Alex (Pucksandpaperbacks) | Pretty: A Memoir

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Pretty: A Memoir

KB Brookins

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By a prize-winning, young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir about queerness, masculinity, and race. Even as it shines light on the beauty and toxicity of Black masculinity from a transgender perspective—the tropes, the presumptions— Pretty is as much a powerful and tender love letter as it is a call for change.

“I should be able to define myself, but I am not. Not by any governmental or cultural body,” Brookins writes. “Every day, I negotiate the space between who I am, how I’m perceived, and what I need to unlearn. People have assumed things about me, and I can’t change that. Every day, I am assumed to be a Black American man, though my ID says ‘female,’ and my heart says neither of the sort. What does it mean—to be a girl-turned-man when you’re something else entirely?”

Informed by KB Brookins’s personal experiences growing up in Texas, those of other Black transgender masculine people, Black queer studies, and cultural criticism, Pretty is concerned with the marginalization suffered by a unique American constituency—whose condition is a world apart from that of cisgender, non-Black, and non-masculine people. Here is a memoir (a bildungsroman of sorts) about coming to terms with instantly and always being perceived as “other.”

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Posts about this title from Alex (Pucksandpaperbacks)

Alex (Pucksandpaperbacks)\ \ Alex (he/him/his)\ \ • Jun 28

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Posts about this book from across Bindery

Alex (Pucksandpaperbacks)\ \ Alex (he/him/his)\ \ • Jun 28

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Alex (Pucksandpaperbacks)\ \ Alex (he/him/his)\ \ • May 1

\ \ Join for free or login](https://pucksandpaperbacks.binderybooks.com/item/PkyWX7gAXfpcyfxTHFyG/)

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Alex (Pucksandpaperbacks)\ \ Alex (he/him/his)\ \ • Apr 14

\ \ Join for free or login](https://pucksandpaperbacks.binderybooks.com/item/HQ0fGFaJev2LPzp84Ora/)

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2-Spirit Bookshelf\ \ (@Indigenousbookshelf)\ \ • Mar 16

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Trans Rights Read A Thon Must Reads! Part 2 coming as well as a fully Indigenous Trans Book list too 🫀🫀🫀

Checkout my bookshop.org/shop/indigenousbookshelf for a full list!

Thank you @transrightsreadathon for pulling this together. Y’all check out their page for more info and TAKE ACTION YOOO **The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual decentralized call to action for readers and book lovers in support of Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31st**

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2-Spirit Bookshelf\ \ (@Indigenousbookshelf)\ \ • Nov 20 2025

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Holding space on this TDoR with love, gentleness, and stillness.\ \ Sending strength and tenderness to those mourning, to those carrying weight.\ \ You are held and loved beyond measure.\ \ You matter\ \ You belong\ \ Your survival is revolution. \ \ Those in your orbit are changed by your existence. May we meet that gift with protection, with solidarity, with care that breaks systems open. Our liberation is tied to one another, our paths woven together. I will always show up for those who are fighting to stay whole.\ \ Today, I am out on the land with my furry pal, connecting with the old growth trees while honouring our grief, our memories, our love in action 🫂🫀\ \ Join for free or login

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Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Aug 18 2024

