“Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir” (Little, Brown, 2023) by Curtis Chin

This delicious memoir is as much about being a gay ABC (American-born Chinese) as it is about Detroit in the 1980s. Funny and eye-opening, this book is best not to be read on an empty stomach.

“To Name The Bigger Lie: A Memoir in Two Stories” (Scribner, 2023) by Sarah Viren

Viren may have changed the names of the two men whose dangerous behavior impacted her life (and that of her wife Marta’s, in the case of the second), but that doesn’t lessen the impact of this thrilling true story set “in a world dominated by hoaxes and fakes.”

“1981: My Gay American Road Trip” (QMH Press, 2023) by JD Doyle

Long known as one of the foremost experts on LGBTQ+ music, journalist Doyle not only fills his page-turning memoir with wonderful personal and public images (the bar ads alone are spectacular) but also his own compelling story, taking readers along his journey from rural Ohio to queer Houston (with several stops along the way).

“Through The Groves: A Memoir” (Henry Holt, 2023) by Anne Hull

A native of rural Central Florida, raised in her father’s family’s orange groves, Hull writes unflinchingly about her family life and struggles, as well as her sexual awakening with sensitivity, and an openness that draws in and rewards readers.

“Nimrods: A Fake-Punk, Self-Hurt, Anti-Memoir” (Duke University Press, 2023) by Kawika Guillermo

This memoir is the least traditional one on the list. A dizzying blend of “auto theory, queer punk poetry, musical ekphrasis, haibun,” and believe it or not, “bad Dad jokes,” it is never boring.