A Baker's Dozen of Favorites--"They're good books, y'all."

The one-year anniversary of this blog was March 22. Let's celebrate!!! 

But first, a few thoughts:

I started with a specific format for my reviews, with which I have *mostly* been consistent. When I started this blog, I tried to give each book ratings, first out of 5 stars, and then letter grades. I even contemplated creating a rubric to grade each book (once an English teacher . . . ).  Soon, I realized that in order for me to not give each book a high rating, I had to focus on what was wrong with instead of what I liked about them. 

Trying to be extra critical wasn't working for me; besides, most of the books I was reviewing were award-winning because they're good books, y'all.

So my "reviews" mostly became examples of literary analysis, which doesn't sound very interesting. Therefore, I am working on figuring out another word for analysis--dictionary.com is failing me--to use in a blog re-title. All suggestions welcome.

I wanted to highlight my favorite "literary-analysis-posts-essays-reviews" I've written in the past year. I started with 16. Tried to narrow to 10, but then narrowed it down to a baker's dozen.

My Baker's Dozen of Favorite Posts (oldest to newest):

Cis folks: "What can we do to help the trans community?"

Yesterday was Trans Day of Visibility, and last month I participated (or read, mostly) a Twitter discussion in which trans folks gave advice to to their cis peers. Here's the original Tweet with my reply:

You'll have to wait in suspense for the gherkin part. 😉

So here, in their own (edited for clarity and brevity) words, is a list of advice from transgender people.

Do I support/endorse/agree with every single part of this list? Who cares? This is not the time or place as a cis-woman to insert my opinions. This list is directly from trans people. LISTEN TO (read) what they have to say with open minds.

CLICK HERE for the list.