Nonfiction
Denmark Vesey's garden : slavery and memory in the cradle of the Confederacy
Ethan J. Kytle
975.703 /Kytle
Nonfiction, History
A book that strikes at the heart of the recent flare-ups over Confederate symbols in Charlottesville, New Orleans, and elsewhere, Denmark Vesey's Garden reveals the deep roots of these controversies and traces them to the heart of slavery in the United States: Charleston, South Carolina, where almost half of the U.S. slave population stepped onto our shores, where the first shot at Fort Sumter began the Civil War, and where Dylann Roof shot nine people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, the congregation of Denmark Vesey, a black revolutionary who plotted a massive slave insurrection in 1822. As early as 1865, former slaveholders and their descendants began working to preserve a romanticized memory of the antebellum South. In contrast, former slaves, their descendants, and some white allies have worked to preserve an honest, unvarnished account of slavery as the cruel system it was. Examining public rituals, controversial monuments, and whitewashed historical tourism, Denmark Vesey's Garden tracks these two rival memories from the Civil War all the way to contemporary times, where two segregated tourism industries still reflect these opposing impressions of the past, exposing a hidden dimension of America's deep racial divide. Denmark Vesey's Garden joins the small bookshelf of major, paradigm-shifting new interpretations of slavery's enduring legacy in the United States. --inside jacket.
You never forget your first : a biography of George Washington
Alexis Coe
BIOGRAPHY Washington, George
Nonfiction, Biographies, History
"In a genre overdue for a shakeup, Alexis Coe takes a closer look at our first--and finds he's not quite the man we remember Young George Washington was raised by a struggling single mother, demanded military promotions, chased rich young women, caused an international incident, and never backed down--even when his dysentery got so bad he had to ride with a cushion on his saddle. But after he married Martha, everything changed. Washington became the kind of man who named his dog Sweetlips and hated to leave home. He took up arms against the British only when there was no other way, though he lost more battles than he won. Coe focuses on his activities off the battlefield--like espionage and propaganda. After an unlikely victory in the Revolutionary War, Washington once again shocked the world by giving up power, only to learn his compatriots wouldn't allow it. The founders pressured him into the presidency--twice. He established enduring norms but left office heartbroken over the partisan nightmare his backstabbing cabinet had created. Back on his plantation, the man who fought for liberty finally confronted his greatest hypocrisy--what to do with the hundreds of men, women, and children he owned--before succumbing to a brutal death. Alexis Coe combines rigorous research and unsentimental storytelling, finally separating the man from the legend."--
This is the first biography of Washington I’ve read since grade school, and was refreshing in its stories of Washington’s relationship to the women in his life and other human foibles that frequently get brushed over. Of course, everything involving the Founders these days gets colored through the lens of Hamilton the Musical, so being able to make those connections was also enjoyable. If you’re looking for a solid biography of Washington that doesn't intimidate, this is a great pick. -Amanda
Beyond magenta : transgender teens speak out
Susan Kuklin
eBOOK
LGBTQ+, Nonfiction, Young Adult, Biographies
Shares insights into the teen transgender experience, tracing six individual's emotional and physical journey as it was shaped by family dynamics, living situations, and the transition each teen made during the personal journey.
Added by Candice
She, he, they, me : for the sisters, misters, and binary resisters
Robyn Ryle
305.3 /Ryle
LGBTQ+, Nonfiction
If you've ever questioned the logic of basing an entire identity around what you have between your legs, it's time to embark on a daring escape outside of the binary box... Open your eyes to what it means to be a boy or a girl -- and above and beyond! Within these pages, you get to choose which path to forge. Explore over one hundred different scenarios that embrace nearly every definition across the world, over history, and in the ever-widening realms of our imagination! What if your journey leads you into a world with several genders, or simply one? Do you live in a matriarchal society, or as a sworn virgin in the Balkans? How does gender (or the lack thereof) change the way we approach sex and love, life or death? Jump headfirst into this refreshingly creative exploration of the ways gender colors every shade and shape of our world. Above all, it's more important than ever for us to celebrate the fact that there are infinite gender paths -- and each of them is beautiful.
