Book Review: Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can't Forget by Reyna Grande-Essays

Hello, dear Readers,

Below is my book review of Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can't Forget by Reyna Grande.

Title: Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can't Forget

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Non-Fiction/Essays

Author: Reyna Grande

Publisher: Atria/ Primero Sueno Press
Publication Date: May 12, 2026

Language: English

Hardcover: 256 Pages

Meet the Author: Reyna Grande

Buy Me: Amazon

Book Description

An ambitious memoir in essays by beloved bestselling author Reyna Grande that illuminates the hidden cost of the American Dream and the complex journey of healing that follows survival.

What is the true power of stories? Can they heal the jagged edges of a traumatic childhood? Is the cost of telling the story worth the price of the cure?

Reyna Grande has spent her career capturing the raw reality of life across borders. In this intricate and deeply intimate memoir-in-essays, the author of the landmark memoirs The Distance Between Us and A Dream Called Home again turns her gaze inward to explore the scars left by migration and the ongoing work of stitching herself back together.

With her signature blend of sophistication and raw honesty, Grande interrogates how living between two nations, two languages, and two identities has shaped the woman, mother, and writer she has become. Moving from the legacy of violence in her hometown of Iguala, Mexico, to a bittersweet family vacation in Europe spent reconciling her own impoverished past with her children’s world of abundance, she uncovers startling truths about the nature of survival.

Whether being racially profiled in the Arizona borderlands or finding unexpected wisdom from the slugs in her garden, Grande unflinchingly asks: How do we bridge the gap between who we were and who we have become? How do we turn pain into power? When memory threatens to define us, how can we use story to heal while still honoring our boundaries?

Migrant Heart is a powerful testament to Grande’s role as a storyteller and cultural witness. It expands our understanding of life in the United States and the complex people who cross its borders and live within it. It is an essential read for the seekers, the dreamers, and anyone who believes in the enduring, transformative power of finding one’s voice.

My Thoughts

First of all, some trigger warnings: Illness, fear of aging, sex life, alcoholism, death, grief, sexual assault, dysfunctional family dynamics, parenting, and immigration.

I have read all of Reyna’s previous work, and I love every single book. I find Reyna Grande to be an author who always tries to write in the best, most honest way possible, no matter how raw or hard the subject matter is.

While her previous work focuses on her journey coming to the USA, crossing the border, the impact of immigrating and growing up between two cultures, and her relationship with her mom and dad and her family in general, however, in Migrant Heart, written in Essays, I love how we get to know more about Reyna, the human being, the woman, the wife, the mom, the daughter, the sister, the writer, the friend, the advocate, and all the challenges she went through growing up as an immigrant, from the language barrier, to the psychological impact of living and developing between two cultures, from the place she was born and grew up to the place she immigrated to and became a teenager, and adult to the challenges of becoming a wife, a mom, a writer and navigate the world of writing books and advocating and educating on immigration matters.

I found this part of the book interesting and compelling: how, through her books, her writing, and by going back to her family in Mexico, to the place she was born, she always tries to help, educate, and advocate, no matter how much risk it might entail.

It was also fascinating to learn more about Reyna, the woman, the wife, the mom. How she handles and faces situations that are very common to women out there, such as parenting, sex life, illness, fear of aging, and family relationships. I loved how we learned a little bit more about Reyna’s husband and children in this book.

As you can tell, I loved Migrant Heart because, even though it felt more personal, it didn't leave out Reyna’s ongoing work on awareness, education, and advocacy around immigration through her personal experiences and journey.

Thank you to the Author and the Publisher for the free ARC physical copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Wendy

Book Review: A Dream Called Home: A Memoir by Reyna Grande-Biographies/Memoirs

Hello dear Readers,

Below my book review of A Dream Called Home: A Memoir by Reyna Grande.

Title: A Dream Called Home: A Memoir by Reyna Grande

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Biographies/Memoirs

Author: Reyna Grande

Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: October 2, 2018

Language: English

Hardcover: 336 pages
Meet the Author: Reyna Grande
Buy Me: Amazon

Book Description

From bestselling author Reyna Grande—whose remarkable memoir The Distance Between Ushas become required reading in schools across the country—comes an inspiring account of one woman’s quest to find her place in America as a first-generation Latina university student and aspiring writer determined to build a new life for her family one fearless word at a time.

When Reyna Grande was nine-years-old, she walked across the US–Mexico border in search of a home, desperate to be reunited with the parents who had left her behind years before for a better life in the City of Angels. What she found instead was an indifferent mother, an abusive, alcoholic father, and a school system that belittled her heritage.

With so few resources at her disposal, Reyna finds refuge in words, and it is her love of reading and writing that propels her to rise above until she achieves the impossible and is accepted to the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Although her acceptance is a triumph, the actual experience of American college life is intimidating and unfamiliar for someone like Reyna, who is now once again estranged from her family and support system. Again, she finds solace in words, holding fast to her vision of becoming a writer, only to discover she knows nothing about what it takes to make a career out of a dream.

Through it all, Reyna is determined to make the impossible possible, going from undocumented immigrant of little means to “a fierce, smart, shimmering light of a writer” (Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild); a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist “speak[ing] for millions of immigrants whose voices have gone unheard” (Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street); and a proud mother of two beautiful children who will never have to know the pain of poverty and neglect.

Told in Reyna’s exquisite, heartfelt prose, A Dream Called Home demonstrates how, by daring to pursue her dreams, Reyna was able to build the one thing she had always longed for: a home that would endure.

My Thoughts

I did not know about this author until one day when I was at my local library reading through the new non fiction titles on display that I saw A Dream Called Home. Only took seeing it was a memoir and reading a little bit of the book description for me to take it home. I started reading it and after a few pages I knew I needed to own it, to have it on my shelves. I regret about not knowing of Reyna Grande's books sooner because now that I have read A Dream Called Home and being 150 pages into The Distance Between Us I can say without a doubt I love her writing, her voice and the stories she shares with us the readers. One of my favorite writers now for sure. 

A Dream Called Home is a beautifully written, honest, transparent memoir. This is actually the thing I like the most about Reyna's writing, she does not sugar coat things, even the most painful and not pretty aspects of her life she tells them with such honesty that you cannot help but sympathize, to understand that what she went through was real, and even though people are not always willing to put on display the darkest moments of their lives but I love how Reyna does it and to me that adds a lot of value, respect and credibility to her story. Of course Reyna also shares her achievements as a college student, all the people who helped her and encouraged her to not give up on her dream of being a writer, how she somehow always tried to help her family as much as she could, having her first baby, and meeting who is now her husband, her struggles but also the rewards on her writing career as such signing her first book deal. All these plus all the no so good moments makes this book in my opinion a masterpiece of a Memoir. 

Wendy