Princeton 2017-2018 Supplemental Essay Prompts Short Answer Questions

Is Princeton your fantasy school? Here’s all that you have to think about applying this Fall! Situated in New Jersey, Princeton University is one of the 8 Ivy League colleges and one of the most serious colleges to get into. Princeton’s notoriety and notoriety is solid for an explanation: Princeton offers understudies balanced instruction with solid projects in the Humanities and the Sciences. It’s still significant, notwithstanding, that you do your exploration and get familiar with the grounds culture, understudy body and temporary position openings. Check whether Princeton’s actually the best fit for you! Does Princeton offer what you’re intrigued? On the off chance that you are applying this fall, here are the short answer questions and supplemental articles for the 2017-2018 application season:1. Short Answer Questions Your preferred book and its writer Your preferred site Your preferred chronicle Your preferred wellspring of motivation Your preferred line from a film or book and its title Your preferred film Two modifiers your companions would use to portray you Your preferred token or keepsake Your preferred word TIP: Don’t invest an excess of energy in these inquiries, and be consistent with what your identity is! These short answer questions are intended to help the affirmations office discover somewhat increasingly about you and your character. 2. Extracurricular Activities Supplement If you don't mind quickly expand on one of your extracurricular exercises or work encounters that was especially important to you. (Reaction required in around 150 words.)TIP: This is an ideal open door for you to expand on an extracurricular action you committed a lot of your secondary school vocation to. Try not to freeze on the off chance that you didnt do a huge amount of extracurriculars. While its noteworthy for understudies to take on a variety of extracurricular exercises, its similarly amazing on the off chance that you concentrated on a couple of extracurricular you were extremely energetic about. Take the time here to explain to the confirmations office why this specific extracurricular action was critical to you, and what you gained from it. 3. Summer Experience Supplement If it's not too much trouble disclose to us how you have spent the last two summers (or get-aways between school years), including any employments you have held. (Reaction required in around 150 words.) TIP: If you didnt do much during your summers, dont go crazy! Regardless of how little or unimportant your late spring experience may appear against a school summer program for instance, it could in any case have a great deal of significant worth. Encounters are important not due to what you did, but since of what you detracted from it. What did you realize by being a piece of a late spring program? What did you gain from keeping an eye on the late spring? Your late spring encounters don't need to be conspicuous for them to be important. 4. Extra Essay Supplement Notwithstanding the article you have composed for the Common Application or the Universal College Application, if you don't mind compose an exposition of around 500 words (close to 650 words and no less than 250 words). Utilizing one of the subjects underneath as a beginning stage, expound on an individual, occasion or experience that helped you characterize one of your qualities or here and there changed how you approach the world. Kindly don't rehash, in full or to some extent, the paper you composed for the Common Application or Universal College Application.Prompt 1:Tell us about an individual who has affected you in a huge manner. Brief 2:â€Å"One of the extraordinary difficulties within recent memory is that the variations we face today have progressively complex causes and point less clearly to solutions.†Omar Wasow, right hand teacher of legislative issues, Princeton University and prime supporter of Blackplanet.com. This statement is taken from Professor Wasow’s January 2014 discourse at the Martin Luther King Day festivity at Princeton University. Brief 3:â€Å"Culture is the thing that presents us with the sorts of important things that can fill an actual existence. What's more, to the extent that we can perceive the incentive in those things and make them part of our lives, our lives are meaningful.†Gideon Rosen, Stuart Professor of Philosophy and chief of the Behrman Undergraduate Society of Fellows, Princeton University. Brief 4:Using a most loved citation from an article or book you have perused over the most recent three years as a beginning stage, educate us regarding an occasion or experience that helped you characterize one of your qualities or changed how you approach the world. If you don't mind compose the citation, title and writer toward the start of your paper. TIP: While all these exposition prompts are somewhat extraordinary, they are largely asking you a similar inquiry: How has it impacted your or your method of thinking?Use this supplemental article to exhibit your perspective and your qualities. How would others activities and musings impact yours, and the other way around? How would you take in new encounters and information and change the manner in which you think or get things done? As you compose this supplemental paper, remember a certain something: appear, dont tell. 5. Designing Supplement This supplemental paper just applies to candidates who demonstrate they wish to seek after a qualification in Bachelor of Science in Engineering. In the event that you are keen on seeking after a Bachelor of Science in Engineering qualification, if you don't mind compose a 300-500 word exposition portraying why you are keen on contemplating building, any encounters in or introduction to designing you have had and how you think the projects in designing offered at Princeton suit your specific advantages. TIP: If youre a candidate seeking after building, consider this supplemental paper! Make the most of each open door you need to enlighten the confirmations office something new concerning you. On the off chance that you decide to expound on your enthusiasm for designing in your Common App article, at that point utilize this supplemental exposition to additionally exhibit your energy for building and how Princetons building division can assist you with accomplishing your fantasies. Dont essentially simply emphasize what youve as of now said in your Common App paper!

