Hunger

 by Roxanne Gay

The memoir deals with her gang rape as a preteen, overeating, and the author's struggles with her public and private identities.

Gay's work has been greatly influenced by a sexual assault she experienced at the age of 12 at the hands of her boyfriend and his friends.  This led to obsessive overeating which served as a way to keep men at a distance.

See: Roxanne Gay.  Since the publication of Hunger, Gay has become an important public intellectual who publishes regularly in the NY Times.

Breathing for a Living

by Laura Rothenberg  Wikipedia

Twenty-one-year-old Laura Rothenberg had always tried to live a normal life--even with lungs that betrayed her and a constant awareness that she might not live to see her next birthday. Like most people born with cystic fibrosis, the chronic disease that affects primarily the lungs, Laura struggled to come to grips with a life that had already been compromised in many ways. Sometimes healthy and able to attend school, other times hospitalized for weeks, Laura found solace in keeping a diary. In her writing, she could be open, honest, and irreverent, like the young person she was. Yet behind this voice is a penetrating maturity about her mortality, revealing a will and temperament that is fierce and insightful.

Also see: The Amazing Life of Laura by Andrew Solomon