Martha Anne Toll

Margarita Liberaki's novel, first published in 1946, follows three young women growing up in the Athens countryside alongside a colorful cast of family members, secret-keeping servants and local boys.

Author Massoud Hayoun has Moroccan, Egyptian and Tunisian heritage — and is also Jewish. He weaves in his family history with the politics that shaped their lives, including European oppression.

Author Anna Merlan's recitations are chilling, as are her warnings that fringe beliefs tend to go mainstream — and how their rise is seen against a resurgence in nationalism and white supremacy.

There is a universality to Édouard Louis' story — the child's longing for acceptance contrasted with the mature son's painful journey to understand why his father behaved as he did.

In Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman's debut, she doesn't shrink from the systemic issues of an unfair economic system, but her personal story, with its unexpected twists, makes this memoir memorable.

Sarah McColl unstintingly puts her heart on the page as she reflects on caring for her dying mother, with whom she is unimaginably close, as her marriage fails.

Through the arc of the poet's career, Craig Morgan Teicher shows that while we are often too distracted to appreciate each other and our universe — poetry demands that we pause and listen.

The book is at once a paean to the Deep South, a condemnation of our fat-averse culture, and a beautiful memoir of being black, bookish, and part of a family that's as challenging as it is grounding.

In author David Kaplan's view, the top court has taken an increasing role in policymaking, having issued critical decisions on abortion, voting rights, gun control, health care — and the president.

Chee does include some writing tips in his new How To Write An Autobiographical Novel -- but this collection is less a writing lesson than a deeply considered and beautifully written memoir.