Our May 2025 Picks: Recent Releases Asian American, Native Hawaiian, & Pacific Islander Memoirs Jewish American Heritage Month Mental Health Awareness Month Memoir Book Club  Recent Releases When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter The journalist and editor recounts his journey from launching Spy magazine to transforming Vanity Fair during his 25-year tenure. Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks In her spare and lyrical memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks (March) details her delayed grieving process after the sudden death of her husband in 2019. The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates Melinda French Gates candidly reflects on some of the major transitions in her life and offers guidance on how readers can navigate change and thrive. I'll Have What She's Having by Chelsea Handler Amidst a life of adventure and absurdity, actress and comedian Chelsea Handler has found that her truest calling is showing up for her family: canine and human, biological and chosen. Asian American, Native Hawaiian, & Pacific Islander Memoirs In Waves by AJ Dungo Surfer and illustrator AJ Dungo remembers his late partner and their shared love of surfing that brought them strength throughout their time together -- all blended with vignettes from surfing history. (Graphic memoir) They Called Us Enemy by George Takei Actor George Takei details his experiences as a child prisoner in the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, reflecting on the choices his family made in the face of institutionalized racism. (Graphic memoir) The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui Thi Bui describes her experiences as a young Vietnamese immigrant, highlighting her family's move from their war-torn home to the United States. (Graphic memoir) Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob Jacob describes the American identity as it has shaped her interracial family in the aftermath of the 2016 elections. (Graphic memoir) Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang Wang examines how her family -- after moving from Chine to NYC when she was 7 -- lived in poverty out of fear of being discovered as undocumented immigrants, and how she was able to find success. Long live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden In this coming of age memoir, Madden reckons with desire as a queer, biracial teenager in Boca Raton, Florida, where she, the only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, but still found loving friendships with fatherless girls. They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies That Raised Us by Prachi Gupta Weaving a deeply vulnerable personal narrative with history, postcolonial theory and research on mental health, an award-winning journalist and former senior reporter at Jezebel articulates the dissonance, shame and isolation of being upheld as an American success story while privately navigating traumas invisible to the outside world. A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung The best-selling author of All You Can Ever Know returns with a memoir of her experiences as a Korean adoptee and the challenges she faced holding on to family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy. Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class by Rob Kim Henderson Henderson -- who was born to a drug-addicted mother -- recounts growing up in foster care. Despite his military career, undergraduate education from Yale, and a PhD from Cambridge, he argues that stability at home is more important than external accomplishments. Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family by Rabia Chaudry The best-selling author and host of the Undisclosed podcast discusses her relationship with food, sometimes oppressively concerned family, and struggles with body image. Making a scene by Constance Wu In this intimate memoir-in-essays, the Golden Globe Award-nominated star chronicles how she “made it” in Hollywood, offers a behind-the-scenes look at being Asian American in the entertainment industry and the continuing evolution of her identity and influence in the public eye. Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen When Beth Nguyen fled Saigon for America at the end of the Vietnam War, her mother stayed behind. Here, she tells a coming-of-age story of being a refugee, growing up in the Midwest, her first meeting with her mother, and becoming a parent herself. Jewish American Heritage Month Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro Dani Shapiro describes her staggering discovery that her father was not her biological father, tracing her efforts to uncover the truth from a half-century of family secrets to reestablish her sense of identity. Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16 by Moshe Kasher AA rising comedian describes with humor the absurdity of his troubled youth in Oakland, CA, where his mother walked him on a leash until he chewed through it and ran away and started taking drugs at age twelve. Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home by Leah Lax The author details the thirty years she spent among a group of Hasidic Jews while keeping her sexuality concealed and her departure from the Hasidic fold in search of a place where she truly belonged. Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew by Michael Twitty In this thought-provoking and profound book, the James Beard award-winning author of The Cooking Gene explores the creation of African-Jewish cooking through memory, identity and food, offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman A brutally moving work of art--widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written-- Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author's father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats. Mental Health Awareness Month Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb Inviting us into her world as both clinician and patient, a psychotherapist and national advice columnist offers a  a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human. Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals that Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor After an aneurysm nearly killed her, taking away her sense of smell and the sight in her left eye, a popular food blogger shares her journey of recovery through the restorative power of cooking and baking. Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson The award-winning humorist and author of Let's Pretend This Never Happened shares candid reflections on such topics as her experimental treatment for depression, escape from three bearsm, and her business ideas for Shark Tank. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner The Japanese Breakfast indie pop star presents a full-length account of her viral New Yorker essay to share poignant reflections on her experiences of growing up Korean-American, becoming a professional musician and caring for her terminally ill mother. Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate A top law school graduate struggling with suicidal thoughts and an eating disorder describes her reluctant participation in a therapeutic support group that taught her the meaning of human connection and intimacy. A first book. Look Me in the Eye: My Life With Asperger's by John Elder Robison In an entertaining and inspirational memoir of living with Asperger's Syndrome, the author describes life growing up different in an unusual family, his unusual talents, his struggle to live a "normal" life, his diagnosis at the age of forty with Asperger's, and the dramatic changes that have occurred since that diagnosis. I Am Brian Wilson by Brian Wilson The memoirs of the legendary Beach Boy member offer unstinting insights into his difficult relationship with his father, the women in his life, his parenting experiences and the events that inspired his music. The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-year-old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida This journey into the mind of a remarkable 13-year-old Japanese boy with severe autism shares firsthand insights into a variety of experiences associated with the disorder, from behavioral traits and misconceptions to perceptions about the world and social awareness. Memoir Book Club Our next discussion: Thursday, June 12, 5:00pm Meeting Room on Library Lower Level If you're a regular memoir reader, consider joining our Memoir Book Club! The club usually meets on the second Thursday of the month at 5:00, but we do recommend confirming details on our events calendar in case of changes. Copies of our next book are on reserve at the Circulation Desk. We hope to see you there! We will be discussing: In the dream house : a memoir by Carmen Maria Machado This engrossing and wildly innovative account shares a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming Check out our library's Memoir and Bio book lists for more recommendations!