Category: True Story

I love when poets write prose, and Saeed Jones is no exception. He writes so beautifully, with every sentence, every word, carefully chosen. His memoir follows his life growing up as a gay Black boy in the South, trying to find a place for himself when everyone around him kept telling him everything about him was wrong. He was too Black, too gay, too loud—always too much for the people around him, especially some of his family members. Jones has such a beautiful way of writing about his complex relationships with his mom and his grandmother, two women he loved dearly. It’s so difficult to love your family while also understanding that they don’t love ALL of you, just the parts they like. I can’t do this memoir justice, but let me tell you, if you’re a memoir lover, this one needs to be at the top of your list.

Novelist Jeanette Winterson made her debut with Orange Is Not the Only Fruit, a queer coming-of-age novel. The protagonist is adopted by conservative Christian parents and eventually becomes a preacher. But when she realizes she’s queer, her life becomes even more complicated. This first novel remains her most autobiographical. But with Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Winterson shares the true version of her younger years, admitting that her childhood was more difficult than she originally depicted in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Mrs Winterson, her adoptive mother, rained down verbal abuse and a host of different punishments, like locking Winterson out in the cold. Winterson’s memoir interacts with her debut novel in such a unique way, laying out all the ways Winterson fictionalized her life and tried to make it more believable. I recommend reading Oranges and then Why Be Happy, which gives you an incredible portrait of Winterson’s life.

In her short collection of essays, queer Singaporean author Tania De Rozario shares her experience growing up as a fat, biracial girl during a time when Singapore required children with a “high” BMI to participate in food restriction and extra exercise. Much of the novel follows De Rozario as she begins her journey of self-acceptance, embracing her body and sexuality as they are, not as what society tells her they should be.

In their memoir, Sissy, Jacob Tobia shares the story of their growing-up years as they navigated the difficulties of being genderqueer in a society that only sees the gender binary of man and woman. In their witty narrative voice, Tobia shares the insights and life lessons they have learned along the way, delivering inspirational quotes along with their hilarious anecdotes. Tobia’s audiobook narration is spectacular, making the whole experience feel like a performance.

As my first book of 2024, I picked up Divine Might by Natalie Haynes, which I originally thought was a short story collection. But instead of short stories, I found it to be a brilliant essay collection about Greek goddesses and the stories society has told about them. Six months later, I felt it was time to pick up Haynes’ first essay collection, Pandora’s Jar, which looks at some of the most prominent mortal women featured in Greek myths. She discusses figures like Jocasta, Helen, and Medusa, detailing the different versions of their stories and how these women have been featured in popular culture. With each woman, Haynes has this masterful way of highlighting how much of these women’s stories have been constructed through a sexist patriarchal lens. Haynes challenges those ideas and encourages readers to think outside of these constraints. Plus, her prose is engrossing and incredibly funny. In particular, the audiobook, which she reads herself, showcases her wit and charming sense of humor.

Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my favorite authors, so when I heard she was learning to write in Italian, I felt incredibly sad that I couldn’t read it. But I shouldn’t have worried. Elena Ferrante’s translator, Ann Goldstein, translated In Other Words into English. If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering why Lahiri didn’t translate the text herself, but Lahiri has stated that she wants readers to get a more accurate perception of her skills in Italian. This book is cleverly formatted to include the English translation on one side and the original Italian on the other. The topics of the essays mostly focus on Lahiri’s relationship with the Italian language and her motivation for learning it. This book is perfect for any language nerd.

We are now in a golden age of myth retellings. Everyone and their mother’s brother has been trying their hands at these myth-inspired tales, but few authors are as good as Natalie Haynes. While Haynes is known more for her fiction, Divine Might is brilliant nonfiction, with each chapter examining different goddesses and their stories. Haynes’ holistic way of viewing these goddesses invites readers to reexamine their own assumptions about these divine figures.

Michelle Obama is back with The Light We Carry, a collection of essays that each expand on her ideas about standing her ground and going high when they go low. She also shares about her family’s experience weathering the pandemic. Her essays are kind, supportive, and encouraging, while firmly making her points. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook, which Obama reads herself. Listening to the audiobook feels like you’re sitting down with her for a cup of coffee while she shares encouraging anecdotes from her own life.

I love Julia Turshen. She has such a warm way of describing her love of food. Turshen has written several cookbooks, but Simply Julia is my favorite. This cookbook includes intervals that are like essays in between sections of the cookbook. There, Turshen describes her inspirations for various recipes and her cooking style. She explains that her wife had to go on a strict medical diet, so to be supportive, Turshen began reworking her recipes so her wife could eat them. The food we cook is often an act of love for the people in our lives, and you feel that truth on every page of Simply Julia. Plus, the recipes are incredible.

Rodney Scott took over his parents’ barbecue place and wanted to take it to the next level. Scott began trying new things with barbecue, working through the logistics of cooking a ridiculous amount of BBQ. Eventually, Scott received a James Beard Award for his mastery of BBQ, establishing himself as a legend of South Carolina BBQ traditions. His cookbook delves into his story and shares some of Scott’s favorite BBQ recipes.

