You’re Doing Just Fine by Charlotte Eriksson

Named after the poem that has been shared over 400,000 times on Tumblr, this is the third book from young author and songwriter Charlotte Eriksson. A collection of prose and poetry with the theme of hope, recovery and finding beauty in the darkness. An exploration of the life of a young artist with an aching heart, urged by a wanderlust that leads and directs, and the simple task of learning how to live with yourself.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Suicide
  • Self-harm

My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips as she entered her freshman year of high school as the number one student. But suddenly, Elizabeth’s own country took away the most important right a child has: a right to have a family. As her parents’ visas expired, they were forced to return to Mexico, leaving Elizabeth responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Determined to break the cycle of being “a statistic,” she knew that even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism

The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu

Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers about her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success―until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened. For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone―why did the most perfect… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a mother during cosmetic surgery

Nowhere Girl by Cheryl Diamond

What if the people you love most are not who you thought they were? What if you don’t know who you are, either? Cheryl Diamond’s memoir begins when she is four and her family is in Kashmir, India, hurtling down the Himalayas in their battered station wagon headed for the Golden Temple, the holiest site in the Sikh religion. The family are Sikhs. Today. In a few years they will be Jewish. Cheryl’s name is Harbhajan. Today. But in a few years she will be Crystal. By the time she turns nine, Cheryl has had at least six assumed identities. She has lived on five continents, fleeing the specter of Interpol and law enforcement. Her father, a master financial criminal, or so she believes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Incest & child sexual abuse
  • Emotional, verbal & child abuse

The Villain Edit by Alisha Aitken-Radburn

When former government staffer Alisha Aitken-Radburn was given a ‘villain edit’ on her first season of The Bachelor, she wasn’t entirely surprised-after all, there are only a handful of character tropes producers can manipulate into storylines. But the backlash on social media was unexpectedly intense, and Alisha found her sense of identity completely rocked by a single ‘You are a bad person’. Determined to shake the ‘villain’ label, she returned to reality TV screens, and this time, she got a different edit. She was met with praise and empathy, and her portrayal led to a third and final season, where she met the man she… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Bullying & cyberbullying

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

Drawing on a rich family archive as well as the anthropological work of her late great-grandmother, LaPointe explores themes ranging from indigenous identity and stereotypes to cultural displacement and environmental degradation to understand what our experiences teach us about the power of community, commitment, and conscientious honesty. Unapologetically punk, the essays segue between the miraculous and the mundane, the spiritual and the physical, as they examine the role of art and community in helping a new generation of indigenous people claim the strength of their heritage while defining their own path in the contemporary world.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Domestic violence
  • Parent with substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Abortion & miscarriage
  • COVID-19 pandemic discussed

Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang

Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang

It’s 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything a girl could want: brains, friends, and a bright future in Communist China. But it’s also the year that China’s leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution—and Ji-li’s world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. When Ji-li’s father is finally imprisoned, she faces the most difficult dilemma of her life..

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Depression
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Torture
  • Home invasion
  • Bullying

Deaf Utopia by Nyle DiMarco

Deaf Utopia: A Memoir – and a Love Letter to a Way of Life by Nyle DiMarco with Robert Siebert


Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York. At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed” his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents. In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & audism
  • Domestic abuse
  • Suicide

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet – from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley’s Comet to Penguins of Madagascar – on a five-star scale.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • COVID-19
  • Anxiety
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty—a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre—took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters (both living and very dead), Caitlin learned to navigate the secretive culture of those who care for the deceased.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Fatmisia
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Attempted suicide
  • Death of a child
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