Motorola Knowledge Management Practice free essay sample

Livelink helps Motorola improve joint effort and access to data, just as lessen costs. Motorola, which first received Livelink in quite a while, new activities this year for Livelink, including uniting record servers and moving more data into Livelink, where an effectively gigantic 3. 5 terabytes of data is kept up. The organization will likewise make an extranet with Livelink and stretch out the framework to clients, merchants, and accomplices. Livelink fills in as the establishment for Motorola’s COMPASS framework, a worldwide intranet, which goes about as a focal storehouse for a wide scope of data, and as a spot for little workgroup cooperation and general venture level correspondence. â€Å"COMPASS gives us an approach to unite individuals and data under one system,† said Brad Bosley, Manager of Content Management and Collaboration Systems for Motorola. â€Å"It’s the essential area where individuals share data and work together. Improved correspondence and access to data are helping venture groups cooperate all the more adequately and that, at last, positively affects the manner in which we serve our clients. We will compose a custom paper test on Motorola Knowledge Management Practice or on the other hand any comparative theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page † The company’s move to solidify record servers and spot more data in COMPASS will help diminish expenses and help Motorola show signs of improvement handle on corporate information dispersed over various frameworks all through the organization. COMPASS as of now contains more than 4. 6 million reports and is developing by nearly 40 gigabytes for each week, a rate that is probably going to increment with the record server union, as indicated by Bosley. Motorola’s plan to expand COMPASS as an extranet will enable the organization to team up more intimately with clients, improving correspondence and generally speaking assistance. COMPASS will likewise be stretched out to Motorola’s accomplices, which will help increment productivity. â€Å"Motorola is meeting a test that is regularly hard for huge organizations: Overcoming size and geology to keep individuals connected,† said Mike Farrell, Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Open Text. Utilizing Livelink, Motorola has built up a unified stage for cooperation and information the board, joined with a successful framework for empowering information sharing. † Since Motorola started utilizing Livelink, the organization has named a group of 250 â€Å"knowledge champions†, in its specialty units over the organization, who teach clients on highlights in COMPASS and help deal with the library structure. Information champions assist client s with benefiting from COMPASS, which thus, energizes information sharing and coordinated effort over the organization. About Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is a worldwide pioneer in remote, car and broadband correspondences. Deals in 2002 were $27. 3 billion. Motorola is a worldwide corporate resident devoted to moral strategic approaches and spearheading significant innovations that make things more astute and life better for individuals, regarded customs that started when the organization was established 75 years back this year. For more data, if you don't mind visit: www. motorola. com About Livelink Livelink is the pioneer in coordinated effort and information the executives for the worldwide endeavor. Its luxuriously highlighted endeavor administrations incorporate virtual group cooperation, business process robotization, undertaking bunch planning and data recovery benefits, all firmly coordinated into an answer that is effectively redone and broadened. Livelink is fundamental to the viable administration and improvement of networks of intrigue that length associations and businesses. For everything from the formation of complex e-network connections to the computerization of straightforward e-business forms, Livelink conveys genuine unique cooperation between people, associations and enormous exchanging networks. Livelink servers are completely Web-based and open-architected to guarantee quick arrangement and simple access to its full usefulness through a standard Web program. For more data, visit www. opentext. com/livelink/. About Open Text Since 1991, Open Text Corporation has conveyed creative programming that unites individuals to share information, accomplish greatness, convey development, and improve forms. Its inheritance of development started with the effective sending of the world’s first web search tool innovation for the Internet. Today, as the main worldwide provider of joint effort and information the board programming for the venture, Open Text bolsters fifteen million seats across 10,000 corporate arrangements in 31 nations and 12 dialects all through the world. As a traded on an open market organization, Open Text oversees and boosts its assets and connections to guarantee the accomplishment of extraordinary personalities cooperating. For more data, visit www. opentext. com. Trademark Copyright  © 2003 by Open Text Corporation. LIVELINK and OPEN TEXT are trademarks or enlisted trademarks of Open Text Corporation in the United States of America, Canada, the European Union as well as different nations. This rundown of trademarks isn't thorough. Different trademarks, enrolled trademarks, item names, organization names, brands and administration names referenced in this are property of Open Text Corporation or other separate proprietors. Discharge Disclaimer This news discharge may contain forward-looking proclamations identifying with the arrangement of Livelink by clients, and future execution of Open Text Corporation. Forward-looking articulations are dependent upon specific dangers and vulnerabilities, and genuine outcomes may contrast tangibly. These dangers and vulnerabilities incorporate, among others, dangers engaged with the fulfillment and combination of acquisitions, the chance of specialized, calculated or arranging issues regarding organizations, the constant duty of the Companys clients and different dangers point by point every once in a while in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the last outline for the Companys first sale of stock of regular stock in January 1996, Form 10-K for the years finished June 30, 1996, June 30, 1997, June 30, 1998, June 30, 1999, June 30, 2000, June 30, 2001, and June 30, 2002, and 10-Q for the quarters finishing September 30, 2002 and December 31, 2002. Forward-looking articulations depend on administrations convictions and suppositions at the time the announcements are made, and the Company doesn't embrace any commitments to refresh forward-looking explanations should conditions or administrations convictions or assessments change.

Changes to Irish Historiography and Historical Debate

Changes to Irish Historiography and Historical Debate Examine the development of Irish historiography and recorded discussion since the 1960s with explicit reference to in any event two of the accompanying zones: women’s history, social history, work history, financial history, neighborhood history, the historical backdrop of the diaspora. There has been doubtlessly a development in Irish historiography and recorded discussion since the 1960’s. The accompanying will talk about and inspect the explanations behind the development of Irish historiography and verifiable discussion. Irish historiography had would in general spotlight on the connection among England (and later Britain) and Ireland with its ramifications for both countries’ advancements and history. Irish historiography likewise featured key occasions that demonstrated vital in molding the Irish country. Such occasions incorporate the English attacks from the twelfth century, the transformation, the manors of Ulster, the outcomes of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. Further pivotal occasions were additionally the advancement of Irish Republicanism that was appeared by the 1798 defiance and the rise of the Fenian Brotherhood during the nineteenth century. The potato starvation of the 1840’s would demonstrate lamentable to the Irish populace while urging movement to Britain, the United States and Australia. Such migration will as inspected lead to the improvement of the diaspora. The manner by which Ireland was apportioned to represent the two variants of Irish patriotism has become the focal topic of authentic discussion. The Civil Rights Movement inside the Roman Catholic people group of Northern Ireland which incidentally prompted the difficulties will be assessed with respect to whether that is the prime spark of changes in Irish historiography and verifiable discussion. Before the English contribution Ireland was a free whenever partitioned nation. One chronicled banter is whether the English were fortunate or unfortunate for Ireland. It had been impacted by mostly Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Viking settlements.