Welcome to the end of 2015! We made it!
Well, I guess there's still a couple more
days for the apocalypse to hit. But we made
it this far! That's worth celebrating.
This is going to be a very long, monstrous video, so if you're looking at
that time stamp and you're like "I don't know..." There
are jump-links in the description box.
I divided them by book, because this is my
2015 book review.
I wanted to make a video about all the books I read this year, because I read a lot of books and that
is actually a unique thing for me. I've
always loved reading and I read a ton
of books as a kid but starting around
fifth grade I started having trouble keeping
up with the assigned readings.
Like, despite having a high reading level, I
just couldn't read quickly. Or like, I couldn't
read long things quickly? I would read
the same paragraph over and over and
over again 'cause my mind would just
wander. So despite loving reading
and writing and English classes and
doing well in all of those things
from fifth grade through all four years of
college it was very very rare for me to
complete an entire assigned reading. And
after college it actually didn't get any better.
Some of my friends were practically
eating books after being freed from the
burden of homework but I was still
struggling to finish any. It took me so
long just to finish one book. And then
this year, something flipped. I think it was like,
the combination of a new anti-anxiety
medication I was taking that helped with
my concentration and starting to
transition eased up a lot of the
stuff that was filling my head, so I
could focus on reading. And I also made a
2015 new year's resolution that
anytime I found myself aimlessly
strolling tumblr, or some other part of the
internet, I would stop and do something
productive like reading, or listening to
a podcast, or watching a documentary.
--Which, probably explains why I've watched
almost a hundred documentaries this year.
But I've also read a lot of books! Thirty-four, to be exact. And I liked a lot of
them so I thought I would do a big
wrap-up review of all of them now and
hopefully you find some that you want to
add to your reading list for 2016.
So, let's get started. "Welcome to Nightvale" by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. So this is a book from the creators
of the eponymous podcast. It does not follow
the same story arc as the podcast, so you don't
need to be caught up on the podcast, or I
guess necessarily have even listened to it.
Although there are like fun Easter eggs
so it does help.
It's got characters that use gender-neutral pronouns,
it has unassumed and fluid
sexualities, it talks about discrimination
against people of color and against
women. Plus, I was thinking it kind of reads like
''A Series of Unfortunate Events," in that
it's both completely bizarre but also mundane.
Like both to be humorous and
have a fun style of writing but also to like,
point out the bizarre things in our
mundane universe. It's good.
Next up: "As Nature Made Him" by John
Colapinto. So this is the tragic story
of David Reimer, a cisgender man who
was raised female at Dr. John Money's
instructions after a botched
circumcision when he was an infant.
It includes a really good critique of
Dr. Money and other medical
professionals and academics of the time.
And it's good to know David Reimer's story to
know that while parts of gender, like
responsibilities, and roles, and
expressions are social constructs, part
of it is also hard wired into us. So just
like David was never comfortable being
raised as a girl, so too are many trans
people never comfortable in the gender
that they were assigned at birth. His story is very
sad and very messed up, but if you can
handle it, that's kind of the definitive book
so I definitely recommend it. And it's maybe not as
sad as some of the documentaries about him.
"Beautiful Music for Ugly Children" by Kirstin Cronn-Mills.
This is one of the rare, few trans-
masculine young adult books. I liked the
main character, and the kind of music
themes a bit more than I do most trans YA books. But I felt like it was kind of
lacking in reality for a high schooler's
transition and also lacked some of the
implied practical advice that I think is
kind of crucial for books like this. Next
"The Family Thing" by Kevin Wilson. This
book is a rollercoaster. It's about a
dysfunctional family of performance
artists, but that ends up being the least
weird thing about them. And I got one of my
favorite quotes of the year from it.
The character Buster says towards the end,
"Whatever it is, I think you'll be
terrified when it happens. Don't let that
stop you."
"Whipping Girl" by Julia Serano. This is my
number one recommendation for anyone who
wants a better understanding of gender
identity but more importantly, feminism.
