Happy Merry Memoir Reading!
A few days ago, I posed a question on Facebook.
If we’re friends over there, you may have seen it.
Holy wow, people — just in time for the holiday week!
Whether you’re lucky enough to be heading off on a real vacation, chilling at home, or it’s business as usual and you could use a new read for your commute to work, this is your lucky day. Have I got titles for you!
I compiled your responses, and also took the irresistible liberty of adding a few more of my favorites.
The column on the left includes books I can vouch for, many of which appeared in the comments on the original thread. The column on the right has titles folks recommended, and are books I have not (yet) read. Both lists are alphabetical by author’s last name. (As an aside, do you also find alphabetizing to be so incredibly satisfying? And as another, related, aside, do you also have to sign through the whole alphabet repeatedly to make sure you get the order right? Yes? MY PEOPLE.)
Finally, in the spirit of you-can-never-have-too-many-titles-to-choose-from, be sure to check out 50 Must-Read Contemporary Memoirs by Writers of Color and The most anticipated memoirs of 2020 from Stephanie Elliot on She Reads.
Without further ado…
Happy Hanukkah — and Merry Memoir Reading!
Memoirs I’ve Read & Loved Lately and Over the Years
More Titles Recommended by Your Fellow Readers
The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
Keep Your Head Down by Doug Anderson
Expecting Adam by Martha Beck
Dryland by Nancy Stearns Bercaw
Black is the Body by Emily Bernard
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jenny Boylan
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
Stardust Lounge by Deborah Digges
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
My Year of Dirt and Water by Tracy Franz
Hunger by Roxane Gay
Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
Without a Map by Meredith Hall
Autumn Light by Pico Iyer
I’m the One Who Got Away by Andrea Jarrell
Broken: A Love Story by Lisa Jones
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Nina Here Nor There by Nick Krieger
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka
Maid by Stephanie Land
Heavy by Keise Laymon
Wondering Who You Are by Sonya Lea
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
Writing My Wrongs by Shaka Senghor
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Educated by Tara Westover
When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams
Valedictorian of Being Dead by Heather B. Armstrong
By Myself by Lauren Bacall
Malaya by Cinelle Barnes
Memory Palace by Mira Bartok
Tattoos on the Heart by Father Gregory Boyle
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
Toil and Trouble by Augusten Burroughs
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz
The Survivors by Adam Frankel
Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Time on Fire by Evan Handler
Barefoot Heart by Elva Trevino Hart
The Littlest Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
In Extremis by Lindsey Hilsum
The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
Waking Up White by Debby Irving
How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung
Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
From Scratch by Tembi Locke
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Excavation by Wendy Ortiz
Return to Camdeboo by Eve Palmer
Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer
On Being Human by Jennifer Pastiloff
Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power
The Brightest Hour by Nina Riggs
Night Drive by Garnet Rogers
Chef by Marcos Samuelsson
The Universal Tone by Carlos Santana
Mother Winter by Sophia Shalmiyev
Dimestore by Lee Smith
Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence
Becoming Eve by Abby Chava Stein
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
Sissy by Jacob Tobias
The Art of Leaving by Ayelet Tsabari
The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty
Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber
The Unwinding of a Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams
The Baltimore Book of the Dead by Marion Winik
Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch
