> Zed Book Club / Lived Experience: Spring’s Best Memoirs
Sasha Velour attends RuPaul's 'DragCon NYC 2018', Sept. 29, 2018 in New York City. Photo: Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
> Buzz
Lived Experience: Spring’s Best Memoirs
14 compelling memoirs from Paris Hilton, Lucinda Williams, Andrew McCarthy and a touching mother-daughter story from Laura Dern and Diane Ladd / BY Nathalie Atkinson / April 13th, 2023
Touching, pensive, inspirational, angry: the best memoirs share personal experiences that excavate truths for their tellers, but often encourage readers to discover more about their own lives as well.
Obsessive Book Buyers: Zoomer editors have carefully curated our book coverage to ensure you find the perfect read. We may earn a commission on books you buy by clicking on the cover image.
1Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told YouWhen the singer-songwriter announced her memoir last fall, she promised it wouldn’t be sugar-coated. The Grammy-winning troubadour’s signature raw, lyrical honesty is mirrored in the book, which covers a lot of ground: from her traumatic childhood in the Deep South with a mother who had a severe mental illness to her recording career and life on the road. Her charming father looms large in the book as an influence, and it’s fascinating to see what shaped her music. Fans will revel in all the songwriting backstories. (Apr. 25)
When the singer-songwriter announced her memoir last fall, she promised it wouldn’t be sugar-coated. The Grammy-winning troubadour’s signature raw, lyrical honesty is mirrored in the book, which covers a lot of ground: from her traumatic childhood in the Deep South with a mother who had a severe mental illness to her recording career and life on the road. Her charming father looms large in the book as an influence, and it’s fascinating to see what shaped her music. Fans will revel in all the songwriting backstories. (Apr. 25)
2Brown BoyAziz, a lawyer and former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is now a fellow at Harvard, but he grew up the son of Pakistani Muslim parents in the working-class Toronto neighbourhood of Scarborough. In his sharp and quietly compelling memoir, he describes conflicted feelings as he moves through elite white worlds during his career, tackling complex issues of race, class and belonging, as well as forging a unique identity that honours who he is.
Aziz, a lawyer and former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is now a fellow at Harvard, but he grew up the son of Pakistani Muslim parents in the working-class Toronto neighbourhood of Scarborough. In his sharp and quietly compelling memoir, he describes conflicted feelings as he moves through elite white worlds during his career, tackling complex issues of race, class and belonging, as well as forging a unique identity that honours who he is.
3BirdgirlThis memoir gets its name from the popular birding blog the environmental activist created at age 11. “Birdwatching has never felt like a hobby, or a pastime I can pick up and put down,” the British Bangladeshi ornithologist, now 21, writes, “but a thread running through the pattern of my life, so tightly woven in that there’s no way of pulling it free and leaving the rest of my life intact.” As Craig chronicles her family’s sojourns around the world (and her mother’s deepening mental health crisis), the natural world offers solace and prompts her to advocate for environmental preservation.
This memoir gets its name from the popular birding blog the environmental activist created at age 11. “Birdwatching has never felt like a hobby, or a pastime I can pick up and put down,” the British Bangladeshi ornithologist, now 21, writes, “but a thread running through the pattern of my life, so tightly woven in that there’s no way of pulling it free and leaving the rest of my life intact.” As Craig chronicles her family’s sojourns around the world (and her mother’s deepening mental health crisis), the natural world offers solace and prompts her to advocate for environmental preservation.
4The Big Reveal In this sweeping memoir, the New York drag artist — winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 — paints a portrait of herself through recollections on finding identity and community. It is also an inspirational illustrated manifesto of drag that becomes, as one critic put it, “a treatise on the gravitas of glamour” and a spellbinding love letter to the renegade art form.
In this sweeping memoir, the New York drag artist — winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 — paints a portrait of herself through recollections on finding identity and community. It is also an inspirational illustrated manifesto of drag that becomes, as one critic put it, “a treatise on the gravitas of glamour” and a spellbinding love letter to the renegade art form.
