The Best Memoirs of 2023 (So Far)

Well before Terry McDonnell edited Sports Illustrated or Esquire, he was Irma’s son. He traces the way that each step of his life, which he also explored in his earlier memoir The Accidental Life, was shaped by the strength of his mother, a young World War II widow who raised him alone in California. In looking back at clashes with a violent stepfather, an unexpected pregnancy, his early years in journalism, and divorce, McDonnell gains a new understanding of just how much Irma gave him.

Pageboy is generating headlines but there’s so much more to it. (Not that the Hollywood intel isn’t appreciated.) Since coming out in 2020, Page has been one of the few high profile people speaking about life as a trans man. After over 15 years in the spotlight, Page excavates his memories to introduce himself properly for the first time.

In both celebrity gossip and her star-making role on Friday Night Lights, Kelly has always been the girlfriend. Tell Me Everything gives her the microphone and makes us regret not fully knowing her before. Kelly’s early years were defined by tumult. Her single mother worked as a stripper and led a chaotic life that found them in countless precarious living situations. In a childhood devoid of security, Kelly searched for ways to cope and speaks honestly now about everything from an on-set romance to the pain of pregnancy loss. Tell Me Everything is a gorgeous debut that transcends the celebrity category.

In healing from a very painful breakup, Felix, a celebrated poet and political speechwriter, revisits her experiences with abuse, learning difficulties, and mental health crises through the heartbreaking process of learning how to untangle the threads of pain accrued throughout life. Dyscalculia brilliantly explores the way we understand and deal with pain and how we rate heartbreak on a hierarchy of grief.

It’s uniquely difficult to explain the maddening frustration and alienation of stuttering and Hendrickson does it beautifully. The stutter he has dealt with since childhood has become an accepted part of his life and his career in journalism. It’s one that enabled him to connect on a deep level with Joe Biden in a 2020 Atlantic piece that marked one of the few times the President has spoken about the way his stutter impacts him as an adult. Life on Delay has powerful resonance for anyone who has ever stuttered and offers others an insight into a remarkably common but under discussed phenomenon.

Growing up in the Philippines, Rocero found national fame in the world of beauty pageants. Relocating to the U.S. as a teen meant starting over, building a career as a model while hiding the fact that she was trans. Rocero forged a path for herself where one hadn’t previously existed and in Horse Barbie gives us such a warm and relatable story of strength and spirit.

There’s so much we never knew about Anderson and Love, Pamela provides a deep look into a woman who is much smarter, kinder, and more creative than she’s ever been given credit for. Those who have followed her for years will love seeing her full story told for the first time while others will benefit from understanding the way the media misrepresented her.

Those who recognize Saint John as a superstar executive at Netflix, Apple Music, and PepsiCo will be amazed by the level of candor and emotion she brings to her very personal story. While she was building a career as one of the most prominent Black women in business, Saint John quietly dealt with the loss of a child, a separation from her husband, and his death from cancer. Her ability to persevere is incredible and The Urgent Life is a heartbreaking example of how much invisible grief those around us can be carrying.

We know addiction defines class but do we really? At the peak of her pill use, Cathcart Robbins, now the host of the podcast The Only One in the Room, was a full-time mom married to an entertainment executive and living a high-end Los Angeles lifestyle. She was also dealing with the challenges of being a Black woman in an exceedingly white world. As a recovery story, Stash is both distinct and universal.

Chin grew up knowing very little about her family’s history or the long path her relatives took from China to New York City. Mott Street came from years of research into her roots that covered the Chinese Exclusion Act and the transcontinental railroad labor and mirrors the history of so many families.

Bringley has had an unusual view into the art world. In 2008 he left his job at The New Yorker to become a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All the Beauty in the World is his account of over a decade spent working at one of world’s most famous institutions filled with his simple appreciation for wondrous things.