Reading Recommendations: Memories & Reflections
A new month means another batch of reading recommendations! This month’s theme is Memories & Reflections. I’m talking about memoirs that will stick with you long after reading these writers stories. Hope you enjoy these picks!
It Rhymes with Takei
George Takei has shown the world many faces: actor, author, outspoken activist, helmsman of the starship Enterprise, living witness to the internment of Japanese Americans, and king of social media. But until October 27, 2005, there was always one piece missing—one face he did not show the world. There was one very intimate fact about George that he never shared… and it rhymes with Takei.
Now, for the first time ever, George shares the full story of his life in the closet, his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68, and the way that moment transformed everything. Following the phenomenal success of his first graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, George Takei reunites with the team of Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger for a jaw-dropping new testament. From his earliest childhood crushes and youthful experiments in the rigidly conformist 1950s, to global fame as an actor and the paralyzing fear of exposure, to the watershed moment of speaking his truth and becoming one of the most high-profile gay men on the planet, It Rhymes With Takei presents a sweeping portrait of one iconic American navigating the tides of LGBTQ+ history.
As a long-time Star Trek fan I was delighted to dig into the pages of It Rhymes with Takei, which is a detailed graphic autobiography of Takei’s life. I loved learning more about why he developed a passion for acting and the efforts he made (and is still making) for equality/human rights issues. I had no idea that he dabbled in so many endeavors and politics over the years. I appreciate Takei for speaking his truth and also showcasing diverse representation in Sci-Fi media spaces as well (Nichelle Nichols playing Uhura means so much to me!!!)
Full of Myself: Black Womanhood and the Journey to Self-Possession
At the height of her success as an antiracism educator and writer, Austin Channing Brown reached a crossroads. “I love my work,” she writes, “and I am tired. Tired of protesting. Tired of ‘saving democracy.’ Tired of expending all the energy it takes to bust out of America’s tiny boxes.” She began to ask, “What do I deserve, not just as a citizen but as a human?”
Full of Myself is her answer to that question. Weaving personal narrative with perceptive social commentary, she offers a look at the mechanisms that limit who Black women are allowed to be—at work, at home, in community—and the defining moments when she decided that all the women within her should be free. From skinny dipping in the ocean to becoming a mom, she delves into the drama of life and invites women to begin defining themselves not by the tiny boxes handed to us, but as a people born free—free in spirit, free in hope, free in joy.
Full of Myself reads like part memoir, part essay, and part storytelling. Brown is executive producer of the web series The Next Question and the author of I’m Still Here. She is able to express her own weariness of trying to find joy in a world that seems to want to take away that for women. Some of her stories are heartbreaking and all too real while others are uplifting. It was a healing reading experience for me as I felt very seen in the topics she discusses. I also appreciated that her social commentary in this novel is raw and honest, allowing for more open discussions and look at what people will often turn a blind eye to.
Knocking on Windows: A Memoir
Six weeks after the start of her freshman year of college, Jeannine Atkins finds herself back in her childhood bedroom after an unimaginable trauma. Now home in Massachusetts, she’s struggling to reclaim her life and her voice. Seeking comfort in the words of women, she turns to the lives and stories of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Through raw and poignant letter-poems addressed to these literary giants, Jeannine finds that the process of writing and reflecting has become not only a means of survival but the catalyst for a burgeoning writing career.
Inspired and ready to move forward, she enrolls in her state university, where she feeds her growing passion for writing in fiction seminars. But she finds that she’s unable to escape the pervasive misogyny of her classmates and professors, who challenge her to assert her own voice against a backdrop of disbelief and minimalization. This time, though, Jeannine is not willing to go down without a fight.
. Atkins poems feel more like handwritten letters to herself which gives it a personal touch. It makes it easy for the reader to connect with her words as she takes us through the many moments of her life. tkins journey of growth feels real as it’s non-linear and she faces many set backs on her way to finding her voice. The novel discusses sexism, misogyny, racism, and inequalities that women face when it comes writing as a career among other parts of life. Most importantly this memoir message of letting your voice be heard is a reminder for us all.
Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me
For Glory Edim, that “friend of my mind” is books. Edim, who grew up in Virginia to Nigerian immigrant parents, started the popular Well-Read Black Girl book club at age thirty, but her love of books stretches far to public libraries alongside her little brothers after elementary school while her mother was working; to high school librairies where she discovered books she wasn’t being taught in class; to dorm rooms and airplanes and subway rides—and, eventually, to a community of half a million other readers.
When Edim’s father moved back to Nigeria while she was still a child, she and her brothers were left with a single mother and little money, often finding a safe space at their local library. Books were where Edim found community, and as she grew older, she discovered the Black writers whose words would forever change her Nikki Giovanni through children’s poetry cassettes; Maya Angelou through a critical high school English teacher; Toni Morrison while attending Morrison’s alma mater, Howard University; Audre Lorde on a flight to Nigeria. In prose full of both joy and heartbreak, Edim recounts how these writers and so many others helped her to value to find her own voice when her mother lost hers, to trust her feelings when her father remarried, to create bonds with other Black women and uplift their own stories.
Reading this memoir felt like reading someone’s diary while also being a deeply personal love letter to books. It is a testament to how books can open up a world of wonders for each reader and how they can teach us, nurture us, and help us to discover brand new things. I enjoyed how each chapter would reference a few specific book titles and how the lessons from those books tied into Edim’s life at that period. It was a heartwarming and emotional read as Edim details her struggles of coming-of-age, being a child of divorce, dealing with mental illness from a loved one, and so much more.
I Am Yours: A Shared Memoir
It is time.
It is time to free our voice.
To speak is a revolution.
For too long, through the most intimate acts of erasure, women have been silenced. Now, women everywhere are breaking through the limits placed on us by family, society, and tradition. To find our voices. To make space for ourselves in this world. Now is the moment to reclaim what was once lost, stolen, forsaken, or abandoned. I Am Yours is about my fight to protect and free my voice from those who have sought to silence me, for the sake of creating a world where all voices are welcome and respected. Because the voice, without intimacy, will atrophy. We’re in this together. You are mine, and I am yours.
Zaman has a very lyrical quality in her writing style that makes the reading pace very smooth. Each section is set up at a different stage in the author’s life and we get to see how not only how she transitions in age, but also the obstacles that shape her. Even from childhood Zaman is very outspoken and passionate about her beliefs and what she wants to do in life. I admired her ambition and drive when it came to her acting career, working in childcare, and finding her passion for what path she wanted to follow in life. I enjoyed reading about Reema’s journey and it shows that even though life throws us many obstacles, we can overcome them.
That concludes my list of memoirs that I highly recommend. What are some other recommendations that you read and enjoyed? Let me know in the comments.
I’ve read the Takei memoir and enjoyed it for the same reasons you’ve cited. Of the others, Gather Me appeals most; I cannot resist a memoir where books take centre stage. As far as life-writing, I really love Kim McLarin’s personal essays, how they are intimate and personal but they are also informative and universal. Womanish was the first one of her books that I read. She’s not easy to buy here, but I think her publisher is based in Brooklyn, so probably she’s easier for you to find.
Takei’s graphic memoir was excellent! Gather Me is one memoir I think you’ll also enjoy. I’ll look up Kim McLarin and see if I can check out her books through my local library system. Thanks for the recommendation.