Rating: 
Summary: Sharp, Fresh, Revealing...
Review: "Dress Codes" focuses on what it means to be a woman. Noelle Howey delves into her own life as a teen maturing into a young woman despite being raised by dysfunctional parents: her mom a codependent housewife, and her dad a cold, uncommunicative father who turns out to be a transsexual. Howey successfully plays her own girlhood off her father's as he transforms from Dick to Christine. The book is not really about transsexualism, but about a family learning to grow and thrive despite many challenges.Howey writes with incredible skill about what had to be emotionally wrenching life experience. Her attention to detail gives the reader a strong sense of the time period (references to pop stars, movies and politics of the time), and she weaves her story with a sense of humor and insight into not only her parents but herself. By the end, the reader clearly understands the complexity of her relationship with both of her parents. Those expecting to learn about transsexualism will be pleased on some level and dissappointed on another. The book is not about transsexualism but about the author's family and her father's journey into personhood, not just womanhood. However, it is eye-opening and reveals how a family is affected by transsexualism, and Howey's account portrays the experience as surprisingly normal. "Dress Codes" is the kind of book that keeps readers hooked, and regardless of one's views on gender identity, offers something we can all relate to: family.
Rating:
Summary: Sharp, Fresh, Revealing...
Review: "Dress Codes" focuses on what it means to be a woman. Noelle Howey delves into her own life as a teen maturing into a young woman despite being raised by dysfunctional parents: her mom a codependent housewife, and her dad a cold, uncommunicative father who turns out to be a transsexual. Howey successfully plays her own girlhood off her father's as he transforms from Dick to Christine. The book is not really about transsexualism, but about a family learning to grow and thrive despite many challenges. Howey writes with incredible skill about what had to be emotionally wrenching life experience. Her attention to detail gives the reader a strong sense of the time period (references to pop stars, movies and politics of the time), and she weaves her story with a sense of humor and insight into not only her parents but herself. By the end, the reader clearly understands the complexity of her relationship with both of her parents. Those expecting to learn about transsexualism will be pleased on some level and dissappointed on another. The book is not about transsexualism but about the author's family and her father's journey into personhood, not just womanhood. However, it is eye-opening and reveals how a family is affected by transsexualism, and Howey's account portrays the experience as surprisingly normal. "Dress Codes" is the kind of book that keeps readers hooked, and regardless of one's views on gender identity, offers something we can all relate to: family.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! This hits really close to home.
Review: Have been asked to read this book by my therapist. I was very surprised by how well this was written. Being TS myself, I found that a lot of this hits very close to home. As my SO is very much like Dinah in the book. I am not sure my life will end the way thiers does, but we will see. This book is a must read for anybody interested in learning what people go through who live with and love TS people.
Rating:
Summary: Lacerating, facetious, triumphant
Review: I bought this book because I'm addicted to memoirs-at least currently. After reading the first chapter, I almost aborted the reading effort, thinking it might be too sexual for my tastes and that I wasn't really interested in transgender issues. But I stuck with it and this book stuck to my hands for two days while I couldn't put it down. It is incredibly well written (it reads like a novel) and the author is so honest and forthright, she becomes a teacher on issues beyond transgender and ultimately into clinical depression. It's a terribly sad story, painful and emotional on many levels, yet ultimately triumphant and always very FUNNY! I kept looking at the young author's photo on the book jacket-and the collection of family photos on the covers--to remind myself that these characters are real people, even the people next door. Noelle Howey has an impressive vocabulary and a knack for writing things simply, yet elegantly. I highly recommend this book. Submitted by the author of I'm Living Your Dream Life
Rating:
Summary: Didn't Mean to Pick it Up (Couldn't Put it Down)
Review: I bought this book in the "on sale" part of Amazon one day, because it was the cheapest book that could get me over the "free shipping" hump. I thought, "It sounds alright -- maybe I'll find time to read it one day."
Well that one day happened while I was rearranging furniture last week. Dress Codes fell out of my bookshelf so I picked it up and said, "Huh! I forgot all about this book!" I sat down on my office chair and flipped to a random page in the book to see if it was any good. Six hours and a damn good story later, I went to bed.
The book weaves an interesting twist of biographical stories from the view point of her parents as children, along with her own childhood story. She explores the characters in her family with depth and humor. Each chapter leaves you hungry for more.
Enjoy the author's communist grandfather, socialite grandmother, goes-along-with-anything mom, and her grumpy dad with his humorous efforts to prove his masculinity!
Rating:
Summary: Superb account
Review: I first came across Noelle Howey's experience in a briefly condensed first-person magazine article, and was delighted to pick up this book which is a more detailed account of her family's transition and restructuring. Her dad started out as the quintesential "good old boy" but gradually realized that he had to be open with his need to be a female lesbian. The disclosure alternatley reassured and startled the author who realized that American society does not generally supply children of GLBTs with a "what to expect" guidebook. Although I personally was not undergoing a story simmilar to hers, I was captivated by the frank prose and unyielding love for her father--irrespective of dad's gender. The journey was not easy for any of the family members (indeed, Howey takes care not to gloss over the contradictory feelings and internal frustrations that she experienced during her dad's transformation), but absolutley critical for the family's mental stability. Our society loves to wax poetic on "family values" but does not neccesarily place compatible actions behind those words. Against all expectations and pronouncements from the larger society, the Howey family dealt with the revelation in a positive and empowering manner that ultimatley made the new family structure a zillon times stronger than their so-called "All American" model. Even if you do not have a transgendered family member, it is impossible to read this book without crying, laughing or otherwise being reminded that good families come in all formats.
Rating:
Summary: Like David Sedaris trapped in a girl's body
Review: I just happened upon this book in a store the other day, and ended up reading the whole thing in two sittings. What surprised me was how funny it was. I would put it up with Sarah Vowell's Pass the Cannoli and David Sedaris's Barrel Fever. I am recommending it most strongly!
Rating:
Summary: Something for everyone, allaround great book
Review: I loved this book. It seriously just made me happy. It is deep and meaningful yet comical and hilarious, sweet and earnest yet witty and sarcastic. Not many books can cover such a range of emotion and do it so well. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting, sad, and more about the author than the father
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book (I read the hardcover edition), though I found it to be short on enlightenment, and long on self-pity, as well as a deserved pity for the mom. While I can agree that what Noelle Howey and her mother experienced as a result of her father's sex change was disappointing and life shattering, I found very little information in the book about how it actually affected the father; it was mostly 'me, me, me.' Noelle was a supportive, though critical daughter during her father's sex change. I was left with the impression that, as explained by Ms. Howey, it was a sex change that was probably unnecessary and, in reality, not really wanted by Dick Howey. I was also left with the belief that had his family been more supportive of his desire to be a crossdresser, he might not have gone on to change his sex.
While Dress Codes was funny, it was also perplexing. I'm not so sure having a sex change is a funny thing; it seems more serious to me, than something of humor. I will grant Ms. Howey, however, that we all need a way to cope with such a devastating event in our lives, and I'm sure humor is a way to get through something such as what she experienced. Noelle Howey is a good writer, an excellent writer, though I'm not sure she served her father fairly in this book. I recommend this book to anyone interested in family dysfunctions or transgender issues.
Rating:
Summary: interesting, sad, and more about the author than the father
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book (I read the hardcover edition), though I found it to be short on enlightenment, and long on self-pity, as well as a deserved pity for the mom. While I can agree that what Noelle Howey and her mother experienced as a result of her father's sex change was disappointing and life shattering, I found very little information in the book about how it actually affected the father; it was mostly 'me, me, me.' Noelle was a supportive, though critical daughter during her father's sex change. I was left with the impression that, as explained by Ms. Howey, it was a sex change that was probably unnecessary and, in reality, not really wanted by Dick Howey. I was also left with the belief that had his family been more supportive of his desire to be a crossdresser, he might not have gone on to change his sex.
While Dress Codes was funny, it was also perplexing. I'm not so sure having a sex change is a funny thing; it seems more serious to me, than something of humor. I will grant Ms. Howey, however, that we all need a way to cope with such a devastating event in our lives, and I'm sure humor is a way to get through something such as what she experienced. Noelle Howey is a good writer, an excellent writer, though I'm not sure she served her father fairly in this book. I recommend this book to anyone interested in family dysfunctions or transgender issues.
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