"...an entertaining and heartfelt journey from male to female, ostracism to acceptance, and obscurity to fame. ... Aleshia Brevard's journey is a brilliant, gutsy, and insightful look at a life simultaneously marginalized and in the spotlight." --Lambda Book Report "The Woman I Was not Born to Be is not the kind of book one really expects from an academic press: no statistics, no elaborate theoretical structure. Nor is it the story of people whom history has utterly ignored. Mocked, crucified, tortured, and jailed, yes; ignored, no. But I'm glad Temple University Press chose to publish it: in academia as in real life, a reasonably well-adjusted, kind-hearted woman who was born male is not so common." --Amy Bloom, Wilson Quarterly "Brevard's story adds an entertaining curve to the growing body of literature--academic scientific, theoretical and literary--on transgendered experience, without the self-pity or sentimentality found in many such memoirs...Written in a gossipy style reminiscent of 1950's movie-star autobiographies (which at heart, it is)." --Publishers Weekly "Aleshia Brevard's transformation from an awkward southern boy to Hollywood B-movie starlet is one of the most amazing tales I've ever read. It's filled with madcap adventures, sexual escapades, hart-breaking pain, great loves and great losses. This is a beautiful book, written with a glittering charm and humor and wisdom." --Jonathan Ames, author of The Extra Man
