In the Dream House
Carmen Maria Machado
A memoir about an abusive relationship — except Machado wrote it like a literary Choose Your Own Adventure. Each chapter turns the same story over in the light from a different angle. It’s formally unlike anything else on this list, and it moves fast.
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Vanishing Twins: A Marriage
Leah Dieterich
A memoir about an open marriage told through the lens of vanishing twin syndrome, of all things. Fragmented and quietly piercing, all about how much we ask of the people we love.
First Love: Essays on Friendship
Lilly Dancyger
Essays about female friendship, each one anchored in a real friend of Dancyger's, including the cousin she adored who was murdered at twenty. Grief-streaked and unflinching about how much these loves shape us.
Educated
Tara Westover
Tara Westover was raised off-grid by survivalist parents and taught herself enough to get to Cambridge. An astonishing memoir about the cost of leaving your family to become yourself.