It's a perspective on misogyny from a
trans woman and it is so densely packed
with hard facts and eye-opening accounts.
If you are trans you'll find a couple
moments of just connecting the lines and
lots of like "Yes! You said it!" moments.
And if you are not trans I think you will have
lot of like "Ahh.." moments. So like-- now.
"The Wicked and the Divine"  volumes one and two. I have read 15 issues
of this comic and honestly I'm still a little
uncertain about what's happening.
But, it's also so good that that doesn't even
bother me. It's about 12 gods living in
teenagers bodies and also kind of the
fandoms around them. It's super
representative racially and sort of
gender and sexuality wise and also has
some interesting critiques on like legit
fandom like convention spaces and stuff.
Which you don't see too often.
"Bitch Planet" Volume 1.
This comic has taken the world by storm
so much that some people, including a
couple friends of mine, got tattoos based
on the comic when there were only like, two issues out. It's about a dystopian world
where "non-compliant" women are sent to
live on a prison planet, which sounds
awful when you just describe it like
that, but I swear it is freakin awesome.
"The First Man-Made Man" by Pagan Kennedy.
This was actually a reread.
I first read it in college, when I helped ease my dysphoria
by reading every single book in the trans section at the NYU library.
It has some faults, like referring
to trans people by their old name and
pronouns up into a certain point of
their transition. So if you get past
that, it is a really good read. It's about Michael
Dillon, the first transgender man on
record to medically transition, and also
features some of the earliest women to
medically transition including a brief
peace with Lily Elba. It's really good
for getting that perspective on trans
people in the western world in the early
part of the 20th century when some of
the medical procedures were first introduced.
And it's cool 'cause it's told in narrative form so it's kind of an easier
read than just like a textbook history.
Next up. "Rethinking Normal" by Katie
Rain Hill. So I actually read this because
I was told that Katie would be at GeekyCon and
I'm really glad I did, because Katie is a
fantastic writer, and we ended up kind
of becoming friends. Although, that makes it a
little bit awkward that I read it because
she hasn't read a full biography of all
of my life's details, so... that's a little weird.
But I think it's incredible
autobiography from young trans woman
which we need lots more of. And if you are someone who watches my videos, then
you will probably relate to Katie, she
references StarCade in the first chapter.
Yeah. One thing though, you should probably not
read it until high school,
maybe late high school. There's like
some subject content matter that's a
little more adult. And for that matter, any of
you younger people watching this video I
would say like don't read most of these
books unless they're specifically young-adult books.
There's like, a lot of sex in most
of these books that I'm recommending. Okay now
I'm getting embarrassed. Next book. "Some
Assembly Required" by Erin Andrews. So, since I read
"Rethinking Normal" it wasn't long before
I discovered the companion of-sorts
biography by Katie's friend Arin, a trans 
guy who she happened to have dated.
And much of their relationship is actually documented in
both books and Arinn was even making
videos on YouTube for most of the period
that is covered in his book, so there's just
this whole weird mesh of different ways that
you can see that time period in their lives from.
That alone is like mind
twisting. But again a great biography of
a young trans person. It's great to have
such an up-to-date and honest
perspective of what high school and
college is like for trans kids today.
"Harry Potter and the Millennials" by
Anthony Gierzynski and Kathryn Eddie.
So this is basically a research paper but
it's written in accessible language.
Basically, Gierzynski studied the Potter generation
to see what long-term effects the books
you had on us and he found that all the
whole we are more liberal, more accepting,
a bunch of other stuff like that and he
has some solid evidence as to how the
books might have influenced that.
"Kafka on the Shore"
by Haruki Murakami. After years of prodding,
I finally read a Murakami book
and I am so grateful. It totally rocked.
These books do take me forever to read
because there's so many tiny details and
they're so surrealist that it's like, "Wait a second, there's a banana fish in
the sky now? Did--? What? And they're not
mentioning it ever again I'm so confused."
