#Mia Kobabe

[contracat25]

Alright as it is Trans Day of Visibility (Hi still not cis, still here etc.) and the final day of the extended Trans Rights Readathon I thought I would post about a few more of my favorite books by trans authors because hopefully everyone will be reading books by trans authors and about trans characters/topics all year round. Because to me this day is about supporting others in the community as much as anything else. The world is pretty on fire right now so if you can support a trans creator, artist, organization or friend today (and beyond) then do it!

So here are a bunch of shorter reads: books, graphic novels, novellas etc. I didn't really notice how many novellas I had been reading recently till making this list, but there is something about a wel- written short book that just really works for me. Also a lot of these just have really creative or lovely concepts and I am a sucker for those. Plus the characters in these are soooo good! Also a lot of these have lovely audiobooks or e-books, hence me not having a physical copy (yet). Many of these have trans characters as well, but not all of them. Though most have some form of queer rep because I don't read much that doesn't. I included muliple by some of the authors, including sequels because... I just really like them and couldn't pick just one. Most of these authors have other books that are also wonderful. And these are just a handful of examples, there are so many fabuluous books by and about people who are trans.

Six Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

The Companion by EE Ottoman

The Barrow Will Send What It May by Margaret Killjoy

Taste of Marrow and River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Nimona by Nate Stevenson

Gender Queer by Mia Kobabe

The Seep by Chana Porter

Future Feelings by Joss Lake

Pet by Akwaeke Amezi

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The Black Tides of Heaven; The Red Threads of Fortune; The Descent of Monsters; The Ascent to Godhood by Neon Yang

Finna and Defekt by Nino Cipri Coffee Boy and Caroline's Heart by Austin Chant

ID: Slide one has a stack of 10 books on a teal background. Slides two through four have a white background and four book covers and a boarder of books in the trans flag colors.

[transadvice]

Do you have any good trans book recommendations? Preferably about trans men's experiences but anything really is fine!! 👍

Here are some of my favorites. These are all nonfiction.  "We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan.” Lou Sullivan was an activist and historian in the 70s and 80s whose experiences feel shockingly modern and relevant. He was an out gay trans man in a time when that was widely considered a contradiction in terms. Although Sullivan’s story is sad in that he died too young of AIDS in the 1991, his diaries are full of joy.  “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe. Graphic memoir. Honest and detailed exploration of questioning and searching for an identity in adolescence and early adulthood.  “Something That May Shock and Discredit You” by Danny Lavery. Essays, some of which are about transitioning as an adult. Other topics include classic movies, 19th century literature, and growing up evangelical. Lavery has an odd, comic style that will hit with some people and not others, but people who like it will REALLY like it.  “Whipping Girl” by Julia Serrano. Culture criticism articulated with such razor-sharp observation and analysis that it is cathartic to read. Read if you feel like getting righteously angry.  “Yes, You Are Trans Enough” by Mia Violet. A memoir with an uplifting message. The title cannot be said enough.  “Transgender History” by Susan Stryker. Yes, we existed in history!

[fail-eacan]

Books that I fell in love with that you’ve probably never heard of before!

-The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Mary Pope

-Radiant Days by Elizabeth Hand

-Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Runners up:

-Displacement by Kiku Hughes

-Somebody Told Me by Mia Siegert

More well-known books that are definitely worth reading

-The Lockwood & Co Series (tw for fatphobia) by Jonathan Stroud

-Ready Player One by Ernest Kline

-Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe

-The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman

Popular books that are NOT worth the hype (imo)

-Wilder Girls by Rory Power (beautiful cover tho)

-Milk And Honey by Rupi Kaur

-Harry Potter and The Cursed Child (the real HP books are great, but this one makes no sense)

-Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (her other books are great tho)

Kids Books that aren’t talked about enough!!! My childhood favourites :)

-Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Scrypuch

-Roxaboxen by Alice McLarren

-Shadow Children Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

-Superman Smashes The Klan by Gene Luen Yang

-When I Was Young In The Mountains by Cynthia Rylant (The illustrations are absolutely beautiful I love this book so much)

I hope this helps you! <3

[yourdailyqueer-spreadsheet]

