Memoir

So Gay for You

Stars of groundbreaking early 2000s lesbian drama series The L Word, Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey reflect on the legacy of the series in their co-authored memoir, So Gay for You: Friendship, Found Family, and the Show That Started It All. Sharing behind-the-scenes stories and on-set anecdotes, Moennig and Hailey reflect on the show’s impact on politics, culture and the queer community. And most of all, they tell the story of the bonds among castmates and their big, gay friendship in this intimate celebrity memoir.

Sucker Punch

By Scaachi Koul

Scaachi Koul made waves with her buzzy, hilarious debut memoir, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, in 2017. She’ll treat readers again with its follow-up, Sucker Punch, a memoir-in-essays about what happens when great expectations are dashed but you gotta keep on truckin’.

Saving Five

By Amanda Nguyen

The Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act was unanimously approved in the House and Senate in 2016, establishing more rights for survivors of sexual assault and rape. This historic, bipartisan effort was the result of one woman’s quest for justice after she was raped as a student at Harvard. In Saving Five: A Memoir of Hope, Amanda Nguyen tells the story of her path to healing from the perspectives of different versions of herself at different ages.

The Next Day

By Melinda French Gates

As a mother, businesswoman, global advocate for women and girls, and bestselling author of The Moment of Lift, Melinda French Gates shares intimate stories of the most pivotal moments of her life while presenting a new approach for readers when in times of change in The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward. Here, she describes her time stepping down from the Gates Foundation and founding Pivotal Ventures, where she focuses on creating lasting change for women through philanthropy, impactful investments and partnerships.

Memorial Days

By Geraldine Brooks

Pulitzer-winning novelist (for March) Geraldine Brooks pens a memoir about grieving the sudden death of her husband, fellow Pulitzer winner Tony Horwitz, in 2019. Besieged by the demands of a partner’s death, Brooks put off grieving for three years. Memorial Days is about the time after, when she retreated to a remote island off the coast of Australia, her home country, to finally attend to the demands of grief.

The Loves of My Life

By Edmund White

Novelist, biographer, playwright, essayist and queer icon Edmund White (The Humble Lover, A Saint From Texas) has spent his long career writing about love and sex in a way that shatters taboos and elevates the value of pleasure. His dishy new memoir, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir, explores these themes during different seasons of his life.

Kuleana

By Sara Kehaulani Goo

The Hawaiian word kuleana means responsibility and stewardship carried through the generations, and it’s the theme of Sara Kehaulani Goo’s Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai’i. A veteran journalist (Axios, NPR, the Washington Post), Goo was drawn to investigate her family’s ancestral land in Maui when their property tax rose by 500%, a sum that seemed intended to displace them. Kuleana’s understanding of her own cultural identity deepens as she unfurls her family’s story alongside that of Hawai’i’s.

Three Wild Dogs (and the truth)

By Markus Zusak

Not long before Markus Zusak completed his book tour for his chart-topping novel, The Book Thief, he and his wife decided to adopt a dog languishing at the local pound. Then another. And finally, after the first pair eventually died, a third. All three were so-called “difficult dogs”: “Gangsters, gunmen. Soldiers,” he writes. “ADHD on legs.” In this debut memoir, Zusak tells the story of his writing and family life through these beasts who were indefatigable perpetrators of lawlessness and intimidation—but still worthy of love.