Take a photo of a barcode or cover
traciemasek 's review for:
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders
by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Three stars? Sure. I finished this in September 2013, and then promptly decided to not use Goodreads for 3 months for unknown reasons. The only reason I know the date I finished the book is because this was the first book we read for our book club and I am insane and went back through my calendar to look up the first date we met for book club, knowing that I finished reading the book MINUTES before we met.
So, it's a good read. (heh) It's written a little too writing-professory for my liking. Okay, we get it, you can frame a chapter. Now quit it with the cutesy writing technique. It's maybe a dick move to say you'd wished someone had written more about x when it's HER memoirs, since it's sort of up to her to pick what she wants to rememoir (see what I did there?), but as a lot of critics mentioned this tends to glaze right over most examples of prejudice that she faces as she transitioned from male to female. But maybe that's just not her story, so fair enough. The chapter where she writes about how the hormones changed her whole outlook on life was SUPER INTERESTING. I'd recommend pretty much anyone read this book for an introduction to what a transgender person goes through. It's just one person's story, so doesn't need to define everyone, but it's engaging and will probably help even a little bit for those of us who have always felt comfortable with our gender matching our biological sex to understand what it's like when those two things don't line up.
Maybe I should give this 4 stars. It's just the damn tidy-as-fuck chapter framing that holds me back. I am an asshole.
So, it's a good read. (heh) It's written a little too writing-professory for my liking. Okay, we get it, you can frame a chapter. Now quit it with the cutesy writing technique. It's maybe a dick move to say you'd wished someone had written more about x when it's HER memoirs, since it's sort of up to her to pick what she wants to rememoir (see what I did there?), but as a lot of critics mentioned this tends to glaze right over most examples of prejudice that she faces as she transitioned from male to female. But maybe that's just not her story, so fair enough. The chapter where she writes about how the hormones changed her whole outlook on life was SUPER INTERESTING. I'd recommend pretty much anyone read this book for an introduction to what a transgender person goes through. It's just one person's story, so doesn't need to define everyone, but it's engaging and will probably help even a little bit for those of us who have always felt comfortable with our gender matching our biological sex to understand what it's like when those two things don't line up.
Maybe I should give this 4 stars. It's just the damn tidy-as-fuck chapter framing that holds me back. I am an asshole.