My Rainbow by DeShanna Neal and Trinity

Library Assistant Aileen H. recommended this picture book, based on the real-life experiences of author DeShanna Neal and her daughter Trinity. One day, Trinity tells her mom DeShanna that she wants to have beautiful long hair like her dolls. The two visit a local wig store, but none of the wigs feel like the right fit for Trinity. Unready to give up, DeShanna decides to make a wig suitable for her daughter, using every color in the rainbow.

Green by Alex Gino

Children's Librarian Aurora G. said they love everything by Alex Gino. Green is Gino's latest chapter book, which follows non-binary middle schooler Green who advocates for gender-free casting in their school's upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz. At the same time, puberty is arriving, and Green has to wrestle with their changing body and decide whether or not to go on puberty blockers, which would give Green more time to decide what kind of body they want to grow into. On top of everything else, Green has a crush on a boy who is questioning if he likes boys or girls, but the only thing Green cares about is if he likes Green! What about Green! This might be the toughest tribulation of all.

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune 2052–2072 by M. E. O'Brien

Library Supervisor Kate E. had this to say:

I love this book due to its clever and novel format! This novel is styled as an "oral history" record of trans people who lived through the death of capitalism but is really a speculative fiction novel of the potential freedom of our world, should humanity abolish the variety of systems that are currently working against us. I enjoy the bright future painted by this novel; it gives me hope that things can change.

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Adult services librarian Birch M. had this to say:

Freshwater is a dark and honest magical realistic journey through the mind of our narrator, Ada, and the separate selves through which they experience the world. Our narrator is unreliable, and the story is constantly being recontextualized, so we as the reader are forced to let ourselves be taken along for the ride.

Emezi has a really uncanny ability of writing sentences that feel like they came straight from my subconscious. This is their debut novel and it's inspired by their reality. Freshwater is personal and raw. Emezi's writing tends to mirror my experience with gender and conscious reality in a way no other author has.

I'd recommend all of their work. Their novel The Death of Vivek Oji is a beautiful, unflinching portrayal of gender and love. Their newest novel, Little Rot, is a gritty and uncompromising story of how humans experience and wield power, specifically through sex.  

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

Library Coordinator Shelley R. (that's me!) had this to say:

The Terraformers is a deliciously bizarre tale of the planet Sask-E told over thousands of years. Set in a distant future — no, even more distant than that — Destry is a member of the Environmental Rescue Team, assigned to monitor the terraforming of Sask-E by an intergalactic real estate corporation. Destry must ensure that Sask-E never meets the same fate as the Earth that inspired it, but her plans change when she discovers descendants of the first generation of terraformers, grown in tanks to breathe Sask-E's original pre-terraforming atmosphere — now living secretly underground. The second act, centuries later, is about planning a planetwide transit system. The third act, a millennia later, is about who or what gets to be a person.

I love how imaginative this book is. It's a world where everyone is grown in tanks, earthworms can be people, and engineers are concerned with ethical working conditions for trains (yes, the trains themselves). The especially alien world can be challening for some readers, but I loved every moment of this weird as heck book.

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

Chief of Neighborhood Library Services, Joel N., said he loved this "scary novella that takes you inside an intentional, anarchist community reckoning with a power they can’t control." Danielle Cain is a touring punk rocker who visits the utopian community of Freedom, Iowa in search of clues about her friend's mysterious and sudden death. She discovers that the residents had summoned a protector spirit to be the neutral judge of their disputes, but the summoning has gone terribly wrong. Danielle must act fast if she wants to escape Iowa alive. Also available at the library, is Margaret Killjoy's new fantasy novel The Sapling Cage about a young trans girl who joins a coven of witches.

Trans By Trans Book Club

Third Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. over Zoom

Join us on the third Tuesday of each month for a virtual citywide book club for trans and nonbinary adult readers! More books are written by and for trans and nonbinary people than ever before, and the Free Library wants YOU to read them with us! Join us on the third Tuesday of each month for a virtual citywide book club for trans and nonbinary adult readers. Each month, we will read books written by trans and nonbinary authors and discuss trans imagination, writing craft, the art of creating our lives, and more. Free paperback copies of our titles are available for pre-registered attendees upon request. Advanced registration is required to attend. The next meeting will be on April 15th. You can see what we've read so far on the Trans By Trans Book List. (They've all been really good!)

Author Event: Denne Michele Norris | When the Harvest Comes

Thursday, April 17th at 7:00 p.m. at the Parkway Central Library

The incredible Denne Michele Norris will be visiting the Parkway Central Library in just a couple of weeks! Denne Michele Norris is the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature and winner of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. She is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. An Out100 Honoree, she has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction, and appears in McSweeney's, American Short Fiction, and ZORA. She is co-host of the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She will be talking about her forthcoming novel When the Harvest Comes, a literary novel about a gay man who learns of his estranged homophobic father's death during his wedding reception and must reconcile with the trauma it digs up. In resplendent prose, Denne Michele Norris’s When the Harvest Comes fearlessly reveals the pain of inheritance and the heroic power of love, reminding us that, in the end, we are more than the men who came before us.