Changelog - October 14-20

Larry Dean - Added autism

Laura Kate Dale - Added ADHD

Laura Pergolozzi - Changed to they/them

Laurie Penny - Added polyamorous and autism

Leonor Fini - Added polyamorous

Levi Davis - Missing presumed dead, added disappearance date

Lili Reinhart - Added alopecia

Linda Hunt - Added dwarfism

Lady Sovereign - Added cyclic vomiting syndrome and note about physical assault

Lourdes Portillo - Died in April

Lynn Conway - Died in June

Maddie Taylor - Added bisexual

Maddy Thorson - Changed to she/her and trans woman

Madison Bailey - Added BPD

Madison Beer - Added BPD

Madison Young - Changed to nonbinary

maia arson crimew - Added plural

Maia Kobabe - Changed to asexual, added dyslexia

Mal Blum - Added ADHD

Mangala Samaraweera - Died in 2021

Mara Wilson - Added OCD

Marc Almond - Added Meniere Syndrome

Marea Stamper - Changed to nonbinary

Marie Ringheim - Added OCD

Marieke Rijneveld - Changed name to Lucas

Marieke Vervoort - Died in 2019

Marissa Lenti - Changed to she/they, agender, multiracial

Marlon Brando - Moved due to domestic violence, racism, and zionism

Marlowe Peyton - Added autism

Martina Navratilova - Moved due to transphobia

Matthew Sanderson - Changed to she/they and trans woman

Matty Healy - Added ADHD

Maureen Bradley - Changed to they/them and third gender

Megan Fox - Added note about biphobia, added brachydactyly and OCD

Melissa O'Garro - Added note about assault charge

Melissa Ferrick - Changed to she/they, GNC, and queer

Melissa Lantsman - Added Crohn's

Mercedes Martinez - Added asthma

Mhairi Black - Added ADHD

Mia Mulder - Added bisexual

Michael Ben David - Moved due to sexual harassment and zionism

[graysonreadstoomuch]

February Wrap-up (No Spoilers!!)

Can’t believe February is already over. Unfortunately I didn’t read all the books I wanted this month, but I was super busy with my school musical (Mamma Mia!). I rediscovered the wonders of the public library this month, and I found out that I hadn’t been since 2017. Now I keep wanting to go back (even tho I have 10 books checked out). Anyway, go to your library folks. Anyway here’s what I read this month:

1. The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is about a college student who meets a legendary feminist leader, then tells her life from then on (as well as her partner and friends). This book did drag a bit in the middle, but other than that it was great! Despite sporting some feminist language that was a little outdated, it really gave an insight into another side of feminism I’m not as familiar with. However, I will warn you of the “girl boss feminism” in it, but I see it as a commentary of that.

2. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a retelling of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Fun fact, I had just read that story for English class, then picked up this book blindly. I was a little (only a little) annoyed when I found out it was connected to my class (even though I am a Poe fan). However this book was great, a great one or two day read. The only thing I was missing was the ambiguity of the original story.

3. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have never felt so seen by a book. This took me one sitting to get through, but I will never forget it. Kobabe shares eir story like I'm sitting in the room with em. The books pulls you into eir's world, I felt like I was sharing the joy, gender dysphoria and euphoria, and pain that e felt. Whether your under the trans umbrella or not, I highly recommend.

4. Paradais by Fernanda Melchor ⭐️⭐️

(CW: SEXUAL ASSAULT AND VIOLENCE) Don't get me wrong, I love dark literary fiction, but parts of this were unreadable. There were just gratuitous descriptions of what one of the character planned to do to this poor woman. The main claim of this book is that it is a commentary on economic disparity (specifically in Mexico), but it paints people in poverty as lowlifes, alcoholics, and criminals. I can't say much about her upbringing, but the book just feels out of touch.

5. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don't know, it was just lackluster. I feel that Hemingway is so hyped up, so this novel disappointed me. I won't give up on Hemingway just yet (let me know your favorites by him).

6. Beach Read by Emily Henry ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Henry does it again. The characters are so much more complex than your typical romance novel. Yes, the guy is dark and brooding, but he also has a soul (I like it when guys have a soul). And the romance just made sense. (Minor spoiler: I loved how she added some history between the two). I will be reading People We Meet on Vacation, and I am so excited for her book that's releasing in April. (BTW my bday is in April and I feel she's releasing it just for me).

If you got through this post, I applaud your patience. Let me know what you read this month!

