Memoir

East winds : a global quest to reckon with marriage book cover

East winds : a global quest to reckon with marriage

Rachel K. Rueckert

BIOGRAPHY Rueckert, Rachel K.
Memoir

"Rachel panicked as she lay awake on the first night of her year-long honeymoon-a backpacking trip around the world. Though young and in love, she wasn't sure she actually believed in marriage, let alone the lofty Mormon ideal of eternal marriage. This unconventional honeymoon felt like a brief reprieve from the crushing expectations for a Mormon bride. But this trip also offered opportunities: the chance to study wedding traditions in other cultures and the space to confront what marriage--including her own--meant to her. Along the way, she got kicked out of Peru, escaped rabid dogs in the Amazon, stumbled upon democracy protests in Hong Kong, launched an unlucky lantern in Thailand, and trekked five hundred miles across Spain in sandals. These experiences helped Rachel confront her tumultuous past, question her inherited relationship models, and embrace her restless nature within marriage--exchanging faith in certainty for faith in the day-to-day choice of partnership and faith in herself."

Amanda's picture

I couldn't put this book down! The journey the author and her new spouse take was fascinating, and the last section of the memoir that focuses on a pilgrimage was especially poignant. You learn how many cultures view and live marriage, and it offers you the space to reflect on your feelings as well. A lovely story. -Amanda

Gender Queer book cover

Gender Queer

Maia Kobabe

306.768/Kobabe
Memoir

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

Zach's picture

My friend first recommended this book to me because she was reading it while in a class on queer literature. I found it fascinating to hear what she told her and her classmates were able to discuss about the book. It was super quick, but my favorite part were these discussions, they helped me see more of the queer community here in Iowa City, and made me realize more closely what I actually want to do with my life. -Zach

Fatty fatty boom boom : a memoir of food, fat, and family book cover

Fatty fatty boom boom : a memoir of food, fat, and family

Rabia Chaudry

BIOGRAPHY Chaudry, Rabia
Memoir

"A memoir about food, body image, and growing up in a loving but sometimes oppressively concerned Pakistani immigrant family"--

Amanda's picture

I couldn't stop giggling through most of this book! She has amazing descriptions of Pakistani food, and you're going to adore her family with all their foibles. A marvelous immigrant story with a food journey as well. -Amanda

Team photograph book cover

Team photograph

Lauren Haldeman

BIOGRAPHY Haldeman, Lauren
Memoir, Literary Fiction, Graphic Novels

"In her extraordinary graphic novel—which masterfully incorporates poetry and elements of memoir—Lauren Haldeman layers the warfare of soccer over the battlefields now called Bull Run Regional Park, where, growing up, her soccer team would practice and compete. The park and surrounding town of Fairfax Station Virginia set the landscape for the book, where the narrator regularly encounters spectral visions of wounded soldiers and very real artifacts of war— “wounded wraiths and faceless shapes” float in her hallway at night, and bullet shells, buttons, and human bones surface around the soccer fields in daylight. The narrator turns to poetry and history to make sense of the town and its bloodshed, of its forever attachment to injustice and its inability to restore erased identities. Team Photograph is a journey from research to illumination, and the result is a tender yet powerful reckoning of time and place, proof that the past and the present are inexorably fused together." --publisher

Melody's picture

Iowa City poet and illustrator Lauren Haldeman has created a fascinating literary nonfiction memoir that I couldn't stop paging through. I've only just started the book, but I can't wait to keep reading. -Melody

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World book cover

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Vicki Myron

OverDrive eBook
Animals, Memoir

Experience the uplifting, "unforgettable" New York Times bestseller about an abandoned kitten named Dewey, whose life in a library won over a farming town and the world — with over 2 million copies sold! (Booklist) Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. On the coldest night of the year in Spencer, Iowa, at only a few weeks old—a critical age for kittens—he was stuffed into the return book slot of the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility (for a cat), and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most. As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming community slowly working its way back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

Hanna's picture

I've heard of Dewey the library cat. I think I read an article about him once. This, however, is an entire book dedicated to the antics of a wonderful and very loved library cat. I want to read it today! (Do you think Elsworth Carmen would go for an ICPL cat? Maybe Dewey II? I'm kidding.) -Hanna

Autism in heels : the untold story of a female life on the spectrum book cover

Autism in heels : the untold story of a female life on the spectrum

Jennifer Cook O'Toole

618.9285882 /O'Toole
Diverse Characters, Memoir, Nonfiction

"Autism in Heels, an intimate memoir, reveals the woman inside one of autism's most prominent figures, Jennifer O'Toole. At the age of thirty-five, Jennifer was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, and for the first time in her life, things made sense. Now, Jennifer exposes the constant struggle between carefully crafted persona and authentic existence, editing the autism script with wit, candor, passion, and power. Her journey is one of reverse-self-discovery not only as an Aspie but--more importantly--as a thoroughly modern woman. Beyond being a memoir, Autism in Heels is a love letter to all women. It's a conversation starter. A game changer. And a firsthand account of what it is to walk in Jennifer's shoes (especially those iconic red stilettos). Whether it's bad perms or body image, sexuality or self-esteem, Jennifer's is as much a human journey as one on the spectrum. Because autism "looks a bit different in pink," most girls and women who fit the profile are not identified, facing years of avoidable anxiety, eating disorders, volatile relationships, self-harm, and stunted independence. Jennifer has been there, too. Autism in Heels takes that message to the mainstream."--Page [2] of cover.

