Recommended Reads for Adults

Recommended Reads: March 2025

March 31st is Trans Day of Awareness, where we celebrate the joys and contributions of trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people everywhere. In this case, we're highlighting books about trans joy. Whether they’re going on epic adventures, falling in love, or recounting their life story, these books highlight trans people living their best lives.

Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam, 2022. (DB110620)

Today's narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people's lives. Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures. -- Provided by publisher

Cemetery Boys/ Los chicos del Cementerio by Aiden Thomas, 2020. (DB101679, DB103849 en español)

Yadriel, who is transgender, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family. For senior high and older readers.

Chef’s Choice (Chef’s Kiss, #2) by T.J. Alexander, 2023. (DB116235)

When Luna O'Shea is unceremoniously fired from her frustrating office job, she tries to count her blessings: she's a proud trans woman who has plenty of friends, a wonderful roommate, and a good life in New York City. But blessings don't pay the bills. Enter Jean-Pierre, a laissez-faire trans man and the heir to a huge culinary empire-which he'll only inherit if he can jump through all the hoops his celebrity chef grandfather has placed in his path. First hoop: he needs a girlfriend, a role that Luna is happy to play...for the right price. She's got rent to pay, after all! Second hoop: they both need to learn how to cook a series of elaborate, world-renowned family recipes to prove that Jean-Pierre is a worthy heir. Admittedly, Luna doesn't even know how to crack an egg, but she's not going to let that-or any pesky feelings for Jean-Pierre-stop her. -- Provided by publisher

Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff, 2022. (DB107929, LP026467)

Annabelle fully expects this school year to be the same as every other: same teachers, same classmates, same everything. So she’s elated to discover there’s a new kid in town, Bailey is a breath of fresh air. She loves hearing about their life in Seattle, meeting their loquacious parents, and hanging out at their massive house. It doesn’t hurt that Bailey has a cute smile, nice hands and smells really good. Suddenly 6th grade is anything but the same. And when her father shares that he and Bailey have something big--and surprising--in common, Annabelle begins to see herself, and her family, in a whole new light.

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom, 2023. (DB116790)

Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. But then she found herself in a crisis of faith. Rather than succumb to despair and cynicism, she gathered all her rage and grief and took one last leap of faith: she wrote. Whether prayers or spells or poems-and whether there's a difference-she wrote to affirm the outcasts and runaways she calls her kin. She wrote to flawed but nonetheless lovable men, to people with good intentions who harm their own, to racists and transphobes seemingly beyond saving. What emerged was a blueprint for falling back in love with being human. -- Modified from the publisher’s description.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender, 2020. (DB099889, LP026281)

Felix Love, a transgender seventeen-year-old, attempts to get revenge by catfishing his anonymous bully, but lands in a quasi-love triangle with his former enemy and his best friend. For senior high and older readers.

Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words edited by Lindsay Herriot, 2021. (DBC19089, BRW08758)

What does it mean to be young and transgender today? Growing Up Trans shares stories, essays, art and poetry created by trans youth aged 11 to 18. In their own words, the works illustrate the trans experience through childhood, family and daily life, school, their bodies and mental health. For grades 5-8 and older readers.

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, 2021. (DB105930, BR024241)

Shizuka has made a deal with the devil to deliver the souls of violin prodigies, and when she meets a talented young trans runaway, she knows she's found her final candidate. But when Shizuka runs into retired starship captain Lan Tran, her plans are soon derailed.

Man O’ War by Cory McCarthy, 2022. (DB113098, BR024971)

River McIntyre has grown up down the street from Sea Planet, an infamous marine life theme park slowly going out of business in small-town Ohio. When a chance encounter with a happy, healthy queer person on the annual field trip lands River literally in the shark tank, they must admit the truth: they don’t know who they are—only what they’ve been told to be. This sets off a wrenching journey of self-discovery, from internalized homophobia and gender dysphoria, through layers of coming out, affirmation surgery, and true freakin’ love.

George by Alex Gino, 2015. (DB082273, LP026095)

When people look at George, they think they see a boy, but she knows she's really a girl. A class play pushes George to take action. George and her friend Kelly come up with a plan so that everyone can know who she truly is. Winner of the 2016 Stonewall Book Award as well as the 2016 Lambda Literary Award. For grades 4-7.

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity and So Much More by Janet Mock, 2014. (DB096017)

Journalist chronicles her life growing up in America multiracial, poor, and trans. Discusses her own experiences coming out to her family and loved ones, challenges she faced in her industry, and the dangers faced by trans women of color.

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane, 2022. (DB109920).

Achilles has fled her home to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the “prince” Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother Athena intervenes, transforming her body into the one she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and even a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance. Modified from the publisher’s description.

Washington Talking Book & Braille Library