Five books on human transformation

Gavin Francis is a doctor and writer. His books include Shapeshifters: On Medicine & Human Change. At the Guardian he tagged five favorite books that provide personal and profound insights into pregnancy, the menopause and gender, including:

To understand more about the menopause I was recommended Ursula K Le Guin’s "The Space Crone" – the first essay in her collection Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. It is panoramic in scope but beautifully concise. Le Guin proposed that women become more comfortable with accepting the third stage in their lives: “The woman who is willing to make that change must become pregnant with herself, at last.” Women in the third stage of life, she said, have experienced more fully what it is to be human than any other group, having “acted the entire human condition – the essential quality of which is Change”.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue