Books as we say are friends that provide us with the correct knowledge and enlighten us. Some books make us cry, yet some give us the memory to live with them. And in this journey books become our friends. Our book Editor rounded here the top books which raise awareness about the community and also help us understand their dilemma and inner conflicts.
Today’s world has evolved in many ways and so have human beings. Humans have come out of their nutshell to speak about all the previously recognized issues as taboo. One such issue is the transgender issue. Recently, the world has celebrated “Transgender Day of Visibility”, which recognizes the LGBTQ community and their issues as well. By the late 1980s, authors started questioning the conventional gender norms. And started representing the space between ‘male’ and ‘female’. They also spoke against gender identity and transphobia within second-wave feminism. A range of books sought to give a language to trans and genderqueer identities, which is self-defined than imposed. This aims to organize a community and raise awareness about them.
‘Cobra’ by Severo Sarduy****
This novel is an exception by the Cuban author, which puts a transvestite who aims for physical transformation at its core. It addresses the challenges of cross-gender living, instead of being a radical, witty experiment with literary form, praised by Roland Barthes in ‘The Pleasure of the Text’. But it is immersed in mid-20th century drag and transgender culture.
‘Man Enough to be a Women’ by Jayne County**
This novel deals with how the author was present at Warhol’s Factory and the Stonewall riots, before becoming part of punk rock scenes in the US and London, and West Berlin’s queer underground. It’s full insight into a vanishing counterculture and an enjoyable alternative to stories that prioritize a desire to fit into bourgeois norms.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson****
All Boys Aren’t Blue is a nonfiction “memoir-manifesto” written by writer and activist George M. (Matthew) Johnson for young adults in 2020. It is Johnson’s first book, and it is a collection of writings created for an adolescent audience. Consent, agency, and sexual abuse are all discussed in the book. It describes statutory rape and sexual intercourse. In this YA “memoir-manifesto” for queer men of color and the youth who wish to support them, Johnson focuses on gender identity, structural discrimination, Black joy, and other issues.
