For this week, we bring you some of the best Memoirs that will make you cry, laugh, and think at the same time.
The Color of Water by James McBride ****
This memoir is a haunting mediation on race and identity. It is a lyrical valentine to a mother of her black son. Ruth McBride Jordan is a light-skinned woman who is evasive about her ethnicity but steadfast when it comes to her love for her 12 black children.
In this brilliant Memoir, James McBride takes the readers on a journey into his mother’s past and his own heritage. The color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother is James’s Poignant powerful debut where he shows the power of a mother’s love.
Becoming by Michelle Obama *****
Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States, the first African American to serve in that role reflects on her life and how she was raised, her childhood in Chicago, her roots and her family in this powerful memoir.
Michelle Obama, has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of this era. Not only did she help to establish a powerful advocate for women and girls around the world, she stood beside her husband to lead America through some of its most harrowing moments.
The memoir is a reflective coming-of-age story that will inspire women and people of color who are struggling to find themselves in the world.
Men we reaped by Jesmyn Ward *****
Jesmyn Ward lost five men in her life within a span of five years to drugs, suicide, and accidents. Dealing with these losses, she tries to find out the reason behind their deaths only to realize that their deaths were the result of the long history of racism that they lived with. The economic struggles of the black community foster drug addictions and dissolute family relationships.
Meditative and moving, her memoir recounts her childhood and the biographies of the five young Black men in her life who all died within a span of five year.
The Unfinished Memoirs by Mujibur Rahman Sheikh *****
This is the first-ever Autobiography of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, The Father of the Bangladeshi Nation. Fondly remembered as Bangabandhu, his book tells us about the people that played an instrumental role in creating Pakistan and snippets from the last leg of colonization; the political unrest, division of lands based on religion, and violence that aroused from it all.
This book gives a sheer idea, that how the active participation in politics in subcontinent can ruin one’s family life.
Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra *****
Priyanka Chopra Jonas brings us an enthralling odyssey of her life through this memoir. She shared her journey from being a small-town girl to an accomplished confident woman. The memoir brimmed with memories and the role that her family played in carving her life. She shared her struggles, battling loneliness, racism, and depression, and garnished them with her sense of humor.
It is an empowering memoir that talks about how through hard work and self-resilience, one can achieve their dreams and more.
