A House in the Sky
Amanda Lindhout
Amanda Lindhout's memoir of being kidnapped and held for more than a year in Somalia. Harrowing, and the resilience stays with you.
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Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner
Zauner — the musician behind Japanese Breakfast — wrote this memoir after losing her Korean mother to cancer. It’s about grief, yes, but mostly it’s about food as love language, and what happens when the person who fed you is gone. Multiple friends have finished it in a single sitting, then called their mothers. You will too.
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Andre Agassi
The best sports memoir I've read. Agassi opens with 'I hate tennis' and it only gets more gripping from there.
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
Ruth Reichl
Reichl reviewing New York restaurants in elaborate disguises so no one would recognize the critic. The food writing alone will make you starving.