#cris beam

[pridebooks]

mostly, when books are bad, i just kinda move on. i’ll talk about it sometimes, but mostly i just move on. so there’s something here, because i’m still thinking about this book.

i think that the most important factor in books is the impact on the target audience.

like, not even looking at the yikes of the book in general, if i’d read I Am J as a young trans guy - which i could have, it came out in 2011 and i figured out that i’m trans in 2013 - i would’ve hated myself. i would have hated being trans. i would have hurt myself - intentionally and unintentionally - directly because of things that the book said.

if i’d read I Am J as part of the target audience, it would’ve directly harmed me.

[canonlgbtqcharacters]

J Silver from I Am J is a trans boy

[anincantationofstories]

I am sure, at the end of it all, that empathy's not a skill, like love is not a skill, though one can improve empathy's expression, the breadth of its reach. I've come to think of empathy as a moral art, which sounds like an oxymoron but is more of a paradox, if you hold it gently enough. Empathy, as art, can be genius and inborn, and as practice, be refined and improved. But it's also moral in that it's a way one chooses to angle herself rightly in the world, interrupting power, and remaining vulnerable, both. Just think of the empathy masters who deployed it in the hardest of circumstances, up against the wall of oppression—the Gandhis, the Kings, the Mandelas. They were practicing a moral art.

Cris Beam, I Feel You

[thenovl]

Celebrate YA Pride with a new read ❤️🌈

Struck by Lightning by Chris Colfer

I Am J by Cris Beam

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters

Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler

Luna by Julie Anne Peters

[hmhbooks]

27. TRANSPARENT by Cris Beam

When Cris Beam moved to Los Angeles, she thought she might volunteer just a few hours at a school for gay and transgender kids. Instead, she found herself drawn deeply into the pained and powerful group of transgirls she discovered. Their world is a dizzying mix of familiar teenage cliques and crushes and far less familiar challenges, such as how to morph your body on a few dollars a day. Funny, heartbreaking, defiant, and sometimes defeated, the girls form a singular community.

Happy Pride Month! We’re celebrating with 30 days of LGBTQ books. Click here to see our recommendations.

[anincantationofstories]

At the beginning of this project, I thought self-empathy was self-indulgence, but I see now that it's the in breath that allows the out breath to occur. I thought, when I left Seth, that I'd be utterly alone, but what I found was that I returned to the world and that the world returned to me. Friends came forth, and I found a self that I had forgotten; I went inward and outward at once. This mirrors,in the broadest sense, Ferry's forecast. When, as a people, we have moved more inward toward love, we also gaze outward toward a future for that love to take seed. And when we have empathy for the enemy outside, we can fold it back to the littlest tyrant within us all. This is, after all, my hope.

Cris Beam, I Feel You

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers by Cris Beam

goodreads

Have you read this trans book?

Yes and I liked it

Yes and I didn't like it

No

No but I'd like to

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onDec 15, 2023

When Cris Beam first moved to Los Angeles, she thought she might put in just a few hours volunteering at a school for transgender kids while she got settled. Instead she found herself drawn deeply into the pained and powerful group of transgirls she discovered. In Transparent she intro­duces four of them—Christina, Domineque, Foxxjazell, and Ariel—and shows us their world, a dizzying mix of familiar teenage cliques and crushes with far less familiar challenges like how to morph your body on a few dollars a day. Funny, heartbreaking, defiant, and sometimes defeated, the girls form a singular community. But they struggle valiantly to resolve the gap between the way they feel inside and the way the world sees them—a struggle we can all identify with. Beam’s careful reporting, sensitive writing, and intimate relationship with her characters place Transparent in the ranks of the best narrative nonfiction.

Mod opinion: I hadn't heard of this book before, but it sounds interesting.

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

I am J by Cris Beam

goodreads

Have you read this trans book?

Yes and I liked it

Yes and I didn't like it

No

No but I'd like to

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onNov 29, 2023

"Hola, Jeni."

J spun. His stomach clenched hard, as though he'd been hit. It was just the neighbor lady, Mercedes. J couldn't muster a hello back, not now; he didn't care that she'd tell his mom he'd been rude. She should know better. Nobody calls me Jeni anymore.

J always felt different. He was certain that eventually everyone would understand who he really was: a boy mistakenly born as a girl. Yet as he grew up, his body began to betray him; eventually J stopped praying to wake up a "real boy" and started covering up his body, keeping himself invisible - from his family, from his friends...from the world. But after being deserted by the best friend he thought would always be by his side, J decides that he's done hiding - it's time to be who he really is. And this time he is determined not to give up, no matter the cost.

An inspiring story of self-discovery, of choosing to stand up for yourself, and of finding your own path - readers will recognize a part of themselves in J's struggle to love his true self.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this book yet and I probably wont since I'm out of the age where inspiring trans teen books really do anything for me.