I don't know how I feel about the ending of this book and I don't even know what I felt about the
plot so much while I was reading it, but
every time I opened it I kind of felt
like I was having a very beautiful LSD
trip. That was lovely, so I would like to
read more of his books. "Camp David" by
David Walliams. I'm not ashamed to admit that
I would totally let him be my sugar
daddy. If you don't know who he is, he's an
English comedian and children's author,
actually. But his biography is neither
funny nor for children, so... Well it is actually
pretty funny, it  does focus a lot on his
depression, and figuring out his sexuality, and it's all
the like early parts of his life up until
he became famous so all the like good
stuff when he's on his feet and
everything again-- That's not in the book. It's
just all of the hard starving artist stuff.
"A Queer and Pleasant Danger" by Kate Bornstein. I read so many gay books this year...
Jeez... Not that I need to defend that, but in my
defense, I was putting together a list of
like all the books that I could
recommend to people when I came out, like
form my resource document. And I didn't want
to recommend anything I hadn't read or
haven't read in a long time so I had to
like screen a ton of trans books. But anyways-- So Kate
Bornstein is one of the main like trans
public figures out there. She's written a
ton of stuff and pioneered a lot of good
fights. And this autobiography is wild. So while she
was figuring out her gender identity, she actually became
an elite member of Scientology's
infamous Sea Org. And then she left and
she started transitioning and she was a
bdsm slave for a bit... and yeah. What a life Kate
Bornstein has had. Also, she has a "I must not tell lies"
tattoo on the back of hand, and it is
inspired by Harry Potter but it means so
much more if you read the book. And the
book is super conversational.
It really feels like she's just sitting across
from you telling the story over coffee.
"Royal Wedding" by Meg Cabot. Yes-- I read
the new Princess Diaries book. Yes-- I read
all of the ten Princess Diary books that
came before it. Listen, the books were coming out as
I was growing up, I wasn't just NOT gonna
read the new book that Meg Cabot wrote
specifically for the people who grew up
with them and turned it into like an
adult reading level for us. Although,
apparently what Meg Cabot means by adult
reading level is Mia Thermopolis talks
about sex. A lot. A little too much.
It's kind of weird. But still, it was a great read.
I spent most my adolescence trying to
figure out if I wanted to date Michael
Moskowitz, or if I wanted to be him. Still haven't really figured that one out.
"Parrotfish" by Ellen Wittlinger.
This seems to be the most popular YA book
with the trans boy lead. I didn't relate to
him as much as they did the protagonist
in "Beautiful Music for Ugly Children" but
this one is definitely more realistic in
the way the boy's like, family and other
people in his life
react to his transition. I found it to be
the better researched and more
responsible, if less exciting, trans boy bildungsroman.
"None of the Above" by I.W. Gregorio. It is so
cool to have a fantastic YA book with
an intersex lead character. We need way
more of it since intersex people like
all categories of people are all so
different they have different
personalities, they have different
reactions to their conditions, they have
different types of intersex conditions,
this is just one small story of many
more that I hope are to come because it
was great and I hope it's paving the way
for more.
"Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell.
I read this one for the HPA's apparating library book
club.
It was really cool having a book written by someone
who is obviously very familiar with fandom, and the type of fan culture that I immersed myself in.
But I actually more enjoyed 'causen 
it felt like being back in college.
I don't think there are too many books that take
place, like IN a college dorm setting.
Or if there are, there aren't that many that portray
like my contemporary college dorm experience.
So I just really enjoyed that. It
felt really cool to get to read that, and be
in that environment. You know. In my head.
"Paper Towns" by John Green. This was a reread, in
anticipation of the movie coming out.
I definitely recommend it, over the movie. One of the biggest points of this is
dismantling in the Manic Pixie dream girl trope. And in my opinion, the movie
just served to strengthen the Manic
Pixie dream girl. It did nothing to
dismantle it. However, putting that aside,
both the book and the movie are super fun.
Everything else about the movie, I really liked. Young, goofy, infinite.
"No House to Call My Home." by Ryan Berg.
This is required reading if
you are working in any sort of LGBTQIA field.
I was given it to read in
preparation for moderating a panel with Ryan.
