The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

Dancing through the New York drag ball scene of the 1980s, this is a heartbreaking, fantastic story of love and friendship.

A young queen in love begins the first Latino house on the circuit. But we know gay love stories of the 80s usually end badly, so she must rely on friends to be her real family. There is music and fashion, there are drugs and there are tears. There is money to be made the hard way, because there is always rent to be paid.

But don't let me depress you out of reading this, because it's wonderful. Angel and Venus and Hector and Daniel and all the rest are friends you'll be glad to have met.

Also, the 80s weren't so long ago, and we should not forget.

Little Fish by Casey Plett

When she's told her grandfather may have been "like her," a Canadian woman seeks out more information. Because that's more interesting than figuring out the now ... where Wendy and all her trans friends are living pretty close to the edge: drinking too much, partying too hard, dangerously fraying around the edges, picking up sex work for cash.

It's a bleak story, but fresh and true in an amazing way. Wendy knows things aren't great, but she can't drum up the fucks nor the cash to do much about it. Even if you don't know someone exactly like this, you know (or have been) close enough for this story to ring true. Additionally, it's an interesting look at a group of true friends in a unique situation - trans women just living their lives, figuring shit out, and supporting one another.

Luna by Julie Anne Peters

Being a teenager is tough enough, but imagine carrying a secret, too. And Regan's secret isn't even her own! It's that her older and only sibling is transsexual and wants to begin the physical transition to her true self.

Liam may be ready to truly become Luna, but that doesn't mean Regan's ready to let it happen. Plus, she's so used to not talking about big parts of her life that Regan's having a tough time connecting with a dreamy guy who REALLY wants to get to know her.

This book is an interesting twist on the transgender experience because it's told from a sibling's point of view. She and Liam have always been very close, but this is a different story when it's about Regan's fears and worries about Luna's emergence.

Adam by Ariel Schrag

Adam learns a lot during the summer he spends with his older sister Casey in New York City. It's the kind of experience a 17-year-old guy will never forget: a taste of independence, the big city, a rapidly expanding worldview, first love, sex! ... and being mistaken as trans.

Casey's queer, and she introduces Adam to friends of all genders, proclivities, orientations, and pronouns. When he meets the girl of his dreams at a lesbian party (hoping she's bisexual), he doesn't correct her assumptions that he's twenty-something and transitioning to male. It's a recipe for disaster with all the miscues and fumbles you might expect, but Adam also gains insight, empathy, and a few other important life skills.

This could be a teen book, but it's pretty explicit when it comes to some sex matters (this is an obvious concern to the characters); the library copy I borrowed had been cataloged as adult fiction. This book's not for the prudish, but the sex isn't gratuitous and the experiences all add to Adam's enlightenment (and perhaps the reader's, too).

I enjoyed the book, and my only complaint was that the center section (and Adam's deceit) dragged on a bit long. Schrag does a nice job integrating sensitive information and cultural context into the storyline without halting the action to give a lecture, and I felt the characters were relatable and realistic.

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock

The mainstream media has been rich with stories about transgender experiences lately, but Janet Mock was an early advocate and voice - this book was published in 2014, and she first went public with her story in 2011 with an article in Marie Claire magazine.

The more transition tales we hear, the more depth of understanding we gain. Janet's story is familiar in many ways (sexual abuse, identity confusion, poverty, ridicule) and also truly unique. She was fortunate that with her mother and many siblings she received understanding and acceptance that others, unfortunately, do not.

But the book also provides fascinating insight into her experiences as a mixed-race (Hawaiian and black) child; Janet's identity struggles and self-perception were different based on which parent she lived with, on the mainland or in Hawaii. For example, Hawaii's diversity boasts a wide pallette of skin color "browns" thanks to ancestry of native and Asian descents along with blends from everywhere else - but there's also a very strong ethnic-biased social pecking order.

I enjoyed the book immensely - it's written extremely well, and I found it easy to get wrapped up in the story and root for this scrappy little kid to blossom into the confident woman we see on the jacket cover. I especially appreciated Mock's honesty about the good, the bad, and the ugly of her story - while there are parts she's not proud about, it's still part of the story and told unflinchingly.

Stuck in the Middle With You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

In her third iteration of memoir, Boylan offers up her unusual perspective on the wonders and heartbreak of parenthood: after her two children were born, James transitioned into Jenny. Daddy was reimagined as Maddy.

Boylan's been over some of this ground in previous books, but here for the first time she's not using pseudonyms for people and places in her life; her sons requested that this time she use their real names, and she follows suit with many others that she'd altered previously.

The title is a bit misleading: while the bulk of the text is Boylan's experiences, there are also interviews interspersed between chapters (many famous friends, some regular citizens) that offer additional perspectives on parenthood. Some interviewees talk about their children, others are childless and talk about their parents. Some discuss both parenthood and being parented. They touch on absentee parents, death, disability, aging, adoption, and much more.

It's really that variety of experiences that makes this book all the richer. What are the commonalities of being a parent? For all the worry many have about ruining their children, others who had terrible childhoods discuss their survival and success.

I've long been a fan of Boylan, and this book is one I'll recommend heartily. It's both heartbreaking and hilarious, and it offers opinions and food for thought without seeming preachy or purporting to have all the answers.

I Am J by Cris Beam

Like many teen books, this one deals with the internal voices of doubt and confusion of a kid coming of age - unlike most of those other teen books, the main character of this book was born a girl, but self-identifies as a boy.

I've never read another book like this one - Beam is really reaching out to an under-represented audience with this excellent book. J is confused, angry, and lonely, which makes him an interesting dramatic character; those same traits also makes him a crappy friend, a bewildered boyfriend, and a sullen child.