[1] Irish culture was Gaelic and Christian in character. The English that came to Ireland were relatives of the Normans that mercilessly vanquished England a century prior. As opposed to William the Conqueror these Anglo-Norman trespassers didn't expect to remain and were welcome to cross the Irish Sea to participate with a contention between Gaelic chieftains. For the Irish the inclusion the Anglo-Norman in their issues was a stupendous change in their fate. From Henry II English Kings came to view dependability in Ireland as in significant piece of their security. The mishap of geology was to prompt the entomb connection between the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish that has carried the two advantages and debacles to all concerned. There are i ndividuals who accept that the English or British carried advantages to the Irish will in general pressure the great results of their contribution instead of the awful. The individuals who have an enemy of English viewpoint stress the hurtful outcomes, [2] Henry II himself was not in a rush to attack Ireland; his assets in France and England took need. Anyway once the English showed up in 1172 they would not be evacuated by the Irish for a considerable length of time, and, after its all said and done not from the entire of Ireland.[3] English control of Ireland was never finished and based on Dublin. The measure of control varied relying upon the force and enthusiasm of the King. Solid Kings, for example, Edward IV and Henry VII endeavored to expand their capacity in Ireland. It was to be Henry VIII that would adjust the state of Irish history as much as he changed that of England. Henry VIII was a man of extraordinary aspiration, in 1541 he announced himself King of Ireland, in this manner demonstrating the aim of overseeing Ireland.[4] The Tudors made their control of Ireland successful if not complete yet at the expense of planting future clash over religion, governmental issues and the status of Ireland. Henry VIII had just endeavored to pick up the devotion of the Irish respectability and deal with the Irish church. After the break from Rome, Henry was resolved to acquaint the Church of England with his Irish subjects just as his English subjects. The Reformation would additionally confound the connection between the Irish and English. The Reformation was delayed to flourish in Ireland; the Roman Catholic Church kept up its quality in most of the island, particularly in provincial territories. While the Irish parliament dependably followed the strict enactment crazy ride found in England the Irish didn't stick to this same pattern. Incidentally it was the Roman Catholic, Mary I that surfaced with the technique that would change Irish society and economy as significantly as it influenced its legislative issues an d religion, the plantations.[5] The Irish didn't acknowledge those progressions without standing up to. The most genuine danger to the Tudor hang on Ireland accompanied the Earl of Tyrone’s resistance of the 1590’s that was not at long last put down until 1604.[6] Despite that defiance James VI of Scotland acquired Ireland under the crown’s control when he picked up the English throne.[7] James I extraordinarily extended the estates specifically to the Irish area of Ulster. The protestant pilgrims picked up land off of the Irish populace of Ulster as an end-result of their dedication to Britain. The pilgrims would be given social and monetary favorable circumstances by the legislature that persevered into the twentieth century and was profoundly disdained by the Roman Catholic people group. That disdain added to the insubordination of 1641 that assaulted the ranches. Irish patriots and republicans see the estates as a prime case of British government while Unionists view them as the establishme nt of their communities.[8] The defiance in Ireland started off the English Civil War, there was in actuality Civil Wars in England, Scotland and Ireland that would bring about much carnage and the expulsion of Charles I. The circumstance in Ireland was entangled; there were those that bolstered the English parliament and those that wished to utilize the Civil Wars as a chance to pick up freedom. All Irish restriction to the English parliament was savagely smothered by Oliver Cromwell and brought about the slaughter of Drogheda. Oliver Cromwell remains related with grisly suppression and the utilization of fear right up 'til today, the Catch 22 of an English republican with Imperial policies.[9] The Irish Catholic people group would stay faithful to James II who lost his Irish realm after his English and Scottish ones. The triumph of William of Orange just strengthened the British inclination for the Ulster Protestants. The Protestants jumped at the chance to demonstrate their devot ion to Britain through their Orange requests and student boys’ walks, a wellspring of partisan grating for over three centuries. While the Unionists see these as images of their British nationality, the Catholic people group consider them to be images of their proceeded with rule from Britain. [10] The outcomes of these occasions were two opponent faculties of patriotism created in Ireland. There were a significant number of the Irish populace that remained overwhelmingly poor, rustic and Roman Catholic wanting for freedom from Britain or if nothing else self-rule. The other type of patriotism was that fixated on the Ulster Protestants that considered themselves to be British and didn't need freedom and would possibly acknowledge more self-rule if their uncommon status were kept up. A portion of these Protestants were additionally poor yet viewed themselves as superior to their Catholic friends. There was an upsurge in Irish patriotism following in the wake of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution that finished in the defiance of 1798. The French had put forth a valiant effort to raise a ruckus in Ireland yet demonstrated unequipped for supporting the insubordination. The disappointment of that defiance prompted agitators, for example, Wolfe Tone joining th e Diaspora and the association of Ireland with Great Britain. The number of inhabitants in Ireland developed quickly particularly with the presentation of the potato. The economy began to grow particularly in Belfast and different pieces of Ulster that delivered material and boats. Dublin and Belfast additionally developed to quick urbanisation.[11] Potato curse carried starvation to Ireland radically decreased the populace through starvation and movement while demonstrating the British government as clumsy during the crisis.[12] There have positively been numerous discussions around the Potato Famine, which fixated on those that didn't wish to turn out to be excessively engaged with depicting the outcomes and the revisionists that its results couldn't be overemphasized. Maybe one of the most significant revisionist works was Cecil Woodham-Smith’s ‘The Great Hunger’ written in 1962 and attempted to look at if the starvation could have been turned away or if nothing else lightened. The principle banter concerns who was to be faulted for the starvation, the British government all alone or others either separately or in different combinations.[13] The Potato Famine of 1845-47 would prompt requests for Home Rule and Land Reform while it likewise persuaded Irish Catholics that the British government couldn't have cared less about them. There had been before starvations, for example that of 1739-41, yet none became as infamous as the one of 1845-47.[14] On balance most students of history currently appear to edge their wagers when distributing fault for the starvation. Anyway at the time numerous in Ireland reprimanded the British government for not acting rapidly enough. Discernments can regularly be more impressive than actuality, the picture of British lack of concern has been unmistakably more suffering than the innumerable number of British people that endeavored to help the Irish.[15] The displacement from Ireland that followed was amazing, between the beginning of the potato starvation and parcel 4,000,000 Irish left for the United States, Australia and Britain. The Irish â€American people group can declare incredible political impact in the United States which is the reason Irish Republican

