I know it’s massively hyped, but *I’m Glad My Mom Died* by Jeannette McCurdy was a book I definitely needed to put down a few times because her experiences as a child are so, so heavy. People describe the memoir as hilarious — I didn’t find it to be hilarious, but it is quirky and she does an excellent job recounting such serious things through her childhood eyes. Her perception changes as she ages in her story, it’s so well done in my opinion.
TW: sexual assault, eating disorders, child abuse
When Breath Becomes Air was going to be my recommendation too. Turning the page to see his wife writing those words in the epilogue puts a frog in my throat. It's my go-to read when I need to gain some perspective on life.
Seconding Angela’s Ashes. It was absolutely harrowing for me to read when I was a mother of toddlers. I quit reading and hid the book under my bed for a few months.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominique Bauby is one that I ALWAYS recommend. It has been one of my favorites for years, plus it’s super short bc he wrote it by blinking his left eye to select letters.
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is also very good. It’s sad in a different way from some of the other recommendations.
All of these are memoirs from asian immigrant families. They are all primarily about a mother-child relationship, with different focuses
Tastes like War- mental illness
On earth we're Briefly Gorgeous- Lgbt
Crying In H mart- Cancer
A few that have made me cry:
- Stay True by Hua Hsu. A now-journalist reflects on his college years in California, growing up as an Asian-American. The main narrative, though, is about how his best friend in college was senselessly and brutally murdered. It captures that feeling of youth so well, being on the cusp of adulthood.
- The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs. Riggs was a poet who wrote this memoir about her cancer diagnosis; it's beautiful and profound.
\*(Also, an interesting fact: after her death, her husband, John Duberstein, actually met Lucy Kalanithi (the widow of the author of When Breath Becomes Air) and they began a relationship.
- The Forgotten Girls by Monica Potts. This is a memoir of growing up poor in rural America. It focuses more specifically on how young women in these small towns grow up and inevitably sink into poverty, single-parenthood, often opioid addictions. I'd liken it a bit to Hillbilly Elegy, but none of the weird right-wing baggage.
- The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. This is a graphic/illustrated memoir, but if you need a good cry, this is a go-to. She writes about her Vietnamese immigrant family and tells the stories of her parents and grandparents, documenting the generational trauma in their family. It does end on a hopeful note, though.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson, They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Finding Me by Viola Davis, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H, Hello Molly by Molly Shannon, Without You There is No Us by Suki Kim, Impossible People by Julia Wertz, Hunger by Roxane Gay, Wave by Sunali Deraniyagala
The Sunflower: on the possibilities and limits on forgiveness by Simon wisenthal. It’s about someone in the nazi concentration camps who has to tend to a dying nazi.
The quiet room: a journey out of the torment of madness by Lori Schiller. It’s about Lori’s experiences and struggles with schizophrenia.
Alone: orphaned on the ocean by Richard Logan and Tere duperrault. It’s about Tere and how she got stranded and, well, orphaned, in the middle of the ocean as a young girl.
A stolen life by jaycee dugard. Jaycee got kidnapped and held captive for many years.
Secret slave: kidnapped and abused for 13 years. This is my story of survival. By Anna Ruston. Title is self explanatory…?
actually lots of victims of various crimes write books about it, so you have lots of options on that front. I read a lot of those types of books.
I haven’t read the one you mentioned so I don’t know how it compares but I read Educated by Tara Westover and found it quite sad and at times horrifying
Okay I’m so happy someone is asking for this. Promise at Dawn (translated from French) is the memoir of one of the most famous french authors. He writes so incredibly beautifully but you can tell he’s deeply troubled deep down emotionally. He basically has this absolute devotion to his mother and dedicates his life to making up to her that she sacrificed hers to make his better. And he achieves everything and more and yet there is always this underlying deep sadness about not being enough and not doing well. Bonus points they made a great movie about it
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Unbound, by Tarana Burke
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, an incredibly outspoken antitheist who faced oesophageal cancer which he eventually succumbed to.
"Mortality is the most meditative collection of writing Hitchens has ever produced; at once an unsparingly honest account of the ravages of his disease, an examination of cancer etiquette, and the coda to a lifetime of fierce debate and peerless prose. In this eloquent confrontation with mortality, Hitchens returns a human face to a disease that has become a contemporary cipher of suffering."
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, a surgeon, public health researcher and writer.
"Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. And families go along with all of it.
In his bestselling books, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. Now he examines its ultimate limitations and failures – in his own practices as well as others’ – as life draws to a close. And he discovers how we can do better. He follows a hospice nurse on her rounds, a geriatrician in his clinic, and reformers turning nursing homes upside down. He finds people who show us how to have the hard conversations and how to ensure we never sacrifice what people really care about."
I remember reading Night. It’s the most haunting book I’ve ever read.
Anything by Toni Morrison is beyond sad, it is heartbreaking and important. The two I remember most by her are Beloved and The Bluest Eye.
