Memoir

Zitkála-Šá’s 1921 book American Indian Stories gathers autobiographical chapters, historical fiction stories, and essays focused on the experiences of the Dakota Sioux and interactions between American Indians and White citizens of the United States. Zitkála-Šá’s works convey a strong sense of independence, pride in Sioux culture, and indignation at injustices committed against American Indians. This study guide references the 2019 Modern Library (Penguin Random House) edition of American Indian Stories.SummaryThe collection begins with an autobiographical... Read American Indian Stories Summary

American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures (2018) is an essay collection edited by actress and activist America Ferrera with E. Cayce Dumont. The collection contains essays from notable individuals in movie and TV entertainment, food, publishing, public service, comedy, music, and self-help content creation. These first-person accounts all address the often troublesome question of what it means to be American, especially when growing up between different cultures. American Like Me is a New... Read American Like Me Summary

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American Sniper is the autobiography of Chris Kyle, the single deadliest sniper in the history of the United States military. The narrative, co-written by Chris Kyle, Jim deFelice, Scott McEwen, and Chris’s wife Taya, opens with events that took place in 2003 in Iraq. At the time, Chris was providing protective fire for a group of Marines; a female insurgent attempted to attack the Marines with a grenade, but Chris shot her, registering his first... Read American Sniper Summary

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard wrote the autobiographical memoir An American Childhood (1987). In this memoir, Dillard (born in 1945) describes her intellectual development, from her first true intellectual awakening, at 5 years old, through her busy and happy pre-teen years and her turbulent adolescence, to her acceptance at a prestigious private college at age 18. An exploration of her childhood during the 1950s, this memoir operates as a coming-of-age story in which the author... Read An American Childhood Summary

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007) is, on its surface, a memoir detailing a year in the life of one family, told through an account of their food. However, it is also at times a manifesto and frequently veers into academic exploration of themes like sustainability and the current state of farming in the US. Author Barbara Kingsolver sets out to chronicle a year in her family’s food life when they undertake an experiment: to “attempt to... Read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Summary

Author Laura Schroff’s 2012 New York Times bestseller An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny recounts a fateful meeting between two vastly different individuals: Maurice, a young boy living in poverty and a broken home, and Schroff, a successful ad executive enjoying a fast-paced career. In the memoir, the author posits that an invisible thread joins their lives. It is beyond her... Read An Invisible Thread Summary

An Ordinary Man is 2006 the autobiography of Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a Belgian-owned Rwandan hotel. Rusesabagina’s story, written with the aid of journalist Tom Zoellner, centers on the struggles Rusesabagina and his family overcame to survive the inhumane, racially motivated genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994—a story later turned into the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda. The narrative uses a conversation tone, unembellished language, and an unostentatious style. After describing Paul's past and... Read An Ordinary Man Summary

An Unquiet Mind, written by Kay Redfield Jamison and first published in 1995, is a memoir about a clinical psychologist’s experience living with manic-depressive illness. The book details her life, from her early experiences as a child, through the beginning of her mood swings, her diagnosis of manic-depressive illness, her struggles with the disease, and her eventual management of and control over it, following years of therapy and medication. Aside from having experienced it, Jamison... Read An Unquiet Mind Summary

Jimmy Santiago Baca, born in 1952, is an American poet and author of A Place to Stand. Poems by Baca include “Immigrants in Our Own Land” (1979) and “Who Understands Me but Me” (1979). This memoir begins with Baca’s early years at home with his drunken, abusive father and his unhappy mother. Baca loves his father, who is continually in and out of jail, but Baca’s mother abandons her three children to marry a man... Read A Place to Stand Summary

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Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama is a graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel and the winner of the 2013 Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction. It is the follow-up to Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which focuses on Bechdel’s sexual awakening and her relationship with her closeted bisexual father. Are You My Mother? interweaves memoir, dream interpretation, psychoanalysis, and literature to examine Bechdel’s complicated relationship with her mother.Plot SummaryThe non-linear narrative of Are You... Read Are You My Mother? Summary

A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath (2004) is a true-crime story and memoir by Jeanine Cummins. The book recounts the violent rape and murder of two young women, Julie and Robin Kerry, the author’s cousins, and focuses on the aftermath for their families. Tom Cummins, their cousin who is present during the crimes, is thrown off a bridge into the Mississippi River with the two women but survives. Innocent, he... Read A Rip in Heaven Summary

Philip Caputo’s 1977 memoir, A Rumor of War, depicts Caputo’s true experiences serving as a Marine during the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Caputo arrived in Vietnam in March 1965, with the first fighting troops assigned to combat there, and soon learned that his romantic notions of war bore no resemblance to the bloody brutality he and his men confront in fighting the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. As well as acknowledging the dehumanizing brutality... Read A Rumor of War Summary

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid is a work of creative nonfiction originally published in 1988. Kincaid shares memories of her home country, Antigua, both while it was under colonial rule and self-governance. She illustrates how life has and hasn’t changed for Antiguan citizens because of government corruption, the legacies of slavery, and the preoccupation with tourism over public welfare. Though the book won no awards, Kincaid has won a plethora of awards for her... Read A Small Place Summary

John Colapinto’s 1999 book As Nature Made Him is an expansion of his award-winning 1997 Rolling Stone article on the medical scandal surrounding David Reimer. David, raised as Brenda under the auspices of famous sexologist and child psychiatrist Dr. John Money, transitions back to a male gender identity during his teenage years. After Dr. Milton Diamond reveals the failure of Money’s theory of gender neutrality at birth, David’s story raises serious questions in the medical... Read As Nature Made Him Summary

Shakur: An Autobiography traces events from Shakur Shakur’s early childhood to her time as a political refugee in Cuba. While the book was first published in 1988, this guide references the 2014 edition of the autobiography, which features a foreword written by Angela Davis and Lennox Hill.Content Warning: The source text and this study guide contain descriptions of racism, racist violence, and sexual abuse in a carceral context.SummaryShakur Olugbala Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron) grew... Read Assata: An Autobiography Summary

Published in 1994, Autobiography of a Face is award-winning poet Lucy Grealy’s prose debut, a widely-celebrated memoir concerning the author’s struggles with cancer and disfigurement.At the age of 9, Lucy collides with a classmate during a game of dodgeball. The subsequent toothache leads her to seek medical assistance and doctors discover that she has Ewing’s sarcoma, a form of cancer with a 5% survival rate. She undergoes an operation to remove half of her jaw... Read Autobiography Of A Face Summary

Rick Bragg’s Ava’s Man, published in 2001, is a work of creative nonfiction that centers around Charlie Bundrum, the author’s maternal grandfather. Although Bragg’s grandfather died before Bragg was born, the book is inspired by the innumerous stories, anecdotes, and memories of Charlie that the author heard from the people that knew and loved him. Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is known for his nonfiction works that center on family in the Alabama region. Ava’s... Read Ava's Man Summary

A Woman in Berlin is a memoir first published in 1954. The memoir documents the experiences of a German woman as the Russian Army invades Berlin at the end of the Second World War. The book remained unpublished in German until 1959; until 2003, the identity of the author remained a mystery. Originally, the book was published as the work of an anonymous woman, but the author was eventually revealed to be journalist Marta Hillers... Read A Woman in Berlin Summary