2023 Memoir Picks Of The Year

2023 Memoir Picks Of The Year from January to June!

This is your one big post thus far for 2023 for all the memoirs picks from January to June! The website has been under construction, a lot of construction, so I’m sharing all the must read memoirs of the year so far, and in July we’ll be back on track to the memoir of the month pick!

Website Sidenote: You may be wondering what happened to the website? The answer is not too much, but my husband is my website builder and he does this out of the kindness of his heart, so as he reminds me…you want things done fast, pay someone! You want them done free, it will take time. Now you know, I don’t have the means to hire a WordPress builder. Have you seen their rates? They are A LOT! It makes sense. Have you ever tried to used WordPress?? If so, I commend you. It’s a lot. Now back to the true stories of 2023 that have changed me!

“Know My Name” will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault. It challenges our beliefs about what it looks like to be sexually assaulted and shows us how much mental strength it takes for a woman whose been traumatized to speak her truth.

Why You Should Read “Know My Name:”

1. It reveals how many women out there are terrified to talk about about their experience with sexual abuse.
   
   
2. This memoir is not about a victims lack of effort. This memoir reveals society’s failure to have systems in place in which a victim feel there’s a probable chance of achieving safety, justice, and restoration rather than public shame.
   
   
3. Miller writes in great detail about her trail. Her story shows what it looks like in a court room when a woman speaks out, and how painfully long it can take to reach a verdict, causing a surge of more trauma for the victim.
   
   

This is a memoir about two friends who lost touch for years and reunite decades later to walk the Appalachian trail. I loved this book because not many stories dive into the true and painful fact of life…some of your best friends in your youth, don’t always stay in your life when you become an adult.

3 Things Reading “A Walk In The Woods” Will Teach you?

1. Friendship doesn’t always need a conversation. Sometimes you just need someone to show up.
   
   
2. There is so much humor to be found when you walk away from everything to spend time in nature. In a place with no cell phones or internet, is where the mind’s most meaningful memories might just come from.
   
   
3. Take adventures in life! This book will teach you how much we learn about ourselves when we leave out comfort zone.
   
   
   

This is a cancer memoir. But it’s not your typical cancer memoir. What makes this book unique is the love story intertwined within it and the sacrifice it takes when somebody falls in love with someone who needs a caretaker more than a partner.

What “Between Two Kingdoms” Will Reveal To You:

1. The complex layers of what happens in a romantic relationship, when one partner gets sick and the other is given the choice to leave or stay and become a caretaker.
   
   
2. The power of handwritten letters, and the impactful a letter can have on a person who is suffering.
   
   
3. What a terminal illness does to somebody’s mind and worldview.
   
   

I think it’s important to read books about other cultures. We can learn so much from a memoir, written by someone from a different ethnicity than us, and that is what happened when I picked up this book, “What My Bones Know.” In this memoir, the author dives deep into the history of verbal abuse from parents to children that has occurred over the years due to the pressure that is put on Asian children to be outstanding in academics. Of course, not all parents are like this in the Asian culture, but Foo makes a very strong argument that not all kids of Asian decent are meant to be PhD graduates or professors. There are many who are meant to be creatives, and probably would be outstanding in the arts, if parents allowed them to embrace the arts.

Why You Should Read “What My Bones Know”?

1. A mentally ill person, is often raised by a mentally ill caretaker. See how this happens in Foo’s life story.
   
2. You will learn a lot about the Asian culture and how important it is to encourage Asian individuals to pursue and embrace arts and creativity too.
   
   
3. Want to know how somebody becomes mentally ill? It starts with trauma, untreated trauma that gets stored in your bones. Let Foo guide you on a fascinating and eye-opening journey of her mental health.
   
   

If you liked Educated, THIS BOOK is for you! This is a true story about a family living off the grid and what terrible things happen to the children when teachers and authorities turn a blind eye to all the little signs that are implying a child is being raised in an abusive household.

“If You Tell” Will Expose You To These 3 Things About An Untreated Mental Illness:

1. Want to know what the mental illness narcissism looks like in a mother? Read this book!
   
   
2. Children who are raised by a parent with an untreated mental illness often get stuck in a terrible internal battle, between wanting to help and protect their parent vs. knowing their parent needs help and they ask someone for it.
   
   
3. A perfect, beautiful mother in the public eye. An abusive, neglectful woman by night. Read this to get an inside look about the mind of an extremely mentally ill woman and how easy it is for a mentally ill woman to get away with abuse, when she is a beautiful, charming flirt by day to all the men in authority.

This is an older memoir, but one everyone should read to understand how people living with an extreme mental illness can get away with so many odd behaviors and terrible things, when they have the title….”doctor.” Ever seen a mental ill doctor? There’s not many. This is because the title Dr. is one people worship and respect, when sometimes it’s these people who need help most of all…

Why “Running With Scissors” Is A Must Read?

1. You will learn about schizophrenia. This is not something to be afraid of; it’s something to learn about. Let this book teach you.
   
   
2. This is a book about a boy who experienced terrible, icky things, but learned how to find humor in them, and this is perhaps what saved his mind – an ability to laugh at the darkness.
   
   
3. This was one of the first memoirs to expose readers to the horrific things a child experiences when someone in the family lives with untreated mental illness.