Are You My Mother?
by Alison Bechdel Overall: Bechdel’s second graphic memoir takes on her relationship with her mother the way Fun Home unpacked her relationship with her father. Using her childhood and adult diaries, family photos, and transcriptions of phone calls with her mother made over years, Bechdel recreates some of the foundational incidents of her life in…
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City: A Memoir
by Jane Wong Why read a memoir? If the person is well known, I often think the answer comes down to “how.” How did this person achieve success? But if the person writing the memoir isn’t a household name, I think the question in the best memoirs widens to “why.” Why do we make certain…
Taste: My Life Through Food
by Stanley Tucci Overall: I love food, cooking, and movies, so I expected Taste: My Life Through Food to hit all the sweet spots, and it did not disappoint. This memoir-cum-cookbook takes us through the actor’s life, providing recipes periodically as we move from his childhood in a close-knit Italian family in New York state…
The Secret to Superhuman Strength
by Alison Bechdel Overall: I love graphic memoirs, and this is such an amazing addition to the genre. You may be familiar with Alison Bechdel from Fun Home, her first book, which was made into a Tony-Award-winning play. Bechdel examines her lifelong relationship with exercise in her latest book, beginning with her discovery of running…
All In: An Autobiography
by Billie Jean King Overall: I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was amazing to hear Billie Jean King reading her own words. You could hear her emotion at different points in the narrative, which added so much to the book. All In is a straight-up autobiography by pioneering tennis player and activist…
Crying in H Mart
by Michelle Zauner Overall: a beautifully written memoir about Zauner’s relationship with her mother, who died of cancer. Zauner, an only child, grew up in the Pacific Northwest with her Korean mom and her American father. She often returned to Korea to spend time with her mother’s family, with whom she became close despite never…
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Liz Helfrich 