[polyamorouspunk]

Went to the local spiritual shop last week and went to their LGBTQ+ section to grab myself some pronoun pins and found some great books to check out:

How To Be Ace: A Memoir Of Growing Up Ace by Rebecca Burgess

Polysecure by Fern

Queercore by Liam Warfield, Walter Crasshole, Yony Leyser

You and Your Gender Identity by Hoffman-Fox

Queer Folk Tales: A Book Of LGBTQ+ Stories by Kevin Walker

The ABCs of LGBT+ by Ashley Mardell

How to Understand Your Gender by Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker

The Gender Creative Child by Ehrensaft

Genderqueer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele

Gender: A Graphic Guide by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele

Gender Identity by Cook

Be Gay Do Comics by IDW

Transgender Healthy by Ben Vincent

Seeing Gender by ??

The Reflective Workbook for Parents and Families of Transgender and Non-Binary Children by ??

The New Queer Conscious by Adam Eli

This Is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids by Owens-Reid and Russo

The Trans Self-Care Workbook by Theo Nicole Loreny

The Gender Identity Workbook for Kids by Storck

Queer Heroes by Arabelle Sicardi, Sarah Tanat, and Jones

The Stonewall Riots: Cominc Out in the Streets by Gayle E. Pitman

The Gay Agenda by Ashley Molessa and Choss Needham

What’s Your Pronoun: Beyond He and She by Dennis Baron

Pride: A Celebration in Quotes by ??

The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper

The Transgender Teen: A Handbook for Families and Professionals by Stephanie Brill and Lisa Kenney

Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax (M.D. , P.H.D.)

The A-Z Of Gender And Sexuality by Morgan Lev Edward Holleb

Trans Voices by Declan Harry

The Trans Partner Handbook by Jo Green

Yes, You Are Trans Enough by Mia Violet

Bonus:

[redgoldsparks]

April Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young

I read a lot of memoir, and this one jumped immediately to the top reaches of my favorites list. Damon Young is a really excellent writer- each chapter could stand alone as an essay with a very satisfying beginning, middle, and end, but read together they tell a nuanced, intimate, hilarious and honest story of his life growing up black and neurotic in Pittsburgh. As a kid, he and his parents navigated lower middle class, a series of near-financial disasters that were always precariously recovered from. Damon shaped his early identity around his love of and talent at basketball, which landed him a full-ride scholarship to Canisius College. It was there his career as a writer began, from the humble beginnings of a series of terrible, semi-plagiarized poems written to woo a long-term crush. The romance was unsuccessful, but the poems sent him in the direction of blogging, back when doing so was still a novelty. Post-college he co-founded a site called Very Smart Brothas, which still runs pop culture reviews and social commentary to this day, and landed a writing job at Ebony magazine. This book entertainingly chronicles his relationships with girlfriends, with barbers, with parents, with the n-word, with friends, with basketball, and his career (both successes and big mistakes). Buy this book and shelve it with Shrill, Sissy, Hunger, She Wants It, and Bad Feminist.

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

This book completely blew me away. I had already read and enjoyed other books by Tillie Walden, but this book exhibits her skills both as an artist and a writer at a completely new level. The pacing of the story, the style of the story, the plot and the emotions of the story are all braided into a completely seamless whole. Has anyone optioned the film rights for this story yet? I felt like I was hearing a soundtrack playing in my head as I read it. The story focuses on two different emotional times in the life of one woman named Mia. In the "current" timeline she has just started a new job as part of a spaceship crew that flies to different locations and does renovations on the mysterious, crumbling architecture of past civilizations. In the "past" timeline, we see Mia as a first year at a girls boarding school meet, befriend, and slowly fall in love with another student named Grace. Slowly the backgrounds of these two, and of the member's of Mia's crew, are unfolded to reveal a web of connections that I was surprised and delighted by. At this heart, this is a book about friendship, budding queer love and of growing into independence and self-confidence. In a total power move, Tillie Walden did not include a single male character in this 533 page story. We meet a nonbinary character who uses they/them pronouns, but other than that this is a universe entirely inhabited by girls and women. I loved it.

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? By Roz Chast

I've been reading Roz Chast's comics in the New Yorker ever since I learned how to read (at age 11). I remember reading an excerpt from this book probably back when it was first released in 2014. Aging and dying aren't easy subjects, but I admire Chast's honesty and this book finds humor even in the most trying of circumstances. This book also sparked a conversation with my own parents about what we'd all like done with our bodies after we die, and firmed up our (continually delayed) commitment to finally filling out advanced directives for our own medical care.

Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerads

I asked the owner of my local comics shop what he was most excited about lately, and this is the book he put into my hands. I had never heard of the character before, and had never read anything by this author. But I flipped through it while he gave me a passionate description. I ended up buying it, partly because of the absolute mastery of the page layouts. Every single page is done in a 9 panel grid, to stunning effect. The fight scenes are exciting, the jokes are perfectly timed and the emotional moments are very powerful- effects often achieved by the use of a variety of layouts. I can't even imagine the amount of communication that must have gone on between this writer/artist team. The story focuses on Scott Free, one of the New Gods from New Genesis. There's a short prequel which explains his origins- he was given away as a baby by his father to secure a peace treaty between two warring worlds. His childhood was a series of unending tortures. But now he is an adult, living on Earth, happily married and working in entertainment as an escape artist. At the opening of this book, he has just survived an attempted suicide. Then he is called back to New Genesis and the war. This book is evenly divided between Scott and his wife Barda's home life on Earth and their insane life as nearly invulnerable killing machines in the New Gods war against Darkseid. Both parts are treated with equal seriousness, and the result is a story unlike any I have read in superheroes before.

Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

This follows two boys, Ari and Hector, and their sweet, light, summer romance after meeting in a bakery in a seaside tourist town. Ari's family runs Kyrkos Bakery, but Ari doesn't want to work in the family business: he wants to move to Baltimore with friends and pursue music. He hires Hector on as a possible replacement for himself. But Ari soon finds that he enjoys baking a lot more when working a long side Hector. The art is gorgeous and this type of story would usually be right up my alley but the book has several small flaws that kept adding up, until by the end I was more irritated than charmed. Most the things that bugged me where little plot inconsistencies, things like, a character already knowing another character's name the very first time we see them meet on the page, implying some kind of either prior meeting or maybe prior gossip that the reader never sees. Or a character bringing up something that would usually be foreshadowing for later plot which is then never mentioned again. I'd still recommend the book if you just want to read a fluffy sweet gay romance, but it doesn't have the emotional weight of Kiss Number 8,Check Please!, or Always Raining Here.

My Solo Exchange Diary book 1 by Kabi Nagata

Following the successful online Japanese publication of My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness Nagata was given a second series to write about her life, in diary-entry like installments. This volume collects the first 12 entries in which she struggles to become financially independent and move into her own apartment. Her paralyzing depression leads to many false starts: she spends about one month in her own place before turning around to move back home, partly because she wasn't able to afford to buy the bare necessities to furnish a place and partly because she didn't have the mental energy to plan ahead. She thinks deeply about her lack of community, and tries hard to reach out and strengthen high school friendships, with mixed success. Half way through the book she moves out a second time, partly to gain more privacy to work on her comics, which she has not shared with her parents. When she eventually does, they do not respond well. The final few chapters deal with a handling the pressure of internet comments and a crush. This story is just as messy and honest her first book, but because it is about chronicling events which are still unfolding, it's a little less cohesive- like life.

My Solo Exchange Diary book 2 by Kabi Nagata

This second volume of Kabi Nagata's diary comics deals mainly with mental health, depression, self-harm and hospitalization. The drawing style gets looser and looser as it goes along, which feels very appropriate given the subject matter. This is an intimate and raw portrait of someone whose life is completely falling apart, with periods of intense psychological pain punctuated by stretches of boredom and brief hope. By the end of the book she is once again living at home, having given up alcohol and formed a much stronger bond with her parents. I hope she's doing alright now, and keeps drawing comics.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

This is only the third novel told in poems I can remember reading (the first two being Love That Dog by Sharon Creech and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson). I am once again impressed by how this author, like those other authors, achieved not only a successful story but also a successful poetry collection. Xiomara Batista is a high school sophomore in Harlem, New York; she is a daughter of religious parents from the Dominican Republic; a twin; a fighter and a poet. Her notebook feels like the only place in the world she can express her true thoughts. In her poems she questions God, defends herself against her overbearing mother, expresses her fury over being constantly catcalled and groped by men, while at the same time curious about what it would be like to kiss a boy she loves. When a supportive teacher invites Xiomara to join a poetry club, she might finally have a place to release her words into the world- though it means sneaking and lying to attend, since she is supposed to spend her afternoons in communion class at church. I do want to add a trigger warning to this book for religious-based slut-shaming/sex negativity, abusive parents, and some background homophobia. However, all of these are things that Xiomara actively struggles and argues against in her writings.

