Kim and I love to read.
True story: when we were courting (you couldn’t call it dating when you lived 2,000 miles apart), communication was all snail mail. Who could afford long-distance calls in those days? So oddly enough, I got to thinking that what she wanted most to hear was my voice. I decided to read a book out loud to her. I sat for hours and read into a tape recorder and sent her those cassettes. Much to my relief, she loved them!***
Kim & I had already discovered that we were alike in how much we loved to read. And also how much we loved to hear stories read aloud – and to read them aloud. Over time, we’ve read to our kids – picture story books, the Little House on the Prairie books, C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and many more.
We do love fiction, good fiction. But our current reading preferences are memoirs, plus for me a mix of biographies, histories, and, well, you can look at my website’s resource page to see some of the range.
Recently a new subscriber to my blog, On a Journey in the Borderlands, said she’d love to hear some book recommendations from us. So, in time for your Christmas wish list or gift list, I’ve invited Kim to join me in sharing some of our favorites from recent months – all in the memoir category. While not all these books share our worldview, they do share stories we are glad we have read.
Here are 10, presented in no specific order:
- Beth Moore, All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir (Tyndale, 2023)
Kim: Christian author and speaker Beth Moore has devoted her life to helping women across the globe. In her memoir, she writes of personal heartbreaks, resilience and survival, and her 2018 break with her beloved church community. I’d participated in a few of her group Bible studies and enjoyed another book of her hers called Feathers from My Nest. But I wanted to know her own story. I’ve discovered she is as engaging in her writing as she is in her speaking.
- Javier Zamora, Solito: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Memoir (Random House, 2023)
Kim: My son-in-law, whose family comes from El Salvador, mentioned the book and his plans to read it. The memoir is written through the eyes of Zamora’s 9-year-old self. As a boy, Javier traveled three-thousand miles from his birth home in El Salvador to the U.S, a perilous trip with strangers and a hired “coyote”. He left his beloved grandparents to reunite with his parents. I found the book gripping and enlightening about the dangers and life-and-death challenges of such a journey – and enjoyed comparing reflections with my son-in-law afterwards.
- Matt Sayman with David L. Thomas, The Leftovers: Baylor, Betrayal, and Beyond (Whitaker House, 2022)
Howard: I’d grown disillusioned with the Baylor Bears, my alma mater’s football and basketball teams, after they’d devolved into scandal while reaching championship heights. My friend, best-selling sportswriter David Thomas, recommended a book he’d coauthored as a way to help me discover there is hope for even the most despairing of sports fans. Sayman shares the scandals that rocked the basketball team, how he spiraled downward after coaches betrayed his trust in them, and how he found his way to a far better footing. Thomas brings Sayman’s story to life, as he has done with so many others.
- Malala Yousafzai, with Christina Lamb, I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Little, Brown, 2013)
Kim: In her own words, this is Malala’s journey from remote northern Pakistan to becoming the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. She writes of that journey and her fight for girls’ education in the face of global terrorism. I really appreciated the background she gave of the growing political unrest in Pakistan, which ultimately led to her being shot in the head when she was 15. At the same time, I enjoyed her descriptions of the beauty of the place and people she dearly loves.
- Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Random House, 2016)
Howard: A friend from South Africa and I were discussing accents. He recommended this memoir, especially the audiobook read by Trevor Noah himself, complete with a flawless range of accents. Though we never did listen to the audiobook, Kim and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Noah’s story of growing up bi-racial in South Africa, with a largely absent Swiss-German father and a very present Black (Xhosa) mother. With his riveting story-telling and ever-present humor, Noah writes of a society woefully out of step with justice and attempting to reinvent itself. He reveals what it means to be labeled an illegal person, a boy between worlds.
- Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart: A Memoir (Alfred A. Knopf, 2021)
Kim: Howard bought this for me as a Christmas gift after hearing it being reviewed on NPR. A story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle writes of growing up a rare Asian kid in Oregon, of reconnecting with family in Korea, and of life as an East Coast musician, as she comes to terms with who she really is. The story pivots on her relationship with her mom, who has serious health issues, which causes Michelle to revisit her own life and its many influences. Because of my own experiences, I enjoyed the connections with Asian culture.
- Philip Yancey, Where the Light Fell: A Memoir (Convergent, 2021)
Howard: Through his writings, Yancey, a prolific and brilliant Christian author, has helped me wrestle with faith in the midst of my own doubts. This memoir introduced me to Yancey the person who had himself done just that and persevered. Growing up in poverty and a toxic religious fundamentalism, he and his brother took opposite paths. While his brother’s life imploded, he found healing in a grace foreign to his family roots. Memoirs are best when you can find connective tissue in both the pain and the resolution, as I did with this book.
- Helen MacDonald, H is for Hawk (Grove Press, 2014)
Kim: A fascinating read about owning and training a hawk, the story was way out of my league, but reading it was akin to the delight of visiting a foreign country. Helen adopts and raises one of nature’s most vicious predators, a bird whose temperament mirrors her own state of grief after her father’s death. I found the book challenging at the start, but more and more engrossing as I got into it. The book is a reminder that we all process grief in our own way.
- Mary Stewart Anthony, Love Song of a Flower Child: A Story of Redemption in the Drop-out Days; the Tune-In, Turn-On Times of Berkeley and Big Sur (WestBow Press, 2012)
Howard: By the time Kim and I met Mary in China, she was a grandmother teaching our kids a love for grammar and literature, still with the light-footed step of a ‘60s flower child. Love Song plays out the story of a whole generation lived through one person. Her story is a reminder that when Jesus comes to us, he doesn’t wipe out our past. He transforms all that has been, into a wonderful new wholeness, weaving scars into delicate lines of beauty to been seen as if they were always meant to be. Her sequel is Love Walk: Tales of a Flower Child and her Marine (Westbow Press, 2021).
- Ashley Rhodes-Courter, Three Small Words: A Memoir (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008)
Kim: The memoir was a book club assignment for me and my CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) colleagues. It tells of the challenges Ashley faced and how eventually through much support she rose to success. After her mother spiraled out of control, Ashley spent nine of her growing-up years in 14 different homes in the foster care system. I found the book difficult to read at times because she details the abuses she experienced. Written for young adult readers, this is an important read for the rest of us as well.
Howard: And on my wish list to find under this year’s Christmas tree? C. David Gable’s LifeTakes: Book 1: Felton on the Farm (2024). If ever there was a good storyteller, it is this tall, lanky Californian with roots deep in rural Pennsylvania.
I frequently share book recommendations on my blog, On a Journey in the Borderlands. You are welcome to sign up – no strings attached – to receive my posts on the life of faith, justice & compassion, faith & politics, intercultural concerns, leadership, trauma & healing, and stories about amazing people. Twice a week, ten minutes a read, may or may not change your life, but it just might make your day. Check it out at howardkenyon.com! Or sign up here to receive the blogposts!
***The book I read to Kim on tape was a delightful readable fiction by a now discredited author – Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion – great book, great storytelling, deeply troubled man.