A good story is a good story, and sometimes I need to take a break from YA or Romance and sink my teeth into a juicy memoir. The last memoir I read was Girl in a Band about a month ago, and I’m itching to read more. And strangely, the memoirs I’m attracted to currently are either medical or humorous in nature.
Funny Medicine: Memoirs on my radar:
Medical Memoirs:
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year by Matt McCarthy – I am binge watching Grey’s Anatomy with my teen and am all about the medicine at the moment. I’m sure this book about a first-year intern’s experiences will give me some perspective about what real doctor’s actually go through.
The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital by Alexandra Robbins – This book focuses on four different ER nurses: the veteran, the recovering addict, the protective mama bear, and the newbie. This sounds like Mean Girls, Nurse Jackie, and Grey’s Anatomy all rolled into one!
Girl in the Dark by Anna Lyndsey – I’m intrigued by this memoir about a woman whose light-sensitivity disorder forces her to live in darkness. She turns to audiobooks and word games to cope. And through it all she has her boyfriend by her side, though she worries she’s a burden to him. Sounds like a fascinating read. My own terrible eyesight makes me imagine such a future- good thing I already like audiobooks.
Humorous Memoirs:
Unabrow: Misadventures of a Late Bloomer by Una LaMarche – I’m familiar with this author from her YA book Like No Other. But apparently she has another life as a humorous essayist! Unabrow is about awkward adolescence, and life as a new parent. I can already tell I’m going to be best friends with this book.
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson – Lawson’s first book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was a breath of fresh air that I couldn’t stop laughing with or talking about. Lawson is open about her mental health experiences in Let’s Pretend and expands on that more in Furiously Happy. I’m only unhappy that we have to wait until Sept. 22 to read this one.
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling – I am a total Mindy Kaling fangirl and Mindy Project addict (#RenewMindy) so of course I’m eager to read this new collection of comedic essays. While I’m waiting for Sept. 29 I can always reread Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me.
What are your favorite memoirs and which ones are you looking forward to reading?
I like a good memoir every once in a while too. I’ll be reading Out from the Underworld by Heather Siegel next month.
Sounds like a good one, Laura. Thanks for the tip!
I love memoirs and have wanted to get my hands on Unabrow for a while. I love the new look of your blog!
Thanks so much, Kathy! I ordered a copy of Unabrow – couldn’t resist! It sounds so fun.
Ooh there is a new Mindy Kaling book? Good to know! I generally go for humorous when I do memoir, but your pics are really intriguing. Esp that light sensitivity one. That would suck and I am interested to learn how she copes.
Like you, I can’t resist a good humorous memoir. And I’m so glad Mindy has a new book coming out! Girl in the Dark should be a fascinating read – I might have to listen to that one.
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is not one I’ve read yet – so I’d have to start there with JL. The Nurses also sounds like a lot of fun and something I could ‘gift’ to one or two of my friends! RE Grey’s Anatomy the early seasons were amazing!! Great list honey, I’m certain I’ll be referring back to it this summer!