3 Emotional Must-Read Memoirs

If there is one thing you should know about me, it is that I love to read. I go through phases, like humans do. However, on a good streak, I have read ten books in a week, which may just be my crowning achievement. My favorite genre would have to be memoirs. Learning about someone’s personal story gives me an insight into their mind and way of life that is foreign to my own. Memoirs have the power to shape their author’s reality and how the public perceives them, placing the author in a vulnerable state. While many books that I read are not easy on the soul, they are necessary to read to grow from other’s experiences. Here are my top three memoir picks for anyone discovering their identity.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 

Walls’ moving story brought me to tears multiple times. Her story of identity has changed my own outlook on how I interpret my relationships. Walls begins with her childhood and ravages the story of her coming of age while navigating an upturned home life. She was secondary to alcohol in her father’s eyes, and her mother was a free spirit and was the opposite of her father. Her family was not bound by the rules, which in turn held back her and her siblings. Walls learns to navigate the world besides herself and create an identity separate from her family’s. 

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard 

Dugard’s explicit story is not one to read quickly or with a light heart. Her emotions are spilled onto the pages and left carefully for the reader to put together. Her story is told soon after her eighteen years of captivity after her abduction at age eleven. Dugard’s powerful memoir guides the reader through her adolescence, alone and afraid. She begins to discover her resilience without the sun’s light and repairs herself years later. You will be broken down and built back up again through Dugard’s emotional space.  

Negative Space by Lilly Dancyger 

Lilly Dancyger pulls at the tugs of one’s own life and weaves an intricate picture of sorrow, loss, and hope through it all. Her novel hones in on the relationship between herself and her father to emphasize its effect on her adult years. While Dancyger idolized her father as a child, she grew to see him as a human with faults, as we all have. Her story is one of incredible resilience that I can personally relate to. Her strike of reality hits and is a must read to evaluate family dynamics.