Books by Beth Macy
“This is a person well-versed in writing about other people and communities and systems. It was exciting to have her bring that accomplished reporter’s eye to a place she loves, which is her hometown of Urbana, Ohio. I feel lucky to have read it because she brings that skillset to an American town in crisis, and to her relationship to this town and to the people and her family. It all comes together. That’s why I really appreciated this book: that you can have a memoir that is also deeply researched, meticulously reported, and has a big way of thinking about how systems interact.” Read more...
The Best Memoirs: The 2026 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist
Grace Talusan, Literary Scholar
Interviews where books by Beth Macy were recommended
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1
Mother Mary Comes to Me
by Arundhati Roy -
2
Memorial Days: A Memoir
by Geraldine Brooks -
3
Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America
by Beth Macy -
4
Shattered: A Memoir – Honest Hospital Dispatches on Physical Loss, Parenthood, and Finding Hope, Gratitude, and Love
by Hanif Kureishi -
5
A Truce That Is Not Peace
by Miriam Toews
The Best Memoirs: The 2026 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by Grace Talusan
The Best Memoirs: The 2026 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by Grace Talusan
We asked Grace Talusan—the critic, memoirist, and chair of the National Book Critics Circle autobiography committee—to talk us through their shortlist of the best new memoirs: from the “novelistic” winning book by Arundhati Roy to journalist Beth Macy’s hard-hitting examination of her struggling Ohio hometown.