5Just Once, No More“The need to write about my father came as a surprise,” the award-winning Toronto author writes in this memoir that ruminates on his disquieting sadness and relationship to his emotionally distant 83-year-old father, Dave. “But once he began his final and, it turned out, slow decline, I started wanting to track it, and him, more closely — not as a hunter but as an investigator, possibly an interrogator as well.” (Apr. 11)
“The need to write about my father came as a surprise,” the award-winning Toronto author writes in this memoir that ruminates on his disquieting sadness and relationship to his emotionally distant 83-year-old father, Dave. “But once he began his final and, it turned out, slow decline, I started wanting to track it, and him, more closely — not as a hunter but as an investigator, possibly an interrogator as well.” (Apr. 11)
6Everything Left to RememberShortly after her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, the Vancouver-raised writer (Unbound) and life coach took her on a camping trip to revisit the past and explore the present. Nature plays a supporting role as they travel through the Rocky Mountain landscape in this touching mother-daughter memoir — billed as Between Two Kingdoms meets Wild — about the transformational possibilities of family history and learning to cope with a parent’s illness.
Shortly after her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, the Vancouver-raised writer (Unbound) and life coach took her on a camping trip to revisit the past and explore the present. Nature plays a supporting role as they travel through the Rocky Mountain landscape in this touching mother-daughter memoir — billed as Between Two Kingdoms meets Wild — about the transformational possibilities of family history and learning to cope with a parent’s illness.
7Walking with SamThe American actor, now 60, may forever be etched in pop culture as gen-X’s teen crush, but he’s also an award-winning travel writer. Following his bestselling 2021 memoir, Brat, he and eldest son Sam (in his 20s) recreate the journey a quarter century ago that led to McCarthy’s second career as a writer and walk the Camino de Santiago. Befitting a pilgrim’s trek, father and son connect as adults for the first time over the course of 500 miles. (May 9)
The American actor, now 60, may forever be etched in pop culture as gen-X’s teen crush, but he’s also an award-winning travel writer. Following his bestselling 2021 memoir, Brat, he and eldest son Sam (in his 20s) recreate the journey a quarter century ago that led to McCarthy’s second career as a writer and walk the Camino de Santiago. Befitting a pilgrim’s trek, father and son connect as adults for the first time over the course of 500 miles. (May 9)
8A Living RemedyThe acclaimed American journalist’s first memoir, All You Can Ever Know, explored her experience as a Korean American adoptee raised in a predominantly white Oregon hometown while searching for her birth family. In her searing follow up, Chung recounts her mother’s pandemic cancer diagnosis, which came on the heels of her father’s death from kidney disease. She not only probes the complicated bonds between a daughter and her adoptive parents, but muses on financial instability, America’s burden of health care inequality and living with absence.
The acclaimed American journalist’s first memoir, All You Can Ever Know, explored her experience as a Korean American adoptee raised in a predominantly white Oregon hometown while searching for her birth family. In her searing follow up, Chung recounts her mother’s pandemic cancer diagnosis, which came on the heels of her father’s death from kidney disease. She not only probes the complicated bonds between a daughter and her adoptive parents, but muses on financial instability, America’s burden of health care inequality and living with absence.
9MendingsIn this unusual memoir, Sweeney, an associate professor of English, Afroamerican and African Studies as well as Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan, frames chapters on a fabric theme, like Selvedge, Threads and Mending. The autobiography of love and loss commingles with reflections on beloved garments (complete with colour photos and illustrations) and her lifelong practice of sewing and mending clothes. It’s an evocative meditation on how garments can foster communication.
In this unusual memoir, Sweeney, an associate professor of English, Afroamerican and African Studies as well as Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan, frames chapters on a fabric theme, like Selvedge, Threads and Mending. The autobiography of love and loss commingles with reflections on beloved garments (complete with colour photos and illustrations) and her lifelong practice of sewing and mending clothes. It’s an evocative meditation on how garments can foster communication.