Global Issues: Obesity, Inactivity, and Water-Crisis

Wellbeing is a valuable blessing that should be treasured. Tragically, there are three worldwide issues that are wrecking people’s wellbeing and murdering them. These wellbeing concerns incorporate dormancy, heftiness and absence of safe drinking water. The positive side of these issues is the way that they are on the whole preventable through creation the correct choices and making a move. Because of higher patterns of stationary ways of life, dormancy has gotten one of the basic current worldwide issues. Latency is characterized as an inability to meet the every day least physical prerequisite of moderate exercise.According to New York Times, around the world, 31. 1% of grown-ups are idle, from which 43. 4% of North America, 34. 8% of Europe, 30% of Russia, 30% of the Middle East, and 27% African. In view of these rates, it is sensible to accept that the rich the area is, the more dormant it is probably going to be. Stationary ways of life have as of late been connected to n umerous medical problems, for example, coronary illness, Type 2 diabetes, colon malignancy and bosom disease. As expressed in the New York Times, internationally, around 5. 3 million individuals kick the bucket from medical problems that are identified with physical latency; anyway relatively, 5. million individuals pass on because of wellbeing worries that are identified with smoking. Tragically individuals don't comprehend the extent of the significance of physical movement because of the way that latency is as dangerous as smoking cigarettes. In the United States, inertia level is the most noteworthy on the planet, which makes it an unquestionable concern. The normal American way of life comprises of heading to work, sitting at a work area throughout the day, at that point sitting before a PC or a TV screen until nodding off. The normal pattern of this routine is a great deal of sitting and next to no exercise.Although, fortunately medical problems associated with inertia can be handily forestalled by meeting the base exercise necessity, which is a twenty-minute walk every day. Moreover, with respect to overall avoidance, administrative mediation might be fundamental. A few models are to fabricate more stops, advance the significance of activity, and set up money related impetuses. Stoutness is another developing worldwide concern, which is characterized as a â€Å"abnormal or exorbitant fat gathering that may impede health,† which is brought about by a â€Å"energy unevenness between calories devoured and calories exhausted. As per the World Health Organization, starting at 2008, there are 1. 4 billion grown-ups that are overweight, of which 200 million men and 300 million ladies were corpulent. Stoutness is the fifth driving danger for passings around the globe; around 2. 8 million grown-ups every beyond words to medical problems concerning being overweight or large. Some ailments are cardiovascular sickness, diabetes, and a few kinds of malignant growths. Universally, stoutness has been a developing worry, because of utilization of fatty handled nourishments. Moreover, an expanded degree of dormancy adds to the developing number of stout people.The brilliant side of heftiness is that it is effectively preventable. On an individual level, heftiness can be forestalled by constrained admission of profoundly calorie prepared nourishments, expanded admission of new produce, for example, vegetables and natural product, and customary exercise. The United States, otherwise called the fattest nation on the planet, has been fighting with the developing issue of weight. The quick pace and occupied way of life doesn't assist this with fasting food adoring society. American’s love for McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, and other cheap food joints isn't helping the fight with the extending waistlines.In reaction to this worry, there have been a few preventable starts, for example, Michelle Obama’s â€Å"Let’s Move† battle that intends to show kids the significance of eating well and practicing routinely. By and large, stoutness is a quickly developing concern yet it tends to be forestalled by the right activities, information and activities. Besides, the absence of safe drinking water is another basic worldwide concern. As per WHO, hazardous drinking water causes looseness of the bowels, intestinal sickness, lack of healthy sustenance, lymphatic filariasis, and trachoma.The accessibility of safe drinking water is the basic to remaining sound. The human body is comprised of for the most part water; along these lines, to remain sound, we require clean water the same amount of as we need appropriate supplements from food. The creating territories of the world have the least accessibility of safe cleaning water due to insuffient legislative capital assets. Be that as it may, clean water concern isn't constrained to just extremely poor zones, for example, Africa and Southeast Asia. Eastern European nations are additionally experiencing the issue of not having clean drinking water.From my own understanding of living in Kiev, Ukraine, the water that comes out of the fixture is pigmented yellow and isn't suggested for drinking. There, a great many people pick drinking just filtered water. The uplifting news about the issue of risky drinking water is the way that as indicated by the WHO, â€Å"89% of the world’s populace had some type of improved water gracefully. † In request to keep improving the world’s water flexibly, nearby governments need to put resources into fundamental safety measures to make the drinking water sheltered, for example, dispersing water channels, water containers, and building secured burrowed wells.Overall, the three flow gives that are influencing worldwide wellbeing are dormancy, stoutness and absence of safe drinking water. An individual can't be sound on the off chance that they lounge around throughout the day, expending a great er number of calories than their body realizes how to manage and drink defiled, grimy water. Physical movement, smart dieting examples and clean water are fundamental to our ordinary wellbeing; subsequently, moves should be made at the individual and legislative level so as to spare and drag out human lives on this planet. Works Cited â€Å"How does safe water sway worldwide wellbeing? † WHO. 9 Sept. 2012 <http://www. who. int/highlights/qa/70/en/record. html>. â€Å"Obesity and overweight. † WHO. 19 Sept. 2012 <http://www. who. int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/>. â€Å"The Couch Potato Goes Global. † Well. 19 Sept. 2012 <http://well. web journals. nytimes. com/2012/07/18/the-habitual slouch goes-worldwide/>. â€Å"Water-related sicknesses. † WHO. 19 Sept. 2012 <http://www. who. int/water_sanitation_health/illnesses/hunger/en/>. â€Å"Water, sanitation and cleanliness. † WHO. 19 Sept. 2012 <http://www. who. int/gho/phe /water_sanitation/en/list. html>.

An LGBTQ TBR List For Any Occasion

