2017 Memoirs and Biographies
Readers are endlessly fascinated by the true stories of others' lives, and 2017 was a stellar year for memoirs and biographies. Take a look at some of these noteworthy titles, and consider checking one out today!
Memoirs
"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir" by Sherman Alexie
This innovative memoir by one of America's most beloved contemporary writers combines poetry, autobiogaphy, and personal confession to form a "quilt of words" that captures Alexie at his life's most vulnerable and pivotal moments. Alexie experiences a great deal of suffering over the course of the book, including a neglectful mother, a childhood of reservation poverty and multiple brain surgeries, but he retains his fighting spirit, his artistic vision and his will to overcome through it all.
"Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" by Roxane Gay
As the subtitle suggests, this harrowing but powerful memoir by the acclaimed essayist, editor and fiction-writer Roxane Gay focuses primarily on Gay's relationship with her own body—particularly the weight she put on as a defense mechanism after experiencing sexual abuse as a young girl. As Gay comes to terms with her body image and lays bare her past traumas, she also allows us an illuminating and haunting glimpse into her remarkable life as a woman of color, an LGBTQ person, and a writer.
"Priestdaddy: A Memoir" by Patricia Lockwood
Poet Patricia Lockwood's life seems custom-made to be written about. The daughter of an eccentric Catholic priest (he joined the priesthood as a married man by way of a special dispensation), she was raised in Kansas and forced to return home as an adult when a medical emergency depleted her and her husband's funds. Lockwood chronicles the ups and downs of family life with lyricism and wit, and leaves the reader with a deep sense of appreciation for the unique lives that surround and influence us each day.
"An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic" by Daniel Mendelsohn
In "An Odyssey," classicist Daniel Mendelsohn chronicles the semester his own father enrolled in his undergraduate course on Homer, and the subsequent Mediterrean voyage the pair took to trace Odysseus' path together. Though initially the younger Mendelsohn seems to have little in common with his mathematically-minded father, the months they spend together in the presence of literary greatness help break down the barriers between them and reveal the many ways in which they are bonded.
"The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying" by Nina Riggs
When Nina Riggs—a 37-year-old mother and great-great-great-grandaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson—was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she determined to face it with bravery and joy for the life she'd been granted. "The Bright Hour" is the result of her journey towards acceptance: a moving celebration of life's small joys, and a tribute to the power of literature (especially that of her forebear, Emerson) to console and provide meaning during hardship.
Biographies
"Grant" by Ron Chernow
Ron Chernow's 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton gained an unexpected fanbase when it was adapted by Lin-Manuel Miranda into a smash-hit Broadway musical. This book, Chernow's first in seven years, provides a fresh, detailed, and empathetic look at the celebrated Civil War general and significantly-less-celebrated 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant.
"Leonardo da Vinci" by Walter Isaacson
"Steve Jobs" author Walter Isaacson returns with this biography of another influential visionary and inventor, the 15th-century artist, engineer and original Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci. Isaacson's book provides a definitive portrait of a remarkable personality, a creator whose work and ideas still reverberate five centuries after his passing.
"Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life" by Jonathan Gould
Otis Redding, who died 50 years ago this month, was just 26 when his life and career were cut short by a plane crash. Jonathan Gould's new biography examines Redding's tragically brief life, as well as the extraordinary and influential body of work he produced in just five short years as a professional recording artist.
"The Blood of Emmett Till" by Timothy B. Tyson
The brutal 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till—purportedly for whistling at a white woman named Carolyn Bryant—shocked the nation and helped to spur on the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. Tyson's account provides a thorough overview of the Emmett Till killing and its aftermath, as well as a never-before-published confession by Carolyn Bryant of her own dishonesty under oath.
"The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II" by Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky)
Svetlana Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015 for her emotionally resonant oral histories of the Chernobyl disaster and the Soviet-Afghan War. This book, first published in 1985 but only fully translated into English this year, continues that tradition by compiling the accounts of more than 200 Soviet women who played an essential—but shamefully overlooked—role in fighting and winning the Second World War.
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