Six Bossy Favorite Memoir Reads of the Past Year

The Bossy Bookworm
6 minutes ago
7 min read

Six Favorite Memoir Reads

These were my six favorite memoir reads from last year.

If you like to read memoirs, you might also like to check out some of my Bossy memoir reviews, or some of my Greedy Reading Lists of favorites:

If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite memoir reads?

01 Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher

Cher's lack of agency in her relationship with Sonny Bono came through in passive, reactive behavior, but as she grew older, she found her voice, rode a roller coaster of personal and professional adventures, overcame difficulties, and set her sights on an even bigger, more fulfilling life than ever. I'm alllll in for book two.

Early on, the memoir felt like more of a factual account of what occurred in her life than it felt like illuminating self-examination. I was curious to find out if Cher would provide more reflection around events as she grew older and more emotionally mature within her own story.

Her relationship with Sonny Bono (eleven years older) began when she was a teenager, and his control over her professional and personal life grew stronger and stronger without Cher's recognizing her limitations, her lack of knowledge about finances and business, and her squashed self-esteem about her performance ability.

As she recounts the ups and downs of her early relationships and rides the roller coaster of success and failure, Cher begins to want to express her own voice and to become assertive, and this is when she starts to show more vulnerability and growth--and when I felt drawn into her story.

This is part one of two, and toward the end of this installment she has made her way through the nurturing link with David Geffen, her complicated relationship with Gregg Allman, as well as her connection to her children, her career, and her creativity. She has her eye on diving into becoming a serious actress. And I am hooked.

Please click here for my full review of Cher: The Memoir.

02 Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Gagne never experienced emotions the way other kids did, and when she grew older, while acting out, lying, stealing, and fighting violent impulses, she self-diagnosed herself as a sociopath. This is a fascinating peek at her motivations, impulses, discoveries, and self-discovered coping mechanisms--which she now uses as a therapist for others with sociopathy.

I don’t care what other people think. I’m not interested in morals. I’m not interested, period. Rules do not factor into my decision-making. I’m capable of almost anything.

Patric Gagne always knew she didn't experience emotions the way other people did. She wasn't concerned with consequences, danger, or other people's feelings. When she was a girl, she adhered to her mother's rule of always telling her the truth--but the truth seemingly made her mother (and everyone else) upset. So she began to keep secrets--because she was stealing loved ones' treasured possessions, breaking into homes, lying, and frequently fighting the urge to inflict violent harm on others.

I was fascinated by the author's in-depth explorations of her motivations, triggers, abilities, needs, and fight for control. Her self-examination leads her to shape her life's work toward helping those who share her experiences and struggles. The memoir is structured with the engaging pacing of a novel--danger, discovery, redemption, and hope.

I was intrigued by her one-woman trial and error method of determining her triggers, impulses, and coping mechanisms.

The epilogue offers additional context for her current-day life and adds to my curiosity about her husband, who has lived beside her and within this whirlwind for many years as she has acted out, lied, and entered into danger, and who is now parenting along with Gagne.

For my full review, please see Sociopath.

03 Awake by Jen Hatmaker

Jen Hatmaker's memoir explores her shock, grief, then growth after the end of her marriage, which she tells in her signature bold, frank, lionhearted manner while always displaying her deep love for her family and friends.

Jen Hatmaker, who was married before she could legally have a drink and who built her identity as a woman dedicated to her family, her religion, and her community, found her world turned upside down when she discovered in 2020 that her husband of over 25 years, the father of their five children, was having an affair.

Hatmaker's frank, sassy, conversational tone and her focus on authenticity, joy, and enthusiastic growth are evident here. She doesn't shy away from exploring heartbreak, betrayal, and shock, nor does she mine those experiences for drama or sit in them for a gratuitously long time. She protects her children's privacy. While sharing what she learns was her husband's extended infidelity and her world-stopping surprise at discovering it, she doesn't excoriate him, and she acknowledges the weaknesses in their marriage that existed prior to their split.

