Book Review- 'My Sister'

One of the things I love to do is grab a good book and take the time to read it.   But because of my busy schedule I haven't to my chagrin been doing much of that lately.

The COVID-19 social distancing and sheltering in place has given me an opportunity to sit down and wade through that pile of trans themed books on my to read list.

Just in time for Transgender Day Of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31 is the release of the book by Selenis and Marizol Leyva entitled  My Sister- How One Sibling's Transition Changed Us Both.  

I finally received my copy yesterday and read the book in five hours.   Yes peeps I can actually read that fast.  It's a trait I inherited from my mom.

Also didn't hurt that there's not much to watch on TV these days.

The 248 page book is broken up into three sections, in which Part One focuses on Selenis' and Marizol's life before transition.  Part Two, as she transitioned, and Part Three life as Marizol's true self, told in alternating .chapters by Selenis and Marizol.

There are times when their life journeys were similar as a cis and a trans woman, and times where there were challenges unique to both.

In Selenis' case, she had to deal with the internalized issues of not being seen as pretty because of her Afro-Latinx heritage by extended family members and society.  The challenges of fitting in as a high school student at the famed La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

Her struggle to make her acting career work before she blew up with her award winning role as Gloria Mendoza on Orange Is The New Black.  Dealing with marriage and motherhood and at times depression.

Selenis is now on the Disney Plus show Diary Of A Future President, playing the single attorney mom of two kids, one who grows up to become the POTUS. 

As Selenis was dealing with all of this challenging stuff going on in her own life,, she was also concerned about the baby sister she loved in Marizol.  Being annoyed at times when her clothes and shoe closet got raided by Marizol who was exploring her femininity

And grieving the loss of her baby brother while getting adjusted to Marizol being in her world

Selenis is also an ally to our trans and SGL community.



Marizol' had some challenges similar to her elder sister in terms of trying to fit in, but others that were all too familiar to those of us who are transgender.   The frustration of being in a body that wasn't congruent to the person on the inside.  The bullying not only at school but outside of it by society
.

Learning that there was a term that described that disconnect.   Finding other trans people and hanging out in New York's TBLGQ plus community.

And there was the ugly side of it.  Marizol talks about being in an abusive relationship.  Dealing with the fallout from being molested as a child by her birth father.  Overcoming depression, alcohol and drug abuse.  Navigating the challenges that come with a social and physical transition.

She talks about her time living at the Ali Forney Center,  and eventually getting comfortable in her own skin while being supported and loved by Selenis .

She also talks about the challenges of being trans and Latinx

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and getting some insight on both Selenis' and Marizol's lives.
I'm looking forward to eventually meeting them and one day getting this book autographed.

.

Still Musing About Marcus Major

Back in July 2011 I wrote a post asking the question what happened to author Marcus Major? 

After writing the short story Kenya and Amir and the bestselling novels Good Peoples, 4 Guys And Trouble, A Man Most Worthy and A Family Affair from 2000-2003, it seemed as though he just vanished from the literary world and hasn't written a new novel since 2003.

Basically myself and ofter fans of Major who grew to love the characters in his Philly-Newark-DC centered writing universe have been wondering ever since what's happened not only to him, but the characters populating his novels?

When Major's last novel A Family Affair was published, we discovered Marisa and Myles were married.  Mike had just gotten married to now Dr. Erika.Truitt.  Carlos and Jackie Roque were the parents of adorable toddler CJ. Kenya and Amir were married and dealing with their now eight year old twins Deja and Jade, and everyone's fave playa player Ibn Barrington is still hilariously single.

Eleven years has elapsed since A Family Affair was published.   For those of us Marcus Major fans musing about Marisa and Myles, not only do we wonder if our fave couple had a boy or girl, did that at this point 11 year old child receive a name starting with 'M'?  

If their child is a girl, would Marisa name the baby for her late Cuban mother or if a boy, would he be a Myles Jr or some other male name?   Would the career obsessed Cubana slow down her legal, media and advocacy track for mommyhood or would Myles be more of the stay at home dad as they discussed at the end of Good Peoples? 

Speaking of juniors, what's up with Carlos Roque, Jr?   How is he progressing under the parental guidance of Jackie and Carlos Sr?   Is the group home that Jackie and Kenya were running still active?    What's up not only with Kenya and Amir Moore, but with their twin daughters Deja and Jade who would now be about college age at 19?   What's their Aunt Tanzania up to?   Did Jasmine and Darius stay together or move on to other people as Jasmine pursued her college education?  

As for the questions focused on the characters from 4 Guys and Trouble, we know that Mike and Bunches AKA Dr Erika Truitt got married, and Ibn's being Ibn, but did the same thing happen for the other characters in that novel? 

Did Tiffany get married to Maryland state senator Harold Hawkins III and repair her friendship with Erika?  Are Colin and Stephanie still together and did that newly blossoming relationship result in them getting married?  Did Dexter find someone else in the wake of his breakup with Denise?   Did she marry Kwame?.

What happened to Sharice?  Terence?   Did Erika keep her promise and adopt Tiana who would now be in her early twenties?  

We know Stacy went on to cause the end of a Moore family marriage in A Family Affair , but is she still wrecking homes?  

And Ibn, Ibn, Ibn?   Has Ibn finally met the woman that made him want to give up his playa playa card?  Does he still think about losing Tiffany?   If he hasn't given up his playa card, what other wild situations did Ibn find himself in as alluded to in the A Man Most Worthy book when he showed up at Adele's with his frat neophytes who had just gone over, and his hilarious cameos in Amir's barbershop in A Family Affair? 

As for the Newark based characters in A Man Most Worthy, we can probably presume that John and Josephine Sebastian and Gloria and Jules Anthony are still together because both couples had seriously rocky roads to their dual  reconciliations and marriages.   But there's still questions you can ask related to that novel.

How did Gloria adjust to being the stepmother to Jules' then seven year old daughter Nakira, and what's Nakira doing now that she's 18?  

Did the now 34 year old Scent get her doctorate and find love?   Are Hakeem and Rashahn still living up to the motto of their problem solving business and dishing out well deserved beatdowns?  

In case you forgot:  "No problem too big or too small to be fixed, no azz too big or too small to be kicked."

Going back to Nakira, would be interesting to see a novel in which Tiana,  Nakira, Jade and Deja bumped into each other at college with Scent or Jasmine as one of their professors,  Marisa doing a guest lecture, and Ibn making a hilarious appearance doing his usual frat mentoring.

But then again, that's up to Marcus Major.   Would be nice of him to unleash another book for his devoted fans like moi who would love to once again immerse themselves into his Philly-DC-Newark centric character universe and see what's transpiring in the 2k10's.    

Hey, Ibn Barrington's exploits are worth two novels and a movie by himself.

Janet's Big Day

Today's launch of her book Redefining Realness was the fulfillment of a dream for Janet Mock to become a published author.  It's also concrete proof that just because you transition, you don't have to give up on making your dreams a reality. 

If you come up with a plan, stick to it and put in the work to make it happen our dreams can be realized.

As Janet wrote in her blog post  'A Dream Realized: Redefining Realness Is Finally Here', she states:

For so long I believed that good things could not happen to me, that my dreams and goals and desires and fantasies could not come true. This is how I’ve navigated the world for so long, with feelings of doom, of inadequacy and pain, of letdowns and failed expectations following me. As I write in Redefining Realness, “Happiness was fleeting and accidental; goodness wasn’t in the cards for a girl like me.” I wish I was at some elevated space with myself where I could say I’ve conquered those feelings, but I have not. And this book is not going to fill that craving.

You can read the rest of Janet's post by clicking this link.

'Redefining Realness' Out Today!

I received my autographed copy of it just as Creating Change was cranking up in H-town, and finally had a chance to spend Monday evening settling into a quiet well lit corner and reading Janet Mock's book Redefining Realness.

It's an interesting read that seamlessly discusses her personal story growing up in challenging circumstances as a mixed race trans kid in Honolulu, Oakland and Dallas for a minute.   The interesting twist to this memoir is that trans community stats are weaved into it that reflect what she's discussing at that time and in that particular chapter of the book.

It's an innovative way to tell your personal story, and once I started turning pages in it I couldn't put it down. . 

Janet's highly anticipated book will be released today, and I hope this becomes a New York Times Best Seller.  

We'll see how that plays out.  Janet will also be doing a tour in support of this book, and I can't wait until she hits Houston. 

Transparent

I just finished reading Transparent by Cris Beam. It's an interesting nonfiction book about several Los Angeles Latina and African-American transkids covering a period from 1998 to 2005.

One of the people featured in the book, Foxxjazell was familiar to me. I just wrote a blog post last month on her increasing popularity in California's rap scene as a transgender rapper. It was interesting to read her background story.

Some of it was sad, some triumphant. Some of their stories hit home and triggered some emotional memories concerning some things I was dealing with in my own childhood.

Cris Beam also weaves transgender history, science, and knowledge throughout the book. If you want to get some insight on some of the issues we deal with and how they affect these transkids, you may want to pick this book up and add it to your collection.