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A Year Without a Name
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
9 posts | 9 read | 12 to read
A genderqueer coming-of-age story of stunning frankness and passion, from a remarkable new talent. When I figured out how to spell the words I held in my mouth, I wrote them over and over until they filled up the page. "I'm gay I'm gay I'm gay I'm gay I'm gay I'm gay I'm gay I'm gay I'm gay I'm gay." Then I ripped the paper up and flushed it down the toilet. Cyrus Grace Dunham (who happens to be Lena's sibling) has always known that they didn't fit on either side of the gender binary. As a child, they used to slick their hair back and pose in front of the mirror, "lifting my chin up like men in magazines" and privately calling themselves "Jimmy." But they had no language to express their profound sense of alienation, until relatively recently, when they embarked on a search for a new name. Writing with disarming emotional intensity in a voice all their own, Cyrus Grace chronicles a childhood in a family of artists with larger-than-life personalities, bouts of gender dysphoria and obsessive-compulsive disorder, soaring romantic adventures, and faltering first forays into adult life, all the while exploring the complex family relationships that lay our foundations, constrain us, and inform our capacity to love. Signaling the arrival of a boldly original writer with a knock-out "page presence," A Year Without a Name is a searching, lyrical memoir of coming to terms with genderqueer identity as well as a heartrending portrait of the terror, excitement, and uncertainty of youth.
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Megabooks
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
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Pickpick

Sometimes when you‘re queer, you feel like you have to be a “gold star” ____, which means all your experiences line up neatly in a way a cis/hetero person could understand. Cyrus always felt a bit like a boy even though he was assigned female at birth, but his gender dysphoria was never as extreme as a gold star trans man. This is his memoir of transition.

There was a page where he questioned what Cyrus would like (vegan or carnivore, ⬇️

Megabooks ⬆️ tea or alcohol) that really drove home to me how difficult remaking your gender is. Really interesting memoir, but I think I did like this one better, as far as gender memoirs I‘ve read recently. (edited) 3y
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blurb
Megabooks
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
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#bookmail from yesterday! I picked up the Pride bundle from Feminist Book Club Box. The book is an exploration of gender by the author, and the product I picked was a universal eye makeup crayon! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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Twocougs
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
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Pickpick

A bit messy, much like I imagine the experience was for Cyrus. Honest but complicated. Pretty courageous to tell your “becoming” story.

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JackieGreco
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
Mehso-so

An important book, but a difficult one to read.

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MidnightBookGirl
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
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Mehso-so

This memoir is a bit messy and feels like it ends too soon, but it's a story that needs to exist. Cyrus Grace grapples with gender and longing and feeling displaced. More gender queer voices in books can only lead to helping others on their own journeys, and Cyrus Grace definitely holds nothing back.
#NFNov @clwojick

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ReadingEnvy
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
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Pickpick

This memoir is an excellent capture of grappling with genderqueer identity. I've marked a bunch of places that resonate with experiences friends of mine have had, but I've never seen in articulated so well. It's a quick read and very worth reading. It comes out November 15, 2019 - I was sent a copy from the publisher.

I'm seeing how many memoirs I can read for Non-Fiction November - this is the first!

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underground_bks
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
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Mehso-so

Cyrus Grace Dunham, sibling to Lena, writes gorgeously and grippingly of their gender journey, but the overwhelming and graphic depictions of emotional pain paired with the seeming obliviousness to their privilege as a ridiculously wealthy and vastly supported person made this book a so-so for me. I‘m glad this exists because we need more representation on bookshelves but I can‘t wholeheartedly recommend it.

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Bookalong
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
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Pickpick

4/5🌟This is one of the most intimate, vulnerable and unbelievable honest memoirs I have ever read!
This reads almost like diary form as Cyrus Grace Dunham writes so clearly and openly about their gender journey, family, desire, queerness and more. So many people will find this book a great comfort. And anyone who enjoys memoirs or has ever wondered about gender identity and queerness needs to read this book! Out Oct 15th! #bookstagram

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Sward7
A Year Without a Name | Cyrus Grace Dunham
Pickpick

3.5 stars. A hauntingly raw journey as Grace contemplates becoming Cyrus; becoming they, sometimes he, and back to she at times. It feels like Grace was secretly in search of a metanoia to relieve the guilt and paranoia about feeling she is doing a disservice to the female gender, and feeling he is not worthy of being a man. More stories from the LGBTQ community need to populate all our shelves to help inspire and advance acceptance and normalcy