Memoir - Blog | Fully Booked Online Philippines

Coping with grief and loss? These books might help you through the hard times.

Posted on August 24, 2021| Posted in Featured, Book Collection

Through the experiences of grief and loss, books can help to repair and rewrite those narratives as we learn about the stories and struggles of those who have gone before us. Read more on the blog for book recommendations from our Grief collection.

First Look: Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

Posted on August 11, 2021| Posted in Book Reviews, First Look Club

Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.

First Look Club: Jowana reviews Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

Posted on August 11, 2021| Posted in Book Reviews, First Look Club

The memoir is a compelling voice of the forgotten as told through the perspective of a child. The author drew the dark curtains shrouding her childhood and guided her readers through claustrophobic sweatshops, isolated school lunches, and predatory train rides. Read Jowana's review on the blog.

First Look Club: Jed reviews Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

Posted on August 11, 2021| Posted in Book Reviews, First Look Club

Beautiful Country is the story of Qian Julie Wang’s childhood as an illegal immigrant in New York. It has a unique and inspiring story to tell, and it is—no weak pun intended—beautifully written. Read Jed's review on the blog.

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.

First Few Pages: Untamed

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