An LGBTQ TBR List For Any Occasion I recently had the pleasure of reading Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders. The authors of the memoir, Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall, are both active in the LGBTQ world as writers, editors and educators, and just through their own memoir-ific life experiences. Naturally, after I read their book I  wanted to know what books influenced  them. I asked for their top 5, but if you’re not gonna let a simple thing like gender deter you, why stick to a mandated book shortlist? Sorted by genre, here are their suggestions for LGBTQ-centric books for any occasion-whether you’re looking for some self help, memoir, comic/graphic novel, books for kids, fiction, or just want a classic LGBTQ read. With a couple of my favorites at the end. (Warning: this list lists heavily to the L and T sides of the equation.) JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL: Because I believe that rules don’t apply to me (;-) I have discarded your request for five influential LGBT books in exchange for the following: Memoirs that helped open my eyes to the diversity of the gender variant community 1. Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation, by  Eli Claire. This great autobiographical by work is also a dissertation on the intersections of disability, class and queerness. It spoke to me not only as a disabled trans man but also because Claire and I share a connection to the American Northwest. Never before had I heard an LGBT writer so eloquently describe the love-hate relationship I have with rural Idaho. 2. Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers Lesbian journalist Cris Beam’s memoir about teachingâ€"and later parentingâ€"homeless trans kids from the streets of LA. One of the first works that really gave me insight into the plight of queer homeless kids and the experiences of young black and Hispanic transwomen. It helped recruit me as a foster parent. If you don’t know what pumping parties are, you have to read this book. 3. Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) Thea Hillman’s memoir is one of the best to read when pondering why the “I” belongs with the LGB and T. She’s clearly one of us. She dates girls and genderqueer partners, attends SM parties,  and explores ideas about what is “normal” in terms of gender, sex, sexuality and ablebodiedness. As Hillman begins to embrace her intersex identity she also finds herself being rejected by other members of the intersex community for not being intersex enough,  because she wasn’t forced to undergo invasive surgeries as a child. 4. Becoming a Visible Man Jamison Green is a pioneering trans activist. Growing up he was both far more masculine and more certain of his male identity than I and yet he also spent many years as a lesbian before transitioning  (and later explored his post-transition attraction to gay men). 5. Gender Outlaws: the Next Generation, edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman. This anthology gathers together emerging voices in a diverse, multiethnic and transnational exploration of trans and gender variant lives. Academic work that may be most at home in college bookstores but should be read by a broader audience 1. Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience, by  Katrina Karkazis. Beginning in the mid-1950s the natural diversity in human genitalia has primarily been seen as a medical “problem” that needs to be “fixed” by doctors/surgeons. Karkazis work examines multiple perspectivesâ€"interviewing doctors, parents, and  those who have been the target of our fear of different looking genitals. Helped me with how the trans and intersex experiences may be related but they are not similar (It boils down to surgery: most trans people who undergo genital surgery seek it out themselves  as adults. Most intersex people who’ve undergone genital surgery did not choose it and were subjected to it when they were children.) Plus, it introduced me to the unfortunate phrase “it is easier to create a hole than a pole,” which not only explains why boys  with very small penises were often reassigned as female at birth but also why the bottom surgeries for trans women have been far more successful in creating natural looking genitalia than those for trans men. 2. Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a CategoryImaganing Transgender David Valentine takes an anthropological view of the emergence and adoption of transgender as a category of collective identity and political activism. He explains why the term/identity is a natural extension of LGBT and feminist politics, but also argues  that it embraces the experiences of many gender variant individuals, especially people of color who he found were more likely to see their gender as a reflection of their queer sexual orientations, rather than a separate identity. 3. The Transgender Studies Reader, edited  by Susan Stryker and Stephan Whittle.  The quintessential introduction to transgender studies. 4. Transgender Rights, edited by Paisley  Currah, Richard M. Juang and Shannon Price Minter.  This anthology looks at the activism, legal arguments, court cases, lobbying and policy making that have defined what rights gender variant folks have and what we’re still fighting forâ€"or  were (this 2006 collection misses the changes won during the Obama administration). 5. Transgender History, by Susan Stryker Introduction to the history of trans/gender variant community struggle for rights in America post WWII. 6. Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People Distinguished evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden explores the surprisingly extensive evidence of gender and sexuality diversity found in nature  and in human history. Then she uses that evidence to dispute broadly accepted tenants in religion, medicine, social studies and biological sciences. Revolutionary. Queer Comics/Graphic Novels for every LGBT reader 1. Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic, by Alison  Bechdel. There’s a reason this autobiographical graphic novel by the creator of Dykes to Watch Out For was chosen as  Time magazine’s book of the year. Plus, her father had a gay life he’d kept secret from her. 2. No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, edited by Justin Hall.  A Wonderful introduction to the past forty years of LGBT comic strips. 3. Transposes, by Dylan Edwards.  Edwards  uses the real lives of six trans men to introduce audiences to gay, bisexual and queer-identified trans men and illustrate how diverse their experiences can be. 4. Anything That Loves: Comics Beyond Gay and Straight Edited by Charles Zan Christensen, an anthology of comics about bisexual characters and experiences. 5.  Queer:  New Comics from 33 Creators, Edited by Rob Kirby.  An introduction to emerging comic and the graphic  novel creators. A handful of other influential trans works 1. Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community, edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth. Like Our Bodies, Ourselves before it, this anthology is an owners  manual to the trans body/community. Includes segments on race, religion, employment, medical and surgical transitions, mental health, relationships, sexuality, parenthood, culture and more. 2. Trans/forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out,  edited by Krista Scott-Dixon. 3. Whipping Girl.  Julia Serano was one of my first introductions to transfeminism. But this 2013 anthology provides such a wide range of perspectives by gender variant feminists of all colors and sizes, that it has become my favorite transfeminism work. 4. The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals,  by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper.  This is a groundbreaking and essential guide to health care providers and parents of trans and gender variant children. 5.  10,000 Dresses,  by Marcus Ewert, illustrated by Rex Ray. A children’s books for trans and gender variant childrenâ€"and parents who want to introduce their own children to gender variance;  10,000 Dresses is about Bailey, whose parents think is a boy, but is actually a girl who dreams of  beautiful dresses created from unusual items. When Bailey meets an older girl they transform the dreams into reality. 6. Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg.  An oldie but a goodie. Although Feinberg’s thinly veiled autobiographical novel is set in a gritty, urban, blue collar and pre-Stonewall world I identified immediately with its protagonist, Jess. She captured a type of female masculinity I most wanted to embody. 7. The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard, edited by Tom Leger and Riley MacLeod. A fabulous collection of work from emerging authors writing trans narratives. DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL: Slightly more than 5 but not nearly as big as Jake’s list! Zami: A New Spelling of My Name  by Audre Lorde is still a must-read. It starts with Lorde, legally blind, learning to read, and there are so many parts of it that talk about Jim Crow America (their landlord commits suicide after having to rent his apartment to black people) but at its heart it’s a book about being a woman, a lesbian, and her relationship with her parents and the women who populate her life, all fascinating. Two favorites, memoirs I’ve read over and over again:  Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg was one of my favorites as is Joan Nestle’s A Restricted Country.  