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Recommendations based on Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of a Young Black Girl in the Rural Southby Anne Moody
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
Autobiographical account of a Black woman's journey to find her identity in a prejudiced society.
Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters. Here is a book as ... (Goodreads)
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
by Tony Horwitz
Investigative report into the legacy of the American Civil War and its lingering presence in modern culture.
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But ... (Goodreads)
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
by Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Exploration of the hybrid identity of Chicana women, navigating between two cultures.
Anzaldua, a Chicana native of Texas, explores in prose and poetry the murky, precarious existence of those living on the frontier between cultures and languages. Writing in a lyrical mixture of ... (Goodreads)
John Adams
by David McCullough
Biography of the second President of the United States and his contributions to the founding of the nation.
The enthralling, often surprising story of John Adams, one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived. In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous ... (Goodreads)
Hidden Figures
by Margot Lee Shetterly
The untold story of the African-American women who made invaluable contributions to NASA's space program in the 1960s.
The #1 New York Times Bestseller. Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space ... (Goodreads)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Ann Jacobs
A harrowing account of a young woman's experiences as a slave in the American South.
The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. ... (Goodreads)
Survival in Auschwitz
by Primo Levi
True story of a man's struggle to survive in a Nazi concentration camp.
The true and harrowing account of Primo Levi’s experience at the German concentration camp of Auschwitz and his miraculous survival; hailed by The Times Literary Supplement as a “true work of art, ... (Goodreads)
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A letter to his son, exploring the realities of racism in America.
“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American ... (Goodreads)
The Feminine Mystique
by Betty Friedan
A groundbreaking exploration of the dissatisfaction felt by women in the 1950s and beyond.
Landmark, groundbreaking, classic—these adjectives barely do justice to the pioneering vision and lasting impact of The Feminine Mystique . Published in 1963, it gave a pitch-perfect description of ... (Goodreads)
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
by Caroline Fraser
Biography of pioneering author and her family's hardships, successes, and spirit.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD,WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION,ONE OF THE, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW,'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF ... (Barnes & Noble)
Heart Berries
by Terese Marie Mailhot
A memoir of a First Nations woman's journey through trauma, mental illness, and healing. Raw, poetic, and unflinching.
Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to ... (Goodreads)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
by David Sedaris
A humorous collection of autobiographical essays reflecting on family relationships.
David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother’s wedding. He mops his sister’s floor. He gives directions ... (Goodreads)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander
Exploring the roots and reality of systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system.
"Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting ... (Goodreads)
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
by Deborah Feldman
A woman's journey of liberation, leaving behind the oppressive confines of her Hasidic community.
The instant New York Times bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman’s escape from a religious sect, in the tradition of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel and Carolyn Jessop’s Escape , featuring a new ... (Goodreads)
Women, Race & Class
by Angela Y. Davis
Examining the intersections of women's liberation, civil rights, and class struggle in the United States.
From one of our most important scholars and civil rights activist icon, a powerful study of the women’s liberation movement and the tangled knot of oppression facing Black women.,"Angela Davis is ... (Goodreads)
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
by Alison Bechdel
An autobiographical story of a daughter's complex relationship with her father and her own journey of self-discovery.
The narrative of Fun Home is non-linear and recursive. , Incidents are told and re-told in the light of new information or themes. , Bechdel describes the structure of Fun Home as a labyrinth , ... (Wikipedia)
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser
An exploration of the industrial food system and its effects on U.S. society.
Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list ... (Goodreads)
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Examines the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during WWII and their impact on the nation.
Winner of the Pulitzer for History, No Ordinary Time is a chronicle of one of the most vibrant & revolutionary periods in US history. With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin weaves ... (Goodreads)
Black Boy
by Richard Wright
Autobiographical account of a young black man's struggle against racism and oppression.
A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson. When it ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
by Alison Weir
A historical account of the tumultuous lives of Henry VIII's six wives, their political and religious struggles.
The tempestuous, bloody, and splendid reign of Henry VIII of England (1509-1547) is one of the most fascinating in all history, not least for his marriage to six extraordinary women. In this ... (Goodreads)
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
by Marjane Satrapi
Autobiographical account of a young girl's experience of the Iranian Revolution.
Note: The summary of the English editions of the novel is divided into two sections, one for each book. Persepolis 1 begins by introducing Marji, the ten-year-old protagonist. Set in 1980, the novel ... (Wikipedia)
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
by Legs McNeil
An exploration of the punk rock movement through interviews with its pioneers and participants.
A, Time Out, and, Daily News, Top Ten Book of the Year upon its initial release,, Please Kill Me, is the first oral history of the most nihilist of all pop movements. Iggy Pop, Danny Fields, Dee Dee ... (Goodreads)
Dry
by Augusten Burroughs
A memoir of alcoholism, mental illness, and the search for redemption.
You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. ... (Goodreads)
The Souls of Black Folk
by W.E.B. Du Bois
An exploration of the African-American experience and the struggle for racial equality.
This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century black ... (Goodreads)
The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom
by Corrie ten Boom
A remarkable testament to faith and courage in the face of unfathomable odds and unspeakable horrors.
The book begins with the ten Boom family celebrating the 100th anniversary of the family business; they sell and repair watches under the family's elderly father, Casper ten Boom . The business takes ... (Wikipedia)
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
by Pema Chödrön
A guide to finding peace and strength in times of chaos and uncertainty, using Buddhist teachings and personal anecdotes.
Pema Chödrön's perennially best-selling classic on overcoming life's difficulties cuts to the heart of spirituality and personal growth—now in a newly designed 20th-anniversary edition with a new ... (Barnes & Noble)
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
by Immaculée Ilibagiza
True story of a woman's faith and resilience in the face of the Rwandan genocide.
Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family ... (Goodreads)
Hiroshima
by John Hersey
Tragic account of the devastating atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atom bomb ever dropped on a city. This book, John Hersey's journalistic masterpiece, tells what happened on that day. Told through the memories ... (Goodreads)
Girl, Interrupted
by Susanna Kaysen
A memoir of a woman's struggle with mental illness, her fight for survival, and her journey of self-discovery.
In April 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to McLean Hospital , in Belmont, Massachusetts , after attempting suicide by overdosing on pills. She denies that it was a suicide attempt to a ... (Wikipedia)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass
Memoir of a former slave's journey to freedom and his struggle for human rights.
Born a slave circa1818 (slaves weren't told when they were born) on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published ... (Goodreads)
