Why am I passionate about this?

When writing my memoir about serving in the Peace Corps, I knew with every keystroke I was opening myself up for public censure. The things that I needed to get down on paper were not pretty things; they did not show me in a favorable light. I also knew it was the only way to tell my tale. Honesty is compelling even (perhaps especially) when the truth is ugly. Female voices in contemporary literature are raw, messy, and unapologetic. The appeal of candid “femoir” is undeniable, as evidenced by runaway bestsellers in recent years (I’m looking at you, Eat, Pray, Love and Wild). Discover more hidden gems below.


I wrote

Book cover of The Color of the Elephant

What is my book about?

An outstanding new voice in memoir, Christine Herbert takes the reader on a “time-machine tour” of her Peace Corps volunteer…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood

Christine Herbert Why did I love this book?

Fuller’s astounding account of growing up in Africa is singular, engrossing, and unforgettable. She never once shies away from ugly truths or attempts to justify the behavior of the family and community whose ideals and destructive vices she is powerless—as a child—to gainsay. With raw and unvarnished language, the author leads us through her young life punctuated by loss, compounded by the trauma of growing up in a war zone, and inexorably unmoored by her mother’s descent into mental illness.

By Alexandra Fuller,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With an introduction by author Anne Enright.

Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book award, a story of civil war and a family's unbreakable bond.

How you see a country depends on whether you are driving through it, or live in it. How you see a country depends on whether or not you can leave it, if you have to.

As the daughter of white settlers in war-torn 1970s Rhodesia, Alexandra Fuller remembers a time when a schoolgirl was as likely to carry a shotgun as a satchel. This is her story - of a civil war, of a quixotic battle…


Book cover of Okay Fine Whatever: The Year I Went from Being Afraid of Everything to Only Being Afraid of Most Things

Christine Herbert Why did I love this book?

An uproarious tell-all about blooming late, taking chances, and being vulnerable. In an effort to cope with the loss of a defining career and face down a lifetime of insecurities about her body, the author decides to tackle anything (self-exploratory-wise) that would normally send her screaming for the hills. Reluctantly but determinately, she takes the plunge into internet dating, professional cuddling, sensory deprivation, polyamory, Brazilian waxing, and more—all the while getting throat-punched by anxiety. Self-deprecating and ribald, Hameister’s anecdotes illustrate that sometimes pulling up one’s big girl panties can actually mean taking them off.

By Courtenay Hameister,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Okay Fine Whatever as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

During the nine years Courtenay Hameister hosted NPR's Live Wire, she lived in a state of near-constant dread and anxiety and she didn't just fret about and fear her next radio show; she fretted about and feared everything.

Until about a year ago, when she decided to take arms against a sea of anxieties and by opposing... maybe not end them but at least become a little more adventurous, spontaneous and comfortable in her own skin. OKAY FINE WHATEVER tells the story of Courtenay's year-long fight against her own nature, which took the form of pushing herself to try new…


Book cover of The Glass Castle

Christine Herbert Why did I love this book?

A truly captivating memoir about poverty, family, hope, addiction, and dysfunctionality. Walls deftly illustrates the power of a child’s mind to magnify the exceptional qualities of condemnable parents. Only as she matures and the scales slowly fall from her eyes do the abject neglect, abuse, and magical thinking of her upbringing come into focus. With direct, unapologetic prose, she continues to honor her childhood naivete while at the same time revealing her parents’ undeniable (read: pathological) faults and failings.

By Jeannette Walls,

Why should I read it?

24 authors picked The Glass Castle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now a major motion picture starring Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson.

This is a startling memoir of a successful journalist's journey from the deserted and dusty mining towns of the American Southwest, to an antique filled apartment on Park Avenue. Jeanette Walls narrates her nomadic and adventurous childhood with her dreaming, 'brilliant' but alcoholic parents.

At the age of seventeen she escapes on a Greyhound bus to New York with her older sister; her younger siblings follow later. After pursuing the education and civilisation her parents sought to escape, Jeanette eventually succeeds in her quest for the 'mundane,…


Book cover of The Body Papers: A Memoir

Christine Herbert Why did I love this book?

There’s nothing flowery in Talusan’s writing (indeed, the prose is so lean, you’d think it ran a decathlon, ate half a grapefruit, and downed a shot of wheatgrass before landing on the page); the bald truths of her narrative cut unerringly, time and again, to the very heart of her trauma. This is a brave account of surviving childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by a revered family elder, and the Sisyphean task of unpacking the ensuing emotional baggage. This narrative serves as a public, shout-from-the-rooftops refusal to carry the shame for a crime someone else has committed.

By Grace Talusan,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Body Papers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Grace Talusan’s critically acclaimed memoir The Body Papers, a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, powerfully explores the fraught contours of her own life as a Filipino immigrant and survivor of cancer and childhood abuse.

Born in the Philippines, young Grace Talusan moves with her family to a New England suburb in the 1970s. At school, she confronts racism as one of the few kids with a brown face. At home, the confusion is worse: her grandfather’s nightly visits to her room leave her hurt and terrified, and she learns…


Book cover of Paradise Road: A Memoir

Christine Herbert Why did I love this book?

This debut memoir is an absolute triumph. From teenage runaway, to bohemian hippie, to cross-continental cyclist, to lost soul, the author candidly invites us to journey with her through ebullient highs and devastating lows. In a surprising twist—while navigating the nadir of her odyssey—the author finds solace for her wandering soul in a harbor she least expects. This is, in essence, a story of finding salvation in arms everlasting.

By Marilyn Kriete,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Paradise Road as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A restless child of the 1960s, Marilyn yearns for love, hippiedom, and escape from her mother’s control. At 14, she runs nearly a thousand miles away to Vancouver, British Columbia, eventually landing herself in a Catholic home for troubled girls. At 16, she’s emancipated, navigating adulthood without a high school diploma, and craving a soulmate. When she falls in love with Jack, the grad student living next door, life finally seems perfect. The two embark on a cross-continental bicycle trip, headed for South America, but before they reach Mexico, Jack dies. Utterly shattered, Marilyn does the hardest thing she can…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of The Color of the Elephant

What is my book about?

An outstanding new voice in memoir, Christine Herbert takes the reader on a “time-machine tour” of her Peace Corps volunteer service as a health worker and educator from 2004-2006 in Zambia. Rather than a retrospective, this narrative unfolds in the present tense, propelling the reader alongside the memoirist through a fascinating exploration of a life lived “off the grid.” 

At turns harrowing, playful, dewy-eyed, and wise, the author’s heart and candor illuminates every chapter, whether she is the heroine of the tale or her own worst enemy. Even at her most petulant, the laugh-out-loud humor scuppers any “white savior” mentality and lays bare the undeniable humanity—and humility—of the storyteller. Through it all, an undeniable love for Zambia—its people, land, and culture—shines through. A must-read for the armchair adventurer!

Book cover of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Book cover of Okay Fine Whatever: The Year I Went from Being Afraid of Everything to Only Being Afraid of Most Things
Book cover of The Glass Castle

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Lori Alden Holuta Author Of The Flight to Brassbright

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