He was a case worker in a group home
for LGBTQ youth in New York City. He writes about
some of the teenagers that he met there, 
not like identifying them, but you know, anonymously.
And this book is incredible
because he gives faces and personalities
to these hard facts that we hear about
all the time. And he also, like,
records the evolution of
acknowledging his own privilege, and
really distills the huge problems that
we have in the system in the society and
like, explains why they're so hard to
solve.
"We Don't Need Roads." by Caseen Gaines.
This book is basically DVD extras of Back to the Future in book form, but I still really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed getting all of the
exclusive information about Eric Stoltz,
and the Crispin Glover conflict, but unless
you are a Back to the Future super fan,
or a cinema studies nerd, this book might
not be for you. I am both of those things,
so I loved it.
"Landline." by Rainbow Rowell.
So I actually read this book because
I happened to meet Rainbow Rowell
the week before Back to the Future Day, when
all I could talk about was
Back to the Future.
I was probably reading "We Don't
Need Roads" at the time.
And she told me that this book of hers
was all about
time travel, and I had to read it.
It's actually about, like, time... communication...?
Like, there's no time travel, but there is
communicating to the past.
I think it might have resonated more with me if I
were married... maybe?
But I still love her
writing so much, and I liked the general
concept in the characters enough that
I actually couldn't put it down, and read it in like a day.
"Career of Evil" by Robert Galbraith.
This is the third in the Robert Galbraith, aka J. K. Rowling, series.
And, ok, I know that J.K. Rowling didn't initially intend for
anyone to know that she was the one behind Robert Galbraith.
She was outed by a lawyer's
partner. It sucked.
But since that is the case, I kinda feel like publishing "The Casual Vacancy"
before this series kinda really hurt it.
"The Casual Vacancy" is a long, dense,
ensemble cast of a tome that is totally
not for everybody,
whereas the Robert Galbraith series is a page-turning mystery saga with two
simple, super lovable main characters.
I  genuinely love this series,
J. K. Rowling or not, I just get bummed out
when people don't give it a chance.
'cause they're like, "Oh, I heard The
Casual Vacancy sucked, that's part of that, right?"
And I'm like, "No! It's so good!"
Also, the sidekicks name is Robin because J. K. Rowling is a cheeseball.
"Two Boys Kissing" by David Levithan.
This book is spectacular.
It doesn't have chapters,
which makes you feel like you should
read the whole thing in one sitting, and
like, honestly, you probably could...?
So, it follows several contemporary teenage boys,
but it's sort of narrated by, like,
the collective spirit of older gay men
who passed away during the AIDS epidemic.
And I think it does an incredible job of
bridging the two generations and
respecting both of them.
It can be really hard for my generation to
understand how horrific that
time period was,
and to kind of have blinders on
for like, the challenges that we currently have.
And, it can also be really easy for the
older generation to resent us for all that.
And I think is novel acknowledges that in a really beautiful way.
"A Separate Peace" by John Knowles.
I don't actually know if this was a
re-read, or a decade-later finish. . . ?
It was assigned reading in ninth grade, and of course
I probably didn't finish it,
but since it was a class assignment that means I was spoiled,
so when I read it this year I,
like, knew pretty much everything that was happening,
but I don't know if I had actually read it.
And this is a great example of
how I actually liked the books that we
were assigned in class,
and I didn't not read them out of lack of interest
or respect for the class,
I just couldn't keep up.
This book is really great for people like me, who equally love
boarding school adventures and existential musings on your own mortality.
Also, I refuse to believe that
Gene and Phineas weren't in love,
which is probably the real reason
why I was interested in this book when I was 14.
"Just Add Hormones" by Matt Kailey.
Matt Kailey was one of the greatest contributors to documenting and advocating for trans men,
He unfortunately died in 2014, which makes all accounts of his life that much more bittersweet.
This book is a great guide for cis people, it includes all the basics,
but it's also really good for trans masculine people, who maybe don't
feel as represented by the broad
narrative of trans masculinity.
