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Must-Read Memoir Books | August 2020

Must-Read Memoir Books | August 2020

Does your reading list need some intriguing new memoir books? You’re in luck thanks to so many amazing new releases from authors Michael Sunset, Vicki Laveau-Harvie, Lauren Akins, Rebekah Taussig, Molly Wizenberg, and Jay Parini. Enjoy your new books!


A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Manipulate

by Michael Sunset

Release Date: June 15, 2020

“Michael Sunset really puts narcissism in perspective on a really personal but relatable level.” In this new memoir, Michael Sunset details the way he was systematically manipulated by his ex-wife, her father, his mother, and sister to believe he had a mental illness. His ex-wife even worked to manipulate their mental health professionals and the family court system to obtain control of their finances and daughter in their divorce. In this memoir, Michael helps others defend themselves against this.

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The Erratics

by Vicki Laveau-Harvie

Release Date: August 25, 2020

“A searing, brilliantly-written memoir about a destructive and cunning mother; reads like a novel…” An award-winning memoir about two sisters that reckon with the decline and death of their outlandishly tyrannical mother and with the care of their psychologically terrorized father. Set against the natural world of the Canadian foothills, this memoir shatters precedents about grief, anger, and family trauma.

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Live in Love

by Lauren Akins

Release Date: August 18, 2020

Lauren Atkins never wanted to be in the spotlight, but being married to country music star Thomas Rhett changed that. After he wrote many songs about her, she was tossed into the role of one of America’s sweethearts. In this memoir, she shares details about the challenges of being married to her best friend, who just happens to be a music star.

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Sitting Pretty

by Rebekah Taussig

Release Date: August 25, 2020

Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Tassig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous, inspirational, or angelic. But none of it felt right. As she got older, she longed for stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling. In Sitting Pretty, she highlights how disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another.

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The Fixed Stars

by Molly Wizenberg

Release Date: August 4, 2020

While serving on a jury at the age of 36, Molly Wizenberg found herself drawn to a female attorney she hardly knew. After being married to a man for nearly a decade and the mother to a toddler, Wizenberg tried to return to her life. But something had changed inside her. Instead, she would discover the trajectory of our lives is rarely as smooth or as logical as we’d like to believe.

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Borges and Me

by Jay Parini

Release Date: August 18, 2020

In the year 1971, Jay Parini was an aspiring poet and graduate student. He was also in flight from being drafted in the Vietnam war. One day, his mentor, Alastair Reid, asked if he could play host to a visiting Latin American writer while he attended business in London. That writer turned out to be the blind and eccentric master of literary compression and metaphysics, Jorge Luise Borges.

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