The visual op-ed columnist for The New York Times since 2008, Charles M. Blow first made his name using charts as a form of opinion journalism. Since 2014 he has published more conventional-looking, if no less distinctive, columns. Now this astute commentator on public events tells his own story with Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27). This wrenching yet ultimately luminous memoir takes its title from a Bible verse, which continues ...and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it; accordingly, this coming-of-age narrative, set in 1970s Gibsland, Louisiana, a small, segregated community, unfolds with a powerful urgency. Although reviews, as well as interviews with the author, have often focused on the sexual abuse Blow suffered as a young boy, and on the sometimes violent episodes of fraternity hazing he was subject to in college, the memoir is multi-textured, featuring vivid characters and lyrical small-town settings. The story of Blow’s mother’s reinvention and of his own remarkable career path are among the many reasons to read this inspiring book.