Matt Kailey transitioned later in life, he was mostly attracted to men,
he presented as uber feminine prior to transition,
all of the things you might think or be told make you "not trans,"
which is bullshit, by the way.
But I really hate the front and the back cover, though.
It's-- It's just gross.
So, like, if you're gonna read it, I maybe recommend the e-book,
so it's not embarrassing to read in public.
I just had to hide it when I was on the subway.
"The Feminist Utopia Project" edited by Alexandra Brodsky and Rachel Kauder Nalebuff.
I loved this book. I think about this book every single day.
It's a collection of stories, essays, interviews, and visual art
from 57 different awesome feminist people,
who are all prompted with "what would a feminist utopia look like?"
And the great thing is that these are all like, activists
who often have to think in terms of the negative, in terms of fighting, and strife.
But this was a chance to be optimistic, and aspirational.
And it brought out some really cool creativity from everyone.
Also the pages do this!
See that rocketship? Why don't all books do that?! That's so cool!
"Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel.
So Alison Bechdel is probably best known for inventing
the Bechdel test, but beyond that she is a prolific writer and graphic artist,
And this was the first book of hers that I read, but I cannot wait to read all of the rest of them.
It's also currently a musical on Broadway,
which I haven't seen yet, but I really
want to see. A lot of people say that the
story is darker than they thought it would be.
I think this might just be because people expect
graphic novels and Broadway musicals to be, like, bright and cheery all the time.
And, that's not true for either of them.
I mean, yeah, it is framed by the story of her father's death, which
was an alleged suicide, and a lot of it
takes place at the family's funeral home,
and it's all about hers and her father's sexual identities
and mental health and all that fun growing-up stuff.
But I honestly didn't find it that dark! I just liked it! If anything, I thought it was kinda happy.
Maybe it's 'cause the cover was shiny. That always draws me in.
"The Amazing Book is Not on Fire" by Dan and Phil.
I forgot-- Dan Howell and Phil Lester.
Those are their names.
I think this is the first YouTuber book that I've actually read all the way through.
Unless you count Arin, from earlier. Or John Green.
Right.
Alright, well, it's the first YouTuber book from the slew of YouTuber books this year
that I've actually read.
If you're a Dan and Phil fan, it's great. If you're not, I'm not sure if you would like it,
but it is a beautiful book.
It's, like, you know, high graphics, and every page spread is like, a different concept,
because Dan and Phil are genuinely very creative and weird guys.
You get a lot of their, like, really
fun storytelling abilities.
It's a really fun book. I love the color scheme. Good for them!
"Next Stop Adventure"  by Matt Gauck.
"Gōck"? No idea.
This is basically a collection of all the zines that he wrote while he was riding his
bike around the nation over a decade.
You spend the whole book being inspired to go
on your own adventures and wondering how the heck Matt is still alive. It's great.
"Kill Shakespeare: volume 1" this
is a series of comics about like if all
of Shakespeare's characters lived in
this world where he was God I think he's
some sort of God and
they're like fighting back against him
or some of them are fighting to protect
him. Juliette's a badass warrior
general, that's really all you need to know.
"Whatcha Mean What's A Zine"
definitive guide to zine making and it's
also super inspirational in terms of
coming up with style and content and stuff
''the psychic soviet'' by Ian Svenonius
is a book of essays on Marxism punk rock
DIY ethics, vampires and seinfeld. It's one of those
text that connects everything together
with everything else, a lot like in a comparative literature class
when your professor says something and you're like, ok that sounds a little
conspiracist but also really cool and now
my mind is opening to all these other
things I hadn't thought of before, but
that first thing is still probably not true.
Look up Deleuze and Guattari's theory of the rhizome and then read this book.
That is it! That is all of the books that I read in 2015. Let me know what you read in 2015.
What you are hoping to read in 2016
What your new year's resolution is. I guess I
want you to tell me anything in the comments.
I've got links to all of these books down in the
Description box including Indie bound
links for any of them that have them. I
hope you had as great of a 2015 as I had.
thank you for watching and I'll see you
in 2016
