In Rise and Climb, Ben Barbic looks back on a childhood shaped by his father’s motorcycle world in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where racing trophies made ambition feel almost normal. A wildfire destroys the family home when he is five, then the Loma Prieta earthquake...

Brother to Brother by Kevan L Waiters is a stirring memoir that shares the story of the Waiters family. There is a particular focus on the bond between brothers Kevan, the author, and Donald Frank (“D. Frank”) Waiters. Raised in a large, hardworking, faith-centered family...

Keith Thorn’s The Life I Still Want for You is a memoir of love written for the person who may one day have to keep living after his absence. Thorn begins with Melody, the woman whose presence taught him that love is happiness joined to...

Beyond the Veil by Rami Al Tobgy is a memoir that shows the full gamut of life’s experiences, including pain, suffering, reflection, healing, and an understanding of purpose and direction. The author is Egyptian by birth but was raised in Kuwait and later Dubai, in...

The Art of Losing to a Y-14 by Andrew Radu is a fascinating memoir that unmasks the psychological vulnerabilities of people who identify as high achievers. Drawing from his years as an elite Ivy League fencer and his current work as a psychiatrist, Radu explores...

When Mimi Nichter boarded a Trans World Airlines flight on September 6th, 1970, she was focused on resuming her studies at George Washington University after a productive trip to Israel. She never in her wildest dreams expected that this flight would put her in a...

Denis McClean’s Memoirs of a Pleb is an extraordinary story of an ordinary man. While he is not a celebrity, his life resonates with regular people who sacrifice for love, build grit, and keep standing, even when the world crumbles around them -- a story...

In her thought-provoking memoir, From Doctor to Healer, Dr. Erica M. Elliott tells the story of a life characterized by extraordinary grit and personal transformation. After a successful but exhausting career in medicine, her world collapses when she suffers a devastating illness caused by exposure...

Greenhorn: Episodes in an Immigrant’s Life by Alex Krieger is a timely reminder of what it costs and how traumatic it can be to leave everything and everyone that you know and love to move across the sea to a new land where you don’t...

More than a memoir, Henry’s Classroom: A Special Education in American Motherhood by Amy Mackin offers a damning account of how American policymakers and institutions fail neurodivergent children and their families. In it, Mackin, a mother with three children who have developmental issues that require...