Audre Lorde gets her flowers in Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ Survival Is a Promise, a masterful, poetic biography of the literar and feminist icon.
In 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson made history as the first Black woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court. In her memoir, Lovely One, Jackson recounts her childhood in Miami, her teenage years participating in high school speech and debate, her time as an undergrad and law student at Harvard and her triumphant career. Throughout, Jackson credits her parents—both educators—and ancestors who taught her to challenge the status quo.
With candor and humor, Connie Chung shares the highs and lows of her trailblazing career as a journalist in her invigorating memoir, Connie.
Gillian Anderson asked women to send her their sexual fantasies. The result is a provocative, original volume that will help women and genderqueer people feel more empowered and less ashamed.
Elyse Graham’s thrilling history of how scholars and librarians helped the U.S. outsmart the Nazis is a pulpy delight.
Wright Thompson reckons with the culture of the Mississippi Delta and the murder of Emmett Till in his brilliant, probing history, The Barn.
Tales of child stardom are always juicy, and Ashley Spencer’s Disney High promises to poke many bears. Spencer investigates The Disney Channel’s early aughts, when kid actors like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and the Jonas Brothers became celebrities, and the corporate powers that be made millions off their work. Expect private feuds, public meltdowns, on-set disasters and shady dealings.
Ta-Nehisi Coates wrestles with the weighty responsibility of being a writer in The Message, a powerful collection of essays.
Actor and comedian Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Obvious Child) is back on the publishing scene with Lifeform, a collection of humorous, wacky and nontraditional essays on motherhood. Her first essay collection, Little Weirds, was an instant bestseller, and her second collection promises to delight readers with a mixture of dream theory, letters to doctors, obituaries, play excerpts and lots of heart.
Roman Year is André Aciman’s love letter to Rome, a city he knew in his adolescence after his family was expelled from Egypt and briefly settled in Italy. Filled with vivid characters and detailed descriptions, the Call Me By Your Name author’s memoir is a coming-of-age story that brings a bustling city to life.
Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, an online platform, book club and nonprofit organization that celebrates and promotes books by diverse authors. Edim’s new memoir, Gather Me, is a personal account of how other Black writers—among them Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde—taught her to recognize the irreplaceable value of representation and community.
It’s perhaps easier to list the entertainment roles Keke Palmer hasn’t held than those she has. (The Emmy winner and Nope star probably has not been a gaffer—though we wouldn’t put it past her.) Whether she’s acting, producing, recording music, writing scripts or hosting a variety of TV shows, Palmer dominates the industry. In Master of Me, Palmer goes behind the scenes of her extraordinary career, revealing personal challenges and the tools she has used to move forward. Her story is sure to inspire.
Robin Wall Kimmerer has broken all the publishing industry rules. In 2013, the small but mighty Milkweed Editions published the Potawatomi botanist and ecologist’s Braiding Sweetgrass to modest sales and little press. Several years later, it suddenly hit the New York Times bestseller list, where it has remained for over 200 weeks. An ecological treatise that explores our reciprocal relationship with the natural world, Sweetgrass is the kind of book so cherished by readers that it turns strangers into friends within minutes. Kimmerer’s new book, The Serviceberry, offers models for living based on ecological wisdom, and it’s sure to delight old fans and new.
Emily Witt’s sharp, deeply personal memoir, Health and Safety, invites us to relive a tumultuous era in American history through the eyes of a keen observer.
Gillian Anderson asked women to send her their sexual fantasies. The result is a provocative, original volume that will help women and genderqueer people feel more empowered and less ashamed.
Climate activist Nemonte Nenquimo tells the story of her Waorani people in the inspired, beautifully written We Will Be Jaguars.
Oliver Radclyffe’s Frighten the Horses is a powerful standout among the burgeoning subgenre of gender transition memoirs.
With candor and humor, Connie Chung shares the highs and lows of her trailblazing career as a journalist in her invigorating memoir, Connie.
Fall is a terrific time to connect with nature. Grab one of these books, gather your friends and get outside!
Jessica Hoppe’s stunning debut memoir, First in the Family, shows that understanding our histories allows for recovery, healing and liberation.
In Shame on You, Melissa Petro invites us to flush shame into the light and challenge its control over our lives.
Rachel Clarke’s powerful The Story of a Heart braids the true story of a pediatric organ transplant with a rigorous history of transplant science.