This week, we’re celebrating the release of Joshua Safran‘s debut memoir, Free Spirit: Growing up on the Road and Off the Grid (out today)!

“A beautiful, powerful memoir. This assured debut is reminiscent of David Sedaris’s and Augusten Burroughs’s best work: introspective, hilarious, and heartbreaking,” wrote Publishers Weekly.

Here, Joshua has chosen five books that inspired him to share his life story through his memoir:

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him.

The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok

A breathtaking literary memoir about the complex meaning of love, truth, and the capacity for forgiveness among family. Through stunning prose and original art created by the author in tandem with the text, The Memory Palace explores the connections between mother and daughter that cannot be broken no matter how much exists—or is lost—between them.

Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson

In their intensity of perception, their neon-lit evocation of a strange world brought uncomfortably close to our own, the stories in Jesus’ Son offer a disturbing yet eerily beautiful portrayal of American loneliness and hope.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

David Sedaris’s fourth book mines poignant comedy from his peculiar childhood in North Carolina, his bizarre career path, and his move with his lover to France.

Stalingrad by Antony Beevor

As never before, Stalingrad conveys the experience of soldiers on both sides as they fought in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield.

Pinterest PS – Check out this Northern California Pinterest board!