Ford does a beautiful job encapsulating the raw honesty of her coming-of-age story. A poignant and important read that will stick with you after finishing.
Jane
Provacative. Moving. At times funny and irreverent, author and playwright Sebastian Stuart's book - What Wasn't I Thinking? takes us back to his early life in New York, his college days in 1970's San Francisco and importantly to the relationship with his beloved cousin Tina. A memoir, an autobiography, a chronicle of times past - this book is a triumph for its author.
Nathan
Written as a mixtape to his younger brother, Asim’s book is a punk rock Between the World & Me. Through the music of bands like Anti-Flag, Bad Religion, and Operation Ivy Asim explores a complicated network of identity in ways that offer insights into broader ideas of culture, music, and race. Thoughtful and provocative, Boyz in the Void is a great exploration of how we become the people we are.
Josh
A Ghost in the Throat is a seance, summoning a keening woman drinking the blood of her murdered husband in handful gulps, the time both devoured and enriched by daily tasks, the haggard old woman who watches over so many last moments. This is a genealogy, a book-length translator's introduction, a bonfire. Ni Ghroifa's investigation of a famous Irish poem and its neglected author digs into the flesh of motherhood, womanhood, history, language, and poetry. A truly astonishing achievement.
Josh
When Waka's mom suspects that she may be losing touch with her Japanese heritage and language, Waka is sent to live with her grandmother in Tokyo for a few months. This is a delightful memoir about trying to fit into the culture you were born into and the culture you've been brought up in, and finding harmony between the two.
Sinny
When Michelle goes into HMart, the packages, ingredients, and relationships of other customers remind her of her mother. With food as a catalyst, Michelle examines her complex relationship with her mother: the expectations, love, and friction. You'll cry as Michelle recounts her mother's slow death by cancer, and drool over her descriptions of food. Michelle (indie rockstar Japanese Breakfast) will make you cry, question, and crave with her rich, emotional memoir.
Marika
Joauad’s memoir is a primer for all of us slowly emerging from lockdown. Her young life was abruptly interrupted in her early 20’s when she received a devastating diagnosis followed by 3 and a half years of isolating treatment. Her very brave battle continued after her release from hospital as she took stock of what she’d lost, who she had become, and how to live again. You won’t be able to put this down.
Endpapers is a thoroughly captivating book that at first seems to be a family
memoir but is really an extraordinary look at the intellectual milieu of 20th
century German literary culture and its collision with the historical upheavals of the first half of the century. Wolff continues the story postwar delving into the complexities of how those upheavals play out in the dynamics of his own family.Dale
More than a true crime book, more than a memoir, Becky Cooper weaves a compelling and vivid portrait of an unsolved murder at Harvard and pulls together threads of misogyny, issues with academic culture, silencing at elite institutions, and the ways that we rewrite the stories of female victims. A striking portrait for fans of I'll Be Gone in the Dark.
April
When a single mom visiting a friend at the hospital helps out an AIDS patient the nurses won't touch, she has no idea she'll spend the next decade as an advocate and caretaker for gay men in Arkansas, even burying them in her family's cemetery plot when their families reject them. The book is both a time capsule -- including an appearance by early-career Bill Clinton -- and the compelling story of a woman who made a difference in the world without being remotely saintly.
Sarah
