RICHARD BLANCO was catapulted into fame on January 21st, 2013, when he recited his poem “One Today” at President Oba-ma’s second inauguration ceremony. As an openly gay Cuban-American poet, Blanco was at once a revolutionary choice for the occasion and a bold statement by Obama about his own vision for America. In his new memoir, The Prince of los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood, Blanco tries his hand at a second memoir, … and the end result is as mesmerizing as the flight of lightning bugs (cocuyos) illuminating a sultry summer night sky in South Florida.

Not My Father’s Son: A Memoirby Alan CummingHarperCollins.  394 pages, $26.99 WHEN WE FIRST meet Blanche Dubois, she’s enveloped by a fog that we soon come to realize represents…More

A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoirby Daisy HernándezBeacon Press.  185 pages, $24.95 I TEACH a course in multicultural studies to graduate students in counseling, and I’m…More

IN HER LIFE, Liza Monroy confides in The Marriage Act, there have been three important men: her father, her boyfriend Julian, and her best friend Emir.

WHILE family memoirs are often drenched in anguish, Kamal Al-Solaylee’s Intolerable takes the genre to a new level. The Toronto-based journalist and university professor reaches back to his parents’ history, from Yemen in the ’60s through Beirut, Cairo, and back to Yemen up to the Arab Spring, in agonizing, heart-wrenching detail.

The Friedkin Connection is a classic Hollywood autobiography, full of tough-talking, up-by-your-bootstraps salty chatter.