Hanna's picture

This book let me see a different side of Autism. The author is an adult woman with a psychology degree who can quote scientific studies as well as she can reflect on her own autistic childhood. It was eye-opening, to say the least. -Hanna

Corrections in ink : a memoir book cover

Corrections in ink : a memoir

Keri Blakinger

BIOGRAPHY Blakinger, Keri
Memoir

"Corrections in Ink is an electric and unforgettable memoir about a young woman's journey-from the ice rink, to addiction and a prison sentence, to the newsroom-emerging with a fierce determination to expose the broken system she experienced. An elite, competitive figure skater growing up, Keri Blakinger poured herself into the sport, even competing at nationals. But when her skating partnership ended abruptly, her world shattered. With all the intensity she saved for the ice, she dove into self-destruction. From her first taste of heroin, the next nine years would be a blur-living on the streets, digging for a vein, selling drugs and sex, eventually plunging off a bridge when it all became too much, all while trying to hold herself together enough to finish her degree at Cornell. Then, on a cold day during Keri's senior year, the police stopped her. Caught with a Tupperware container full of heroin, she was arrested and ushered into a holding cell, a county jail, and finally into state prison. There, in the cruel "upside down," Keri witnessed callous conditions and encountered women from all walks of life-women who would change Keri forever. Two years later, Keri walked out of prison sober and determined to make the most of the second chance she was given-an opportunity impacted by her privilege as a white woman. She scored a local reporting job and eventually moved to Texas, where she started covering nothing other than: prisons. Now, over her career as an award-winning journalist, she has dedicated herself to exposing the broken system as only an insider could. Not just a story about getting out and getting off drugs, this rich memoir is about finding redemption within yourself, as well as from the outside world, and the power of second chances. Written in a searing voice, Corrections in Ink is told with unflinching honesty and jolts of irreverent humor, and uncovers a dark and brutal system that affects us all"--

Amanda's picture

I was riveted reading this book start to finish. Her details about prison life resonated with me, and her post-prison life is inspirational. -Amanda

The queer advantage : conversations with LGBTQ+ leaders on the power of identity book cover

The queer advantage : conversations with LGBTQ+ leaders on the power of identity

Gelwicks, Andrew, author.

306.76 /Gelwicks
LGBTQ+, Nonfiction, Memoir, Self Help

"Collecting incisive, deeply personal conversations with LGBTQ+ trailblazers about how they leveraged the challenges and insights they had as relative outsiders to succeed in the worlds of business, tech, politics, Hollywood, sports and beyond, The Queer Advantage celebrates the unique, supercharged power of queerness"--

Candice's picture

Added by Candice

Self-ish: A transgender awakening book cover

Self-ish: A transgender awakening

Chloe Schwenke

306.768/Schwenke
Nonfiction, LGBTQ+, Memoir, Young Adult

SELF-ish is a narrative drawn from an international life, beginning with some early glimpses out at the world by a girl in a boy's body. Chloe Schwenke was raised as Stephen in a Marine Corps family, and was sent off at age fourteen to "man-up" at a military academy. Later--and still embodied as a man--she ventured abroad to work in some of the roughest regions of Africa, the Gaza Strip, Turkey, and many other locales. Her far-flung global journey was matched in intensity by an inner identity and spiritual struggle and the associated ravages of depression, before she came to the revelation of being a transgender woman. At a time when many Americans are just waking up to the reality of the transgender phenomenon, this portrayal of Chloe's life, her challenging gender transition, and her many accomplishments and adventures along the way (including being among the first three transgender political appointees in U.S. history, under President Obama), creates a poignant story of authenticity, self-discovery, and the meaning of gender set against a fascinating international backdrop

Candice's picture

Added by Candice

Mergers and acquisitions : or, everything I know about love I learned on the wedding pages : a memoir book cover

Mergers and acquisitions : or, everything I know about love I learned on the wedding pages : a memoir

Cate Doty

395.22 /Doty
Memoir

A compulsively readable behind-the-scenes memoir that takes readers inside the weddings section of the New York Times-- the good, bad, and just plain weird-- through the eyes of a young reporter just as she's falling in love herself.

Amanda's picture

I loved the writer’s style and she has so many great stories to share from her days working the wedding desk at the Times. I drank this up! And even better? Her slow burn of a love story that unfolds throughout the book that made me squee. And when you Google her you find their NYT wedding announcement and that makes me beam. Truly a delight to read! -Amanda