When Tina Fey’s book Bossypants came out last year, there was a lot of buzz, a lot of positive talk about how funny it was. I don’t usually buy celebrity books because I am inevitably disappointed. But I bought it. And I was disappointed. It wasn’t bad, and parts were quite funny. But when I read something billed as a memoir, I want some sort of narrative arc, some revelation, some insight. I got a bunch of bits and vignettes, and no arc other than chronology linking it all together.

So when people started talking about Lizz Winstead’s Lizz Free or Die I was dubious. The book isn’t labeled as a memoir, but as a book of essays. Like with Bossypants, the reviews were ubiquitous and uniformly good. So I bought it, and I loved it. Loosely chronological, the book is more than a timeline. It tells the story of the growth of a writer, from doing standup comedy to the writer who helped to create both The Daily Show and Air America Radio. Winstead is fearless in her writing, not shying away from tough subjects, like the aging and death of a parent or her own experience with abortion. It’s revelatory writing, which is what a memoir should be. I’ve been recommending this book to everyone.

The best memoir I’ve read lately though, is Israeli writer Meir Shalev’s story of his youth in an agricultural collective during the years surrounding the founding of Israel, My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner. When someone speaks of narrative arc, this is what they are talking about. This is the tale of a time, a place, and a childhood told through the near legendary story of a vacuum cleaner and its place in Shalev family lore. The vacuum (“shveepeer”, the grandmother calls it — a name, complete with Russian accent, that sticks in the family for that type of appliance to this day) links the people and places, and a time from the second wave of immigration to what was then Palestine through the end of the 20th Century. The book is funny, touching, and like Winstead’s book, revelatory. There is truth told, as well as the story of Shalev’s search for that truth through the varying memories of family members. This book, also highly recommended, makes me want to read more of his work.

And that’s the tell, isn’t it? I wouldn’t buy another book by Tina Fey. She’s funny and talented, but maybe not in a literary way. But I’d read Winstead again, and I’ve already ordered Shalev’s novel A Pigeon and A Boy. I bet it’s a great read.