Following the death of her mother in 2020 at the age of 96, a uthor Gish Jen started writing a memoir about Loo Shu-Hsin (Agnes), with whom she had a difficult relationship. However, since her mother rarely spoke about her childhood in Shanghai, the memoir evolved into an autobiographical novel. Loo was born in 1925 into a large, affluent family. Her mother showed little regard or affection for Loo despite being a bright girl. After college, Loo was permitted to travel to the

If you've seen  Almost Famous , you have an idea of who Cameron Crowe is. While the film is a fictionalized version of his early life, this delightful memoir,  The Uncool , tells the true story of the remarkably talented Crowe. Most of the book focuses on Crowe's teenage and early adult years as a rock journalist. Growing up in California, his sisters instilled in him a love for music, and Crowe went from being a fan to writing about the musicians he came to love. Amazingly,

Gwen Tanner is employed at a financial services company. In her free time, she enjoys using the pottery wheel at Painting Pots. She leads a quiet life, avoiding close relationships. That's because Gwen is not her real name; she is actually Marin Haggerty. At the age of nine, her father, serial killer Abel Haggerty, was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. Her mother, Reanne, was found guilty of aiding and abetting him. Two decades later, her mother is released

It's 1965 when we meet Lily Berg, a suburban housewife in Ohio, married to a doctor and pregnant with her second child. (Lily would refer to it as being in the "family way.") The family takes in a teenager from a local home for unwed mothers. Fifteen-year-old Betsy Ann Eubanks moves in with the Bergs, helping Lily care for her daughter, Jo-Jo, while awaiting the birth of her own baby. Lily is very close to her sister Rose, who works as a teacher and lives nearby with her husb