In her latest collection of innovative, shape-shifting essays, An Earlier Life, Brenda Miller evolves through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood to enter the wry maturity of middle age. Joli Mari Wad’pa Catechism: A Love Story is a collection of poetic essays on reading, loving, and, most delightfully, reading love between the lines. In his memoir, The Narrow Door, Paul Lisicky creates a compelling collage of scenes and images drawn from two long-term relationships, one with a female novelist and the other with his ex-husband, a poet.