Welcome to Litsy!

I liked the overall story of Wendy, a 30 year old trans woman and the insight into her life in Winnipeg. Her trans friends, work (both sex work and at a store,) her dad and the mystery of her grandfather. It was sad but also hopeful. However reading about the amount of alcohol consumption almost made me nauseous and the sex was a bit much for my taste. All the triggers! #ReadHarder23 ~read a book about a trans character written by a trans author.

This book was a wonderful read, albeit it difficult and heartbreaking in so many ways. I loved the ending; perseverance is strength. Reading it as part of my Read Harder 2023 Challenge, it helped to “hear” the voice of a community so often belittled and targeted for simply being true to themselves.

This book is a gut punch with a strong sense of both physical place and the spaces where queer community happens. It‘s excellent, but trigger warming for everything. Seriously. Brace yourself if necessary.

Also important: the audio narrator mispronounces at least 75% of the place names. I wish the director‘d done more to check that.

Ugh. I need to check myself into detox just from reading about all the alcohol consumption in this book. Every f..d up thing that can happen to a trans woman, and every f...d up life choice a twenty something person can make happens to Wendy in a four week span. Was this written as a warning against pursuing gender transition? Seemed that way by the end. Tedious.

#queer
#audiobook

“Praying was much like doing housework.”

#firstlinefridays

It's been a while since I found a book I couldn't put down

This was gifted to me by my lovely friend @Hooked_on_books and it works for the #Pop20 #TransOrNonBinaryAuthor Thanks so much Holly 🌺❣️

Excellent. Wendy, a 30 yo trans woman in Winnipeg, discovers that her late Mennonite grandfather may have been transgender like her. Wendy seeks answers, while just trying to get by with everyday life.

The story is quite sad at times. And there is some repetition: Wendy drinks, Wendy has sexual encounters, Wendy has conversations with family, both chosen and blood. Rinse, repeat. 👇🏼

I picked it up and didn't put it down until I was done with it. Expertly crafted, powerfully gripping, and of the utmost importance. Give it a read.

Plett, a trans author, paints a portrait of a trans woman in Manitoba and her group of trans friends. The difficulty of life as a trans person bleeds through the pages as we see main character Wendy‘s self-destructive behavior. This is so well done but definitely an emotionally tough read.

#dogsofLitsy #Bindi

Great book about a trans woman in Winnipeg

Casey Plett‘s warm-hearted novel about a bisexual trans woman has won the Lammy for transgender fiction. 🎉🎉🎉 #LGBTQ #CanadianAuthor
(Photo from Twitter)

Having consumed Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead and Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez whole I'm now gorging myself on other offerings from Arsenal Pulp Press.

Library haul.

Well that was an education (I'm not the most trans-savvy person in the world: should pay more attention). Wendy is a trans woman who learns that her beloved grandfather may have been trans, too. I'd have liked more about her Opa, and the family friend who tells her. As it was, I almost bailed: soooo much sex and drunkenness. Plett has a great ear for dialogue, though. I didn't enjoy it - I feel bruised - but I'll be thinking about it for a while.

Wendy is a trans woman living in Winnipeg, in a circle of friends composed of other trans women. Even the author admitted this would be an incredible rarity but wanted a world where it would be possible, and that is the world of this novel.

The novel starts with the death of Wendy's grandmother, which comes with a lot of judgment memories from her Mennonite relatives, and surprising rumors about her Opa (grandpa) that surface not long after.
⤵️

I liked it

I worked a shift at Wordfest at Memorial Park Library for Owls Nest yesterday. One of the panels I got to take in was with Rachel Giese, Heidi Sopinka, Maureen Medved and Casey Plett. It was an absolute delight to listen to as the four of them were well spoken, intelligent, and funny. I ended up buying Casey Plett‘s novel, Little Fish and was able to get it signed #Wordfest2018

This book feels so close to the lives of so many of my clients that it was hard to read sometimes. It centres around Wendy a trans-woman who struggles with transphobia, alcoholism and the violence that her community is so familiar with. She has a strong, beautiful network of friends who are all trans-women and who support each other in such tender, fierce, powerful ways. Wendy's Mennonite family figure into the narrative in interesting ways!