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Hello Friends,\ **I read four books this week **(I am including my current read because I will be finishing it tonight).\ \ Pretty: A Memoir by KB Brookins (memoir, black, trans) 4 stars\ \ We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kilewer (horror) 5 stars\ \ A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt (indigenous lit fic, Indigenous Book Bingo book) 5 stars\ \ Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutano (cozy mystery) 5 stars\ **My TBR for this upcoming week **includes these hopefuls:\ \ Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris ( Bindery book!)\ \ House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias (horror)\ \ Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plans (non-fiction, Indigenous, Indigenous Book Bingo book)\ \ A ROMANCE. Maybe a Beverly Jenkins? A Kennedy Ryan?\ **Giveaway Updates: **tomorrow I will be announcing the third and final free 3 month account upgrade, which is perfect timing because I am going to start giving early access to paid subscribers to Indigenous Book Bingo book reviews.\ \ On Friday, I will be giving away the signed copy of Six of Crows and the copy of **Mirrored Heavens. **\ \ This past week, Quiet Time Book Club met on zoom. It was so fun we are doing it again this coming Tuesday at 5pm. Will you make this one? This time I am going to include a summary of all the books we chatted about in a Bindery post so everyone will get an email with all the books listed at the end of the week.\ \ Speaking about chatting about all the books, Spetember 20-22 I will be hosting **Pumpkin Scares and Spice Readathon **in my Discord. We will be reading as much as possible, drinking all the fall drinks and chatting on a Discord channel. You can join the Discord here: https://discord.gg/S6vwHnjfZh\ \ Good Day to Read Indigenous Book Club will be reading the first tradionally published Indigenous romance in September, The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava (also an Indigenous Book Bingo book), you can join the book club on Fable here: https://fable.co/club/good-day-to-read-indigenous-with-fromthemixedupdesk-125290577858\ **Women in Horror book club **has one day left in voting.\ \ The House That Horror Builtby Christina Henry: 32%\ \ Thirst by Marina Yusczuk-29%\ \ White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi- 25%\ \ It's too close to call! You can join now and vote: https://fable.co/club/women-in-horror-with-fromthemixedupdesk-534117318256\ \ I still want to do a **Discord Horror Movie Night **and think September would be a good month to start. The movie will be on the Netflix Platform and discussion will be in Discord. If you have any movie ideas, drop them below. I will put a poll up later this week here.\ \ I did a solo **Tik Tok live **tonight for the first time. I was there for an hour. Is that something you'd enjoy coming to if I planned it in advance? Any particular topics or just free style? Anyone you'd like to see join? Today I just sort of rambled about anything and everything books and then my friend who works at a bookstore and held a spicy bookshop night joined.\ \ Tell me everything you read this week and what your TBRs look like next week. So many of you have already started tagging me in your Indigenous Book Bingo cards! I'm excited that so many people are already participating!\ \ ​\ \ ​\ \ ​

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Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Aug 15 2024

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[Come and hang out this eve for some reading with book friends.\ \ 30 minutes reading. 30 minutes chatting.\ \ I am currently reading:\ \ Pretty by KB Brookins, a memoir about a black trans man in Texas and We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kilewer which is a horror book and the audio is SO CREEPY. I'm really enjoying both of these and hope to finish them both before this weekend.\ \ Work has been super crazy for me so I am looking to relax this weekend, make up some content (prepare for some Indigenous Bingo book videos as I go over each line to help people figure out where they want to start) and I want to try to read 3 books this weekend:\ \ an Indigenous book\ \ a horror book\ \ a romance\ \ Will you be joining us this evening at 5pm?\ \ What will you be reading?\ \ What are your weekend reading goals?\ \ Let me know down below!\ \ Naomi Darling is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.\ \ ​\ \ Topic: Quiet Time Reading Club\ \ Time: Aug 15, 2024 05:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)\ \ ​\ \ Join Zoom Meeting\ \ https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85164277849?pwd=Z08zM6gtAJfnvZ9SB0vBLJsEFnbqd1.1\\ \ ​\ \ Meeting ID: 851 6427 7849\ \ Passcode: 295186\ \ ​\ \

TONIGHT: 5PM PST Quiet Time Reading Club on Zoom

Here is the link for the Zoom tonight. 30 minutes of quiet reading, 30 minutes chatting about the books we are reading. Come hang and make new book friends.

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Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Aug 12 2024

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Hello Friends,\ \ This weeks free membership upgrade and the winner of the Bindery Book Arc Slipcases will be notified by Bindery.\ \ I have reached out the the winner of the autographed copy of The Familiar.\ \ This Friday, I am giving away a hand signed copy of Six of Crows!\ \ Our Quiet Time Reading Book Club will be this Thursday at 5pm on Zoom. I will post the link here. While this typically is a paid member event, I am opening to everyone this month so I hope you can make it. There are so many books I want to read. Come to read and chat about books!\ \ I just finished I Was a Teenage Slasher, by Stephen Graham Jones and marked off my first spot on** Indigenous Bingo**! Has anyone else gotten one yet?\ \ I also finished my women in horror bookclub r ead: The Eyes Are the Best Part. SO GOOD.\ \ I'm currently reading Pretty by KB Brookins. KB is black and Trans from Texas and this is their memoir. My Discord group is doing what we can to make sure people are talking about this book as much as they talked about Pageboy. Want to help? Want access to buddy reads? movie nights? and nature photos..join the Discord!\ \ https://discord.gg/S6vwHnjfZh\ \ ​\ \ ​

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Poetry is a powerful medium. Dont sleep on it #booktok #blackbooktok #readwithmichael #writewithmichael #readingispolitical #writingispolitical #rethinkingdiversity #bipocauthors #blackauthors #blackpoets

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