This week’s Nonfiction November (hosted by Katie at Doing Dewey, Lory at Emerald City Book Review, Rachel at Hibernator’s Library, Julz at Julz Reads, and me) topic is Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert:
Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).
Hop on over to Julz Reads to link up your posts!
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I love books about dysfunctional families. And, lucky for me, there’s a plethora of those in the world of fiction. But, turns out heartbreaking childhoods, for better or for worse, lend themselves to fantastic memoirs as well. Here are some of my favorites…
Dysfunctional Childhood Memoirs
A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs
An abusive and emotionally distant father.
All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
Extreme poverty in the deep South, an alcoholic and volatile father, and a mother trying to hold her family together through it all.
Darling Days by iO Tillett Wright
Wright’s tough upbringing on New York City’s Lower East Side in the late 80’s/early 90’s…including poverty, her parents’s addictions, and her struggle with gender identity and sexuality.
Fiction Ruined My Family by Jeanne Darst
An alcoholic mother and a father forever trying to publish the “Great American Novel” at the expense of providing for his children…and Darst’s struggle not to repeat her parents’s mistakes in adulthood.
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Growing up poor in Appalachia with an erratic mother plus social analysis of the Appalachian poor’s struggle to achieve upward mobility.
Hungry Heart by Jennifer Weiner
Overcoming body image issues and managing life with an erratic father.
Still Points North by Leigh Newman
Navigating Newman’s parents’s divorce and disparate lifestyles.
The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy
Reflections on rebuilding a relationship with literature’s most famous abusive father.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
A vibrant, yet destructively alcoholic father and an eccentric mother averse to domestic stability.
I tend to really enjoy these kinds of books. I recently picked up Hillbilly Elegy, and will have to take a closer look at the others. Thank you for the extensive list.
Oooh–I loved The Glass Castle. The Sound of Gravel was good too. There’s another one that I’m eyeballing: Etched in Sand.
Etched In Sand sounds good! Thank you, it’s not often I hear of something like this I haven’t read.
I LOOOOOVE me some Pat Conroy.
I had a pretty idyllic childhood but am drawn to books like this for some reason. Great list!
I’ve only read two of these, The Glass Castle and Hillbilly Elegy, but see several that sound like ones I’d like. I’m most intrigued by Fiction Ruined My Family!
I haven’t read any of these but Hillbilly Elegy has been on my list for awhile now so hopefully soon. I love the books about the dysfunctional childhood but also when it looks at the nature vs.nurture aspect, The Other Wes Moore is the first book that comes to mind and still one of my favorites.
This is a type of memoir I don’t turn to very often, but I do love Pat Conroy…
Hillbilly Elegy caught my attention a few weeks ago. I’ve spent a lot of time in Kentucky over the past few years, and I’m interested in learning about the culture of the rural parts of the state.
There certainly is no shortage of dysfunctional family memoirs. It makes me wonder why they’re so popular – is it because they depict a life so different from our own, or is is because they reflect lives similar to our own? Hopefully the first option, but I fear it may be the second. I guess, really, it depends on the reader.
I loved The Glass Castle, but Running With Scissors (Burroughs) just about killed me. I have to be careful which ones I choose, I think. 🙂
For me, specific parts of the traditional dysfunctional childhood narrative are similar to my childhood, but not overall. But recognizing those parts in my reading does draw me to certain types of stories.
This is quite the list! I read a lot of memoirs like this when I was in college, and I have a harder time with them now. I think as I’ve gotten older myself (ie farther away from childhood), it’s become more difficult to read about people doing bad stuff to kids, even if the existence of the book proves that the kid in question got out and survived.
It’s definitely hard to read about, but I also think there’s generally humor mixed in with the darkness. Gallows humor, maybe? And it does help to know that these kids took control of their lives enough to write great books.
Great list! Sadly so many I need to still read…
I’m not a big fan of the memoir, too much ‘real life’ in those for me. It looks like you’ve got quite the list to definitely make you the expert 😉
happy thanksgiving lovely lady!
What a topic! Dysfunctional childhood memoirs are such a draw. I come from a long line of women with incredibly dysfunctional childhoods (mine was an exception) so I’ve always had a soft spot for these. The Glass Castle! I can’t remember ever crying so hard over a memoir. And I’m glad you ended up more or less enjoying Darling Days, even though you’re right that some of it was a bit uneven.
Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter by Alison Wearing was a good one. Maybe not dysfunctional but certainly unconventional. If you want a dysfunctional royal childhood (actually, most of them were pretty messy), read about Princess Charlotte. There’s one, Charlotte and Leopold by James Chambers, that does a great job talking about her life and how she was forever in the middle of her warring parents. Oh and Charles Dickens’ children had a ridiculous childhood (Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens by Robert Gottlieb is a good, quick, read!)
Oooh – some awesome recs here – thanks! I always love the royals and have read Gottlieb before, but not that one. Sounds right up my alley! I also learned about another one during NN – North of Crazy about some publishing heirs.
Wow. That’s quite the list of dysfunctional childhoods. Hillbilly Elegy is definitely on my list to read next year. I’ve read Look Me In the Eye, which I believe is by Burroughs’ brother – so I got a sense of his dysfunctional childhood.
I think I’ve read Look Me in the Eye also – a long long time ago! Is the brother’s name John?
John Elder Robison, I think
Yes – that’s it! I definitely read it and it was interesting to see that this whole other thing was going on in that house that Augusten sort of glossed over in his versions of their childhood.
Impressive list! I think this is probably not my subgenre though. Sad stories about children are my least favorite.
I hear ya – they can be tough.
I loved Glass Castle and have gone on to read two other books by Walls – she’s a great writer. The last dysfunctional childhood book I read was a poor little rich girl upbringing and I couldn’t stomach it. Can’t even remember now who it was!
Thank you for this fabulous list. I love non-fiction and your picks did not disappointed! I loved Nonfiction November so much!!!