Books and magazines

[CJ]

Hi all,

I thought I'd start a topic where we could include various suggestions on reading material about and/or geared towards TG folk. Feel free to add links to stuff you think might be relevant, whether it be psychology, fiction, classic lit, spirituality, memoirs, etc. Well, you get the idea. (I hope Shannon and Sharon are okay with this idea?)

Again, to get the ball rolling, I provide a link to an upcoming book that may be of interest to some of you.

My husband Betty: http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/book/intro.html

Love,
CJ

[Alexandra]

Not a bad idea CJ.

Beauty previously suggested "Girl Talk" magazine and I ordered a copy, checked it out and gave it a thumbs up. http://www.girltalkmag.com

New-to-CDing may find it fun because it opens up a whole new world that caters directly to them.

[CJ]

Hi all,

For those of you into SF and/or Fantasy, here are a few books that might be worth checking out. They all involve gender swapping to some extent. I haven't read all of them, but if you have read some of these titles, let me know what you think.

And, please feel free to add to the list; I know there are many such novels out there!

Love,
CJ


--The Passion of New Eve
Angela Carter

--The Fall of the Towers
--Triton
Samuel R. Delany

--Moonstar Odyssey
David Gerrold

--I Will Fear No Evil
Robert A. Heinlein

--The Transformation
George MacBeth

--The Lilith Factor
Jean Paiva

--The Styx Complex
Russell Rhodes

--Season of the Witch
Hank Stine

--The Revenants
Sheri Tepper

--Options
--Steel Beach
John Varley

--Orlando
Virginia Woolf

--The World Wreckers
Marion Zimmer Bradley

--The Morphodite series
M. A. Foster

--Venus Plus X
Theodore Sturgeon

--The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. LeGuin

--A Regiment of Women
Thomas Berger

--Turnabout
Thorne Smith

--The Female Man
Joanna Russ

[Sara]

Conundrum by Jan Morris. Dated, but the first literate and serious book about being transsexual by a transsexual.

Vested Interests, Marjorie Garber. Dense, long, and not always comforting, but a fairly thorough look at crossdressing.

[Beauty]

Not a bad idea CJ.

Beauty previously suggested "Girl Talk" magazine and I ordered a copy, checked it out and gave it a thumbs up. http://www.girltalkmag.com

New-to-CDing may find it fun because it opens up a whole new world that caters directly to them.

I agree with what you said to CJ.

Also, GirlTalk magazine is incredible. It's our version of Vogue.

Nothing adult in there only great articles and great advertisers!!

I'm glad you liked it Alexandra.

Beauty

[CJ]

Hi Sara,

I do remember finding Garber's book dense, you're right. If I recall, she concentrated on gender as performance, focusing on transvestism as an ambiguous and disquieting "third term," outside the masculine-feminine polarity. It was still a fun read, though.

Most of my books are still stored in a locker (I only moved to my new place here in July); when I get them out, I'll look through them and relay any interesting titles to this thread.

I've never read Morris' account, or any of her travel writings (I hear they're good), but certainly plan to. The earliest transsexual autobiography I've read (I was barely a teen, so this must've been the early- to mid-70s) was called Canary by folk/pop singer Canary Conn. Another such account is, obviously, Christine Jorgensen's Second Serve. These are all transsexual autobiographies, though, not transvestite ones. The one transvestite "semi-biographical" tale that I do know of (available in any major bookstore) is Cherry Single: A Transvestite Comes Of Age by Valory Gravois. I started reading it but it's now a case of "lectio interruptus."

By the way, speaking of the mid-70s, does anyone here remember the little Mutrix transvestite fiction booklets? I'm curious whether they're still available--strictly for nostalgia's sake, of course!

Love,
CJ

[CJ]

Hi Beauty,

You beat me to the post, girl! Way to go!

Yes, at Alexandra's suggestion, I went to see the Girl Talk site (and I've glanced through the mag a few times before in a bookstore); it is interesting and does have mass appeal. Well produced, to boot.

I sometimes check out Transformation, the Playboy magazine to Girl Talk's Glamour, I guess. (Hey, we all have needs! ).

Love,
CJ

[CJ]

Hi girls,

Here are links to lists of books on the subject of gender identity. You'll find academic stuff mixed in with personal memoirs, etc. Pretty extensive but by no means exhaustive.

MtMInFo's Transgender Book and Video List

http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/1266/read.html


B.C.'s Books: Gender and Transgender Theory

http://www.bcholmes.org/books/booktg.html


B.C.'s Books: Other TG Books

http://www.bcholmes.org/books/booktg-misc.html


The Center for Gender Sanity Book List

http://www.gendersanity.com/booklist.shtml


Transgender Book Reviews

http://www.alchemist-light.com/


This last list is maintained by Valory Gravois, author of Cherry Single. I hope these links turn out to be useful to some of you out there looking for information.

Love,
CJ

[Anita]

Hello All--
It's a good topic, CJ, and I'm glad you brought it up.

Crossdressing came back into my life unexpectedly, and I had never had to deal with it as an adult. So I was in a panic about it, and ran out to find both support groups and books. The mainstream bookstores didn't seem to have very much TG stuff! I have still not ever found any of the commonly mentioned authors at Barnes and Noble--no Peggy Rudd, for instance.

One book I did find was called Crossing: a Memoir by Deidre McCloskey. Of course the book scared me to death, as it was an MtoF story, but I'd still recommend it. All TG women started out as CDs, so their early experiences are things we can identify with.

On the [much!] lighter side, there's Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who want to be Girls by Veronica Vera. I did find that one at Barnes & Noble.

And then there's The Lazy Crossdresser by Charles Anders. It has a lot of practical tips about dressing and makeup, and advice for going out.

Love those fiction books about body-swaps, too, which CJ mentioned. I think I had all of them at one time or another, long before "Anita" had started to stir.

[Marilyn]

While I have read The Lazy Crossdresser and Miss Vera's..., the two books that I have most appreciated, recently, have been:

Out & About: The Emancipated Crossdresser, by Lacey Leigh.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=507846


Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude, by Amy Bloom.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books


Hugs.

[CJ]

Hi all,

Here's another, much more exhaustive, list I found while surfing around. Hope you all find it useful.

Love,
CJ

http://www.ifas.org.au/references.html