The Thread's Must-Read
Three 2017 memoirs you shouldn't missBuy these books
I read a lot of memoirs this year with genuinely powerful voices, but I’ve narrowed my end-of-the-year recommendations to three: One about a marriage, one about a mother and one about a family in mourning.
"Kadian Journal" by Thomas Harding
“I know he is gone. I know he is dead. I know that I have lost my son.” Thomas Harding’s memoir about the death of his 14-year-old son in a bicycling accident manages to be deeply moving, yet spare on the sentimentality that characterizes too many memoirs about grief.
He writes of his sense memories — the unique scent of his boy as a toddler, the feel of his son’s growing frame in a quick hug — and worries the book he’s written can never do Kadian justice. But it does. Listen to the interview.
"You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me" by Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie's memoir also comes from mourning, but his grief is complicated by his volatile relationship with his late mother, Lillian Alexie. She was a cruel and beautiful liar, a woman who scarred her children emotionally — and sometimes physically — with an icy dispassion. “She protected me against cruelty,” he writes. “Three days a week.” Listen to the interview.
"Hourglass" by Dani Shapiro
I’ve thought often of the words Dani Shapiro wrote about the longevity of her marriage: “We are delicate,” she says. “We are beautiful. We are not new. We must be handled with care.” Her memoir investigates what it means to begin a marriage with the kind of reckless optimism many long partnerships have, to ford the disappointments and triumphs, and to arrive a bit battered but deeply bonded. “I hold my life with M. carefully in my hands like the faience pottery we brought back from our honeymoon long ago.” Listen to the interview.
-Kerri Miller
The best fiction of 2017 Murder mysteries, family secrets and the end of the world — the best fiction of 2017 features dark tales and moments of surprise.
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The best nonfiction of 2017 Sharks, war and beloved Schwinn bikes make appearances in our favorite nonfiction reads of the year.
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