--- description: In honor of International Women's Day title: 7 New Memoirs by Women From Around the World image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 7 New Memoirs by Women Around the World by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 14, 2023 4:19 PM CUTPublished: Mar 8, 2017 3:36 PM CUT by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 14, 2023 4:19 PM CUTPublished: Mar 8, 2017 3:36 PM CUT [International Women’s Day](http://time.com/4694983/united-nations-international-womens-day/ "undefined") is for sharing and celebrating stories of what it means to be one of us in this [world](http://time.com/4694755/international-womens-day-2017-world/ "undefined"). What better way to enrich that understanding than reading the [perspectives of other women](http://time.com/4248910/women-in-history/ "undefined")? In honor of the day, here are seven new [memoirs](http://time.com/money/4686502/barack-michelle-obama-book-memoir/ "undefined") to read by women from Beijing, Nigeria, Vietnam, Texas and elsewhere around the globe. ### _The Best We Could Do_ by Thi Bui  Abrams ComicArts In this graphic memoir, Bui documents her family’s flight from Vietnam in the late ’70s, when her own mother was eight months pregnant. After welcoming a new baby in a Malaysian refugee camp, the family continues on to the U.S., where Bui eventually becomes a mother herself. [_Get it now_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1419718770/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ### _Olive Witch_ by Abeer Y. Hoque  Harper360 Hoque has spent her life straddling cultures. After a childhood in Nsukka, Nigeria, she and her Bangladeshi parents moved to suburban Pittsburgh when she was 13, and she remained in the state to study at the University of Pennsylvania. As she travels across continents, from San Francisco to Bangladesh, she weaves together the strands of her identity while struggling with depression. [_Get it now_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/9351777006/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") [_Get the latest deals, reviews and recommendations from the editors of TIME: sign up for The Goods newsletter here_](https://pages.email.time.com/newsletters/?source=article-goods "undefined") ### _Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember_ by Christine Hyung-Oak Lee  Ecco On vacation in Tahoe for New Year’s, Lee woke up the on Dec. 31, 2016, with a horrible headache. Later that day, her field of vision rotated 90 degrees. At age 33, she had suffered a stroke, and went from possessing a photographic memory to struggling to find the right word for “shell bells” — eggs. She documented her crisis and its aftermath in a journal, which she has shared with world in the form of this book. [_Get it now_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062422154/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ### _The Rules Do Not Apply_ by Ariel Levy  Random House The _New Yorker_ staff writer expands on her award-winning 2013 essay “[Thanksgiving in Mongolia](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/18/thanksgiving-in-mongolia "undefined"),” about the traumatic, premature end to her pregnancy while she was traveling on an assignment. [_Get it March 14_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812996933/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ### _Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life_ by Yiyun Li  Random House The short story writer and MacArthur fellow reflects on a life wrapped up in books, from her childhood in Beijing to her struggle with suicidal depression in America. “I wished…that life could be reset,” she writes, “but reset from when? From each point I could go to an earlier point.” [_Get it now_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399589090/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ### _Grace Notes_ by Katey Sagal  Gallery Books The _Married… with Children_ actress details her work in Hollywood and the series of personal tragedies that have marked her life, from her father’s accidental death to her own cancer diagnosis at age 28. [_Get it March 21_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476796718/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ### _A Country Between_ by Stephanie Saldaña  Sourcebooks What happens when a Texan poet and a French ex-monk begin their marriage in a home on Nablus Road, where Palestinian and Israeli Jerusalem meet? Saldaña explains in this memoir about becoming a mother in a precarious place. [_Get it now_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492639052/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4692289/memoirs-international-womens-day-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4692289/memoirs-international-womens-day-2017/"},"headline":"7 New Memoirs by Women Around the World","datePublished":"2017-03-08T15:36:22.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T16:19:04.000Z","description":"In honor of International Women's Day","url":"https://time.com/4692289/memoirs-international-womens-day-2017/","keywords":["Books","timeshop"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4692289/memoirs-international-womens-day-2017/","name":"7 New Memoirs by Women Around the World"}}]}] ```