If You Like...The Glass Castle

More hard-hitting memoirs (and a few novels) about growing up in difficult circumstances.

Updated April 9, 2026
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Angela's ashes : a memoir
McCourt, Frank.
Paper Book
A Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland--now with a new introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe. "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all...
Crying in H Mart : a memoir
Zauner, Michelle
Ebook
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American--"in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself" (NPR). * CELEBRATING...
Demon copperhead A novel
Kingsolver, Barbara.
Ebook
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century * An Oprah's Book Club Selection * An Instant New York Times Bestseller * An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller * A #1 Washington Post...
Educated : a memoir
Westover, Tara
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University ...
The glass castle A Memoir.
Walls, Jeannette.
Ebook
Half broke horses : a true-life novel
Walls, Jeannette
Paper Book
From the author of The Glass Castle and Hang the Moon--"Walls vividly depicts her astonishing, resilient grandmother with a lightness of touch that is plainspoken yet heartfelt" (Chicago Tribune). Half Broke Horses has transfixed readers everywhere. "Those...
Olive Kitteridge
Strout, Elizabeth
CD
2009 Pulitzer Prize Winner in the Letters, Drama and Music category Now an Emmy-Nominated HBO Miniseries At the edge of the continent, Crosby, Maine, may seem like nowhere, but seen through this brilliant writer's eyes, it's in essence the whole world, and the lives that are lived...
A tree grows in brooklyn
Smith, Betty
Ebook
A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century. From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg,...

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