11 Essential Memoirs to Read Right Now

I know this gets said often, but Men We Reaped is truly a must-read. Uncovering the generation of discarded and invisible Black men through the lenses of both race and class, Ward masterfully exposes just how systems of oppression converge on the ignored “Middle America.” We speak often of intergenerational trauma, but Ward both pulls back the blinds and allows us to empathize with men rarely given the chance to be fully seen. What do we owe these men and the communities they are a part of? At the very least their stories deserve to be told and read.

When it comes to Muslim representation, most Americans only know one-dimensional caricatures. So to come face to face with “an unapologetic Mulsim American woman from Brooklyn” can be much-needed and refreshing. This memoir shows the humanity, tenacity, and profound love of Linda Sarsour, pulling back the blinds on a woman and community who have been both villainized and misunderstood. Sarsour invites us to step off the sidelines and to truly be in community with people unlike ourselves.

The second of Janet Mock’s memoirs, Surpassing Certainty is the coming-of-age story America needs to be reading and watching. It’s one that involves sovereignty over one’s own body and expression, and navigating your dream industry—one that centers Eurocentric “norms”—as a Black, Hawaiian trans woman. In a way that is both so relevant and also so unique, Janet weaves us into her world and reminds us that we have more in common than we thought and that we are all worth defending. Especially trans women of color.

Grande bravely takes us into her world and the vantage point of two people seeking a better life for their child. It’s a sentiment so many of us can identify with and yet is so criminalized across society. In The Distance Between Us, Grande doesn’t just highlight the dangerous and courageous trek across the U.S.-Mexico border, but also the experience of a recently immigrated young person and how her family journeys to both fit in and stand out. In a country hell-bent on evaluating everyone’s worth, the author reclaims her time and shows us why we should inject way more empathy when discussing immigration.

Union’s memoir is overflowing with genuine self-awareness and deep honesty. We learn not just the story of one of the most successful actresses of our time, but also of how she practiced self-accountability to become the confident, compassionate, and groundbreaking woman she is today. Through We’re Going to Need More Wine, we can all learn more about looking within and radiating out.

The Song Poet writes so many Asian American histories and traditions into one memoir: oral storytelling, the impact of American imperialism on Southeast Asia, immigration, and family. Above all, we see how so many families have to trade in aspirations of the American Dream for poverty, racial discrimination, and learning to build community in the face of such intentional isolation. This memoir teaches us exactly how assimilation can stifle cultural pride and connection.

Most people who have never spent time in an American jail or prison can’t fathom the extreme levels of injustice present there. This is especially true for incarcerated women who are completely invisibilized in criminal justice conversations despite being the most rapidly growing prison population. Hear directly from Donna Hylton about the ways prisons perpetuate violence ensuring that harm is never truly repaired. 

Approximately 50 million Americans live with a disability and yet there’s so little awareness or accommodation for the full range of our citizenry. We live in a world that was built for certain bodies, and most of us with neurotypical and physically-normalized abilities have no idea just how isolating it can be to live with a disability. In his memoir, we come to know and love the Stephen  Kuusisto battling denial, pity, and loneliness to find understanding, acceptance, and the will to be a part of a more inclusive world.

This is one of the top five best books I’ve ever read and should be required reading for the whole country. Khan-Cullors masterfully tells her story and the story of so many Americans living at the margins of society but without leaving us in despair. On the contrary, she provides us with a roadmap out of powerlessness and towards a re-imagined future where America lives up to its projected values. The book pulls back the cloak on what it means to be “radical” and showcases the entry point for everyone into this movement.

Within the Latinx community, Afro-Latinx people have consistently been minimized from its deep and nuanced history. Yet we know that countries like Brazil have larger Black populations than the U.S. and countries like Colombia and the Dominican Republic have ratios on par with us. In this memoir, we begin to learn how often Afro-Latinx people are forced to choose between their Blackness and their Latin culture despite being deeply impacted by both.

When we think of indigeneity, and specifically Native Americans, we think of the past tense—as in voiceless and no longer here. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and the insistence on mainstream American culture to box out Indigenous people is a part of the genocide project. In Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, we learn about the Indigenous people of California from the 16th century to the present. What was and is day-to-day life for them? How much has been erased from our history books? How do we begin to dispel the myth that Native Americans are a people of the past? We start here.