Both books were about out people who defied gender expectations, who show what life was like for queer women and trans men in the 1950s and 60s, and most tellingly really outline the sisterhood that was a bond between lesbians and prostitutes (or female sex workers, as we prefer to say now). That’s been largely forgotten or ignored by the queer movement but you can see the sisterhood in these books in a way that’s smart and telling. Unlike the other books on this list, this is a newer book and it may not really have influenced my writing but I like the info in it and the conversational style:  The Godfather’s Daughter by Rita Gigante. Her dad was Vinnie the Chin, the famous mobster and head of the Genovese crime clan and at one point head of all five NY crime families for decades, and she din’t know what was “wrong with her father until she was 16. Imagine having to have windows covered at all times so nobody shoots through the windows but as a kid you just know curtains are never to be opened. Crazy, unique childhood (and I had a crazy childhood) and she grew up to be a lesbian. So I related a bit. Trash: Short Stories, by Dorothy Allison These are positioned as short stories but we all know they are thinly veiled memoir. And they are amazing, gut punch writing about her life, about the relationships between abuse and poverty and survival. One piece, Dont Tell Me You Dont Know” just makes me think of the women on my mothers side of the family, always choosing between abuse and men they think they need to support them, endless cycles of violence and sexual abuse. Strange Piece of Paradise, by Terry Jentz I love true crime and lesbian stories and this one has it, but I didn’t even realize at first who Terry Jentz was (her partner is Donna Dietch, the filmmaker who did Desert Hearts, itself still one of the greatest lesbian movies ever made). Anyway, this book took me back to my rural state, the fears I have while camping or traveling with another woman, the small town feel where people know a secret and don’t tell. Basically, when she was in college she went biking cross-country during the summer of 1977. She and her roommate were in their tent at a state park in Oregon sleeping when they were attacked by a guy with an ax. I’m a big camper so that terrified me. She isnt injured, but her friend is nearly blinded and doesn’t remember ANY of the attack (a blessing for her, a curse for Jentz who desperately needs to talk about it). Jentz goes back to that same town, campground, etc., fifteen years later to find to the truth (nobody was ever charged) and she finds out lots of peopl e think they know who did it. It’s an amazing book, it resonated a lot. Eight Bullets: One Womans Story of Surviving Anti-Gay Violence,  by Claudia Brenner, is another gut punch. Basically she and her girlfriend Rebecca were hiking the Appalachian Trail in the late 1980s. They camped, they cooked, they made love, and after the latter, eight bullets shot out of nowhere. Claudia took 5 of those bullets, Wright took two, but it was a bad hit. She couldn’t move, Claudia couldn’t move her so she ran to get help and had to hike out four miles to get to a road. Rebecca Wright died. This book is Claudia’s memory of that day and the hunt for the killer. It’s not expertly written- you can tell Claudia isn’t a trained writer- but it’s the kind of story we all feared in those days and she survived it to become an LGBT activist, not just a victim who lost her girlfriend. And this perpetrator was caught. Why Can’t Sharon Kowalski Come Home?, by Karen Thompson Wow, I apparently really like gut punch memoirs. This one shaped our younger years. I was paranoid about documenting everything we agreed on, we had wills and power of attorney and medical power and all that when we were 22 because this story always stayed with me. In 1983, Karen Thompson and her partner Sharon Kowalski lived together but were closeted, even to their parents and the university where they worked. Then Sharon was in a huge car accident and her parents denied Sharon the right to see her or be in her life, saying there was no way their daughter was a lesbian. Hence began like a decade long battle for guardianship of Sharon, during which the courts sided with the parents and Sharon’s care was neglected making it so the disabilities from her accident were permanent rather than lessened through physical therapy and other therapies. By the time Karen wins, a lot of damage has been done. And can you imagine fighting in courts for years over having your partner returned to y our life, letting you care for her, and never giving up? Seriously I’m crying just writing this. This isnt memoir but it informs so much of what I do:  Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America,  by Rodger Streitmatter. I’m going to get to finally meet Lisa Ben (the creator of the first lesbian magazine, whose real name is Edyth Eyde) soon and I couldnt be more thrilled. Read this book and find out why. And there are a ton of other books that I think are amazing memoirs by LGBT people that you should check out: Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney The Last Time I Wore a Dress,  by Dylan Scholinski Coal to Diamonds,  by Beth Ditto (this one was so lovely and conversational, it read it one sitting and I think I strived for that same conversational feel with our memoir) My One-Night Stand With Cancer: A Memoir,  by Tania Katan She’s Not the Man I Married, by Helen Kramer AND the latest addition is Sunshine Mugrabi’s When My Boyfriend Was a Girl. I’m going to do a Google hangout with her and another transitioning couple, Bobbie Thompson who wrote My HUSBAND Looks Better in Lingerie Than I Do . . . DAMN IT as companion memoir to Hung in the Middle: A Journey of Gender Discovery written by her wife Alana Nicole Sholar. ALISON NORRIS PETERS: Short and sweet, and in no particular order. 1. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. This is THE book that lesbians of color have been reading, identifying with, loving, and quoting since its publication. Celie and Shug redefine what it means to be a woman in the South. Youve seen the film-please read the book. 2. Orlando, by Virginia Woolf. Ive been mesmerized by this novel since the first time I read it: about Orlando, who, every few hundred years or so, wakes up presenting a different gender. Just hauntingly beautiful, itll make you dream of ice breaking on a frozen river. 3. A Queer and Pleasant Danger, by Kate Bornstein (see above for Jacobs anthology editied by Bornstein.) I love when a great subtitle is all you need to know: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today.  Truly a laugh-and-cry memoir relating Bornsteins life. The book is the inspiration for the award-winning documentary, Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger,  starring the fabulous Kate herself, and is on the way to theaters near you. 4. Annie on My Mind, by the much missed Nancy Garden. Annie was the LGBTQ book you got assigned in college, and, per the prof who assigned it, the book Most Likely to Inspire Essays About Girls Kissing Girls. Its a gay young adult Forever, albeit with slightly different concerns: rather than worrying about pregnancy after her  first time, Liza worries about getting thrown out of her prestigious private school after her sweet, burgeoning relationship with Annie is discovered by the gossipy town. But the best part is the happy ending.  Even happier:  originally  published in 1982, Annie has never been out of print. 5.  Giovannis Room, by James Baldwin. I wrote about this book earlier this year as one of my favorite Baldwins, and a re-read has only strengthened that claim. A love story about possibly the worst outcome ever of a relationship gone wrong because one person isnt ready to admit their G lifestyle, and claim who they are. And I believe all of us have had a room like Giovannis: an otherwise cramped, dreary apartment that becomes a magical oasis, once its shared with someone you love. ____________________ Want more bookish goodness, news, posts about special book deals, and the occasional puppy reading pic? Follow us on Facebook:

An LGBTQ TBR List For Any Occasion

