The DiNardo family’s life in America didn’t start easily. In 1921, just after World War I, Ubaldo DiNardo, a war veteran, and his wife Marietta left Southern Italy to start over in the United States. Laws kept them apart for seven long years. Ubaldo went...

In his memoir Livin' It, Michael Perzel grew up in Philadelphia, first in the Abbotsford Projects and then in Mayfair. When his parents separate as he turns eleven, he begins living with unusual autonomy. He starts earning money, spending nights outside the house, and relying...

Confessions of a Problem Seeker by Howard Steinberg is a memoir that begins with his childhood in Queens, molded by parents who survived the Holocaust. His early life is marked by inherited fear, silence, and responsibilities that predate his own experience. A juvenile diabetes diagnosis...

Babymaking by Vincentia Schroeter is a memoir that follows the author from a moment of settled adulthood into a years-long pursuit of parenthood, bound to marriage and prolonged medical care. After meeting Steve during a family gathering, she builds a life with him that turns...

Mixtape: A Memoir by Johnzelle Anderson tells the story of a life through music, memory, and hard-earned self-understanding. Structured as a playlist, the book unfolds track by track, beginning with Anderson’s birth in Roanoke, Virginia, and the complicated family world that surrounds him. Early chapters...

In No Name Bastard, Tori DaCosta talks about how a person learns compliance long before understanding choice, and how that habit endures across a lifetime. DaCosta traces a pattern that begins with a childhood injury caused by proceeding despite doubt, and how similar moments recur...

Music defines us in ways we often don’t appreciate to the fullest. Music is history in sound, history that is heard and shared, and history that is a reflection of who we are. In Terry Blade’s Of Bloodlines and Blue Notes, the author shares his...

Little Deaths All in a Row by Elizabeth Earley surprised me in ways I never expected with its depth and the author’s ability to communicate complex thoughts so that readers not only understand but also enjoy it. The author examines the paradoxical relationship between sex...

In his self-help book Deleting Anxiety: Why Your Anxiety Is Lying to You and How to Push Back by Brian J. Fernandez, LMFT, anxiety is described as a survival alarm, misapplied in settings where it is wholly unnecessary. Fernandez explains how the brain converts the...

A Brief Letter of Love and Grief to the Cat I’ve Lost by Michael Koehn is about the part of his life he shared with his beloved Snowflake. He talks about how the death of Snowflake altered his understanding of attachment and loss. Koehn traces...