Nonfiction doesn’t mean textbooks and data. Some of the most compelling stories are those that are true. So here are some memoirs we think you should add to your TBR!

Walking Gentry Home by Alora Young

The lives of young Black girls and Black women come together to form a uniquely American epic in verse.

Alora Young gives voice to her unnamed ancestors using information from archival research, the last will and testament of an enslaver, formal interviews, and a DNA test. She deftly retells the stories of Amy, the first of Young’s foremothers to arrive in Tennessee; her great-grandmother Gentry, unhappily married at fourteen; and her mother, a teenage beauty queen, rejected by her white neighbors. Then we meet Young in the present day as she leaves her childhood behind and enters young adulthood.

Each poem is a story in verse that speaks to generational curses, coming of age, fleeting loves and lasting consequences, and the legacy of slavery in our nation’s psyche.

The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Magic runs in Ingrid Rojas Contreras’s family. Not much could shock her as a child in Colombia in the late 80s and 90s. Yet, her mother and maternal grandfather were gifted with what her family called “the secrets.” They had the power to talk to the dead, tell the future, heal the sick, and move the clouds.

Rojas Contreras suffered a head injury that left her with amnesia while living in the United States in her twenties. As she recovered, her family reveals that this same traumatic event happened before. Her mother took a fall that left her with amnesia, and, received access to “the secrets” after recovery.

In 2012, on a journey to disinter her grandfather’s remains, with her unpredictable and hilarious mother as her guide, Rojas Contreras traced her lineage back to her Indigenous and Spanish roots. This exploration uncovers a gulf in her mestizo family between those who believe “the secrets” are a gift and those who think they’re a curse.

Fruit Punch by Kendra Allen

Growing up in Dallas, Texas, in the nineties and early 2000s, Kendra Allen had a complicated, loving, and intense family life. It was filled with desire and community with undercurrents of violence and turmoil. She recounts slowly discovering outlets to help navigate growing up and against the expected performance of being a young Black woman in the South, touching on everything from questions of beauty to how we form concepts of ourselves.

I’m Not Broken by Jesse Leon – August 23, 2022

In his courageous and inspiring memoir, Jesse Leon recounts a childhood devastated by sex trafficking, street life, and substance abuse. Leon shares the heartbreaking and remarkable story of taking back his life. It’s a journey that leads him to the steps of Harvard University. From being the lone young person of color in Narcotics Anonymous meetings to coming to terms with his own sexual identity to becoming an engaged mentor for incarcerated youth, Jesse finds the will to live with the love and support of his family, friends, and mentors.