An LGBTQ TBR List For Any Occasion I recently had the pleasure of reading Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders. The authors of the memoir, Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall, are both active in the LGBTQ world as writers, editors and educators, and just through their own memoir-ific life experiences. Naturally, after I read their book I  wanted to know what books influenced  them. I asked for their top 5, but if you’re not gonna let a simple thing like gender deter you, why stick to a mandated book shortlist? Sorted by genre, here are their suggestions for LGBTQ-centric books for any occasion-whether you’re looking for some self help, memoir, comic/graphic novel, books for kids, fiction, or just want a classic LGBTQ read. With a couple of my favorites at the end. (Warning: this list lists heavily to the L and T sides of the equation.) JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL: Because I believe that rules don’t apply to me (;-) I have discarded your request for five influential LGBT books in exchange for the following: Memoirs that helped open my eyes to the diversity of the gender variant community 1. Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation, by  Eli Claire. This great autobiographical by work is also a dissertation on the intersections of disability, class and queerness. It spoke to me not only as a disabled trans man but also because Claire and I share a connection to the American Northwest. Never before had I heard an LGBT writer so eloquently describe the love-hate relationship I have with rural Idaho. 2. Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers Lesbian journalist Cris Beam’s memoir about teachingâ€"and later parentingâ€"homeless trans kids from the streets of LA. One of the first works that really gave me insight into the plight of queer homeless kids and the experiences of young black and Hispanic transwomen. It helped recruit me as a foster parent. If you don’t know what pumping parties are, you have to read this book. 3. Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) Thea Hillman’s memoir is one of the best to read when pondering why the “I” belongs with the LGB and T. She’s clearly one of us. She dates girls and genderqueer partners, attends SM parties,  and explores ideas about what is “normal” in terms of gender, sex, sexuality and ablebodiedness. As Hillman begins to embrace her intersex identity she also finds herself being rejected by other members of the intersex community for not being intersex enough,  because she wasn’t forced to undergo invasive surgeries as a child. 4. Becoming a Visible Man Jamison Green is a pioneering trans activist. Growing up he was both far more masculine and more certain of his male identity than I and yet he also spent many years as a lesbian before transitioning  (and later explored his post-transition attraction to gay men). 5. Gender Outlaws: the Next Generation, edited by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman. This anthology gathers together emerging voices in a diverse, multiethnic and transnational exploration of trans and gender variant lives. Academic work that may be most at home in college bookstores but should be read by a broader audience 1. Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience, by  Katrina Karkazis. Beginning in the mid-1950s the natural diversity in human genitalia has primarily been seen as a medical “problem” that needs to be “fixed” by doctors/surgeons. Karkazis work examines multiple perspectivesâ€"interviewing doctors, parents, and  those who have been the target of our fear of different looking genitals. Helped me with how the trans and intersex experiences may be related but they are not similar (It boils down to surgery: most trans people who undergo genital surgery seek it out themselves  as adults. Most intersex people who’ve undergone genital surgery did not choose it and were subjected to it when they were children.) Plus, it introduced me to the unfortunate phrase “it is easier to create a hole than a pole,” which not only explains why boys  with very small penises were often reassigned as female at birth but also why the bottom surgeries for trans women have been far more successful in creating natural looking genitalia than those for trans men. 2. Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a CategoryImaganing Transgender David Valentine takes an anthropological view of the emergence and adoption of transgender as a category of collective identity and political activism. He explains why the term/identity is a natural extension of LGBT and feminist politics, but also argues  that it embraces the experiences of many gender variant individuals, especially people of color who he found were more likely to see their gender as a reflection of their queer sexual orientations, rather than a separate identity. 3. The Transgender Studies Reader, edited  by Susan Stryker and Stephan Whittle.  The quintessential introduction to transgender studies. 4. Transgender Rights, edited by Paisley  Currah, Richard M. Juang and Shannon Price Minter.  This anthology looks at the activism, legal arguments, court cases, lobbying and policy making that have defined what rights gender variant folks have and what we’re still fighting forâ€"or  were (this 2006 collection misses the changes won during the Obama administration). 5. Transgender History, by Susan Stryker Introduction to the history of trans/gender variant community struggle for rights in America post WWII. 6. Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People Distinguished evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden explores the surprisingly extensive evidence of gender and sexuality diversity found in nature  and in human history. Then she uses that evidence to dispute broadly accepted tenants in religion, medicine, social studies and biological sciences. Revolutionary. Queer Comics/Graphic Novels for every LGBT reader 1. Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic, by Alison  Bechdel. There’s a reason this autobiographical graphic novel by the creator of Dykes to Watch Out For was chosen as  Time magazine’s book of the year. Plus, her father had a gay life he’d kept secret from her. 2. No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, edited by Justin Hall.  A Wonderful introduction to the past forty years of LGBT comic strips. 3. Transposes, by Dylan Edwards.  Edwards  uses the real lives of six trans men to introduce audiences to gay, bisexual and queer-identified trans men and illustrate how diverse their experiences can be. 4. Anything That Loves: Comics Beyond Gay and Straight Edited by Charles Zan Christensen, an anthology of comics about bisexual characters and experiences. 5.  Queer:  New Comics from 33 Creators, Edited by Rob Kirby.  An introduction to emerging comic and the graphic  novel creators. A handful of other influential trans works 1. Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community, edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth. Like Our Bodies, Ourselves before it, this anthology is an owners  manual to the trans body/community. Includes segments on race, religion, employment, medical and surgical transitions, mental health, relationships, sexuality, parenthood, culture and more. 2. Trans/forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out,  edited by Krista Scott-Dixon. 3. Whipping Girl.  Julia Serano was one of my first introductions to transfeminism. But this 2013 anthology provides such a wide range of perspectives by gender variant feminists of all colors and sizes, that it has become my favorite transfeminism work. 4. The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals,  by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper.  This is a groundbreaking and essential guide to health care providers and parents of trans and gender variant children. 5.  10,000 Dresses,  by Marcus Ewert, illustrated by Rex Ray. A children’s books for trans and gender variant childrenâ€"and parents who want to introduce their own children to gender variance;  10,000 Dresses is about Bailey, whose parents think is a boy, but is actually a girl who dreams of  beautiful dresses created from unusual items. When Bailey meets an older girl they transform the dreams into reality. 6. Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg.  An oldie but a goodie. Although Feinberg’s thinly veiled autobiographical novel is set in a gritty, urban, blue collar and pre-Stonewall world I identified immediately with its protagonist, Jess. She captured a type of female masculinity I most wanted to embody. 7. The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard, edited by Tom Leger and Riley MacLeod. A fabulous collection of work from emerging authors writing trans narratives. DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL: Slightly more than 5 but not nearly as big as Jake’s list! Zami: A New Spelling of My Name  by Audre Lorde is still a must-read. It starts with Lorde, legally blind, learning to read, and there are so many parts of it that talk about Jim Crow America (their landlord commits suicide after having to rent his apartment to black people) but at its heart it’s a book about being a woman, a lesbian, and her relationship with her parents and the women who populate her life, all fascinating. Two favorites, memoirs I’ve read over and over again:  Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg was one of my favorites as is Joan Nestle’s A Restricted Country.  