10You Could Make This Place BeautifulAfter her 2015 poem “Good Bones” went viral, Smith’s marriage deteriorated. A devastating excerpt on The Cut reveals how her husband treated the demands of her career like an interruption to domestic duties. “I didn’t feel missed as a person, I felt missed as staff,” she writes. Smith’s book of essays considers the breakdown of her marriage in an effort to heal and comfort (and, at times, amuse) herself and her readers.
After her 2015 poem “Good Bones” went viral, Smith’s marriage deteriorated. A devastating excerpt on The Cut reveals how her husband treated the demands of her career like an interruption to domestic duties. “I didn’t feel missed as a person, I felt missed as staff,” she writes. Smith’s book of essays considers the breakdown of her marriage in an effort to heal and comfort (and, at times, amuse) herself and her readers.
11Honey, Baby, MineDern, 55, made her first screen appearance at the age of six in her Southern mother’s 1973 movie White Lightning. Hold your nepo baby jokes, because this celebratory memoir of their entwined lives and careers is genuinely touching. The book came about after Ladd, now 87, was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, and she and her daughter began taking walks and having “the deepest, most honest and even the funniest conversations of our lives together.” (Apr. 25)
Dern, 55, made her first screen appearance at the age of six in her Southern mother’s 1973 movie White Lightning. Hold your nepo baby jokes, because this celebratory memoir of their entwined lives and careers is genuinely touching. The book came about after Ladd, now 87, was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, and she and her daughter began taking walks and having “the deepest, most honest and even the funniest conversations of our lives together.” (Apr. 25)
12My Father’s BrainAfter Jauhar and his siblings become caregivers to their Indian immigrant father — a plant geneticist and researcher living with Alzheimer’s disease — the New York cardiologist recounts the experience as a way of sharing accessible insight into what happens in the brain as we age and our memory falters. Endorsed by CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, it’s a memoir at the intersection of science writing and empathy, with a side of engrossing extended-family drama. (Apr. 11)
After Jauhar and his siblings become caregivers to their Indian immigrant father — a plant geneticist and researcher living with Alzheimer’s disease — the New York cardiologist recounts the experience as a way of sharing accessible insight into what happens in the brain as we age and our memory falters. Endorsed by CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, it’s a memoir at the intersection of science writing and empathy, with a side of engrossing extended-family drama. (Apr. 11)
13ChitaThe Broadway legend, who was electrifying in West Side Story, Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman, has collaborated with superstars like Bob Fosse, Leonard Bernstein, Liza Minnelli and has three Tony Awards. Now 90, the outspoken Latina’s compelling memoir rewinds a life that began as D.C.-born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero and eventually led to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, sharing intimate personal reminiscences along the way. (Apr. 24)
The Broadway legend, who was electrifying in West Side Story, Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman, has collaborated with superstars like Bob Fosse, Leonard Bernstein, Liza Minnelli and has three Tony Awards. Now 90, the outspoken Latina’s compelling memoir rewinds a life that began as D.C.-born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero and eventually led to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, sharing intimate personal reminiscences along the way. (Apr. 24)
14Paris: The MemoirYou don’t need to be told to read the socialite’s overnight bestseller — or maybe you do? Because Paris Hilton, the hotel heiress and Y2K cultural icon, has long been dismissed as a punchline. That’s just one reason why the savvy business mogul’s memoir is a must-read: she constantly surprises the reader by revealing facets of the woman behind the meticulously crafted public persona.
You don’t need to be told to read the socialite’s overnight bestseller — or maybe you do? Because Paris Hilton, the hotel heiress and Y2K cultural icon, has long been dismissed as a punchline. That’s just one reason why the savvy business mogul’s memoir is a must-read: she constantly surprises the reader by revealing facets of the woman behind the meticulously crafted public persona.