It can be confusing to sift through the plethora of books available for the transgender community find the right one for your situation. This page will list the best transgender books and best crossdresser books, along with reviews. Some of the books will have the stock description from Amazon, as I’m able to read through more of the books I’ll post more detailed reviews.
If you’d like to contribute a review for a particular book or find that I’ve missed a particularly valuable resource please contact me. I’m happy to share any detailed, well considered and fair review. I’m also happy to add any resources that will prove valuable to those in the transgender community.
Once a detailed review has been posted you’ll have the opportunity to provide your own short comments on what you thought of the book.
Highly Recommended Transgender Books
These books come highly recommended. I’ve either read them directly, or have a strong recommendation from a trusted friend.
She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan
The provocative bestseller She’s Not There is the winning, utterly surprising story of a person changing genders. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Jennifer Finney Boylan explores the territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of family. Told in Boylan’s fresh voice, She’s Not There is about a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret. Through her clear eyes, She’s Not There provides a new window on the confounding process of accepting our true selves. [Be the first to submit a review!]
True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism – For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals by Mildred L. Brown and Chloe Ann Rounsley
Filled with wisdom and understanding, this groundbreaking book paints a vivid portrait of conflicts transsexuals face on a daily basis–and the courage they must summon as they struggle to reveal their true being to themselves and others. True Selves offers valuable guidance for those who are struggling to understand these people and their situations. [Be the first to submit a review!]
Wrapped in Blue: A Journey of Discovery by Donna Rose
Wrapped In Blue is Donna Rose’s deeply personal memoir of self-discovery. The emotional story of her courageous and difficult journey across the gender line challenges the reader to consider life, love and gender in a new and insightful way. In the process, it provides a unique, intriguing, and sometimes humorous perspective on the differences between men and women. [Be the first to submit a review!]
Good Books For the Wife and Family of a Transgendered Person
My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser by Helen Boyd
I can honestly say that My Husband Betty is one of the best books I’ve read about the cross-dressing experience. Helen compassionately shares her struggles living with a crossdresser, exposes the hidden truths about cross-dressing that Tri-ESS doesn’t want you to know and shares the real experiences of other woman who live with crossdressers. Read More about My Husband Betty >>
My Husband Wears My Clothes: Crossdressing from the Perspective of a Wife by Peggy Rudd
This was the first book I read on crossdressing. While it is a bit dating, it lovingly explores crossdressing from the perspective of a wife and debunks some of the more common myths about crossdressing. My Husband Wears My Clothes is an approachable book that I highly recommend for anyone married to a crossdresser. Read More about My Husband Wears My Clothes >>
Trans Forming Families: Real Stories About Transgendered Loved Ones by Jessica Xavier
This is a family oriented book published especially for families, friends, and others interested in understanding and learning about transgendered persons. The first edition sold out; this is the expanded second edition, published in 2003. It deals with all ages and types of transgender – FTM, MTF, Intersex, crossdressing, and androgeny. It is an ideal first book for families who want to understand. [Be the first to submit a review!]
Books For The Transgender Youth
If you’re a transgender youth these books have been recommended as good reading. You should also review the article A Teenage Crossdresser.
Social Services With Transgendered Youth by Gerald P Mallon
Through personal narratives and case studies, Social Services with Transgendered Youth explores the childhood and adolescent experiences of transgendered persons. Addressing the differences between male-to-female (MTF) and female-to-male (FTM) individuals and identifying the specific challenges of transgendered persons from diverse races, cultures, and religious backgrounds, this compelling book offers suggestions that will help social workers and the youths’families learn more about the reality of transgendered persons’lives. [Be the first to submit a review!]
The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals by Stephanie A. Brill
This comprehensive first of its kind guidebook explores the unique challenges that thousands of families face every day raising their children in every city and state. Through extensive research and interviews, as well as years of experience working in the field, the authors cover gender variance from birth through college [Be the first to submit a review!]
Other Transgender and Crossdresser Books
Gender Loving Care: A Guide To Counselling Gender-Variant Clients by Randi Ettner
Guidance for counselors working with transsexuals: men who want to be women, and women who want to be men. While transsexualism has always been part of the human experience, only recently have people “trapped in the wrong body” sought psychological care in large numbers. This book provides background about this controversial condition, enabling clinicians to help people undergoing gender transition as they deal with hormonal treatments, legal dilemmas, surgical options, family destabilization, and work-related issues. [Be the first to submit a review!]
GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary by Joan Nestle, Riki Wilchins and Clare Howell
In this groundbreaking anthology, three experts in gender studies and politics navigate around rigid, societally imposed concepts of two genders to discover and illuminate the limitless possibilities of identity. Thirty first-person accounts of gender construction, exploration, and questioning provide a groundwork for cultural discussion, political action, and even greater possibilities of autonomous gender choices. Noted scholar Joan Nestle is joined by internationally prominent gender warrior Riki Wilchins and historian Clare Howell to provide a societal, cultural, and political exploration of gender identity. [Be the first to submit a review!]
Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude by Amy Bloom
What is normal? We’d like to see normal as the sweet simple way that we’re taught through stories. That normal is a husband and wife who love each other, have two and a half children, a golden retriever and volunteer at the church on weekends. In fact our definition of normal doesn’t even begin to encompass the wonders of who we are as human beings. In trying to be “normal” we strive for bland sameness, hiding the uniqueness of who we are.
In Amy Bloom’s book entitled “Normal“, she explores the world of transsexuals, crossdressers and the intersexed. It is a must read for any crossdresser who wants to understand the … Read more about Normal >>
Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and Their Families by Arlene Istar Leve
This comprehensive book provides you with a clinical and theoretical overview of the issues facing transgendered/transsexual people and their families. Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and Their Families views assessment and treatment through a nonpathologizing lens that honors human diversity and acknowledges the role of oppression in the developmental process of gender identity formation. [Be the first to submit a review!]
Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men by Lori B. Girshick
In this extraordinary book, based on 150 in-depth interviews, Lori B. Girshick, a sociologist and social justice activist, brings together the voices of sex- and gender-diverse people who speak with absolute candor about their lives. Girshick presents transpeople speaking in their own voices about identity, coming out, passing, sexual orientation, relationship negotiations and the dynamics of attraction, homophobia (including internalized fears), and bullying. She exposes the guilt and the shame that “gender police” use in their attempts to exert control and points out the many ways transpeople are discriminated against in daily life, from filling out identification documents to gender-segregated bathrooms. [Be the first to submit a review!]
The Uninvited Dilemma: A Question of Gender by Kim Elizabeth Stuart
“The Uninvited Dilemma” is different from the autobiographies and clinical studies on transsexuality. It represents two years of research involving carefully structured, in-depth personal interviews with seventy-five transsexuals, consultations with members of the medical and mental health communities, and conversations with loved ones of transsexuals. This book will give you an understanding of the true nature of transsexuality. It is a remarkable reading experience for all who are interested in the human condition and and exploration of the most fundamental aspect of our humanity. [Be the first to submit a review!]
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano
A provocative manifesto, Whipping Girl tells the powerful story of Julia Serano, a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist. Serano shares her experiences and observations — both pre- and post-transition — to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole. [Be the first to submit a review!]
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