Rose Recommends: July | Rethink normal!

Hi! Just a post to prove I’m alive. I have not been reading any blogs lately because: 1. ALA, 2. planning/throwing a wedding celebration for my brother and sister-in-law, and 3. school work. What’s been going on in the book blogosphere? Any good posts I need to know about? Send them my way!

I am here today to recommend a book! I know I’m a little late and missed this for pride month (I also missed the last 3 months of rec posts) ((see aforementioned reasons)), but any time is a good time for LGBTQ recs! The book is called Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition by Katie Rain Hill. This was our final pick for the Resist Readathon I recently ran for the online book club I co-manage, and it was our transgender pick. And it was great.

Katie is a transgender woman writing about her experience and transition during high school in Oklahoma. The book chronicles her life up to the present (the book was released in 2014, when she was only around 20 years old). In it, Katie discusses her transition and her relationships with her parents, friends, and romantic interests. It was fascinating to hear about her personal journey, and even more-so because she was in the public spotlight during a lot of her life. She and her once-boyfriend, Arin (a trans man), were featured on national television over the course of several years. It was interesting to hear what their relationship was like behind the camera, which was not all sunshine and roses as the media portrayed. The book did a great job of talking about all facets of her life and transition – from the physical, to the emotional, to her relationships with therapists, her parents, brother, etc. It gives a well-rounded look at her life, rather than focusing on just one or two aspects.

I was especially impressed by the quality of writing in this book, especially for someone so young. It is geared towards a more YA-audience, but I highly recommend it to adults as well. The writing was natural and grabbed my attention so that I read the book quickly. Even though we have very different lives, I found myself connecting to some of the feelings she was having relationship-wise as a young adult from my own late high school/early college days, which definitely got me “rethinking normal” as the title suggests. This book is fantastic for anyone curious about the experiences of trans people (though of course Katie does not represent all trans people’s experiences). Her friend Arin also has a book out called Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen that I would like to read to hear about his experience as well. Overall I recommend this book to, well, everyone!

GENRE:

YA/LGBTQ/Memoir/Non-fiction

PAGES:

272

FOR THOSE WHO LIKE:

• Memoirs
• Own Voices
• LGBTQ works

THINGS PEOPLE MIGHT NOT LIKE:

• Literally can’t think of anything this time!

View this post on Instagram

Our final read of the #resistreadathon starts today! @thehpalliance #FotALBC

A post shared by Emily Rose (@enchntdrose) on May 16, 2017 at 4:54pm PDT