Becoming Nicole
The Transformation of an American Family
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4.6 • 130 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The inspiring true story of transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines, whose identical twin brother, Jonas, and ordinary American family join her on an extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all.
Nicole appears as TV’s first transgender superhero on CW’s Supergirl
When Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys, they thought their lives were complete. But by the time Jonas and Wyatt were toddlers, confusion over Wyatt’s insistence that he was female began to tear the family apart. In the years that followed, the Maineses came to question their long-held views on gender and identity, to accept Wyatt’s transition to Nicole, and to undergo a wrenching transformation of their own, the effects of which would reverberate through their entire community. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Amy Ellis Nutt spent almost four years reporting this story and tells it with unflinching honesty, intimacy, and empathy. In her hands, Becoming Nicole is more than an account of a courageous girl and her extraordinary family. It’s a powerful portrait of a slowly but surely changing nation, and one that will inspire all of us to see the world with a little more humanity and understanding.
Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by People • One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review and Men’s Journal • A Stonewall Honor Book in Nonfiction • Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction
“Fascinating and enlightening.”—Cheryl Strayed
“If you aren’t moved by Becoming Nicole, I’d suggest there’s a lump of dark matter where your heart should be.”—The New York Times
“Exceptional . . . ‘Stories move the walls that need to be moved,’ Nicole told her father last year. In telling Nicole’s story and those of her brother and parents luminously, and with great compassion and intelligence, that is exactly what Amy Ellis Nutt has done here.”—The Washington Post
“A profoundly moving true story about one remarkable family’s evolution.”—People
“Becoming Nicole is a miracle. It’s the story of a family struggling with—and embracing—a transgender child. But more than that, it’s about accepting one another, and ourselves, in all our messy, contradictory glory.”—Jennifer Finney Boylan, former co-chair of GLAAD and author of She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This poignant account of a transgender girl's transition offers a heartfelt snapshot of a family whose only objective is to protect their daughter. Tackling the subject from a biological, social, and psychological viewpoint, Pulitzer-winning reporter Nutt (Shadows Bright as Glass) weaves complex elements of what being transgender means into a compelling narrative about a young woman who has identified as female since early childhood. Her middle-class family in rural Maine struggle to navigate the American education, legal, and medical systems in order for their daughter to "become Nicole." Tensions around a court case involving the designation of male and female bathrooms, Nicole's evolving relationship with her father, and the family's conflict between privacy and advocacy advance the story. Writing in a very journalistic tone, Nutt succeeds in placing Nicole's individual story within the more general narrative of transgender rights in the United States and humanizes the issues currently at play.
Customer Reviews
Stellar
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Even as a cisgender person, this book is an inspiring, beautiful story that encourages me to be myself regardless of the opinions of others. A must-read.
What a wonderful work!
This was one of the best books I have ever read, if not THE BEST! It was so moving and I often had tears in my eyes. I have highlighted so many parts of the book.
An uneducated teacher trying to inform the wrong lessons
I feel like this book is trying to educate people of transgender topics and stay along a storyline of a child's experience at the same time, but I don't think the two goals mix together well. First of all, this book is full of facts straight out of Wikipedia- if I wanted textbook definitions of transsexuals, I'd use google. Secondly, the author constantly switches pronouns and uses wrong terminology. For example, they will use male pronouns when describing a female transgender individual and switch back to female pronouns all in the same sentence. It's almost as if the author is confused about the subject even though they're trying to educate others. This book is confused on what it wants to achieve and it shows. I just hope people don't consider it a good source of information.