Every summer, author Jamie Attenberg runs #1000WordsOfSummer, an initiative that encourages participants to write 1,000 words a day for two weeks. Everyday, Attenberg sends out a newsletter cheering everyone on as they strive to reach their word counts. Jamie’s newsletters often include guest authors who share their own advice and encouraging words. Earlier this year, Attenberg put out a companion book, 1,000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. It’s filled to the brim with encouragement and advice from Attenberg and many of her past guest authors. 1,000 Words is the perfect pick me up for anyone struggling with a writing project. Attenberg is here cheering you on, helping you to meet your goals.

Craft in the Real World re-examines the traditional writing workshop, giving writers, teachers, and students different ways that fiction workshops can be reimagined. Salesses details how the traditional workshop typically consists of a student sitting silently as their peers give feedback on their work. He describes how this process was developed by western white men for other western white men. But that’s not what today’s classrooms look like anymore, so Salesses gives readers several ideas for how a fiction workshop can function best for its students. All writers aren’t the same, so why should their workshops be? Craft in the Real World is a must-read resource for any teacher or student participating in fiction workshops.

When Sloane Crosley’s best friend dies by suicide, she finds herself adrift, lost, and confused. Like many of Russell’s friends and family, Crosley had no idea that Russell was experiencing a mental health crisis. Over the course of Grief Is for People, Crosley goes over her relationship with Russell again and again, combing through old memories and looking for any signs of suicidal ideation or instability. But time and time again, all of Crosley’s memories of her friend seem normal, mundane even. She organizes the book by the stages of grief, slowly revealing her friendship with Russell piece by piece. Crosley met Russell when he hired her to work at Vintage, Knopf’s paperback imprint. I loved all of the gossipy, insider info that Crosley teases us with, giving us a respite from the much heavier, larger topic.

And for a backlist nature writing title, we’re exploring the landscape of Taiwan. Jessica J. Lee’s mother immigrated from Taiwan to Canada, but Jessica J. Lee grew up knowing little about her mother’s family or their past. In her memoir, Lee travels back to Taiwan to learn more about how her mother’s family fled mainland China for Taiwan. Lee blends nature writing about the island along with her investigation into Taiwan’s history. She described the unique animals and plant species that call the island their home. By researching her grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ lives, she learns more about her own origin story, better understanding herself along the way.

Former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy writes about her life as a child star, a job she never really wanted, but one her mother insisted she did. What’s more, McCurdy shares how her mother was incredibly abusive, forcing McCurdy to submit to intimate inspections of her body, even into her teen years, and restricting McCurdy’s diet to keep her looking younger longer. McCurdy’s reflection on her mother can be very clinical and removed from the emotions of the event, which reflects how she kept herself from thinking too deeply about her and her mother’s relationship. But after her mother dies from cancer, McCurdy must confront the trauma from her childhood if she is ever to truly move on.

In Good Talk, Mira Jacob describes how her son asked her why his Jewish paternal grandparents would vote for Trump, a man who hated immigrants, like Mira and her parents. This question launches her into even more questions that she’s not quite sure how to answer. She works through these conversations in Good Talk, illustrating them on the page and giving readers a fuller picture. I read this graphic memoir while waiting for a delayed flight at the airport. I felt consumed, and barely even noticed spending the extra four hours surrounded by disgruntled passengers.

Enjeti and her family moved to the South when she was small. Since then, she’s called the South her home. But as a mixed-race Brown girl, many people there didn’t necessarily make her feel welcome. Now an adult, Enjeti writes about her experience with racism as well as her complicity in systemic racism. These essays feature her thoughts on feminism, the new South, gun violence, voter suppression, and so much more.

Disability activist Alice Wong has gathered together some of the best disabled writers of the last few decades. This collection features authors from a wide range of backgrounds, each with their own unique experience of disability. Each essay gives a different perspective on what it’s like to live as a disabled person in the U.S. Plus, there are even more disability media resources in the back of the book.

In one of my favorite memoirs of all time, T Kira Madden shares her experience growing up as a multiracial girl in Boca Raton, Florida. While she comes from a wealthy family, her parents experience addiction, causing a lot of emotional instability in her childhood. In college, she begins to realize that she’s queer, family secrets come to light, and she starts to understand herself in whole new ways. The prose is incredible, and each essay-like chapter is all-engrossing from the first few paragraphs.

As an Appalachian, I’m always looking for more stories from the region. One of my favorite Appalachian books this year is Neema Avashia’s Another Appalachia. In her memoir, Avashia shares the experience growing up as a queer South Asian woman in West Virginia. While Avashia loves her home state, being West Virginian is complicated. The same people she grew up with, who she considers as close as family, now declare how much they dislike immigrants. When she points out that she and her family are immigrants, these same people reply, “You and your family don’t count.” Avashia’s essays are a beautiful testament to the complex realities of being from Appalachia.