"Elizabeth's future: reading trans books so Abby doesn't have to 😂"

[hermionesviolin]

A whole bunch of books by trans-fems came in for me at the library around the same time, so in addition to my perpetual book club books, also on my to-read-soon list are:

• The Sunforge by Sascha Stronach -- sequel to The Dawnhounds (which I recently read for feminist sff bookclub, yay)
  
  
• It Gets Better... Except When It Gets Worse: And Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me by Nicole Maines -- which I'm interested to read in conversation with Elliot Page's Pageboy, which had a lot more trauma in it than I was expecting, and of which Abby said, "It's what The Trans Memoir™ is supposed to be, which is a story of trauma and triumph and omg it's so hard to be trans because the transphobia." (Abby admittedly DNFed the book, but...)
  
  I had put a library hold on the Nicole Maines book approximately for the title alone (before Abby and I even started reading Pageboy, just when I saw it on a BookRiot Our Queerest Shelves "The 10 Biggest and Buzziest New Queer Books Out in Fall 2024" on Sept 10, 2024), in large part because I feel like queer (esp trans) memoirs are dictated to have to be So Inspiring.
  
  
• Lucy, Uncensored by Mel Hammond and Teghan Hammond
  
  04/04/2024 I had posted in a Discord:

  BookRiot Our Queerest Shelves a little late to TDoV with this link, but one of the upcoming YA books is a trans girl applying to a historically women's college.

  Hi, it me, a graduate of a historically women's college, dating a trans woman.

***

Also, speaking of literature by trans-fem folks, if you haven't heard of The Transfeminine Review [website, Bluesky, Tumblr, etc.], you should check it out.

Bethany's taste only somewhat overlaps with mine, but her booklists are incredibly comprehensive (I can't believe she's only 22!), and I appreciate her literary criticism.  She's also doing "A Brief History of Trans Literature" -- which has turned into a huge historical deep dive (see the Every Post Ever list), which I haven't started trying to read yet, but which definitely makes me think of Jules Gill-Peterson's A Short History of Trans Misogyny.

I read her Start Here post and commented, "I feel like it tracks that I recognize almost all (11/12) of Tier One, much (9/22) of Tier Two, and almost nothing (1/22) from Tier Three. (It me, a cis book nerd with a transfemme partner.)"

She also has my kind of thoroughness. A recent post is 15 Black Transfeminine Novelists You Should Read (10/9/24) – "Looking at the position of black transfeminine novelists within the industry and their major works."  Like, she literally found all the Black transfeminine novelists she could and read them (often only one work by each one, but still).

She recently skeeted, "one of my plans for this winter is to go on a high fantasy/hard sci-fi kick, it’s really a blind spot for me atm (fantasy especially)."

***

And while I'm highlighting trans-fem art: Black Trans Women at the Center: a New Play Festival: November 18 – 21, 2024

"The festival will premiere on Nov. 18 and be available to stream for free for three days." [source]

***

(Subject line is from a Discord conversation today about the forthcoming trans women tennis indoor volleyball book -- which the Boston NWSL's abandoned marketing campaign makes me think of.)