Category: True Story

If you love books about cults and how the mind works, Cultish is right in your wheelhouse. This book delves into the details around the language of cults and how everyday exposure to this language influences how people view the world. Through her narrative storytelling and incredible research skills, Montell takes us deep into the influence of cults and the words that help build them.

I first read Roxane Gay after her essay collection Bad Feminist hit shelves. Since then, Gay has written essays, celebrity profiles, and advice columns. Opinions includes the best of Gay’s writing, giving readers little snapshots of Gay’s life over the course of the last decade. There’s a profile of Janelle Monae describing how Afrofuturism influenced their album Dirty Computer. Gay writes about #MeToo from her perspective as a survivor of sexual assault, and pushes it further, discussing what it’s like to be well-known for being a survivor of sexual violence. In other, less serious pieces, Gay includes her delightful sense of humor and a practical take on what’s going on in the world.

Former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy writes about her life as a child star, a job she never really wanted, but her mother insisted that 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, 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 both her prose and her audiobook performance, Jia Tolentino has an excellent narrative voice. In every essay, I feel like I’m sitting with her in a cafe listening to her talk to me about her time on a reality show, or about how expensive yoga pants represent some key issues with capitalism. While I may not have been interested in these topics if I had heard about them any other way, Tolentino’s writing makes me fascinated in whatever she wants to write about. Her vivid writing makes me committed to learning more about her ideas. I will pick up whatever Tolentino decides to write next.

The moment I read the description of Erica Berry’s new book, Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear, I knew I needed to read it. Berry frames her look at wolves as symbols of human fear with the story of OR-7, a famous wolf that roamed through Oregon. She expertly ties together her ideas with the wolf, delving into everything from fairytales to her own story as a woman living in a male-centered world. I found myself consumed by this book, exploring Berry’s different ideas, each chapter building upon the last. It’s such a lush, multi-genre book, full of insightful observations and excellent storytelling.

In this gorgeous memoir, Michelle Zauner shares her experience growing up as the only Asian American kid in her community. Zauner grew up in Oregon with a white American father and a Korean mother, which has always made her feel like she was not part of either world. When her mother dies, she finds herself in an Asian grocery store, reminded of her mother and crying in the aisles. Beautifully written and full of quick wit and insight, Crying in H Mart has to be one of the best memoirs in the last few years.

I am obsessed with all sorts of stories around food, but Italian food is one of my favorites. So when I picked up Taste by Stanley Tucci, I knew I was in for a good time. Tucci tells us the story of his life through his relationship with food. We learn about his childhood as an Italian American and the many meals he ate with his family. We go to Italy as he reconnects with his heritage and then to New York City as he pursues his acting career. No matter where Stanley Tucci goes, he is sure to find a great plate of food. I loved how Tucci also describes the dishes with such detail that we can attempt to make the dishes ourselves — he even provides recipes for some of his favorites!

Tung Nguyen and Katherine Manning met in the 1970s when Manning hosted Nguyen, who had just fled Vietnam at the end of the war. Their relationship grew into something like family as they became business partners and started Hy Vong, a Vietnamese restaurant in Miami. Lyn Nguyen, Tung Nguyen’s daughter, also grew up working at the family restaurant. These three women tell their stories, which are interconnected and overlapping. This multi-narrative effect gives this memoir a unique feel, reminding food lovers of the incredible amount of work that goes into creating a restaurant and the great food they serve.

Dr. William H. Turner introduces readers to the history of Black Appalachian coal towns, places that many outside the region may not have even realized existed. He describes daily life and the economic boom they experienced after WWII. They were also cultural centers with their own magazines and organizations. And of course, he also follows the region’s decline, which deeply affected these towns and was eventually their downfall. Dr. Turner strives to ensure that these places, the places he loves, are not forgotten.

Tracy K. Smith wrote the introduction to this vital collection of essays Lorde called The Cancer Journals. Lorde was diagnosed with breast cancer and began to assess a world that treated her like a warrior for fighting the disease, but also insisted she wear a prosthetic to make sure she appeared as a woman “should look.” But Lorde pushed back. She didn’t need to erase any physical indication of her disease. She didn’t need breasts to be a woman. Lorde’s assessment of norms in the medical industry is spot on. She possesses an ability to clearly see through the ableist expectations of society, and her intersectional approach encourages others to rethink their own perspectives of illness, and what that means to women, especially Black women.

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.

Leila Abdelrazaq’s grandfather was one of the thousands of Palestinians who fled Palestine after the creation of Israel and the war of 1948. He and his family spent the next several decades moving from one country to another, facing constant discrimination as they tried to make a life for themselves. At first, they thought that their exile was temporary, but as the years passed, they began to lose hope that they would ever see Palestine again.

It’s been several years since I first read Heart Berries, and I reread it a couple of years ago. So much of this memoir stays with me, and I keep thinking about how incredible it is in its craft and storytelling. Mailhot is from the Seabird Island Band, and the memoir starts with Mailhot in a mental health facility, trying to work through traumatic parts of her past. She takes us back through her memories, weaving in and out, touching moments in her history that she’d rather forget. This memoir is a stunning example of the genre.

In this graphic memoir, author Teresa Wong describes her experience with postpartum depression, and her struggle to find effective treatment for her condition. Having a baby comes with a lot of expectations of how a person should act and feel. There’s a societal expectation that they will be happy, that every discomfort is worth it because you just had a baby. That should just be a wonderful experience across the board, right? But that’s not how it went for Wong. She found herself stuck in a fog of intense depression, making it incredibly difficult for her to find a medical professional who would even acknowledge her condition, let alone work with her to find the appropriate treatment.

In the fall of 2023, Dr. Ned Blackhawk won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for The Rediscovery of America, his history of North America that intentionally centers the perspective of Indigenous Peoples. From the colonialism of New Spain to Native American Sovereignty in the Cold War Era, Dr. Blackhawk details the major events that impacted the lives of Native Nations. Dr. Blackhawk also notes what non-Indigenous scholars have often missed or underappreciated in their work that centers colonialists in their histories of the United States. The Rediscovery of America is a must-read for any history lover.

Isabel Wilkerson is such an incredible writer and researcher. I adored The Warmth of Other Suns and couldn’t wait to pick up her next book. In Caste, she compares America’s systemic racism to the Caste systems in India and Nazi Germany. She argues that America has a similar caste system, just by a different name. I really appreciated her insight. Her writing is always thought-provoking, but Caste asks readers to reconsider how they view America’s history of racism. It’s definitely a read you won’t want to miss.

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.

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.

Let the Record Show by Sarah Schulman is a hefty book, but well worth the time of sitting down with for hours. This book is a history of the ACT UP movement and centers itself in New York City. Schulman breaks down the information by topic, walking readers through the complex organization and reviewing the different challenges they faced during the height of the AIDS crisis. I was incredibly impressed by the amount of detail. And even though it’s quite the tome, I became engrossed in it from the first chapter.

One of the best biographies in recent years, The Dead Are Arising is an award-winning biography of Malcolm X. Les Payne worked on this book for decades, and when he passed, his daughter, Tamara Payne, continued his work and finished the book. The Dead Are Arising went on to receive dozens of accolades, including the National Book Award for Nonfiction. This is definitely a book you won’t want to miss!