45 Memoirs Everyone Should Read
Updated: Jul. 26, 2024
These compelling memoirs are guaranteed to broaden your horizons and make you see the world a little differently
Our editors and experts handpick every product we feature. We may earn a commission from your purchases.Learn more.
The best memoirs of all time
Blockbuster memoirs by famous people are everywhere, climbing up lists of the best nonfiction books of all time. Not to be confused with autobiographies or biographies, memoirs make up a distinct nonfiction book genre centered on stories about specific moments in the author’s life, often on a theme like travel, growing up queer or personal growth. As inspiring as these books are, some of the best memoirs are written by people you might not have heard of—people whose stories will grab your heart and never let go.
Terrific memoirs, like all the best books, offer a ticket to someplace new. They invite you to share experiences that are sometimes harrowing, sometimes entertaining, often enlightening and always moving. From books by celebrities, childhood actors and royals to those penned by Asian American writers, Southern novelists and journalists, there are plenty of memoirs to consider.
To help you find the right memoir for you, we weeded through critically acclaimed books, bestsellers and bookseller favorites. Then we sourced personal recommendations from folks in the book biz: memoirists, authors and even Reader’s Digest editors. Read on for must-read memoirs you won’t be able to put down.
Join the free Reader’s Digest Book Club for great reads, monthly discussions, author Q&As and a community of book lovers.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
For fans of: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy and Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
Whether or not you’re a fan of Michelle Zauner’s acclaimed alternative pop band Japanese Breakfast—and you really should be—you’ll love her (even more highly acclaimed) 2021 memoir. Crying in H Mart is Zauner’s tale of growing up Korean American in an Oregon town without many Asian American kids, of bonding with her family over delicious food in her grandmother’s Seoul apartment and of struggling with her mother’s expectations of her when she wanted to pursue music. When her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, 25-year-old Zauner returned home to care for her and was forced to reckon with her identity and reclaim the gifts her mother passed down. This is one of the most beautiful, lyrical memoirs about family, grief, food and love, which is why it’s one of the highest-rated books on Goodreads.
“Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner is truly a special book that sits and stays with you,” says writer and editor Angela Hui, the author of Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter. “I love her frank writing style, the emotive dialogue and stunning descriptions of food. It explores the deep connection between food and the love between a mother and her child, even amid hardship, pain and hurt feelings. I cried my eyes out, but I also laughed and loved it. It’s one of those books that will make you ugly cry in public and hug your loved ones tighter.”
Anne Fritz, the deputy editor of Reader’s Digest, was also moved by this must-read memoir. “Zauner’s poignant recounting of her childhood in small-town Oregon wonderfully captures the struggle between her and her Korean-born mother,” she says. “Their relationship irrevocably changes and evolves after Zauner’s mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, giving the two the opportunity to travel together to Korea, where Zauner begins to understand her mother in a new light.”
Spare by Prince Harry
For fans of: The Palace Papers by Tina Brown and Prince Charles by Sally Bedell Smith
This long-awaited 2023 memoir was one of the most-anticipated royal publications in years. Spare—which sold more than 3.2 million copies in its first week alone—is the intimate, honest story of the experiences, losses and adventures that shaped Prince Harry into the man he’s become. The book’s title comes from the old saying “an heir and a spare,” a reference to his status as King Charles’s second-born son. Covering his childhood, service in Afghanistan and more recent experiences, like becoming a husband and father, Harry’s memoir is filled with poignant and emotional moments, chief among them the recounting of his years coping with the loss of his mother, Princess Diana.
Looking for your next great book? Read four of today’s most compelling novels in the time it takes to read one with Fiction Favorites. And be sure to join the community!
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
For fans of: Thicker Than Water by Kerry Washington and The Stranger in My Genes by Bill Griffeth
In 2016, a DNA test from the popular genealogy website Ancestry.com shattered author Dani Shapiro’s world when she learned her beloved father, who had recently died, was not actually her biological father. What follows is a heartbreaking and haunting story about secrets, identity and digging up your past to find peace in your present.
“Dani Shapiro is one of my favorite authors, so I had no doubt I’d love Inheritance,” says Gila Pfeffer, author of Nearly Departed. “What I didn’t anticipate is how very much it would resonate and stick with me long after I read the last page. Through the twists and turns of her odyssey to reconcile her lifelong sense of deep unease about her true identity with the shocking yet validating news she ultimately discovers, Shapiro’s spare and candid writing style made me feel like I was right next to her for the ride. Inheritance is a celebration of self and a reminder that we are ever-evolving beings, that our stories continue to be written as long as we walk this Earth.”
