37 Great 2021 Memoirs to Add to Your TBR Pile
From Michelle Zauner's 'Crying in H Mart' to Tarana Burke's 'Unbound.'
If you haven't been able to successfully finish a book during the pandemic, good news: There's an exciting batch of memoirs that have been released this year that will give you another chance to feel something. From the late Cicely Tyson's Just as I Am to Michelle Zauner's Crying in H Mart to Tyler Cameron's part memoir/part self-help book You Deserve Better, there's a memoir for everyone, ahead.
The one and only Bevy Smith is here to teach us, through her signature wit and charm, how we can all live our best lives. Available January 12, 2021
Nadia Owusu's gripping memoir takes readers through the unstable childhood, family secrets, and depression that eventually lead to her self-discovery. Available January 12, 2021
Two days before Cicely Tyson passed away, the award-winning actress and activist published her memoir, Just as I Am, which reminisces on the impactful life she lived. Available January 26, 2021
Here, former Nylon Editor-in-Chief Gabrielle Korn shares her career journey in media as a young white lesbian woman and how she navigated the industry's arbitrary definition of success. Available January 26, 2021
In Surviving the White Gaze, cultural critic Rebecca Carroll reflects on her childhood growing up in a white rural New Hampshire town with adopted parents and how she forged her own path as a Black woman in America. Available February 2, 2021
As Priyanka Chopra Jonas told Marie Claire in her spring 2021 cover story, Unfinished is the real her on display. “I call it the in-between-interviews book. I’ve been in so many interviews in my life, but nobody knows what happened in between them,” she says. “I’m not someone who shares my vulnerabilities, my fears. And somehow in the process of writing this book—because it was so cathartic—I happened to go to those places.” Available February 9, 2021
Beauty lovers, rejoice: Jamie Kern Lima, the founder of IT Cosmetics, is here to show you how she built a billion-dollar brand and fought through society's impossible beauty standards along the way. Available February 23, 2021
Beloved novelist Isabel Allende's The Soul of a Woman details her moving coming-of-age story as a lifelong feminist and the work that still needs to be done for future generations. Available March 2, 2021
Jessica Zucker, founder of the #IHadaMiscarriage campaign and the respective @ihadamiscarriage Instagram account, continues to destigmatize the emotional, complex experience for so many women in her memoir, I Had a Miscarriage. Available March 9, 2021
In her candid memoir, Sharon Stone discusses how she rebuilt her life after a stroke that forever altered life as she knew it. Available March 30, 2021
In Perdita Felicien's memoir, My Mother's Daughter, the two-time Olympian recounts what came before all eyes were on her at the 2003 and 2004 Olympics: racism, domestic abuse, homelessness, and a transformative path guided by the love of her mother. Available March 30, 2021
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and In the Heights writer Quiara Alegría Hudes shares her coming-of-age story growing up in North Philly with a powerful circle around her, determined to amplify their stories through her art. Available April 6, 2021
Through a blend of journalism and personal narrative, former CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin explores what happens when women come together and harness their collective power. Available April 6, 2021
Michelle Zauner's New York Times bestselling memoir Crying in H Mart, Marie Claire's May book club pick, will tug at your heartstrings as Zauner details the loss of her mother and how she grapples with her grief and Korean American identity in the aftermath. Available April 20, 2021
Elizabeth Nyamayaro's I Am a Girl from Africa tells the story of the former United Nations senior advisor's inspiring full-circle journey after a UN aid worker saved her life when she was eight years old. Later in her life, she would go on to launch the HeForShe campaign and help bring change across the globe. Available April 20, 2021
Senator Mazie K. Hirono's Heart of Fire documents her life journey from being raised on a farm in rural Japan to becoming the first Asian American woman and only immigrant serving in the U.S. Senate. Available April 20, 2021
In Stronger, Cindy McCain opens up about her 38-year marriage to the late U.S. Senator John McCain and how they built a successful life together. Available April 27, 2021
Attention The Good Wife fans: If you think you know Julianna Margulies, think again. Sunshine Girl illustrates how Margulies's challenging childhood shaped her into the person she is today. Available May 4, 2021
If your weekends consist of devouring the weddings section of The New York Times, Cate Doty's Mergers and Acquisitions needs to be on your TBR list. Here, the former NYT editor takes readers behind the scenes as a weddings announcements writer and what happened when she began to fall in love herself. Available May 4, 2021
After the death of her father in the summer of 2020 due to kidney failure, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares valuable lessons on grief many of us can relate to these days. Available May 11, 2021
In Better, Not Bitter, Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five tells his story about growing up in Harlem in the '80s, being wrongfully convicted, and the lessons he's learned throughout his life about the racist systems we live in and how we can combat them.