Both books were about out people who defied gender expectations, who show what life was like for queer women and trans men in the 1950s and 60s, and most tellingly really outline the sisterhood that was a bond between lesbians and prostitutes (or female sex workers, as we prefer to say now). That’s been largely forgotten or ignored by the queer movement but you can see the sisterhood in these books in a way that’s smart and telling. Unlike the other books on this list, this is a newer book and it may not really have influenced my writing but I like the info in it and the conversational style:  The Godfather’s Daughter by Rita Gigante. Her dad was Vinnie the Chin, the famous mobster and head of the Genovese crime clan and at one point head of all five NY crime families for decades, and she din’t know what was “wrong with her father until she was 16. Imagine having to have windows covered at all times so nobody shoots through the windows but as a kid you just know curtains are never to be opened. Crazy, unique childhood (and I had a crazy childhood) and she grew up to be a lesbian. So I related a bit. Trash: Short Stories, by Dorothy Allison These are positioned as short stories but we all know they are thinly veiled memoir. And they are amazing, gut punch writing about her life, about the relationships between abuse and poverty and survival. One piece, Dont Tell Me You Dont Know” just makes me think of the women on my mothers side of the family, always choosing between abuse and men they think they need to support them, endless cycles of violence and sexual abuse. Strange Piece of Paradise, by Terry Jentz I love true crime and lesbian stories and this one has it, but I didn’t even realize at first who Terry Jentz was (her partner is Donna Dietch, the filmmaker who did Desert Hearts, itself still one of the greatest lesbian movies ever made). Anyway, this book took me back to my rural state, the fears I have while camping or traveling with another woman, the small town feel where people know a secret and don’t tell. Basically, when she was in college she went biking cross-country during the summer of 1977. She and her roommate were in their tent at a state park in Oregon sleeping when they were attacked by a guy with an ax. I’m a big camper so that terrified me. She isnt injured, but her friend is nearly blinded and doesn’t remember ANY of the attack (a blessing for her, a curse for Jentz who desperately needs to talk about it). Jentz goes back to that same town, campground, etc., fifteen years later to find to the truth (nobody was ever charged) and she finds out lots of peopl e think they know who did it. It’s an amazing book, it resonated a lot. Eight Bullets: One Womans Story of Surviving Anti-Gay Violence,  by Claudia Brenner, is another gut punch. Basically she and her girlfriend Rebecca were hiking the Appalachian Trail in the late 1980s. They camped, they cooked, they made love, and after the latter, eight bullets shot out of nowhere. Claudia took 5 of those bullets, Wright took two, but it was a bad hit. She couldn’t move, Claudia couldn’t move her so she ran to get help and had to hike out four miles to get to a road. Rebecca Wright died. This book is Claudia’s memory of that day and the hunt for the killer. It’s not expertly written- you can tell Claudia isn’t a trained writer- but it’s the kind of story we all feared in those days and she survived it to become an LGBT activist, not just a victim who lost her girlfriend. And this perpetrator was caught. Why Can’t Sharon Kowalski Come Home?, by Karen Thompson Wow, I apparently really like gut punch memoirs. This one shaped our younger years. I was paranoid about documenting everything we agreed on, we had wills and power of attorney and medical power and all that when we were 22 because this story always stayed with me. In 1983, Karen Thompson and her partner Sharon Kowalski lived together but were closeted, even to their parents and the university where they worked. Then Sharon was in a huge car accident and her parents denied Sharon the right to see her or be in her life, saying there was no way their daughter was a lesbian. Hence began like a decade long battle for guardianship of Sharon, during which the courts sided with the parents and Sharon’s care was neglected making it so the disabilities from her accident were permanent rather than lessened through physical therapy and other therapies. By the time Karen wins, a lot of damage has been done. And can you imagine fighting in courts for years over having your partner returned to y our life, letting you care for her, and never giving up? Seriously I’m crying just writing this. This isnt memoir but it informs so much of what I do:  Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America,  by Rodger Streitmatter. I’m going to get to finally meet Lisa Ben (the creator of the first lesbian magazine, whose real name is Edyth Eyde) soon and I couldnt be more thrilled. Read this book and find out why. And there are a ton of other books that I think are amazing memoirs by LGBT people that you should check out: Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney The Last Time I Wore a Dress,  by Dylan Scholinski Coal to Diamonds,  by Beth Ditto (this one was so lovely and conversational, it read it one sitting and I think I strived for that same conversational feel with our memoir) My One-Night Stand With Cancer: A Memoir,  by Tania Katan She’s Not the Man I Married, by Helen Kramer AND the latest addition is Sunshine Mugrabi’s When My Boyfriend Was a Girl. I’m going to do a Google hangout with her and another transitioning couple, Bobbie Thompson who wrote My HUSBAND Looks Better in Lingerie Than I Do . . . DAMN IT as companion memoir to Hung in the Middle: A Journey of Gender Discovery written by her wife Alana Nicole Sholar. ALISON NORRIS PETERS: Short and sweet, and in no particular order. 1. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. This is THE book that lesbians of color have been reading, identifying with, loving, and quoting since its publication. Celie and Shug redefine what it means to be a woman in the South. Youve seen the film-please read the book. 2. Orlando, by Virginia Woolf. Ive been mesmerized by this novel since the first time I read it: about Orlando, who, every few hundred years or so, wakes up presenting a different gender. Just hauntingly beautiful, itll make you dream of ice breaking on a frozen river. 3. A Queer and Pleasant Danger, by Kate Bornstein (see above for Jacobs anthology editied by Bornstein.) I love when a great subtitle is all you need to know: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today.  Truly a laugh-and-cry memoir relating Bornsteins life. The book is the inspiration for the award-winning documentary, Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger,  starring the fabulous Kate herself, and is on the way to theaters near you. 4. Annie on My Mind, by the much missed Nancy Garden. Annie was the LGBTQ book you got assigned in college, and, per the prof who assigned it, the book Most Likely to Inspire Essays About Girls Kissing Girls. Its a gay young adult Forever, albeit with slightly different concerns: rather than worrying about pregnancy after her  first time, Liza worries about getting thrown out of her prestigious private school after her sweet, burgeoning relationship with Annie is discovered by the gossipy town. But the best part is the happy ending.  Even happier:  originally  published in 1982, Annie has never been out of print. 5.  Giovannis Room, by James Baldwin. I wrote about this book earlier this year as one of my favorite Baldwins, and a re-read has only strengthened that claim. A love story about possibly the worst outcome ever of a relationship gone wrong because one person isnt ready to admit their G lifestyle, and claim who they are. And I believe all of us have had a room like Giovannis: an otherwise cramped, dreary apartment that becomes a magical oasis, once its shared with someone you love. ____________________ Want more bookish goodness, news, posts about special book deals, and the occasional puppy reading pic? Follow us on Facebook: