​​​​Autism Resources

Books

• All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism - Ed. Lydia X.Z. Brown, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, E. Ashkenazy

• Autism in Heels by Jennifer Cook

• The Autistic Trans Guide to Life by Yenn Purkis

• Communication Alternatives in Autism by Edlyn Vallejo Peña (focuses on nonspeaking autistics)

• Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the 21st Century (ed. Alice Wong)

• Divergent Mind by Jenara Nerenberg (focused on late-diagnosed women & AFAB people)

• The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May

• Fidgets and Fries: The Zine by various autistic creators

• How to Be Autistic by Charlotte Amelia Poe

• I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder by Sarah Kurchak

• Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking, edited by Julia Bascom

• NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman (not autistic, but highly respected in ND circles)

• Nobody, Nowhere by Donna Williams

• Odd Girl Out by Laura James

• On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis (autistic protagonist, written by an autistic author)

• Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos (Middle grade, non-speaking autistic protagonist)

• The Pretty One by Keah Brown (disability memoir by a Black disabled woman with autistic overlap)

• The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

• Spectrum Women: Walking to the Beat of Autism, edited by Barb Cook & Michelle Garnett

• The State of Grace by Rachael Lucas (YA fiction with an autistic teen protagonist)

• Stim: An Autistic Anthology edited by Lizzie Huxley-Jones

• Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby

• Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Dr. Devon Price

• We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation by Eric Garcia

• What I Mean When I Say I’m Autistic by Annie Kotowicz

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Books for Autistic Youth, Teens & Young Adults

• The Awesome Autistic Go-To Guide by Yenn Purkis & Tanya Masterman

• Can You See Me? by Libby Scott & Rebecca Westcott (middle-grade fiction, based on Libby’s real-life experience as an autistic teen)

• Everything is Going to Be K.O. by Kaiya Stone (a funny, affirming book for ND teens & young adults)

• A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll (middle-grade fiction about activism, neurodivergence, and being seen)

 

Disability Resources

Books

• Academic Ableism by Jay Dolmage (about ableism in education spaces)

• Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew

• Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability, edited by Jennifer Bartlett, Sheila Black, and Michael Northen

• Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judith Heumann

• Black Disability Politics by Dr. Sami Schalk

• Bodymap by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

• Bodyminds Reimagined by Dr. Sami Schalk (disability in Black feminist literature)

• Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

• The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

• Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid by Shayna Louise Neville

• Crip Up the Kitchen by Jules Sherred (accessible cookbook)

• Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau

• Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the 21st Century (ed. Alice Won

• Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladaug)

• Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body by Lennard J. Davis

• Exile and Pride by Eli Clare

• A Face for Picasso by Ariel Henley

• Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger Syndrome by Luke Jackson (teen-friendly autistic/disabled memoir)

• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (Not disabled herself, but rich insight into Kahlo’s disability)

• The Future Is Disabled by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

• Golem Girl: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer

• Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum (Fiction featuring institutionalization and agency)

• Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma

• No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement by Joseph P. Shapiro

• Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig

• What Doesn’t Kill You by Tessa Miller

• Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong

 

Books for Disabled Youth & Teens

• A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold (Neurodivergent protagonist)

• El Deafo by Cece Bell (Graphic novel for middle-grade readers)

• You’re You by Melyssa Harmon (Picture book with neurodiverse inclusion)

 

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Transgender Resources

Books

• Amateur by Thomas Page McBee

• The Autistic Trans Guide to Life by Yenn Purkis

• Before I Had the Words by Skylar Kergil

• Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon

• Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

• Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

• Fairest: A Memoir by Meredith Talusan

• Gender Failure by Ivan Coyote & Rae Spoon

• Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (graphic novel, banned in 100+ places = read it)

• I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom

• Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly (for some queer joy and steam in fiction form)

• Make it Count: My Fight to Become the First Transgender Olympic Runner by Cece Telfer

• Man ‘o’ War by Cory McCarthy

• Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity (ed. Micah Rajunov & Scott Duane)

• Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer by Dylan Mulvaney

• Raising Them by Kyl Myers (nonbinary parenting memoir)

• Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty by Janet Mock

• Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story by Jacob Tobia

• Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen by Arin Andrews

• Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place by Jackson Bird

• The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

• Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote

• Tomboyland by Melissa Faliveno

• Trans Bodies, Trans Selves (ed. Laura Erickson-Schroth)

• Trans Like Me: Conversations for All of Us by CN Lester

• Transgender History by Susan Stryker

• Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility (ed. Gossett, Stanley, Burton)

• Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (for the poetry nerds)

• Vagabonds! By Eloghosa Osunde

 

Books for Younger Trans Folks

• Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

• Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (YA Fiction)

• I Am J by Cris Beam (YA Fiction)

• The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons (YA Fiction)

• Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano

• Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings

 

Poetry & Lyrical Prose

• All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran

• Even This Page Is White by Vivek Shraya

• Falling Back In Love With Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kal Cheng Thom

• I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom

• A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett

• Shame Is an Ocean I Swim Across by Mary Lambert (not trans, but queer-affirming and powerful)

• Take Me With You by Andrea Gibson

 

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Trauma Healing & Children of Abuse

Books

• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

• Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker

• It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn

• Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter Levine

• What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo (memoir-meets-science from a brilliant journalist and survivor)

 

Books for Children of Emotionally Immature or Abusive Parents

• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson

• Educated by Tara Westover (memoir of growing up in an abusive, survivalist family)

• I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (raw, funny, devastating; great for those unpacking childhood celebrity/parental dynamics)

• The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

• Know My Name by Chanel Miller (sexual trauma, reclamation, and survivor empowerment)

• Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect by Jonice Webb

• Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life by Susan Forward

• Will I Ever Be Good Enough? Healing the Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers by Dr. Karyl McBride

 

Tools, Workbooks & Guides

• The Complex PTSD Workbook by Arielle Schwartz

• The CPTSD Foundation Daily Recovery Guide by (community-focused resource, workbook-style)

• Healing the Shame That Binds You by John Bradshaw

• How to Do the Work by Dr. Nicole LePera (part self-help, part science-based guide by trauma-aware)

• Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett (emotional literacy for reparenting yourself)

• Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson (see her book in the section above)

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