2022 must-reads from Kerri Miller: 3 memoirs you should not miss

‘Tis the season for lists, and there is nothing the book world loves more than highfalutin, hierarchical, “How could you have missed THIS?” lists.  See the New York Times, NPR’s Book Concierge and Book Riot if you doubt it.

Well, I study those lists so you don’t have to! Through December, I’ll boil them down to the three novels, memoirs, biographies and nonfiction books I think deserve a place on your to-be-read pile.

Let’s start with memoirs. Ashley C. Ford chronicles a life with a needy and sometimes violent mother, the secret at the heart of her father’s incarceration and the push and pull of her love for her family.

She says of her mother: “We’d never found an easy way to talk about hard things, so we struggled to say anything at all.” “Somebody’s Daughter” is a don’t miss memoir of 2021.

My second memoir is a must-listen audiobook. I’m sure Brandi Carlile’s words on the pages of her memoir, “Broken Horses” are luminous, but there is nothing like hearing Carlile herself.

Carlile’s telling of her childhood and development as an artist is a remarkable story of isolation, affirmation, resilience and the restorative power of music. The audiobook of “Broken Horses” is a do-not-miss of 2021.

Finally, I’m putting in yet another plug for N. West Moss’s beautiful memoir, “Flesh and Blood.”

I’ve extolled its virtues in a previous Thread, and if you heard my interview with her last month, I hope you’ve already recommended this book to a friend.

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