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Recommendations based on This Boy's Lifeby Tobias Wolff
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
The Liars' Club
by Mary Karr
Memoir of a turbulent childhood in East Texas, exploring the power of love and family.
The book tells the story of Karr's troubled childhood in a small Texas town in the early 1960s. Using a non-linear story line, Karr describes the troubles of growing up in a family and town where ... (Wikipedia)
Lit
by Mary Karr
A memoir of a young girl's spiritual awakening, overcoming traumatic circumstances.
The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback—Mary Karr’s sequel to the beloved and bestselling The Liars’ Club and Cherry “lassos you, hogties your emotions and won’t let you go” ... (Goodreads)
The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion
A woman's reflections on life and death after the sudden loss of her husband.
'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her mind as it becomes clouded with grief.' From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of ... (Goodreads)
Autobiography of a Face
by Lucy Grealy
A memoir about facing physical deformity and the psychological effects of being ostracized.
The prologue introduces the reader to Lucy's struggle with self-image. She describes her work at the stable Diamond D, which was her first job after finishing chemotherapy. Through this first ... (Wikipedia)
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
by Kay Redfield Jamison
An exploration of bipolar disorder and its impact on one's life.
The personal memoir of a manic depressive and an authority on the subject describes the onset of the illness during her teenage years and her determined journey through the realm of available ... (Goodreads)
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
A humorous and unflinching account of life in restaurant kitchens, exploring the culture and camaraderie of the culinary world.
A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute ... (Goodreads)
Just Kids
by Patti Smith
Chronicles of two young artists in New York City, finding friendship and inspiration in each other.
In Just Kids , Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal ... (Goodreads)
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
by Alison Bechdel
An autobiographical story of a daughter's complex relationship with her father and her own journey of self-discovery.
The narrative of Fun Home is non-linear and recursive. , Incidents are told and re-told in the light of new information or themes. , Bechdel describes the structure of Fun Home as a labyrinth , ... (Wikipedia)
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
by Anne Lamott
A witty and honest guide to writing and life, encouraging writers to embrace imperfection and find their own voice.
A newer edition of this title can be found, here., "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to ... (Goodreads)
Naked
by David Sedaris
Collection of humorous essays exploring the absurdities of everyday life.
Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris. In Naked , Sedaris turns the mania for memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, ... (Goodreads)
Speak, Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov
Autobiographical journey exploring the intimate memories of author's past.
This is an older alternate cover edition for ISBN 0141183225/ 9780141183220. A newer edition may be found here . From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies ... (Goodreads)
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller
An autobiographical account of a white family in Rhodesia, struggling to survive in a war-torn land.
Alexandra Fuller's book tells the story of her family of white Zimbabwean tenant farmers in the years before and after Independence. These are not the wealthy landowners demonised by the present ... (Wikipedia)
The Road from Coorain
by Jill Ker Conway
Autobiography of a young woman growing up in the Australian Outback.
Jill Ker Conway tells the story of her astonishing journey into adulthood—a journey that would ultimately span immense distances and encompass worlds, ideas, and ways of life that seem a century ... (Goodreads)
Drinking: A Love Story
by Caroline Knapp
A memoir of addiction and recovery, exploring the author's relationship with alcohol and the impact it had on her life.
The roots of alcoholism in the life of a brilliant daughter of an upper-class family are explored in this stylistic, literary memoir of drinking by a Massachusetts journalist. Caroline Knapp ... (Goodreads)
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A letter to his son, exploring the realities of racism in America.
“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American ... (Goodreads)
The Right Stuff
by Tom Wolfe
The heroic story of the first American astronauts, and their incredible feats of courage.
Tom Wolfe began The Right Stuff at a time when it was unfashionable to contemplate American heroism. Nixon had left the White House in disgrace, the nation was reeling from the catastrophe of ... (Goodreads)
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
by Nick Flynn
Recollections of a life lived on the edge, dealing with homelessness and mental health.
Nick Flynn met his father when he was working as a caseworker in a homeless shelter in Boston. As a teenager he'd received letters from this stranger father, a self-proclaimed poet and con man doing ... (Goodreads)
Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year
by Anne Lamott
An intimate diary of a mother's journey of joy and struggle raising her son.
The most honest, wildly enjoyable book written about motherhood is surely Anne Lamott's account of her son Sam's first year. A gifted writer and teacher, Lamott ( Crooked Little Heart ) is a single ... (Goodreads)
The Woman Warrior
by Maxine Hong Kingston
A personal memoir of identity and culture, told through Chinese mythology and folklore.
The book is divided into five interconnected chapters, which read like short stories. In the first part of this chapter, the narrator is recounting how her mother once told her the story of the ... (Wikipedia)
The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
by Elyn R. Saks
Story of a woman's struggles with schizophrenia and her journey of recovery.
Elyn Saks is a success by any measure: she's an endowed professor at the prestigious University of Southern California Gould School of Law. She has managed to achieve this in spite of being diagnosed ... (Goodreads)
The Empathy Exams
by Leslie Jamison
A collection of essays exploring empathy, pain, and human connection through personal experiences and cultural analysis.
From personal loss to phantom diseases, The Empathy Exams is a bold and brilliant collection; winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Beginning with her experience as a medical actor who was ... (Goodreads)
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama
An exploration of the Obama family history, tracing the threads of identity and race.
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New ... (Goodreads)
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
by Peter Hessler
A memoir of a Peace Corps volunteer's two-year stay in a small Chinese town on the Yangtze River, exploring the culture and history of the region.
In the heart of China's Sichuan province lies the small city of Fuling. Surrounded by the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, Fuling has long been a place of continuity, far from the bustling ... (Goodreads)
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
by David Sheff
An intimate look at a father's struggle to understand and help his son through his addiction.
With a new afterword Now a Major Motion Picture What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted David Sheff’s journey through ... (Goodreads)
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
by Scott McCloud
Exploration of the visual language of comics and its role in storytelling.
Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. Explore the secret world between the ... (Goodreads)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by Katherine Boo
Explores the lives of the people living in Mumbai's slums and the harsh realities they face.
From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the ... (Goodreads)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by Tom Wolfe
A journey through the psychedelic 1960s and the lives of an eclectic group of people.
Tom Wolfe chronicles the adventures of Ken Kesey and his group of followers. Throughout the work, Kesey is portrayed as desiring the creation of a new religion. Kesey forms a group of followers based ... (Wikipedia)
The Guns of August
by Barbara W. Tuchman
A riveting account of the events leading up to World War I and its devastating consequences.
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time The Proud Tower, the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Guns of August, and The Zimmerman Telegram comprise Barbara W. ... (Goodreads)
Desert Solitaire
by Edward Abbey
A personal account of a season spent as a park ranger in the American wilderness.
First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ... (Goodreads)
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
A humorous account of a man's attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, reflecting on the beauty and history of the American wilderness.
The book starts with Bryson explaining his curiosity about the Appalachian Trail near his house. He and his old friend Stephen Katz start hiking the trail from Georgia in the South , and stumble in ... (Wikipedia)
