In honour of International Women’s Day coming soon, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight women’s stories. Specifically, their own stories, in their own words. 

From tender and incisive examinations of culture; to reflective meditations on grief and identity; to hilarious anecdotes; to sexy short vignettes, and so much more — read on to discover nine incredible memoirs written by women that you won’t be able to stop thinking about.

All the Parts We Exile by Roza Nozari

As the youngest of three daughters, and the only one born in Canada, Roza began her life hungry for belonging, soon after her parents emigrated from Iran. From an early age, Roza and her mother shared a passion for Iranian food, and stories from their ancestral home. When they eventually visited, Roza fell in love with its sights and its sounds, however, she couldn’t help but feel something was amiss with her mother’s story of their original departure. In her memoir, Roza braids together stories of love and home, weaving her story with her mother’s, as she grapples with understanding and accepting her own queer identity, and learns the truth about her family’s move to Canada. This is a tender and emotional story about mother and daughter, and the stories within them, exploring the grief around the parts we exile, and the joy of those we hold close, as we become our truest selves.

Sucker Punch by Scaachi Koul

Scaachi Koul’s Sucker Punch is the follow-up to her debut essay collection, which addressed race, body image, love, friendship, and what it meant to grow up as the daughter of immigrants. When the time came to start writing her next book, Scaachi assumed she’d be updating her story with essays about her elaborate wedding, the ensuing domestic bliss, as well as her never-ending arguments with her parents. Instead, when the pandemic hit, Scaachi lost her job, her marriage fell apart, and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Sucker Punch is about what happens when the life you thought you’d be living radically changes its course, shaking up everything you thought you knew about yourself and the world around you. This is a poignant, funny, and incisive book that explores Scaachi’s belief that fighting is the most effective tool for progress. She examines the many fights she’s had — with strangers and people she knows well — all in order to understand when a fight is worth having, and when it’s better to walk away.

Unconditional by Samra Zafar and Kim Pittaway

While it’s not technically a memoir, Samra Zafar’s Unconditional is a practical and inspirational wellness book that ties together research with personal stories, sharing how she broke free of the beliefs that held her back, and how her readers can too. After escaping an abusive marriage with her two daughters, Samra thought the biggest challenge she would face would be supporting her family by putting herself through school, getting a corporate job, and rebuilding a support system for herself and her daughters. But the biggest challenge of all was within herself. Her childhood conditioned her to criticize herself constantly, stopping her from making any decisions, and putting her in situations that held her back. In Unconditional, Samra shares all that she’s discovered after unlearning the harmful beliefs she held onto, and learning to love herself — unconditionally.

May It Have A Happy Ending by Minelle Mahtani

Minelle Mahtani’s May It Have A Happy Ending is an honest and moving memoir about grief, healing, and finding your own voice. As a new mother, Minelle had taken a leap of faith, moving across the country for love. Soon she faces the exhilarating (and terrifying) prospect of hosting her own radio show. However, as she begins to find her place within a majority white newsroom, she learns devastating news — her mother was diagnosed with tongue cancer. As Minelle was finding her voice, her mother was losing hers. This book grapples with what it means to amplify the voices of others while the stories of your own ancestors are buried with your mother’s illness. This is a beautiful recounting of love, care, grief, and finding your voice.

Indian in the Cabinet by Jody Wilson-Raybould

Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Indian in the Cabinet is a brilliant, compelling political memoir. As the daughter of a hereditary Chief and Indigenous leader, Jody Wilson-Raybould was raised to be a leader. She always knew that she would adopt leadership roles and responsibilities, but she never anticipated that these roles would take her from her community of We Wai Kai (in British Columbia) to Ottawa, as Canada’s first Indigenous minister of justice and attorney general. Following her time in the Cabinet, to her eventual resignation, this is a book about speaking truth to power.

Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley

Oscar-winning screenwriter, director and actor Sarah Polley’s Run Towards the Danger features six complex, honest, and deeply human essays that each follow a different piece of Polley’s life as she remembers it. This is an extraordinary book about what it is to live in your body. These stories cover different points in her life, from experiencing stage fright to a high-risk pregnancy, and more. After a concussion and traumatic injury, Polley met a specialist who gave her new advice. To recover from her injury, she had to retrain her mind by charging towards the very activities that triggered her symptoms. Rather than living in a protective crouch, she had to run towards the danger. 

Modern Whore by Andrea Werhun

Andrea Werhun’s Modern Whore is a brilliant and striking memoir documenting the author’s life and career in sex work, featuring gorgeous photography by Nicole Bazuin. Andrea Werhun’s sex work career gave her money, freedom, joy… and a whole lot of dick. She’d always been a natural performer, and she revelled in the opportunity to create “Mary Ann”, her escort counterpart, introducing her to men all over the city. This book revisits the idea of the modern whore, featuring Werhun’s own experiences as an escort, a stripper, and a writer, exploring the many identities sex workers adopt. Unafraid to shy away from the sexy, or the serious, this book is unafraid to explore the darker sides of sex work. Charming, tender, sexy, and hilarious, this was unlike any memoir I’d read before, full of deeply personal stories, gorgeous photos, and hilarious vignettes, including responses to reviews from former clients. This is Playboy, if the Playmates were in charge.

Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya

Sarah Chihaya has always felt that books can seduce, annihilate, reveal, and provoke you, and she calls these books “Life Ruiners”. Bibliophobia is an intimate and thoughtful story of breakdown and survival, told through books. Her “Life Ruiner” was Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, which functioned as a kind of talisman for her through high school, where Sarah drew parallels from it to her own feelings about being Japanese American in a predominantly white suburb of Cleveland. Sarah had always lived through her books, seeking escape, self-definition, and rules for living. She built her life around reading, until she was hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. Bibliophobia is equal parts dark and funny, delving into books like Anne of Green Gables, and The Last Samurai as Chihaya navigates her cultural identity, her relationship with depression, as well as her complicated and intoxicating relationship with books.

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

Safiya Sinclair’s How to Say Babylon is a brilliant story inspired by the author’s own experiences trying to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing. Safiya grew up under her father’s strict, patriarchal rule. Under the impending threat of the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world (what Rastafarians call Babylon), he forbade almost everything. The women in her family were made to cover their bodies and hair, made to have no opinions, or friends. While her mother was loyal to their father, she would gift Safiya and her siblings with books, including poetry, which Safiya held onto for dear life. As she watched her mother struggle under her father’s beliefs, she began using her education to rebel, and speak out. How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished, then ultimately sought to silence her. It’s her reckoning with the legacies of patriarchy, tradition, and colonialism in Jamaica, written with sharp insight, and lyrical prose. Equal parts universal and unique, this is a powerful story of finding your voice and breaking free.

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Ameema Saeed (@ameemabackwards) is a storyteller, a Capricorn, an avid bookworm, and a curator of very specific playlists and customized book recommendations. She’s a book reviewer, a Sensitivity Reader, a book buyer at Indigo Books & Music, and the Books Editor for She Does the City, where she writes and curates bookish content, and book recommendations. She enjoys bad puns, good food, dancing, and talking about feelings. She writes about books, big feelings, unruly bodies, and her lived experiences, and hopes to write your next favourite book one day. When she’s not reading books, she likes to talk about books (especially diverse books, and books by diverse authors) on her bookstagram: @ReadWithMeemz