Michelle's love language is book recommendations so she put her skills to use and created a gift guide for book lovers. By the way, bookshop.org is an alternative to the online giant that put "the shop around the corner" out of business. You can even choose your local bookstore and they will receive a portion of your purchase. It's the perfect way to support small businesses without leaving home!
1 | Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang | a brutally honest look into one immigrant experience
2 | You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie | poetry and memoir woven together like a quilt
3 | The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz | perfect for even the most reluctant readers because it's such a page turner
4 | Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby | queer + neurodivergent!
5 | Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer | if nature wrote a devotional
6 | What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon | your fat friend wants you to read this (and so do I)
7 | The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles | this suspenseful novel spans only 10 days but it feels like a year (in a good way!)
8 | The Round House by Louise Erdrich | this novel will raise your awareness and understanding of MMIW while keeping you on the edge of your seat
9 | Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo | if a collection of short stories and a novel had a baby
10 | Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo | a compelling young adult novel that's not just for "youths"
And here are even more ideas, just in case.
More Must-read Memoirs...
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen
Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
Unbound by Tarana Burke
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
Novels that can snap a person out of a reading slump...
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
There There by Tommy Orange
City of Thieves by David Benioff
The Five Wounds by Kirsten Valdez Quade
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Expansive novels that span decades or generations...
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
The Brothers K by David James Duncan
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Nonfiction that reads more like a novel:
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Educated by Tara Westover
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah