Raymond Arsenault’s mesmerizing biography of John Lewis chronicles the life of the Civil Rights icon and congressman whose vision of a just and equitable society has inspired generations.
Antonia Hylton’s Madness offers an unsparing reckoning with history as it excavates an infamous mental hospital for Black patients.
Leslie Jamison is back with a memoir about her first years of parenting and the unraveling of her marriage, rendered in her signature elegant, sensuous prose.
Novelist, essayist, humorist and critic Sloane Crosley shows a remarkable willingness to face the dark questions that follow a suicide.
In his refreshing memoir, drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul tells his life story with a tender clarity that renders a larger-than-life figure unforgettably human.
History will remember the four hours that a woman testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as it considered the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. In her long-awaited memoir, Christine Blasey Ford recounts her decision to publicly accuse the justice of sexual assault, the overwhelming aftermath and how she’s continued to persevere since.
The provocative No Judgment will have readers nodding in agreement on one page and shaking their heads vigorously on the next.
Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s passionate and compelling The Black Box documents the ways in which American writers have illustrated the rich diversity of the Black experience.
Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi’s new anthology offers a look at the human toll of Iran’s authoritarian regime, and a people’s heroic, ongoing movement against it.
The election of Donald Trump to the highest office in the land had many Americans questioning their choices. Sarah McCammon, NPR political correspondent and co-host of “The NPR Politics Podcast,” found herself at a tipping point. In The Exvangelicals, she writes about growing up in an evangelical church and leaving it. Intertwining journalism with memoir, McCammon sheds light on a religious movement that is on the brink.
Hanif Abdurraqib’s captivating There’s Always This Year is a powerful meditation on place and community.
More than 30 years after an Iranian leader called for his assassination, master storyteller and literary icon Salman Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed at a public appearance in 2022, suffering life-threatening wounds. He describes the attack and his recovery in Knife. Rushie has called it “a necessary book for me to write: a way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art.”
Biographer Susan Page paints a colorful portrait of trailblazer Barbara Walters in her compulsively readable The Rulebreaker.
Journalist Tracie McMillan’s latest investigates how five families—including her own—benefit from systemic white privilege.
In The Demon of Unrest, Erik Laron crafts a tale of hold-your-breath suspense about the crucial three months leading up to the Civil War.
Aarathi Prasad’s entertaining and enlightening history of silk brims with story and scientific detail, revealing a surprising history well worth knowing.
In The Dead Don’t Need Reminding, Chicago poet Julian Randall braids memoir, history and cultural criticism, revealing himself to be a gifted storyteller.
You know it, we know it: Most dating books belong in the trash. Clouded by old-fashioned, patriarchal norms and expectations, they seem to hold little value to those of us dating in 2024. But proven matchmaker Lily Womble’s Thank You, More Please promises something more: A fresh perspective on dating that advises you to trust your gut and find joy.
Ann Powers’ biography of Joni Mitchell is a travelogue of one of the greatest artistic journeys ever taken, and it’s a pleasure to go along for the ride.
Comedy writer Chelsea Devantez romps through personal embarrassments, traumas and triumphs in her memoir, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This.
James Patterson and Peter de Jonge have collaborated before on Miracle at St. Andrews and other novels about golf, and they join forces again with a biography that documents the rise and fall of Tiger Woods.
Eliza Griswold’s Circle of Hope is the intimate story of one small, progressive church, but it carries profoundly relevant lessons for all people of faith.
Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
Camille Juzeau’s inventive encyclopedia Phenomena is a cabinet of curiosities, containing things you never even knew you were curious about.
Staking new ground in the well-worn World War II setting, Propaganda Girls collects the stories of four women fighting—winning—the information war.
The inspiring, companionable Expect Great Things! celebrates the legacy of the Katharine Gibbs School for women and its tenacious scholars.
Richard Overly’s Rain of Ruin masterfully traces the historical, political and philosophical decisions that led to the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Scaachi Koul’s visceral memoir in essays Sucker Punch throbs with feeling. But Koul being Koul, it’s also witty and frequently hilarious.
Readers will delight in A. Kendra Greene’s No Less Strange or Wonderful—an aptly titled essay collection and absolute gem of a read.
Bridgett M. Davis’ riveting and heartbreaking memoir Love, Rita is a homage to her sister and a sober reflection on the devastating impact that medical racism has on Black women.
Sarah Chihaya always thought books could save her from suicide. Her perceptive debut memoir, Bibliophobia, examines why.
Martha S. Jones’ moving memoir, The Trouble of Color, traces her family’s history back five generations and will change the way readers understand race.
7 memoirists describe the power and pleasure of getting their stories on the page.
Laurie Woolever’s Care and Feeding details her decades hustling in NYC’s food world, including her work for Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali.
Joshua A. Miele survived an acid attack at age 4, but that’s not what he wants you to know about him.
Amanda Nguyen’s tenacious debut memoir, Saving Five, recounts her experience navigating the criminal justice system as a rape survivor—and demanding better of our government.
Amanda Nguyen co-authored the Sexual Assault Survivor’s Rights Act after being raped at Harvard. Writing her memoir helped her heal.
