Memoirs: Probably one of the more underrated genres. I used to think memoirs were boring, but as it turns out, memoirs can often times be even more exciting and interesting in comparison to mainstream fiction novels. This is because memoirs can be just as crazy and unbelievable as any fiction, but the difference is, it actually happened to someone. Take a look at these 7 memoirs that are so wild you're going to want to read them ASAP.
1. The Kiss by Kathryn Harrison
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfbG-EHApy-/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
I am an advocate for reading things that make me uncomfortable, and seeing how this memoir did exactly that, it's going to be at the top of this list. Harrison details in this memoir her sexual relationship with her biological father after being disconnected from him for the majority of her childhood and adolescence. Although at first glance this book may seem to be just about sex, the underlying issue that Harrison makes clear is that there is an even bigger disconnect between her and her mother.
2. Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir by Lauren Slater
https://www.instagram.com/p/BShDYVWDowZ/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Slater writes about her epilepsy and her dysfunctional family, and the most interesting aspect about this memoir is that it addresses the blur between fact and fiction. Readers must decide for themselves if Slater is telling the truth or not, and the question of if her epilepsy is actually real is brought up multiple times. In the end, readers will wonder if the memoir is true, or, if Slater fabricated her epilepsy as a child as a way to connect with her mother.
3. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoZeqA8i9b6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
I just absolutely adore Carrie Fisher, and since this is one of the things that will carry on her legacy, it deserves a spot on this list. Fisher's humor comes alive in her memoir as she details her beginnings as an actress on "Star Wars" and even includes diary entries that she had during the 70's and 80's. If you're not into that, you might be interested in all the parts where she describes her affair with Harrison Ford, who at the time was married with children.
4. Educated by Tara Westover
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmcpq09FhK9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Imagine being 17-years-old and having no knowledge about what the Holocaust is and having a reading level of a fifth grader.
Westover narrates growing up in an extremist Mormon family in Idaho from the 90's to the early 2000's. She details how they were not allowed to attend public school because her father believed it to be a part of the Illuminati, how they never saw a doctor or a hospital because their father distrusted medical professionals and believed prescription drugs to be poison so they treated everything with herbalism, and among other things they avoided to not be subject to God's wrath. Westover, at the age of 17, decides to get out of this isolated family and secretly studies to pass an ACT exam and leaves to attend BYU, then eventually Cambridge, and Harvard.
If you need a reason to read this other than me just telling you to, Barack Obama posted on his Facebook page a few weeks ago that he was reading it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
5. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Rein
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlEtOEQFnj2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
After getting lost hiking the mountain K2, Mortenson is greeted by a village that he soon realizes has no school. This incredible memoir then describes Mortenson's transition from an RN to a humanitarian dedicated to reducing poverty and increasing education for young girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mortenson describes how he co-founded the Central Asia Institute, a non-profit group that has built hundreds of schools and has provided education for children in these countries.
6. Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB3MbOnNR2X/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
We hopefully all know who Michael J. Fox is, whose rise to stardom occurred in the 80's in huge movies and T.V. shows such as "Back to the Future" and "Family Ties". However, in 1998, Fox shocked the world when he announced that for the past seven years he had been struggling with Parkinson's Disease at the age of thirty. Parkinson's, a neurological condition, normally affects people in their fifties and sixties, and Fox details how this disease has affected him since the diagnosis and his mission to find a cure.
7. Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXCN7Kilk89/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Surprisingly (or maybe not so) it's almost nothing like the television series that was adapted to Netflix a few years ago. This memoir tells the story of Kerman's money laundering and drug trafficking that landed her in prison shortly after college graduation. Although a lot of aspects are dramatized in the show, there are still some events and characters that you may recognize in this book.
