Memoirs like Maid, The Glass Castle, Educated

[Anonymous]

OP here. Great suggestions! I did read Nickel and Dimed so any more books similar to that (I love watching documentaries too).

[Anonymous]

The Sound of Gravel is an excellent (yet heart wrenching) memoir.

I also loved:
The Ugly Cry (funny and heart breaking)
Hunger (Roxane Gay is an incredible writer)
Somebody's Daughter

A little less dramatic but still great was Molly Shannon's memoir. Also Trevor Noah's (but do the audiobook if you can because he does the voices of everyone in the book and it's so good).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe nickel and dimed? It’s different because she was a journalist who deliberately embedded herself in a low income life to report on it.

The Glass Castle is one of my favorite books ever and I also really liked Nickeled and Dimed.

[Anonymous]

Non-fiction and a little academic but There Are No Children Here was really good

[Anonymous]

A Well Trained Wife by Tia Levinhs

[Anonymous]

Free Spirit, Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid by Joshua Safran

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Spirit-Growing-Road-Grid/dp/1401324606

[Anonymous]

a little different, but I read memoirs and enjoyed Maid, Nickeled and Dimes, and The glass castle - Hidden Valley Road, The Undocumented Americans, Evicted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of those memoirs, which I also really liked, involve poverty and dysfunctional families. I'd suggest Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found by Jennifer Lauck.

This is a really good book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dry by Mary Carr is wonderful

Also The Liars Club by her is good.

Dry is by Augusten Burroughs who also wrote Running with Scissors among other books. Both are good
Mary Karr wrote the memoirs The Liar’s Club, Cherry and Lit which are all good.

[Anonymous]

Will add to the pile on for Ugly Cry.


Dirtbag, Massachusetts -- Isaac Fitzgerald

With or Without You -- Domenica Ruta

Shooting out the Lights -- Kim Fairley

Punch Me Up to the Gods -- Brian Broome

Somebody's Daughter -- Ashley Ford

Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart. Not as poverty-pornish as some of the others mentioned here (Gary's family were Russian immigrants to NYC), but really hilarious and engaging.

[Anonymous]

It's old but Angela's Ashes is one of my all time favorits (Frank McCourt)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finding Me by Viola Davis

Ditto!

[Anonymous]

I just read “one in a billion” by Zarna Garg and loved it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trevor Noah’s memoir called Born a Crime is fantastic. About growing up mixed race in South Africa under Apartheid. His mother (who was Black) could not be seen with him in public because it was against the law since they were different races. It was hilarious and heartbreaking and very insightful.

+1000
Great book!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's old but Angela's Ashes is one of my all time favorits (Frank McCourt)

The best