For many women, Gabrielle Union’s vulnerable 2017 memoir “We’re Going to Need More Wine” became a beloved tell-all that gave them permission to speak their own truths and bare their trauma.
While discussing her second book, “You Got Anything Stronger?” Union kept hearing the word “brave,” which has “made me nervous,” she says. “I didn’t feel that brave.” Yet her honest writing, which tells her life stories through inclusive, casual-conversation-with-a-friend language, has a self-help effect on many women who too have struggled with the things she writes about, from fertility to therapy. Below, Union shares the books that have changed her life.
“Coming of Age in Mississippi” by Anne Moody
“When I was young, ‘Coming of Age in Mississippi’ by Anne Moody was the book that really opened my eyes. I think I read it when I was young, like nine or ten, but I’ve re-read not too long ago and it’s still held the same weight in terms of the Civil Rights Movement and race, and Black girlhood and coming of age. Super impactful.”
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“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
“I’ve re-read every year since college.”
“I, Tina” by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder
“Tina Turner’s first memoir, where she started deciphering the difference between resilience and strength and something that you’re claiming because you want to be considered a good woman, and what those differences are, and how one can lead you straight back into harm and more trauma and one can be more helpful in healing.”