Sick, A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour

This book was surprising, unpredictable, and better than I expected. Porochista Khakpour writes about being sick nearly her entire life, while consistently living a life which defies what many people would expect from a chronically ill person. Khakpour was born in Tehran in 1978 but was raised in Los Angeles after her family fled the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war which formed her toddler memories. She had a lonely and painful childhood, during which at an unknown time she contracted Lyme disease. This went diagnosed for decades, and was compounded by the trauma of two major car crashes. Before she knew (or was willing to acknowledge) she was ill, Khakpour lived the reckless life of a mid-1990s college student in New York City, which involved parties wild with alcohol, cigarettes and causal drug use. She moved over and over, up to Baltimore for grad school, out to Pennsylvania for a university teaching position, to Santa Fe and Germany and New York and San Francisco and back to Los Angeles for jobs and residencies and breakdowns. Her health ebbed and flowed: periods of relative stability in which she was able to finish school, work as a magazine editor or a professor and finish her first book; other periods in which weekly trips to the ER or week-long hospital stays became the terrifying norm as Lyme eroded her ability to drive, walk, type, think, swallow food, and sleep. This book is told mostly chronologically with chapters themed around place, as place often informed her health and the availability of medical care. I left it feeling rage at a medical system which often ignores or downplays the pain of women, astonishment at everything Khakpour has survived, a better understanding of this condition, and an extreme gratitude for my own health.

Luisa: Now and Then by Carole Maurel

Set in Paris in 2013, this graphic novel focuses on a woman named Luisa who at 33 has to deal with the queer identity she has been suppressing for decades when her own teenage-self travels forward in time and lands on her doorstep. Her teen self is outraged that she has compromised her desire to be a fine-art photographer by doing primarily food-photography for advertising; confused as to why she barely communicates to her mother; but most of all sad and angry that she lost touch with the one out lesbian friend she had in 8th grade, with whom she shared one fateful kiss. Things become even more complicated when the two Luisas begin to blend into each other- the older one breaking out in acne, the younger one shocked to discover gray hairs. The older Luisa's inhibitions are loosened and she invites her attractive female neighbor out for a wild night on the town which includes a make-out session. Meanwhile the younger Luisa is getting both more mature and more frightened- how will she ever make it home to her own time? Considering the fancifulness of the narrative, the art is very simple and beautiful, and does an excellent job of distinguishing between the two Luisas. Though the time travel is never fully explained, it's still overall a satisfying narrative. The only reason I didn't rate it a bit higher is that I'm not super interested in reading stories of queer characters dealing with so much internalized homophobia these days. I think this book would have hit the spot when I was in high school or younger though!

1602: Witch Hunter Angela by Marguerite Bennett, Stephanie Hans, Kieron Gillen and others

Marvel 1602 was one of the earliest American comic books I ever read, during a high school Neil Gaiman binge. I'm not sure I had ever read a Marvel comic before. I was only familiar with the characters from the first two X-Men films, but I loved the Elizabethan setting, so I happily muddled through the confusing parts. I was delighted to discover this companion volume written by Marguerite Bennett, primarily illustrated by Stephanie Hans (other artists step in to illustrate some of the short stories sprinkled throughout the four chapters). The story begins with Angela and her lover Serah, confronting and then killing King James, who in the struggle reveals himself to be a Witchbreed. In the Mermaid Tavern they encounter an even more dangerous enemy: a Faustian. Whereas Witchbreeds are born with powers, Faustians gain their powers by bartering with a dark supernatural being. This presence reveals herself to Angela and makes a threatening promise: if Angela kills three more Faustians, Serah will die. Angela must make a choice to give up her calling or give up her one true love. This is a very strong mini series, with a nice balance of humor and drama. The art is gorgeously luscious and matches the tone of the writing perfectly. And I can attest to the fact this book stands on it's own even if you are unfamiliar with the title character.

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

I got my hands on a physical copy of my book for the first time, which was quite an emotional experience. It’s heavier and softer than I thought it would be. I read it through and only caught a few TINY errors. I am so proud of this book and happy it is out in the world now.