Book Buddies: The Less People Know About Us, The Sound of Gravel

A guest post from Kayla

I’m back with another Book Buddies post. Last time I recommended The Glass Castle and Wavewalker which I described as “The Glass Castle on a boat.” When I asked for other suggestions for books about Strong Willed Girls with Parents Who Make Poor Choices, Educated by Tara Westover was popular.

I loved Educated and agree that it’s a good complement for those two books and for two more: The Less People Know About Us and The Sound of Gravel.

Educated by Tara Westover is a memoir of growing up with unwell, survivalist parents.

Her childhood is erratic and unpredictable. She and her siblings are hardly educated and work with their father in extremely dangerous conditions. She manages to overcome this and self-studies to be able to qualify for college classes. Although she has much to overcome, she eventually travels the world and achieves doctorate-level education. It is much like The Glass Castle in that it reads as a coming-of-age novel.

Similarly, I recommend The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner.

Warnier’s parents are similar to Westover’s in that they are influenced by religion but pick and choose which tenets to follow in contradictory ways. Warnier grows up in a cult in rural Mexico and has similar, dangerous experiences as Westover. Her parents keep her secluded from education and other families, even relatives. She experiences abuse and neglect which is not regarded as such in her community. This reads less like a coming-of-age novel and more like slow suspense. Everything is terrible and keeps being terrible for much of the book. 

I can’t say too much about The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz-Hamilton without giving away the major plot point. Betz-Hamilton experiences identity theft at a young age and the book details the struggles she has throughout her life as a result.

You catch on to the plot at a much earlier stage in the book than the young Betz-Hamilton which makes it all the more heartbreaking. She is a very gifted writer in being able to share a memoir but also slowly unravel the dramatic irony of the story. The author dedicates her life and studies to identify theft. Interestingly, we were at Iowa State University at the same time while she was pursuing her PhD in the same college I was studying my BS. The other two books are more sensational to me, taking place in far-off, secluded locations with wild family members. This book hits different because it shares (what looks like from the outside) such a normal, average childhood. Axton could have been any one of my classmates, and in a way, she was.

Next time I share a Book Buddies post I’ll make some more upbeat picks- or at least some fiction. Have you read any of these memoirs? Better yet- have you read something more upbeat lately?