Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Jung Chang
Like Pachinko, Wild Swans is a beautifully written multigenerational saga spanning centuries and countries. Unlike Pachinko, it’s entirely true. Wild Swans charts the lives of three generations of Chinese women: a warlord’s concubine, a high Communist official, and the author herself, a Red Guard, then peasant, and finally student. It’s a memoir so compelling it reads like a novel.
Buy on Bookshop.org ↗If you liked this, try…
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Bill Bryson
Bryson and his hopelessly unfit old friend attempt the Appalachian Trail. I laughed out loud more than once.
Truth & Beauty
Ann Patchett
Patchett's memoir of her fierce, complicated friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy. One of the great books about platonic love.
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer
Krakauer's firsthand account of the 1996 Everest disaster he survived. I could not put it down and felt cold the whole time.