August is memoir month! Ever wonder about your favorite celebrity’s personal life story? Here are some suggestions for funny, inspirational, interesting, and dramatic stories from some famous and not-so-famous people.
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama asks readers to join her in considering questions about how to handle change and challenge in our lives. She shares the principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles, with humor and compassion. It is also an examination of issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, with tools to help readers work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Former child actor Jeannette McCurdy tells the heartbreaking and hilarious story about her struggles with eating disorders, addiction, and her complicated relationship with her mother, who’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star. Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy, eating little, enduring extensive at-home makeovers, and even being showered by Mom until age sixteen. When her mother dies of cancer, Jeannette quits acting, discovers therapy and recovery to help her decide for what she really wants.
Becoming Free Indeed: my Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear by Jinger Duggar Vuolo
Jinger Vuolo, the sixth child in the famous Duggar family shares how in her early twenties, a brother-in-law who didn’t believe many of the things Jinger had always assumed were true, caused her to examine her beliefs, and allowed her to see that her life was built on rules, not God’s Word. With a renewed faith of personal conviction, Becoming Free Indeed shares what it was like living the Biblical truth that changed her perspective, and how she disentangled her faith with her belief in Jesus intact.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
From the bestselling poet and author of Keep Moving, “Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.” Poet Maggie Smith writes her memoir about her personal heartbreak of the disintegration of her marriage, which widens into a study of contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics in many progressive homes. Smith interweaves meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself.
The Honey Bus: a Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees by Meridith May
The extraordinary story of a girl and the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. Her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard, helped her discover everything she needed to know about life and family was in the secret world of bees. During this pivotal time in her childhood, Meredith learned to take care of herself, forging an unbreakable bond with her grandfather, and discovered the magic and wisdom of nature.