This is a really interesting book by a woman who lived her first 60 or so years as a privileged, extremely successful white male evangelical pastor, author, musician, speaker and business leader. After transitioning, the way the world treated her was completely different and that is the bulk of this book other than the detailed life story.

Williams still has immense privilege, since she is still white and wealthy and she was able to access things that are not accessible for so many trans women like facial feminization surgery. I was really surprised that she didn’t write at all about discrimination for being trans. She never even mentions even once being harassed or mistreated for being trans other than the way the evangelical businesses she helped create all treated her once she transitioned. But there’s no talk of those public encounters that can be unpleasant and scary for trans people. She writes as though she was immediately accepted as a woman even though she’s well over 6 feet tall. I have loved ones who are trans and honestly they deal with much bigger issues than misogyny.

That said, Williams is an excellent writer and she really does a great job of showing what women deal with in a real Freaky Friday sort of way once she lived the other side. It’s a great memoir but also a great read for the type of man who will almost certainly never read it.

I read a digital copy of this book for review.

Reading Paula’s story has helped me understand gender dysphoria and gender transition. I appreciate her sharing her story with such honesty and compassion. I also appreciated her discussions of privilege and gender inequality. I think she overgeneralizes about men and women, but many of her observations rang true.

My only frustration with this book is how it is organized. The chapters read like essays on different topics. I sometimes found the story hard to follow because the chapters weren’t quite in chronological order, and there was quite a bit of repetition between them.

Overall, I found this an interesting and enjoyable read.

I was provided an unproofed ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

As someone who has never had the desire to be anything other than a woman, there was a lot to unpack, and Ms. Williams does it very well, even the parts that I didn't agree with [based on her belief system and religion]. I find, that as I read books about the Transgender community, my empathy grows for those who struggle in the body they were born in. I may never understand it, but I want to be as empathetic as one can be and the only way to get there is to read stories such as Paula Stone Williams' story and grow in the knowledge that they are sharing.

Also, as someone who grew up in evangelicalism [and suffered at the hands of several pastors and elders of the church], it was interesting to see someone from evangelicalism both come out and transition, and to see how she dealt with some of the things that happened because of her transition. Some of the things she dealt with during her initial transition [along with my own issues] are why I no longer belong to or consider myself an evangelical, and why she also is not a part of evangelicalism.

It was also interesting to see how much she worked to make sure both her wife [as a man, she was married to a woman for over 41 years and has three children] and children were treated correctly as all this happened; she showed so much grace to her family as they worked through her transition and I think that is what has enabled them to all have the amazing relationship they have today [her son does talks with her and is head of the first LBGTQ+ evangelical church]. I was really impressed with that part of the story - they ended up working as a family to make their family stay together, and I found that impressive. You could hear the passion she has both for the church and for her family and children in her narration and I am so glad I waited for the audiobook for this one as hearing Ms. Williams read her story made it truly come alive for me.

Very well done!!

Thank you to NetGalley, Paula Stone Williams, and Atria Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I got an ARC of this book.

So I’m trans and this book just didn’t do it for me. Deadnaming herself twice in the introduction was just the top of the iceberg. This was just another throw away memoir so cis people can feel like they know a trans person. “Born in the wrong body” and a lot of the other ways that the author describes being trans aren’t accurate. At one point the author calls transitioning a “trauma”. Transitions may be tough and horrible things may happen, but transitions are not trauma.

I was lucky enough to win an electronic ARC of AS A WOMAN by Paula Stone Williams in a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you for the early look, and stay safe!