Popular North American Memoir Books
Find memoir books written by authors from North America for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (56)
31.
Notes on a Foreign Country by Sally Hansen EN
Country: North America / 
United States of America
United States of America
Description:
'Deeply honest and brave . . . A sincere and intelligent act of self-questioning . . . Hansen is doing something both rare and necessary' - Hisham Matar, New York Times In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen was enjoying success as a journalist for a New York newspaper. Increasingly, though, the disconnect between the chaos of world events and the response at home took on pressing urgency for her. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul. Hansen arrived in Istanbul with romantic ideas about a ... continue
32.
On The Plain of Snakes by Paul Theroux EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
WINNER OF THE EDWARD STANFORD AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO TRAVEL WRITING 2020 The master of contemporary travel writing, Paul Theroux, immerses himself in the beautiful and troubled heart of modern Mexico Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A forty-foot steel fence runs through its centre, separating the prosperous US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension, now more than ever, as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and brought back. And it is here that Pau... continue
33.
París era una fiesta by Ernest Hemingway ES
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Leí el inolvidable "París era una fiesta" varias veces, siempre con el mismo interés. Es un testimonio donde este genial escritor plasmó su fe inquebrantable en los hombres que tienen el valor para no claudicar. Los que, en medio de la pobreza y el frío de los inviernos sis calefacción, siguieron escribiendo y viviendo intensamente, dando un lugar a la creación por sobre todas las cosas.
Un testimonio de aquel París que yo conocí como científico del Institut Curie, y que ya no conoceremos más.
-Ernesto Sab... continue
34.
Rocks in the Water, Rocks in the Sun : A Memoir from the Heart of Haiti by Vilmond Joegodson Déralciné, Paul Jackson EN
Country: North America / 
Haiti
Haiti
Description:
When Joegodson Déralciné was still a small child, his parents left rural Haiti to resettle in the rapidly growing zones of Port-au-Prince. As his family entered the city in 1986, Duvalier and his dictatorship exited. Haitians, once terrorized under Duvalier’s reign, were liberated and emboldened to believe that they could take control of their lives. But how? Joining hundreds of thousands of other peasants trying to adjust to urban life, Joegodson and his family sought work and a means of survival. But all they found was low-waged assembly plant jobs of the sort to which the repressive Duvalie... continue
35.
Run Towards the Danger : Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley EN
Country: North America / 
Canada
Canada
Description:
*A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice* These are the most dangerous stories of my life. The ones I have avoided, the ones I haven’t told, the ones that have kept me awake on countless nights. As these stories found echoes in my adult life, and then went another, better way than they did in childhood, they became lighter and easier to carry. In this extraordinary book, Sarah Polley explores what it is to live in one’s body, in a constant state of becoming, learning, and changing. Each of these six essays captures a piece of Polley’s life as she remembers it, while at the same time exami... continue
36.
Country: North America / 
El Salvador
El Salvador
Description:
New York Times Bestseller • Read With Jenna Book Club Pick as seen on Today • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography • Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award A young poet tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this “gripping memoir” (NPR) of bravery, hope, and finding family. Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • One of the New York Public Library’s Ten Best Books of the Year Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the PEN/Open B... continue
37.
Solito (Spanish Edition) by Javier Zamora ES
Country: North America / El Salvador
El Salvador
Description:
RECOMENDADO POR JENNA BUSH EN SU CLUB DE LECTURA DEL TODAY SHOW «En esta conmovedora autobiografía que no podrás soltar, un joven poeta relata la inolvidable historia de su desgarradora migración hacia Estados Unidos desde El Salvador a los nueve años, considerada 'el viaje mítico de nuestra era'.» —Sandra Cisneros Viaje. Mis padres empezaron a usar esa palabra hace más o menos un año: “un día vas a hacer un viaje para estar con nosotros. Como una aventura”. La aventura de Javier es una travesía de tres mil millas desde su pequeño pueblo en El Salvador, a través de Guatemala y México, hacia la... continue
38.
Stay True : A Memoir by Hua Hsu EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
From the New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art. “This book is exquisite and excruciating and I will be thinking about it for years and years to come.” —Rachel Kushner, two-time National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family... continue
39.
Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend : Notes from the Other Side of the Fist Bump by Ben Philippe EN
Country: North America / Haiti
Haiti
Description:
In the vein of 'What Doesnt Kill You Makes You Blacker' and 'We Are Never Meeting in Real Life', Ben Philippes candid memoir-in-essays chronicles a lifetime of being the Black friend (see also: foreign kid, boyfriend, coworker, student, teacher, roommate, enemy) in predominantly white spaces.
40.
Tell Me how it Ends : An Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli EN
Country: North America / 
Mexico
Mexico
Description:
A damning confrontation between the American dream and the reality of undocumented children seeking a new life in the US.