Added by Candice
The economic case for LGBT equality : why fairness and equality benefit us all
M. V. Lee Badgett
eBOOK
LGBTQ+, Nonfiction
"Badgett offers some new ways of thinking to convert the many people who use their power to hurt LGBT people, whether in passing discriminatory laws, firing them from jobs, harassing them in school, beating them on the streets, failing to protect them from beatings, kicking them out of families, or depriving them of appropriate health care-in short, in excluding them from the core institutions that make it possible to live a good life. Understanding the economic cost of that homophobia and transphobia gives activists, businesses, development agencies, and policymakers a new tool that can help change lives"--
Added by Candice
A quick & easy guide to queer & trans identities
Mady (Mady M. Giuliani) G
306.76 /G
LGBTQ+, Nonfiction
"Covering essential topics like sexuality, gender identity, coming out, and navigating relationships, this guide explains the spectrum of human experience through informative comics, interviews, worksheets, and imaginative examples. A great starting point for anyone curious about queer and trans life, and helpful for those already on their own journeys!"--Back cover.
Added by Candice
Trans like me : conversations for all of us
C. N. Lester
eBOOK
LGBTQ+, Nonfiction, Biographies
A personal and culture-driven exploration of the most pressing questions facing the transgender community today, from a leading activist, musician, and academic. In Trans Like Me, CN Lester takes readers on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community, turning them inside out and examining where we really are in terms of progress. From the impact of the media's wording in covering trans people and issues, to the way parenting gender variant children is portrayed, Lester brings their charged personal narrative to every topic and expertly lays out the work left to be done. Trans Like Me explores the ways that we are all defined by ideas of gender--whether we live as he, she, or they--and how we can strive for authenticity in a world that forces limiting labels.
Added by Candice
Ask a queer chick : a guide to sex, love, and life for girls who dig girls
Lindsay King-Miller
eBOOK
LGBTQ+, Nonfiction, Health, Self Help
Ask a Queer Chick is a guide to sex, love, and life for lesbian, gay, bi, and queer women. Based on the popular advice column for Fusion.net, but featuring entirely new content, Ask a Queer Chick cuts through all of the bizarre conditioning imparted by parents, romantic comedies, and The L Word to help queer readers and their straight/cis friends navigate this changing world. Offering advice on everything from coming out to getting your first gay haircut to walking down the aisle, Ask a Queer Chick is a positive, down-to-earth guide that will resonate with readers of Dan Savage and Cheryl Strayed's Tiny Beautiful Things.
Added by Candice
The gay revolution : the story of the struggle
Lillian Faderman
eBOOK
LGBTQ+, Nonfiction, History
Booklist Reviews 2015 August #1 *Starred Review* A Lambda Literary and Stonewall Book Award-winning author, scholar, and retired college professor, Faderman has crafted an epic yet remarkably intimate work that belongs among the most definitive civil rights titles, LGBTQ-specific or otherwise. Based on more than 150 interviews and the author's exhaustive research, The Gay Revolution begins by recalling the government's gay witch hunts of the 1950s and spans the next six and a half decades of the ongoing struggle for legal and societal equality. All of the prominent landmarks of the gay rights movement (the Stonewall riots; Anita Bryant's Save Our Children political coalition; Don't Ask, Don't Tell) are covered thoroughly, but Faderman's writing conveys such fresh passion that readers will feel like they are experiencing these history-altering moments in real time. However, it's the lesser-told stories--such as the rise and eventual decline of the early gay rights group, the Mattachine Society, and its founder, Harry Hay, who went on to start the Radical Faeries movement--that bring voice to the brave, trailblazing heroes who risked so much to help chip away at the hostile and pervasive intolerance that once singularly defined the homosexual American experience.
Added by Candice
What's your pronoun? : beyond he and she
Dennis E. Baron
The story of how we got from he and she to zie and hir and singular they. Like trigger warnings and gender-neutral bathrooms, pronouns are suddenly sparking debate, prompting new policies in schools, workplaces, even prisons, about what pronouns to use. Colleges ask students to declare their pronouns; corporate conferences print nametags with space for people to add their pronouns; email signatures sport pronouns along with names and titles. Far more than a byproduct of campus politics or culture wars, gender-neutral pronouns are in fact nothing new. Renowned linguist Dennis Baron puts them in historical context, demonstrating that Shakespeare used singular they; that women evoked the generic use of he to assert the right to vote (while those opposed to women's rights invoked the same word to assert that he did not include she), and that self-appointed language experts have been coining new gender pronouns, not just hir and zie but hundreds more, like thon, ip, and em, for centuries. Based on Baron's own empirical research, What's Your Pronoun? tells the untold story of gender-neutral and nonbinary pronouns.
Added by Candice
Though this is an excellent read for a Charleston lover like me, it also makes for a microcosm of slavery, Lost Cause mythology, and racism in the South in general. The book traces the many filters the question of slavery has been put through over the past few centuries, and how it's evolved and been remembered. Highly recommend for the history buff! -Amanda