Rating: 
Summary: She was there.
Review: This book was so wonderful. It was better than I thought it was going to be. I couldn't help but feel a little skeptical when this book was first suggested to me but after I read the first 5 pages I was hooked.Jennifer Finney Boyland tells her story of how it felt to live life in two different genders. She was born into the world as a man, James Boyland, but felt as though something was wrong. He felt as though he was supposed to be a woman, but he never told anyone and held all of those feelings inside. One day he could not suppress these feelings anymore... This book was written beautifully. It is easy to read and very funny at times. Jennifer Finney Boyland tells you the truth and explains exactly how it is. She doesen't try to hide her true emotions on any topic. She explains how her children felt about their daddy turning into a woman, how the other professors at Colby College reacted to her gender changing, and what her parents thought of the issue. Richard Russo has written a commentary at the end of the book which is particularly touching. It gives an insight to the reader about the friendship he shares with Jennifer Finney Boyland. I would reccomend this book to anybody. The topic of which it is written about may be a shock to some people but by the time the reader finishes the book, there is a better understanding of gender issues and difficulties with which the writer dealt with.
Rating:
Summary: A book to expand your horizons
Review: This delightful mixture of funny and heartbreaking anecdotes takes readers who have never wondered about their own gender into a world where they can actually imagine what it would be like to find yourself inside of a body that does not "fit." I learned a lot from Professor Boylan's descriptions of her efforts to stay anchored to the reality of being male and her discussion of what it was like at a very early age to have a self-concept that did not fit with reality. But I learned just as much from watching the gradual reactions and transitions of the surrounding people who had to migrate through some pretty substantial changes in their perceptions of themselves in the course of changing their perceptions of Jenny/James. I loved this book, and I just hope that Professor Boylan will see fit to write us a sequel a few years down the road and let us know how it all came out in the long run.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW
Review: THis is a powerful book. Boylan breaks the story up in such a way that it really allows you to process it and put it in perspective. I really appreciated hearing the views from the people around her and can only imagine what this might be like. As another reviewer pointed out, it is kind of surreal because he treats it in such a way that you don't think he is at all crazy, but coping with a big life decision like the rest of us. Truly eye-opening.
Rating:
Summary: Brave, fascinating, inspiring, disturbing
Review: This is a wonderful, honest, fascinating insight into the life of a transgendered writer and intellectual who becomes transsexual in adulthood.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful book
Review: This is an amazing book. I've read a huge number of books and articles on the subject recently and not one of them moved me as much as this one. Between the moments when I laughed out loud, tickled by the turn of a phrase or a description of an event, my heart was wrenched and tears came to my eyes. I constantly hear the words of the transgendered person in my life through Jenny Finney Boylan's words. Boylan tell a brave tale here, not hiding her own faults and problems. She lets us see the impact of her decisions on her friends and on her wife, Grace (a truly amazing person herself). This takes the book beyond the story of one person's transition from living as one gender to the other to a book about the human condition and how people handle life-altering challenges. Because this book is so well-written and covers the broad aspects of a life, as well as the detailed events, it will appeal to anyone who simply wants something great to read. It's really hard to put down, but you have to now and then to catch your breath.
Rating:
Summary: She's not there, we are all there too.
Review: This is an amazing effort! Im very impressed at the challenge and reality of this undertaking. What has me mostly enlightened is the exposure of the pergatory,,,or void between Women and Men, its uniquely explored in a very well written and entertaining way. But it's usefully educating about how we could bring that space into the open and then draw it together. Im going to read this again, I've never read a book twice. Read Mad Light by Maddox as well, eye opening.
Rating:
Summary: A touching tale of courage and love...
Review: This was such a wonderful, fulfilling book. In my opinion, a book is best when it has the ability to create a mixture of emotions, and this book did that for me. I was moved to tears many times while reading about Boylan's wife, Grace, and her reactions to her husband's sex change. At other times I felt angry with Boylan because I believed that he was being selfish by having a sex change after getting married to a woman he loves and having children, but then I realized that his family was going to stick by him and love him regardless, and that his becoming a female was something that he "needed" to do, not just "wanted" to do for the hell of it, or whatever. So, eventually my heart softened toward "Jenny." Boylan is a terrific writer, and definitely down-to-earth. I felt like I could relate to the characters, and I knew that each time I picked up the book, I was in for a good laugh! Boylan's transition from a male to female was a journey that I am happy I got the chance to "participate" in. "She's Not There" is one of those books that just leaves you feeling good. My only complaint is that I wanted to know the details of the sex-change procedure, because I've heard many theories about what "exactly" the doctor does to change your body, and I was hoping that Boylan would set the record straight on that topic. Guess I have to go elsewhere for that information! ;o) Still, this book I would definitely recommend to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Elegant, funny, and well written
Review: Transsexuality is a difficult problem, and one which is made more difficult by the propensity of society to classify [people] While this book will not appeal to the normally prurient, I think, it is a book that must be read by anyone with an honest interest in the subject. It is an undeniable fact that good writing is very, very difficult. The result is that most books, even ones made interesting by their subject, just aren't very good. Special interest books written by insiders tend to be the worst offenders. If you know anything about this particular subject, then, you know that many books *by* and about transsexuals are often interesting, but they aren't often good. This may be the first *good* book by a transsexual which is not *about* transsexuality per se, but is about a life transformed by the process of coming to a working definition of gender and friendships. The writing is good, to put it mildly, and manages to be funny without requiring belly laughs, although there are a few. The recurring motif of the sound of things breaking provides for a strong thread as well as occasional comic relief from what is clearly a very, very serious problem. She deals gently with the strangeness of the evolving relationship she and her spouse share. If you're thoughtful, you'll have to revisit and rethink this section in order to understand just how strong the participants must be to have gotten as far as they have. Despite wielding the authorial scepter, she never, not even once, stoops to revile or even criticize some of those who reject her out of hand (her sister being my case in point). Restraint of this sort is rare, and speaks well of the writer and her ability to play fair, even as others are not. It's the truth of little events that rings most true, I think. When Russo and Boylan are having drinks in a bar and are mistaken for a "couple", Russo just about walks off a nasty mental cliff he hadn't seen. Put yourself in his shoes: he's used to hangin' out and tossin' back a few with his buddy, Jim (oops, Jennifer). So [someone] changed his[/her]sex. Big deal, right? Russo's liberal, he's hip, he's cool with the whole thing from a day-to-day standpoint. In the course of a few seconds, reality has bitten him in the breadbasket. Jim (oops, Jennifer) isn't Jim. Jennifer isn't even Jim. It is exactly this type of problem and resolution that Ms. Boylan is brilliant at describing. Thank you very much, Ms. Boylan, for an excellent book. If I ever write about my experiences, I'd be satisfied were I to be one tenth as good.
Rating:
Summary: It's a memoir, not a textbook.
Review: Well, as yet another transsexual, I read this book after seeing good reviews in the local paper and a few other places, not really expecting much frankly, because most books I have tried to read written by transfolk have been....well, bad, frankly. Or way too preachy, at the least. Well, this book is not preachy. It's not clinical. It doesn't beat the reader over the head with the subject. Boylan writes very matter-of-factly, with humor, and taking things in stride -- yes, she has been very lucky that the people in her life have been accepting for the most part; however, people who discount this book because she has had good luck are doing themselves a disservice. Not every transition has to involve being committed, disowned, destitute, or nearly killed. The problem is that the vast majority of well-adjusted trans people end up fading into the woodwork, as she states at one point, and don't want to make a big deal of their past. This is the book that I have given to friends and family to try to help them understand what I'm going through, because it is easy to read, it's not a complete downer, and it does a good job of expressing the feelings I have (although I obviously don't feel exactly like Boylan). If you are looking for an insight on transsexuality, this is a good primer.
Rating: 
Summary: Instead of running away with the leggy blonde he becomes her
Review: What's the difference between the midlife crisis guy who runs away with the leggy blonde and this guy who decides to become the leggy blonde? Not much. Boylan, despite her new attractive look "reads" very male in her actions. These are not the decisions of a nurturing female, rather they seem very male and thus singularly self-directed, for the good of himself. When in his 20's Boylan thinks love will cure his transsexualism. He meets, falls in love with and marries a wonderful woman. They start a family together. But in his 40s he finds that that "alternative medicine" didn't work, he still must become a woman. So he tells his young sons that he has a disease, and when you have a disease you must take care of it. So without much ado for his family he chooses to live the way he must. So much for the wife and kids. And thus he embarks on an exciting new life as a straight woman. So what happens to the wife and kids? Sorry Charlie....or I should say sorry Charlotte....
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