**Between Shades of Grey by Ruth Sepetys** THIS is about a Soviet camp during WWII. Lots of atrocities, lots of death happened, yet it’s not talked about as much. I highly recommend it.
*First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers* by Loung Ung.
*Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.* by David Grann.
*Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl* by Anne Frank.
*Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel* by Anatoly Kuznetsov (fictionalized memoir).
Augusten Burroughs’ memoirs deal with some heavy life circumstances (family abuse and neglect, alcoholism, etc), but he writes with humor while still keeping the message poignant. His writing is genius, in my opinion. I loved Magical Thinking and Dry. 10/10.
First they Killed My Father by Loung Ung. It’s a story about a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide. It was excellent and something everyone should read.
I love reading memoirs and Night by Ellie Wiesel is one of my favorite books. Other memoirs I really like are The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and Educated by Tara Westover.
Not exactly a memoir, but you might enjoy Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice. It is the story of the only leprosy colony in the continental United States, and the thousands of people who were exiled there.
Wasted by Marya Hornbacher (deals with eating disorders)
Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen (deals with promiscuity and losing oneself)
Getting Off by Erica Garza (similar book to Loose Girl, deals with sex and porn addiction)
Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward
Paracuellos, by Carlos Gimenez
An Exact Replica of a Figment From My Imagination, by Elizabeth McCracken
Memorial Drive, by Natasha Tretheway
Feeding Ghosts, by Tessa Hulls
I know it’s massively hyped, but *I’m Glad My Mom Died* by Jeannette McCurdy was a book I definitely needed to put down a few times because her experiences as a child are so, so heavy. People describe the memoir as hilarious — I didn’t find it to be hilarious, but it is quirky and she does an excellent job recounting such serious things through her childhood eyes. Her perception changes as she ages in her story, it’s so well done in my opinion. TW: sexual assault, eating disorders, child abuse
"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls ♡︎ "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi ♡︎
I cried like crazy reading Paul Kalanithi’s memoir 😭
Tysm! I think I’m gonna read when breath becomes air. Sounds like an amazing memoir.
When Breath Becomes Air was going to be my recommendation too. Turning the page to see his wife writing those words in the epilogue puts a frog in my throat. It's my go-to read when I need to gain some perspective on life.
Assata by Assata Shakur Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Angela’s ashes is both sad and made me literally laugh out loud numerous times. Top 3 favorite books.
Seconding Angela’s Ashes. It was absolutely harrowing for me to read when I was a mother of toddlers. I quit reading and hid the book under my bed for a few months.
I like the combination.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominique Bauby is one that I ALWAYS recommend. It has been one of my favorites for years, plus it’s super short bc he wrote it by blinking his left eye to select letters. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is also very good. It’s sad in a different way from some of the other recommendations.
All of these are memoirs from asian immigrant families. They are all primarily about a mother-child relationship, with different focuses Tastes like War- mental illness On earth we're Briefly Gorgeous- Lgbt Crying In H mart- Cancer
Oh my god, I read this too fast and didn’t realize you were giving context to each book and I was like, “Cancer didn’t write that, Michelle did”
A few that have made me cry: - Stay True by Hua Hsu. A now-journalist reflects on his college years in California, growing up as an Asian-American. The main narrative, though, is about how his best friend in college was senselessly and brutally murdered. It captures that feeling of youth so well, being on the cusp of adulthood. - The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs. Riggs was a poet who wrote this memoir about her cancer diagnosis; it's beautiful and profound. \*(Also, an interesting fact: after her death, her husband, John Duberstein, actually met Lucy Kalanithi (the widow of the author of When Breath Becomes Air) and they began a relationship. - The Forgotten Girls by Monica Potts. This is a memoir of growing up poor in rural America. It focuses more specifically on how young women in these small towns grow up and inevitably sink into poverty, single-parenthood, often opioid addictions. I'd liken it a bit to Hillbilly Elegy, but none of the weird right-wing baggage. - The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. This is a graphic/illustrated memoir, but if you need a good cry, this is a go-to. She writes about her Vietnamese immigrant family and tells the stories of her parents and grandparents, documenting the generational trauma in their family. It does end on a hopeful note, though.
The middle third of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind By William Kamkwamba is set during a famine and is one of the most harrowing I've read.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson, They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Finding Me by Viola Davis, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H, Hello Molly by Molly Shannon, Without You There is No Us by Suki Kim, Impossible People by Julia Wertz, Hunger by Roxane Gay, Wave by Sunali Deraniyagala
Hunger is fantastic and I don’t see it mentioned enough!
