After writing Apsara Engine, Som started writing this graphic memoir in the form of a comics journal, using the character of Anjali, a cis woman, as a stand-in for herself, a trans woman. On the podcast T4T, Som described this process as a form of therapy which led her to deepened understanding of her own identity. When Som came out as trans, Anjali was “free to go off and do her own thing,” which is when her character diverged and developed into more than just a mirror for Som’s experience. It’s a story of process and self-discovery, full of music references and food (there’s a recipe for kichuri at the end). Wonderfully done! ( )

In this “almost” graphic memoir, the transgender author, uses an alter-ego, Anjali, to tell her story of growing up in Ethiopia, India, and New York City. It looks at her relationship with her traditional parents and how she finally discovered her creative dream, drawing comics. It wasn’t a perfect read but I liked it enough to recommend it. ( )

In an intellectually interesting exercise, a transgender woman makes a roman à clef graphic diary wherein she portrays herself as a cis-gender woman. Unfortunately, she then spends most of the book writing about a time when she isolated herself to work on her first graphic novel and way, way, way too many panels are spent describing what she food she is eating for lunch and which wine she is drinking with it. And then joking about how much wine she is drinking, and then drinking more wine, and more wine, and more wine. So, I'm worried about her unresolved drinking problem, but found myself too bored to care about much else.

It didn't help that the lettering is atrociously stylized and rather than being able to read sentences, I found myself reading each individual word, pausing frequently to second-guess my first interpretation. Tedious. ( )