The late, great Katherine Johnson shares her inspiring life story working at NASA as a research mathematician and helping land the first man on the moon in the aptly-titled My Remarkable Journey. Available May 25, 2021
Those who have had read Ashley C. Ford's work know they can expect excellent storytelling in her debut memoir, Somebody's Daughter, where she explores her complex childhood and how it's shaped her into the person she is today. Available June 1, 2021
Akwaeke Emezi, author of the critically-acclaimed The Death of Vivek Oji, returns with their debut memoir, Dear Senthuran. As Emezi explains, "As someone who’s been carefully curating their public image for years, it feels almost dangerous to write so honestly, but the final result is a text that I love, one that deeply engages with the metaphysics of Black spirit & singularly faces the Black reader." Available June 8, 2021
Raised by her grandparents in a predominately white community in upstate New York, Danielle Henderson shows readers how the intelligence, wit, and sass she embodied under unconventional circumstances has guided her to become the strong Black woman she is today. Available June 8, 2021
Ursula Burns, the first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, looks back on her life and shares valuable career lessons she's learned about corporate America while working her way up the ladder. Available June 15, 2021
Yogis will be familiar with Jessamyn Stanley and her first book, Every Body Yoga. Through a series of charming and thoughtful autobiographical essays, Yoke ultimately explains why Stanley practices yoga in the first place. "I’m scared of showing my belly to the world but I’ve walked too close to the edge of the diving board to not jump off now," Stanley says, referring to her second book. "It’s actually more like being pushed off. And maybe like hitting the edge on the way down." You can read Stanley's interview with MC about her new book here. Available June 22, 2021
Yes, Tyler Cameron wrote a book. Yes, it's about how to build meaningful relationships. Yes, you should order it right now. Available July 27, 2021
In a devastatingly timely memoir, Saturday Night Live's Cecily Strong writes about grieving the death of her cousin who passed away from glioblastoma and how she's applying the lessons he taught her amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Available August 10, 2021
The Real Housewives of New York City fans will love Dorinda Medley's Make It Nice, which details the former housewife's life as she lives by her one-true motto: "make it nice." Available August 17, 2021
From the perspective of her childhood self, New York Times bestselling author and civil rights litigator Qian Julie Wang recounts life as an undocumented Chinese immigrant living in poverty in America. Available September 7, 2021
In Unbound, Tarana Burke shares the story behind the birth of the Me Too movement and her path towards true liberation after being sexually assaulted as a child and a teenager. As Glennon Doyle notes, "Unbound is the most important book of the year. And @TaranaBurke has the most important voice, heart and mission of our generation." Available September 14, 2021
Per usual, Gabrielle Union keeps it real in You Got Anything Stronger?—the followup to her first book, We're Going to Need More Wine, where Union discusses everything from her experience with surrogacy to racism in Hollywood. Available September 14, 2021
If you loved The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, you'll appreciate Tucci's latest, Taste: My Life Through Food, where the actor shares personal anecdotes behind his favorite Italian recipes. Available October 5, 2021
Billy Porter's Unprotected tells the story of the award-winning actor and singer's life growing up as a Black gay man in America, and how he's used his voice and art to pave the way for others. Available October 19, 2021
Emily Ratajkowski expands on the themes of her viral essay in My Body—an exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power where the model and actress recounts experiences from her own life about the commodification of women and urges society to do better. Available November 9, 2021
Bachelorette alum Hannah Brown shares never-before-told stories about being on the show, the growth she's experienced since, and how she embraces the messiness of life. Available November 23, 2021