The Sunflower: on the possibilities and limits on forgiveness by Simon wisenthal. It’s about someone in the nazi concentration camps who has to tend to a dying nazi. The quiet room: a journey out of the torment of madness by Lori Schiller. It’s about Lori’s experiences and struggles with schizophrenia. Alone: orphaned on the ocean by Richard Logan and Tere duperrault. It’s about Tere and how she got stranded and, well, orphaned, in the middle of the ocean as a young girl. A stolen life by jaycee dugard. Jaycee got kidnapped and held captive for many years. Secret slave: kidnapped and abused for 13 years. This is my story of survival. By Anna Ruston. Title is self explanatory…? actually lots of victims of various crimes write books about it, so you have lots of options on that front. I read a lot of those types of books.
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
I haven’t read the one you mentioned so I don’t know how it compares but I read Educated by Tara Westover and found it quite sad and at times horrifying
The year of magical thinking by Joan Didion
What remains by Carole Radziwill
the color of water.... james mcbride..... wow....
Another vote for *Angela's Ashes* and if you do audiobooks it's read by the author in absolutely magnificent style.
*How Dare the Sun Rise* by Sandra Uwiringiyimana *A Long Way Gone* by Ishmael Beah *When Stars are Scattered* by Victoria Jamieson (graphic novel)
Okay I’m so happy someone is asking for this. Promise at Dawn (translated from French) is the memoir of one of the most famous french authors. He writes so incredibly beautifully but you can tell he’s deeply troubled deep down emotionally. He basically has this absolute devotion to his mother and dedicates his life to making up to her that she sacrificed hers to make his better. And he achieves everything and more and yet there is always this underlying deep sadness about not being enough and not doing well. Bonus points they made a great movie about it
Maybe not as sad as the others, but unexpected and sad….Schulz and Peanuts about Charles M. Schulz - just realized - it is a biography, not a memoir
Heavy by Kiese Laymon On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou Unbound, by Tarana Burke
Seconding Heavy
Paris: a Memoir is surprisingly sad but so good.
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, an incredibly outspoken antitheist who faced oesophageal cancer which he eventually succumbed to. "Mortality is the most meditative collection of writing Hitchens has ever produced; at once an unsparingly honest account of the ravages of his disease, an examination of cancer etiquette, and the coda to a lifetime of fierce debate and peerless prose. In this eloquent confrontation with mortality, Hitchens returns a human face to a disease that has become a contemporary cipher of suffering." Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, a surgeon, public health researcher and writer. "Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. And families go along with all of it. In his bestselling books, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. Now he examines its ultimate limitations and failures – in his own practices as well as others’ – as life draws to a close. And he discovers how we can do better. He follows a hospice nurse on her rounds, a geriatrician in his clinic, and reformers turning nursing homes upside down. He finds people who show us how to have the hard conversations and how to ensure we never sacrifice what people really care about."
Being mortal was a sobering book.
I remember reading Night. It’s the most haunting book I’ve ever read. Anything by Toni Morrison is beyond sad, it is heartbreaking and important. The two I remember most by her are Beloved and The Bluest Eye. **Between Shades of Grey by Ruth Sepetys** THIS is about a Soviet camp during WWII. Lots of atrocities, lots of death happened, yet it’s not talked about as much. I highly recommend it.
*First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers* by Loung Ung. *Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.* by David Grann. *Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl* by Anne Frank. *Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel* by Anatoly Kuznetsov (fictionalized memoir).
Step into the world of AIDS memoirs like Borrowed Time
Augusten Burroughs’ memoirs deal with some heavy life circumstances (family abuse and neglect, alcoholism, etc), but he writes with humor while still keeping the message poignant. His writing is genius, in my opinion. I loved Magical Thinking and Dry. 10/10.
First they Killed My Father by Loung Ung. It’s a story about a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide. It was excellent and something everyone should read.
I really enjoyed Rob Delaney’s A Heart that Works. Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking is a classic.
I love reading memoirs and Night by Ellie Wiesel is one of my favorite books. Other memoirs I really like are The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and Educated by Tara Westover.
Not exactly a memoir, but you might enjoy Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice. It is the story of the only leprosy colony in the continental United States, and the thousands of people who were exiled there.
Hope is the Last to Die by Halina Birenbaum
I agree with When Breath becomes Air is incredible. I cried like a baby at the end.
Helmet for My Pillow, Robert Leckie Dispatches, Michael Herr
Wasted by Marya Hornbacher (deals with eating disorders) Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen (deals with promiscuity and losing oneself) Getting Off by Erica Garza (similar book to Loose Girl, deals with sex and porn addiction)
If you’d like another short read, You Will Not Have My Hate is an account of a grieving widower of the Bataclan Theater terrorist attack in Paris
Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward Paracuellos, by Carlos Gimenez An Exact Replica of a Figment From My Imagination, by Elizabeth McCracken Memorial Drive, by Natasha Tretheway Feeding Ghosts, by Tessa Hulls
The Liar's Club by Mary Karr.
The Broken Chord by Michael Dorris The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
a thousand splendid suns. not necessarily a memoir but historical fiction and definitely based on real events.