Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can’t Forget (publication day May 12, 2026) by Reyna Grande is a beautifully-written collection of memoir pieces about a variety of things. Grande writes about her relationship with her parents, who separated when she was little, and who she spent several years away from when they came to the U.S. and left her in Mexico until she was ten; about becoming a parent after her own relationship with her parents was so fractured; about baring her soul when reading her work and how she learned to set boundaries; and about coming to terms with the fragility of her body and how it changes as she ages.
I haven’t read any of her other books but I plan to read some of her backlist after this one. All of the chapters are introduced with a photo, which I enjoyed. I especially enjoyed Stitching My Mother Tongue, about how her participation in an English as a Second Language program when she arrived in the U.S. stifled her continued development of Spanish, which is a continued source of shame as a Latina. She could understand Spanish, but was never taught the grammar and vocabulary she would have been if she had been in a true bilingual program.
I highly recommend it, especially if you are, as I am, ensuring that at least half of the books I read every year are written by people who are not white. Grande is eloquent, honest, and vulnerable. And the essays in Migrant Heart are completely weight-neutral.
Reading While Fat 