{"id":1115,"date":"2012-07-15T16:30:44","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T21:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2013-05-15T16:32:03","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T21:32:03","slug":"through-the-door-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/through-the-door-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Through the Door of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Picture13.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1111\" style=\"border: 0pt none; float: left; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px;\" alt=\"Cover of Through the Door of Life\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Picture13.png\" width=\"149\" height=\"208\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Find this book in a library near you!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/oclc\/756200166\">Ladin, Joy. Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders. University of Wisconsin Press, 2012. Hardcover. 255p. $26.95. 978-0-299-28730-6.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Having met and heard Joy Ladin speak and followed her fight to stay employed after transitioning, I looked forward to reading about her and her journey and understanding more about the intersections of gender and religion in her life. Although Ladin is primarily known for her poetry, I did not expect the lyricism and poignant descriptions that took my breath away.<\/p>\n<p>This was not a book to read on the subway; it had to be read at home, in a quiet place.<\/p>\n<p>Ladin\u2019s pain is real. Her struggles to become herself&#8211;her lifelong attempts at silencing an authentic self who stubbornly keeps insisting on resurfacing, the loss of her wife and breakup of her marriage, the difficulties with her children&#8211;underscore the multiple complexities of transitioning. But \u201c[w]hen the siren song of real life \u2013 life as myself \u2013 began singing inside me, I couldn\u2019t turn away, no matter how painful real life promised to be\u201d (p.189). We are privileged to watch Ladin take her first steps as a woman, with all the awkwardness, humor, fear, happiness, and exhilaration that accompany learning to be one\u2019s genuine self with the relief in finally recognizing oneself in the mirror.<\/p>\n<p>Ladin\u2019s Jewishness is just a part of who she is&#8211;she does not engage with the religion as such here but rather just lives it in the pages of her book as it shows her during moments in dialog with God, praying over her medication, and attending a queer Jewish women\u2019s retreat.<\/p>\n<p>The book will resonate with both transgender readers and those seeking more understanding about transgender people and the complexities of transition. Recommended for both public and academic collections.<\/p>\n<p>Reviewer: Michael Waldman<\/p>\n<p>Head of Collection Management,\u00a0Baruch College, CUNY, New York, NY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ladin, Joy. Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders. University of Wisconsin Press, 2012. Hardcover. 255p. $26.95. 978-0-299-28730-6. Having met and heard Joy Ladin speak and followed her fight to stay employed after transitioning, I looked forward to reading about her and her journey and understanding more about the intersections of gender [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,42,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}