I love reading the stories of lives lived, so I frequently read memoirs. If you're interested in the stories of famous or little-known people's lives, you might want to check out these Bossy reviews of memoirs.

For my full review, please check out Awake.

04 Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks

Memorial Days is Geraldine Brooks's memoir of sudden loss, delayed grief, and a delving into sorrow so she can move forward with her life.

Brooks's husband Tony Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and acclaimed author, father to her two sons, and her best friend, was on a book tour when he collapsed on a D.C. street in 2019 and died at age 60. Brooks and Horwitz himself had believed him to be in good health, and Brooks was beyond shocked at the news. But an endless logistical to-do list following his death kept her busy and delayed her grieving.

Three years after his death, she traveled to a remote Australian island--where she had once considered settling down--to sit with Tony's journals, dive into her memories, rage against what she's lost, and give in to sorrow.

This is poignant and heartbreakingly lovely; Brooks brings the reader through the joy of not suspecting tragedy lies around the corner, to shock and endless logistics, to anger, sadness, confusion, and desperation, then, in her journey and in her deliberate way of taking time, to a more peaceful acceptance accompanying her deep loss.

I listened to Brooks's lovely Australian accent by reading this as an audiobook. For my full review, please check out Memorial Days.

Geraldine Brooks is also the author of the novels People of the Book, Horse, Year of Wonders, and others.

If you're interested in books about mortality and loss, check out the titles here.

05 What in the World?! by Leanne Morgan

Comedian Leanne Morgan's memoir traces her path from an attention-seeking, beloved young girl to a young adult facing missteps and disappointment, through her unlikely journey to stand-up, to the embracing of her Southern mama persona and her wild success.

Leanne Morgan hit it big as a middle-aged comic from rural Tennessee talking about her kids' T-ball, her adoration of her grandchildren, and her big, comfortable panties.

Her voice is a striking, uniquely nasal Southern drawl, and her Netflix special "I'm Every Woman" features Morgan's signature plaintive looks at the audience, accompanying stories that sometimes end in such mock-despair that she says she just "wanted to take to the bed." (She also steals the show in a supporting role in the recent movie starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, You're Cordially Invited.)

What in the World?! offers current-day takes on her life that will feel familiar to fans--I'd already seen online video clips of stand-up versions of a few of the anecdotes shared here. But her memoir also traces her youth (when she imagined that she would find fame in some way), her first, brief marriage, her emotional growth, her grit, and, ultimately, her second, steady relationship and marriage to her current husband, the birth and joy of her kids, her rocky start in entertainment--and the world-rocking entrance of her grandbabies.

I was particularly intrigued by the fits and starts of Morgan's younger years, her struggles to find her way, and her unlikely path to fame. I love to hear people's stories, and I found all of this endearing.

I listened to What in the World?! as an audiobook.

06 This American Woman: A One-in-a-Billion Memoir by Zarna Garg

Comedian Zarna Garg lived several lives before falling into comedy in midlife and realizing it was where she'd belonged all along. Her memoir is candid, poignant, funny, and always entertaining. I loved this peek into her fascinating life.

Zarna Garg fled her comfortable lifestyle and her widower father to avoid an unwanted arranged marriage at age 14. She begged places to stay from friends and acquaintances in Mumbai, homeless. Desperate for food and shelter and tired of overstaying her welcome and never having security, she was returning home and on the verge of agreeing to be married off, until her long-hoped-for visa to the US came through. Instead of becoming a child bride, she ran from home and began a dramatically different new life in Akron, Ohio. In midlife, she reimagined her future again and became a hard-working comedian who opened for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and then warranted her own headliner spots.

Garg offers an honest, funny account of overcoming sobering challenges and determining her own destiny after years of struggles and constant worries about being a burden on those who might help her. Her intense push to achieve is accompanied by doubt, periods of low self-esteem, and feelings of unworthiness that stem from her childhood.

At the very beginning the pacing felt a little uneven to me, but then Garg hit her stride. I laughed out loud repeatedly while I was reading this charming memoir by this strong, funny woman.

Please click here for my full review of This American Woman.