5 memoir picks from WarnerMachado:

“In the Dream House” by Carmen Maria

Experimental, haunting and important — a book that teaches so much about the freedom writers have when it comes to self-expression and also about the horrors of domestic abuse.

“Finding Venerable

Mother: A Daughter’s Spiritual Quest to Thailand” by Cindy Rasicot: In this book (from She Writes Press), the author journeys to forgiveness through her teacher, Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, whose lessons in Buddhism and love support author and reader alike.

“Children of the Land” by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo: A gorgeously rendered, poetic memoir about the push and pull of being between two lands and of the unsteady, uncertain lived experience of growing up undocumented.

“Recollections of My Nonexistence” Rebecca Solnit: A memoir of 1980s San Francisco and how Solnit became who she is today — one of the strongest feminist voices of our times.

“Heavy” by Kiese Laymon: I love “Heavy” for how it unpacks the multiple layers of heaviness. The way the story is told to his mother makes it one of the most intimate stories I’ve read in a long time.