved "Whipping Girl," but "Invisible Lives" wrecked me. Namaste doesn't pull punches or accommodate bullshit, even when it's trans-flavored and wrapped-up in activism-babble. I kind of want to learn French so I can read more of her other works.

• "Sex Change, Social Change" by Viviane Namaste

This is a collection of shorter writings, including essays, statements and an interview with Mirha-Soleil Ross (who is also wonderful). It's not a very large book, but it's important to me.

• "Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School" by C.J. Pascoe

Pascoe spent an extended amount of time mingling with students at a Central California high school around the time that I would've been in high school, and this book was the result. As soon as I started reading it, I was just engrossed. I couldn't put it down, because it answered every question I never thought to ask about my adolescence and the culture of my then-workplace.

• "Trans/Rad/Fem" by Talia Bhatt

I first heard about this book from the "you may also like" algorithm of a certain book website. When I went looking for reviews, I just found a bunch of reddit posts from FtMisogynist guys whining about "misandry" and "sexism against men." Many of them admitted that they hadn't read it! At first, I wasn't sure if I was interested in "Trans/Red/Fem," but those dudes definitely sold me on it! I wouldn't call it an academic text, but it put me onto some more good books and was a very good read in and of itself. Please read it!

 

history and biography/historia och biografi

• "The Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internet" by Avery Dame-Griff

This is a pretty interesting book. It's a history of (mostly transfem and male CD) online communities, going back to the 1980s. A large portion of the book is dedicated to tracing the origin of the term "cisgender."

• "Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco" by Claire Sears

San Francisco passed its first law explicitly outlawing cross-dressing in 1863, shortly after Henry Coon (a vigilante-sponsored judge-turned-politician) was elected mayor. "Arresting Dress" explores cross-dressing practices and gender nonconformity prior to and following the passage of this law, and the ways in which contemporary anxieties regarding gender nonconformity dovetailed into nativist vigilante politics, anti-Chinese racism, and voyeuristic attitudes towards the poor, minorities, and "freaks."