This week we had a cold snap, which means you can find Gwen curled up on any and every cozy spot she can find. This is her first winter in the upstate, and she sure is feeling that 10 degree difference from where we were before on the coast. Dylan just grows more floof and looks like a walking puff ball for three months. To each their own, I guess. In bookish news, there are SO MANY incredible memoirs coming out. I keep pouring over my favorite titles, mulling over their pages. Too many to count, but I’m here for you with the highlights!
Bookish Goods
Reading List Bookmark by Square Popsicle
I recently fell down the journaling rabbit hole and found these cute little bookmarks that help you keep your reading list close. What a great little accessory to help you with your reading goals! $2
New Releases
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh
Raja Shehadeh struggled to connect with his father, Aziz. Both are activists advocating for Palestinian rights, but from different generations. They struggle to connect with each other’s methods and perspectives. Raja’s life changes when his father is murdered in 1985. He’s forced to take a new look at their relationship, and eventually, writes this memoir.
Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood by Tanya Frank
When Tanya Frank’s son experiences a major mental health crisis, she finds herself trying to navigate a broken healthcare system as she tries to get her son the help he needs. She finally decides to take her son back to the U.K., where she’s from, and begins the process with a completely different, yet still broken healthcare system.
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
This week, we’re looking at queer memoirs of two people of faith deciding what their life is going to look like. They examine their faith and start the process of finding a place for themselves in the world. Though their stories are very different, they both push back against the idea that there is a singular narrative that says that queer people all share the same experiences, that there is only one way to be queer.
Heretic: A Memoir by Jeanna Kadlec
Jeanna Kadlec grew up with her church being her whole world. If the doors were open, her family was there. She volunteered, participated in Bible studies galore, read devotionals — she did anything and everything to find a way to draw closer to God. Eventually she married a Pastor’s son, moved to the East Coast for school, and started her new life far from the midwestern world in which she grew up. But there was always something…missing. She tried to be the best wife, the best example of Biblical womanhood that she could. Somehow, her work on herself and on her marriage was never enough. As her marriage begins to slowly crumble, she falls in love with a woman, and she realizes that she’s gay. From there, she must decide what her life will look like and if faith will be part of it. Kadlec’s memoir is a beautiful testament to a woman who loves her community and faith, but never truly fits in. She looks around and wonders how is all of this seemingly so easy for everyone else?
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H
Lamya’s family moves from South Asia to the Middle East, hoping to start a new life. Lamya attends an international Muslim school, and when she’s 14, she realizes that she’s gay. After Lamya moves to the U.S. for school, she has more freedom to decide what her life, and her faith, will look like. Lamya continues to wear her hijab, despite family discouraging her. She’s not wearing her hijab for them. She’s wearing her hijab for God. Lamya finds a balance of her life as a hijab-wearing queer person trying to date women in New York City. She finds an incredible queer Muslim community and a close group of friends she will forever see as family. Lamya’s memoir is incredibly emotionally intimate as she ties her story to the stories of the prophets she loves so dearly. She pushes back against the narrative that queer people can’t be people of faith. For her, her faith is just as much a part of her as her queerness, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave, over on Instagram @kdwinchester, or on my podcast Read Appalachia. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
Happy reading, Friends!
~ Kendra