Yale's first black female history professor, Jennifer Baszile, came of age in the not-quite-integrated suburbs of Southern California. Her account of that era in this riveting, fast-paced memoir is noteworthy for her clear-eyed perspective and honesty; in Baszile, the reader finds an all-cards-on-the-table narrator to root for as she navigates the ins and outs of growing up in an affluent, white enclave in the late 1970s and early 80s.

Although Shoshana Johnson was raised an army brat, she joined the army for the same reason a lot of young Americans do: to earn money for college.

I’m Perfect, You’re Doomed is not only a memoir of her time in a faith often construed as a cult but also a tale of OCD, addiction, and broken families.

Ariel Schrag confesses all the dirty details of high school.