New Year’s Resolution: I’ll Pare Down My Reading List — to Just 50 Books!

Transforming my ‘to be read’ list into an achievable goal. I’ve put effort into identifying those books, so I’d prefer that my list be useful. The point is to consult the list. If it’s enormous, it isn’t practical.
Pamela Paul isn’t sympathetic to trans adults either

Yes, Republicans threaten the rights of trans adults. No, I don’t believe Pamela Paul really cares. Is there any specific legal right, specific type of access to resources, or specific type of respect she believes we should have? Tell me if you know.
Why this trans person is tired of Pamela Paul’s columns

She could just stop talking about us. She could talk about anything else. I could write a book she’d enjoy, except she wouldn’t love a book by an author she knew to be transgender. This is what I mean by transphobia.
Wanting to see and know: Positives and negatives of trans visibility

A tiny Chanukah reflection. Our terms, the formal definitions we’d give if asked, the way we informally use words: these are the detectors with which we make our way through the world.
A few drops of context: On snatching the Panama Canal

And why Trump is talking about trans people too. On Day One, it will be the official policy of the Trump administration that no one is allowed to be trans. Let’s talk about erasures.
He lied on his college applications and went to prison

‘Conning Harvard’ gives an example of what not to do. Adam Wheeler made headlines in 2010 when it was discovered he’d been admitted to Harvard under false pretenses. His prize-winning work had been faked too.
I have questions, but Chait says I’m not allowed to ask any

Per Jonathan Chait’s NY Intelligencer column, trans people who ask questions are risking the 2024 election. When will we be allowed to speak? Can we speak up after the election? No, as then we’ll be told to start worrying about the next election.
The people who use LGB-minus-T are homophobes

Brendan O’Neill does not support gay marriage and is impressed with the LGB Alliance. Yes, everyone may speak their mind. What’s on mine: Gay organizations that are trans-exclusive are homophobic too in complicated ways. Homophobes love this.
MAGA’s ‘not conservative’?

Well, is Trumpism conservative, or isn’t it? It doesn’t feel like natural order. It feels like state power. Some parts will be dismantled, and yet more monstrous heads will regrow.
The complicated joy of ‘Will & Harper’

Why did I wait so long to see it? The mood alternates between lighthearted and profound. Ferrell and Steele’s joy is complicated, but the film shines all the brighter for it.