The Best Biographies and Memoirs of May

Life After Darkness: Finding Healing and Happiness After the Cleveland Kidnappings, by Michelle Knight
In 2013, Knight (now Lily Rose Lee) was freed, along with two others, after a decade of captivity in the Cleveland home of kidnapper Ariel Castro. On the fifth anniversary of her rescue, she reflects on her experiences and on the road to healing the wounds she suffered: mental, spiritual, and physical. It’s not the darkness she’s focused on, but her journey into the light.

The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, by John McCain and Mark Salter
This isn’t John McCain’s first memoir with Salter (his Faith of My Fathers was a bestseller almost 20 years ago), but it is the first written in the shadow of his brain cancer diagnosis last year. In the new book, he discusses his senatorial career over the last several decades, his 2008 run for the White House, and his work in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He speaks with candor about the current state of affairs in America—and particularly his feelings about the current president—while looking to the future and sharing a positive vision for the country.

Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces, by Michael Chabon
Inspired by a popular 2016 GQ article about accompanying his 13-year-old son Abraham to Paris for Men’s Fashion Week, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist Chabon has written a series of essays about fatherhood. In the GQ excerpt, he describes being both bored to tears and dramatically inspired by his son’s passion for the fashion on display. With the trademark style and richnesses of imagery, Chabon discusses the mysteries, joys, and contradictions of fatherhood.

I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons, by Kevin Hart with Neil Strauss
Kevin Hart has achieved a level of popularity and fame (he’s among the top grossing comedians worldwide) that make a memoir a no-brainer, but he’s also got a compelling life story that began with a troubled childhood in Philadelphia. He’s also genuinely funny, and his autobiography (now in paperback) is as compelling as it is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

The Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers, by Marcia Gay Harden
In this unconventional memoir, the actress tells her own life story in parallel with that of her mother. Beverly became enamored with ikebana, the art of flower arranging, while the family lived in Japan during the Vietnam War, an interest later pursued by Marcia. Over the last several years, the author has had to come to grips with her mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, a struggle that frames this poignant, funny, and heartfelt memoir.

So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know, by Retta
Parks and Rec star Retta threw her Liberian parents for a loop when she skipped medical school in favor of moving to Hollywood in search of sitcom fame and fortune. Though she didn’t find it right away, her career has only been on the rise in recent years. In her new essay collection, she tells a series of often hilarious anecdotes about life as a wealthy, successful woman who knows how precarious fame can be.

The Pact: A UFC Champion, a Boy with Cancer, and Their Promise to Win the Ultimate Battle, by Cody Garbrandt with Mark Dagostino
When he was 20, Cody Garbrandt formed a unique bond with 5-year-old Maddux Maple. The young boy was dying of leukemia, while Cody was intent on pursuing his dream of rising to the top in Mixed Martial Arts. The two made a pact to pursue their dreams: recovery for the kid, and the world championship for Cody. Five years later, Maddux was in remission and Cody had claimed the UFC title. Here, the champ himself tells their story.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J. D. Vance
Vance has accomplished something extraordinary with this complex and insightful memoir (now in paperback) in which he discusses his own family history, going deep below the surface to uncover truths that speak to the state of American culture in the 21st century. Vance tells a story of upward mobility and of the grandparents who left extreme poverty in Kentucky’s Appalachia to build a middle-class family. On the surface, it’s a triumphal tale of one generation doing better than the last, but Vance digs deeper to examine the legacies of poverty and want, including abuse and alcoholism, and the ways in which the family has never truly escaped its past.

Papi: My Story, by David Ortiz and Michael Holley
Barely six months into retirement, Ortiz tells the story of a long career in baseball that culminated in a 14-year run with the Boston Red Sox that saw the storied franchise go from perpetual losers to a one of the winningest teams in MLB. For Sox fans, and baseball lovers in general, he brings an insider’s view of the modern history of the sport, and shares a frank assessment of his rough and poor childhood in the Dominican Republic and his life leading to his 2008 American citizenship.

Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom, by Thomas E. Ricks
Two of the 20th Century’s towering figures, in Britain and in the world at large, Churchill and Orwell had wildly different ideas about how to approach the great challenges of their age. They never met, but Ricks places the lives and work of the two side-by-side and finds as many commonalities as differences: Orwell’s commitment to social justice and democratic socialism was at odds with Churchill’s more conservative views, but the two shared an absolute opposition to totalitarianism and strong senses of tradition. By bringing together two men who never interacted in life, Ricks paints a vivid picture of their time.
Whose story inspires you?