Published Reviews for
Autumn Leaves

Raw, honest story about a daughter's love to find the answers her mother deserves. The story was compelling and left me wanting to know more! As someone who has also lived through a DNA surprise, I appreciate anyone willing to share the emotional details of navigating such a profound life shift. I appreciated that this memoir including many different perspectives on the topic as well. Thank you for sharing this personal experience with others. We need more resources out there!

I absolutely loved Autumn Leaves. Sharon Beth’s story is touching, honest and beautifully told. What begins with a simple DNA test turns into a heartfelt journey of family, identity and faith. I was drawn in from the very first page and found myself thinking about her story long after I’d finished.

A wonderful, inspiring read — I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I really enjoyed this memoir focusing on a genealogical mystery in the author’s family. The story starts with her happy childhood and love for her parents and extended family. As a young woman she starts to document her family’s heritage, which is certainly a rich one, and then a DNA test sends her on a journey of discovery and gradually a 60 year old family secret is revealed. The pacing of the story is good and because the author has so carefully and lovingly revealed these family stories the reader is pulled into her search and can hardly wait until the mystery is solved. Like the author, though, we are concerned about the impact this truth will have on the one family member who might be the most hurt and shocked by it. Happily recommended.

Wow! What a powerful story! I imagine there are countless similar stories of DNA trauma. Even those of us who remain purposefully ignorant of our DNA heritage will enjoy this book. It is a compelling mystery. I was very impressed with the author's bravery and the vulnerability she showed in writing this story. Be prepared for surprises, heartaches, and tears of joy. Autumn Leaves has all of these in the sharing of a long hidden secret of a truly American family.

I haven't sat down to read an entire book since junior high... I was captivated. I'm sure I'll read it again.. This is such an inspiration to share my own DNA story, but moreso just a fascinating look into the depths of Sharon's life and ancestry. The imagery and detail, twists and everything coming together with secrets, clues and revelations is extra edge-of-seat feeling, which makes it even harder to put this book down. Definitely recommend!

What begins as a quest for a standard genealogy search on a guided tour through Ancestry.com becomes much more. In Autumn Leaves: A DNA Memoir, author Sharon Beth tells the story of how she discovered her family tree had many more branches and leaves than her immediate family originally thought.

Scouring through a box of film reels handed down by her grandmother, Beth begins her story as she watches history play out before her eyes in grainy motion: her mother as a toddler playing on the beach, her grandmother not far behind. But as Beth watches the reel, she is overcome with the feeling that she is missing something.

Sharon Beth and her family were confident of their lineage: Ukrainian, Ashkenazi Jewish, Syrian, German, and French. Excited to see how her DNA was distributed between these six, Beth was taken aback when her results revealed something that seemed to come so far from left field that she assumed it was a glitch–until her sister’s test revealed correlating results. Determined to unravel the double helix at hand, Beth sets off on a trek of discovery, loss, and determination of what it means to come to terms with an ancestry different than what you have known all your life.

Beth navigates her family’s history through connections with relatives who have lived decades longer than she has, researching and reading books from a time before her own, and facing difficult decisions regarding revelation or silence, all while juggling motherhood, family life, and personal health issues.

Handled with honor and care, the author dedicates time to a telling of each family member’s story and their significance in the tale. Pictures from her own collection and archive enrich the imagery of each family member’s story, even while told through her own lens. Unsure of when or where the mystery will unfold, the reader travels with the author through history, through states, and through the connection the internet provides us.

A book best suited for those who love to dive into the nitty-gritty of genealogy, Autumn Leaves: A DNA Memoir by Sharon Beth is a sweet and suspenseful telling of a family coming together through time, distance, and even a pandemic that makes you wonder what your own family history may be hiding.

Must read 

A brief, great memoir about family, love, faith, grief, and DNA testing in the modern world.

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In Autumn Leaves, Sharon Beth explores her family tree in depth. Her life story, a blend of new beginnings, endings, happy periods, and challenging times, encourages others with similar experiences to share their stories. When confronted with unbelievably shocking DNA results, she began her detective work.

Beth’s Foreword rings true for many as it triggers childhood memories. For me, I read this part and couldn’t agree more, concluding that the things we’re told in our youth are the same regardless of which part of Earth we call home. Then Beth turns the focus to herself, her childhood, revealing a happy neighbourhood, the fun she had as a child, and above all, the people whose hands nurtured her. And she shares family photos, those grey ones, and they’re all beautiful, especially those of Grandma Sheila.

Remarkably, Beth’s story goes back and forth, interweaving past and present, and I found myself deeply immersed. I met Linda, who wasn’t Beth’s relative but a wonderful woman running her business. Sad that Beth paid her a visit many years later, only to find her long gone. Some individuals had a lasting impact on Beth and departed when their time was up. Beth remembers them, sharing their stories here.

Though I didn’t get to meet Grandma Sheila, she’s very much alive in this memoir, being heard and seen through Beth. In the end, she explained why she didn’t label the tape that captured her at the beach with her daughter, Beth’s mother. She revealed her love for Nino.

I wanted to hear directly from Beth’s mother, and Beth granted me that wish in the end. In her own words, Beth’s mother recounted the DNA discovery’s impact on her, how she was coping, and her life moving forward.

Overall, Beth’s favourite song is “Autumn Leaves” by Frank Sinatra, and I bet memoir readers will want to listen to this song again, especially after reading this great memoir.