Growing up, I used to say, “I like reading sad stories.” It was my way of coping as I grieved the loss of my father, learned about my mother’s mental illness, and shuttled back and forth between grandparents' homes. Now, my old sentiment of reading “sad stories” has transformed into enjoying books that dive into a mixture of psychology, self-help, memoir, and graphic memoir. It supports me and my interest to learn other people’s stories, gain perspective, and journey through life with a healthy mind, body, and spirit. I carry the love with me that I was raised with, so in life, I look through the lens of love.
I wrote...
How Do I Draw These Memories?: An Illustrated Memoir
This is one of my all-time favorite books. I read this book in third grade when I found it in the stacks of my school library. I love this book because when I was a little girl, I was learning more about my mother’s mental health struggles and experiencing grief from my father’s death.
I dove into the story of Lyric’s childhood and her relationship with her big sister, Summer, who was Schizophrenic. I gained a better understanding of the complexities of mental illness and what it can look like navigating that with family. It taught me early on that I wasn’t alone, and I felt connected to Lyric and her big sister, Summer.
By the author of the Newbery Honor book Belle Prater's Boy
It is the mid-1950s, and Lyrics familys dream is finally coming true -- they are moving from the backwoods of southwest Virginia to Flint, Michigan, where her father hopes to get an assembly-line job for a car manufacturer. Thirteen-year-old Lyric has always been close to and admired her older sister, Summer, who is pretty and popular. But in their new hometown, Summer unexpectedly and drastically changes. She becomes remote, speaks gibberish, stops taking care of her appearance, wont go to high school, and then seems to have hallucinations. Lyric…
What I loved about this book was how honest Jarrett was about growing up with a parent who struggled with addiction, being raised by his grandparents, and the many emotions he navigated.
I, too, was raised by my grandparents, shuttling back and forth between paternal and maternal grandparents’ homes growing up, so although our experiences were different, I saw a part of myself in Jarrett’s story as he shared his story in the form of comics. I felt like I was right there with him.
An important graphic novel memoir that was a US National Book Award Finalist. In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy.
But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that.
His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life.
His father is a mystery - Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is.
Jarrett lives with his grandparents - two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett…
The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth
by
Verlin Darrow,
A Buddhist nun returns to her hometown and solves multiple murders while enduring her dysfunctional family.
Ivy Lutz leaves her life as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka and returns home to northern California when her elderly mother suffers a stroke. Her sheltered life is blasted apart by a series…
This is a memoir I was able to relate to in so many ways as Michelle opened up about her relationship with her mother and her mother’s battle with cancer. I loved learning about Michelle’s relationship with her parents and family, her childhood, and all the foods that Michelle grew up eating.
It was a beautiful honor for her family and her culture. What I also enjoyed while reading this book was learning about Michelle's early 20s experience as I related to the early 20s adventure of moving to New York to pursue my passion.
The New York Times bestseller from the Grammy-nominated indie rockstar Japanese Breakfast, an unflinching, deeply moving memoir about growing up mixed-race, Korean food, losing her Korean mother, and forging her own identity in the wake of her loss.
'As good as everyone says it is and, yes, it will have you in tears. An essential read for anybody who has lost a loved one, as well as those who haven't' - Marie-Claire
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer,…
I loved reading this for so many reasons. Michelle Obama inspires me as the former First Lady, and I’m deeply inspired by the work that she does for children. I, too, was a young girl dancing in my bedroom to “Move Your Body” by Beyoncé for Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” Initiative. So as an adult, when I read Michelle Obama’s memoir, I was empowered by her story and her recount of her childhood, growing up on the Southside of Chicago with her brother and her parents.
I loved the details she shared about the lessons that her parents taught her, and I appreciated her vulnerability in opening up about her father’s health battle with multiple sclerosis in her childhood. It was empowering to read about her education experience and early career from college to attorney and the pivots she made along the way in her career. It’s a beautiful book about her journey, and I found myself empowered and inspired.
An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir; 17 million copies sold worldwide
THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER
BRITISH BOOK AWARDS, NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE SUNDAY TIMES, MEMOIR OF THE YEAR
BOOKS OF THE YEAR: THE TIMES, OBSERVER, GUARDIAN, EVENING STANDARD
Now in paperback featuring a new introduction by Michelle Obama, a letter from the author to her younger self, and a book club guide with 20 discussion questions and a 5-question Q&A, the intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama…
Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away, leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion.
I’ve read this book twice and I would read it again and again because it taught me so much about myself in relation to how I want to approach and understand love. It affirmed my feelings about love and gave me the language and tools to understand the dynamics of love in platonic relationships, familial relationships, or romantic relationships.
I enjoyed how Hooks discussed themes such as spirituality, values, trauma, and greed. I consider this book to be an essential read and one I will always go back to when exploring concepts of love.
"The word "love" is most often defined as a noun, yet...we would all love better if we used it as a verb," writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, the renowned scholar, cultural critic, and feminist skewers our view of love as romance. In its place she offers a proactive new ethic for a people and a society bereft with lovelessness. As bell hooks uses her incisive mind and razor-sharp pen to explore the question "What is love?" her answers strike at both the…
Jonell Joshua spent her childhood shuttling back and forth between Savannah and New Jersey–living in grandparents’ homes during the times her mother, struggling with mental illness, needed support to raise her and her brothers. Together, the family found a way to keep going even in the darkest of times.
Thisis an illustrated memoir about nostalgia, faith, the preciousness of life, and unconditional love. From Jonell’s devastatingly brilliant pen as a writer and an artist, it plumbs the depths of what family can be–and how joy and hope can be found in the most ordinary and extraordinary moments.
