Top Voted Memoirs

I liked being a mess. The desk that should have been clear so I could do my homework was always besieged with bowls of cereal and spoiled milk, old magazines, and Post-it notes I had forgotten to remember. My floor was a vacuum in itself, eating... (more »)

The warm house spreads an aura of holiday cheer throughout the crisp, cool air. Hoards of family members pile through the front door, with young couples stopping just below the archway for a little peck under the mistletoe. I leap out of my... (more »)

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 5:30 a.m.: I'm not sure if I'm awake. I can't see light coming through my window, I can't hear my mom talking on the phone, and the air feels heavy. I feel like there's a thick gray... (more »)

Fifty-three missed calls. I looked at my phone for the first time in two weeks. The hairs on my neck rose when my mother peered cautiously from the passenger seat of my father's car. I strained to read message after message of friends' questions... (more »)

A few years ago, when I was 14, I didn't want to live anymore. It all seemed so hopeless. Everything. I remember. The guidance counselor had thrown me out of her office. That doesn't happen to normal people. Normal people go to the... (more »)

We had been driving for hours, and the yellow dust was starting to coat the car windows. We were far into the Chengdu countryside of southern China, and the car shook as we rumbled down the dirt pathways through the span of green, yellow, and sky.... (more »)

She has cancer. It’s weird to write that down. My mother has cancer. She found out last week but couldn’t bring herself to tell my brothers and me until today. I knew it was bad news when my father called us down to our living room. I... (more »)

When I was eight, my dad got a new job, which meant that my family would endure yet another move, adding Kansas to the list of states we'd lived in over the past several years. Driving in our mint-green minivan to our new home, I leaned my... (more »)

“I'll see you Saturday morning, then?” my father asked, his voice sounding needy over the phone. It didn't stir an ounce of emotion in my heart, unless vengeance was an emotion.Finally, I was calling the shots. “I'll try to be there,” I... (more »)

Growing up, I immensely enjoyed listening to the old fairy tales my grandmother would share with me as she tucked me into bed. I would always smile when she concluded with, “and they lived happily ever after. The end.” I wish now that her own... (more »)