Calling all memoir fans: These are the titles to watch this fall.
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Summer’s not over yet, but we’ve already got our eye on one of our favorite seasons of the year: Fall Book Release Season. Order these soon-to-be best-sellers now before they’re sold out.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Though it won’t be released until November, readers are already lining up to purchase former First Lady Michelle Obama’s upcoming memoir. The book promises to chronicle her life from childhood to her eight-year tenure as both mother and (very) public figure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Expect to hear more about this hot title in the coming months: Becoming is certainly the most anticipated memoir (if not book) of 2018.
Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee
McBee was the first trans boxer to enter the ring at Madison Square Garden. In this memoir from Scribner, he grapples with masculinity, gender, and violence as he recounts his training to become a boxer. “It’s hard to overstate how important and profound it feels to read a personal account of a man actively examining his own masculinity and privilege in such an honest way,” says Women’s Review of Books.
Everyone loves a good coming-of-age story. But what does coming of age look like when you’re the daughter of Steve Jobs? Born on a farm but raised in Silicon Valley, Brennan-Jobs offers an honest and complex portrait of her unusual upbringing and her relationship with her father. “It’s rare to find a memoir from a celebrity’s child in which the writing is equal to – or exceeds – the parent’s reputation, but that is the case with Brennan-Jobs’ debut. In a lesser writer’s hands, the narrative could have devolved into literary revenge. Instead, Brennan-Jobs offers a stunningly beautiful study of parenting that just so happens to include the co-founder of Apple,” writes Kirkus in a starred review.
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
A journalist with bylines in The New Yorker, Harper’s, and Guernica (among others), Sarah Smarsh was raised in a rural Kansas family of wheat farmers. Her memoir, set to release on September 18, is a thoughtful meditation on class and poverty in America. In a starred review, Kirkus says it contains “a potent social and economic message embedded within an affecting memoir.”
Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-comic Memoir by Adam Cayton-Holland
Listed as one of Variety‘s “10 Comics to Watch,” Adam Cayton-Holland grew up in Denver and tragically lost his youngest sister to a battle with depression just as his comedy career started to rise. In this upcoming memoir, Cayton-Holland pays tribute to his beloved sister and explores his own grief in a book laced with dark humor and wit. “Tragedy Plus Time absolutely gutted me—then it filled me with hope. I hate that Adam has this story to tell, but he tells it so beautifully,” says comic Tig Notaro.