I'm currently reading this gritty tale of Wendy, a transwoman living in Winnipeg. #transbooks #queerbooks

Small library haul today! I saw Hey Ladies in a bookstore and immediately put a hold on it! It‘s quasi epistolary which I am excited for. I heard some buzz on Little Fish and I‘m pretty excited to read it! #litsyloveslibraries

“She was so, so tired of loving her people and them not loving her back.” The question of belonging is at the core of this frank, warm-hearted novel set in contemporary Winnipeg. Wendy is a bisexual trans woman with a Mennonite background. She and her trans friends struggle financially, & with alcoholism, suicide & transphobia, but they provide each other with strong emotional support. Memorable characters, raw and really real. #LGBTQ 🇨🇦

Wendy Reimer, the trans woman at the centre of the novel Little Fish, compares two people she meets to characters from novels by Heather O‘Neill and Miriam Toews. Go #CanLit! 🇨🇦

Wendy‘s brain was a hunk of flesh lurching two seconds in front of her body.

Winnipeg winter is practically a character in this novel: “Brilliant light came through the window above them. The shkkkt shkkkt of windshield scrapers and muffled creaks of boots on snow.”

If Wendy missed anything about her boy life, she missed what she had had with her dad. He‘d always known how to cheer her up. She thought randomly of that time he‘d persuaded her to drop out of university after one terrible year—“Look, you don‘t need to piss yourself into debt to be miserable,” he‘d said. “You can do that for free.”

(Internet photo of the author)

This novel begins with chapter 0:
“The night before her oma died, Wendy was in a booth at the bar with Lila, Raina and Sophie. It was 11 p.m. and they were all tipsy. Sophie was saying, ‘Age is completely different for trans people. The way we talk about age is not how cis people talk about age.‘”
#firstlines #lgbtq

This book is perfection. It's honest and raw, with characters (and dialogue!) that are so realistic, I felt like I was right there inside the story. Like a silent, unnamed member of this circle of friends. I laughed with these characters, I was angry for them, I felt their grief. It left me thinking more about generational differences, religious differences, our choices in life, and finding ways to be at peace. #transbooks #queerbooks #lgbtq

"Whatever she hadn't made peace with, she'd made peace with the fact there'd never be peace, so to speak."

#translit #transbooks #queerbooks #lgbtq #ownvoices

A hard-hitting, beautiful, & thought-provoking novel. Amazing, complex, authentic characterization; Plett isn't afraid to make her characters messy. It's about a 30-year-old trans woman named Wendy living in Winnipeg, her group of trans women friends, and her Mennonite family. The crux of the plot is Wendy discovering her grandfather might have also been trans but it's just as much about other issues like alcoholism, sex work, friendship, suicide.

"And she learned right then: you always had to be on your guard. It didn't matter how often you passed, it could always be taken away. Always. She'd never be little, she'd never be fish. It could always be taken away." ☹️
#TransBooks #QueerBooks

Just a convo between two girl friends:
"Oh--right, Ernie. Haven't heard from him yet."
"Bummer, girl."
"Yeah. Well. Thanks for asking."
They were silent for a second, then Lila offered, "There'll be more d."
"Ain't that the truth."

Casey Plett is so good at dialogue. It always sounds like how real people talk.
#TransBooks #QueerBooks

I have a whole day off ahead of me and I can't decide which book to read next!! From top left clockwise: queer urban fantasy, highly recommended historical romance, Canadian trans coming of age, or queer black sci fi? Help! #QueerBooks #Romantsy #Fantasy #ScienceFiction

It is going to take all my will power not to drop all the other books I'm reading right now and start reading this one!!! One of my favourite authors' first novel!! Plus she's a really rad person IRL!! And the synopsis looks awesome!! #CanLit #TransBooks #QueerBooks