Memoir

First Few Pages: My Time Will Come by Ian Manuel

Posted on June 1, 2021| Posted in First Few Pages

At the age of fourteen, Ian Manuel was sentenced to life in prison. He survived eighteen years in solitary confinement until he was freed as part of an incredible crusade by the Equal Justice Initiative. My Time Will Come is an inspiring story of a man who transcended adversity through determination and art—in Ian Manuel’s case, through his dedication to writing poetry. Read more here.

First Few Pages: Crying in H Mart

Posted on April 17, 2021| Posted in First Few Pages

Michelle Zauner tells her story of growing up as one of the few Asian American kids at her school, of struggling with her mother's expectations, of a painful adolescence, of months spent with her grandmother in Seoul. And then the beginning of her adulthood as she moves to the East Coast for college, working in the restaurant industry, and gigs with her fledgling band, and realizing her Koreanness began to feel more distant. Read more here.

First Few Pages: Like Streams to the Ocean by Jedidiah Jenkins

Posted on February 3, 2021| Posted in First Few Pages

You can travel the world looking for yourself, but if you don't know what you're looking for, how can you find it? Like Streams To The Ocean is about examining the things that make us who we are and getting to know ourselves, our stories, and the decisions that shape our one and only life. Read an excerpt on the blog.

First Few Pages: Eat a Peach

Posted on December 10, 2020| Posted in First Few Pages

Full of grace, candor, grit, and humor, Eat a Peach chronicles Chang’s switchback path. He lays bare his mistakes and wonders about his extraordinary luck as he recounts the improbable series of events that led him to the top of his profession. He wrestles with his lifelong feelings of otherness and inadequacy, explores the mental illness that almost killed him, and finds hope in the shared value of deliciousness. Along the way, Chang gives us a penetrating look at restaurant life, in which he balances his deep love for the kitchen with unflinching honesty about the industry’s history of brutishness and its uncertain future.

First Few Pages: Fairest

Posted on August 4, 2020| Posted in First Few Pages

A singular, beautifully written coming-of-age memoir of a Filipino boy with albinism whose story travels from an immigrant childhood to Harvard to a gender transition and illuminates the illusions of race, disability, and gender. Read the first few pages of Meredith Talusan's memoir, Fairest, here at the Fully Booked blog.