In the mood for a memoir?
It's been a great start to the year for memoirs. The genre as a whole is seeing a real surge in popularity. As the general *state of the world* grows more and more unstable, with loony power-hungry and corrupt fakers running the show, readers are yearning for real and authentic stories to connect with.
A good memoir can make you feel incredibly seen, like you're not alone. They can show you closely the intricate, real lived experience of people and places you might never see otherwise. Memoir can be funny, heartbreaking, informative and insightful all at once. They can experiment with form, combining personal stories with history, social and cultural commentary, while gripping readers as if they're reading a thriller. The list of perks goes on and on.
The best memoirs feel true to their author, like absolutely no one else could have written their story in the way they've done it. Writing fiction can already feel vulnerable enough, let alone sharing with readers the deepest darkest parts of your life and its inner workings in a memoir.
So, if you're in the mood for a memoir that's gonna knock your socks off, you've come to the right place for a recommendation. Before we get into some of the new and exciting memoir paperback releases, I quickly wanted to spotlight some of my personal favourites in the genre—click on the images to read more about each book.
The Eyes of Gaza by Plestia Alaqad
Written as a series of diary extracts, The Eyes of Gaza relates the horrors of Plestia Alaqad's experiences while showcasing the indomitable spirit of the men, women and children who share her communities. From the epicentre of turmoil, while bombs rain around her and devastation grips her people, she is witness to their emotions, their gentle acts of quiet, necessary heroism, and the moments of unexpected tenderness and vulnerability amid the chaos.
Through the raw honesty and vulnerability of a normal 21-year-old woman trying to make her way through a human tragedy, The Eyes of Gaza is a potent reminder of the horrors of violence and a powerful testament to the human spirit.
It recounts a harrowing experience, but it is not a heart-breaking lamentation. Rather, it is a deeply intimate love letter to a girl's home: demolished before her eyes, yes, but forever present in her heart.
The Honesty Box by Lucy Brazier
One wife and mother, one garden, and one year of discovering how honesty, hope and home-grown kindness can change everything.
"On National Divorce Day, my husband Steve and I decide to break up. After years of depression and mood swings (him) and hope and defeat (me) enough is, quite frankly, enough. Until a chance remark triggers a chain of events leading to Steve’s later-in-life diagnosis of ADHD and autism.
What follows is a year of discovery, denial, medication and salvation as we, our teenagers and even our beloved Golden Retriever, Margot, adjust to the ups and downs of this new reality. I guess you could call it a love story too.”
The Shetland Way by Marianne Brown
A memoir and investigation exploring loss, community and the climate crisis in the Shetland Islands by environmental journalist Marianne Brown.
How do we balance our needs with the needs of the natural world around us? How can we have nuanced conversations and debate in a time of extreme activism or extreme denial? How can we begin to understand the complexities of a subject as enormous as climate change? And how can we change the way we live to save our lives?
Love in Exile by Shon Faye
Shon Faye grew up quietly obsessed with the feeling that love was not for her. Not just romantic love: the secret fear of her own unworthiness penetrated every aspect and corner of her life.
It was a fear that would erupt in destructive, counterfeit versions of the real love she craved: addictions and short-lived romances that were either euphoric and fantastical, or excruciatingly painful and unhinged, often both. Faye’s experience of the world as a trans woman, who grew up visibly queer, exacerbated her fears. But, as she confronted her damaging ideas about love and lovelessness, she came to realize that this sense of exclusion is symptomatic of a much larger problem in our culture. Love, she argues, is as much a collective question as a personal one.
Chopsy by Maya Jordan
Chopsy is a memoir like no other – a gut-wrenchingly powerful, yet frequently funny account of a life spent defying the prejudice and inequality faced by working-class women. Maya Jordan’s ambition and resilience was born in the library and nourished by the Open University – through poverty, early motherhood, precarious housing, caring responsibilities and chronic disability – to a point where she finally seized her right to write.
Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
‘There is no good way to say this,’ Yiyun Li writes at the beginning of this book. ‘There is no good way to state these facts, which must be acknowledged. My husband and I had two children and lost them both: Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, James in 2024, at nineteen. Both chose suicide, and both died not far from home.’
There is no good way to say this – because words fall short. In this remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance, Li turns to thinking and searching for words that might hold a place for her son, James. Li does ‘the things that work’: including not just writing but gardening, reading Camus and Wittgenstein, learning the piano, and living thinkingly alongside death.
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook’s potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there and rose to its top ranks, things turned out a little different.
From wild schemes cooked up on private jets to risking prison abroad, Careless People exposes both the personal and political fallout when boundless power and a rotten culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative, Wynn-Williams rubs shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and world leaders, revealing what really goes on among the global elite – and the consequences this has for all of us. Candid and entertaining, this is an intimate memoir set amid powerful forces.