Solito by Javier Zamora
For fans of: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
Solito is the story of 9-year-old Javier: top of his class in El Salvador, precocious and raised by his beloved aunt and grandparents. One day, he says goodbye to them and sets out on a 3,000-mile journey to reunite with his parents in America—alone but for a group of other migrants and a “coyote” who promises the trip will take just two weeks. He hasn’t seen his mother for four years and barely remembers his father.
Javier Zamora made the trip successfully, in large part due to the family he found along the way, and he grew up to be a poet, as the gorgeous prose in his 2022 memoir attests. His journey (which ended up taking two months) is a harrowing, gripping tale of desert treks, thirst, fear, love and unexpected kindnesses. You’ll be unspeakably moved and immediately make Solito one of your go-to book recommendations.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
For fans of: Hello, Molly by Molly Shannon and Finding Me by Viola Davis
The tongue-in-cheek title gives a clue to the dark humor contained within I’m Glad My Mom Died, which came out in 2022. But you’ll have to read the whole book to understand the heartbreaking story. Jennette McCurdy, best known for her television work on shows like iCarly and Sam and Cat, writes with piercing clarity about her struggles with her abusive, overbearing mother, whose only wish was for her to become a star. Eating disorders and addiction, and her mother’s premature death from cancer, complicated her blossoming acting career. McCurdy quit acting in favor of therapy and penned this hilarious, inspiring memoir about healing from trauma and the joy of discovering your own independence.
Departure Stories: Betty Crocker Made Matzoh Balls (and Other Lies) by Elisa Bernick
For fans of: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
It’s difficult enough being a girl in this patriarchal world; add being Jewish in a white, Christian Minnesota suburb during the 1960s and ’70s, unexamined intergenerational trauma and an imploding family run by a dynamic, unhappy matriarch, and you’ve got a perfect soup of trouble. Elisa Bernick’s engaging, tragic and hilarious 2022 memoir weaves recipes, jokes, memories, reporting and scrapbook fragments together into an absorbing and heartrending collage of a dysfunctional family. Departure Stories is ultimately a beautiful tale of how identity is formed and how resilience and hope follow when we come to terms with and rewrite our own narratives. Looking to do a little introspection of your own? The best self-help books can get you started.
Making a Scene by Constance Wu
For fans of: Mean Baby by Selma Blair
Growing up in the suburbs, actress Constance Wu was told “good girls don’t make scenes.” Perhaps that inspired her to find a stage where she could make a scene. She found her way to Hollywood and became a leading actress in the hit sitcom Fresh Off the Boat and the blockbuster film Crazy Rich Asians. At a glance, her life seems like a Cinderella story. But in her 2022 memoir, Wu pulls no punches while detailing the hardships in a raw and vulnerable way.
“As a memoirist and ghostwriter, I have a sweet spot for good memoirs as windows into other ways of being and the personal epiphanies experienced there,” says Sarah Tomlinson, author of Good Girl and The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers. “I picked up Making a Scene by Constance Wu expecting an easy read: a thoughtful, funny take on celebrity and representation from a Hollywood insider. It’s all that and also deeper and rawer—clearly a book Wu was hungry to write, as she dared moments of real candor and messy insight about complicated topics like sibling relationships, sexual assault and how it feels to be the oddball with outsize emotions who is drawn to the arts as a constructive place to put all those feelings. It also contains one of my favorite recent depictions of the bittersweet vagaries of an intense first love that can’t last but leaves a lasting mark. [This is the memoir] for anyone who’s not just interested in pop culture but also what it means to be human.”
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
For fans of: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and Educated by Tara Westover
The ramshackle house where Sarah M. Broom grew up was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. But it endures forever in the author’s psyche, as all our childhood homes do. Broom deftly weaves together personal history (she is the youngest of 12 children), the meaning of home and the larger story of New Orleans in her revealing and poignant 2019 memoir, The Yellow House. Her mesmerizing story and the sheer beauty of her writing won her the 2019 National Book Award for nonfiction.
All the Way to the Tigers by Mary Morris
For fans of: Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
In her delightful 2020 memoir, Mary Morris examines what it is to be a woman traveling alone through the world as she brings us along on her solo trip to India to view tigers, which she calls “the last truly wild things.” Written in more than 100 bite-sized chapters, All the Way to the Tigers weaves together history, natural science, the literary significance of tigers, philosophy and a reckoning with Morris’s own past. She also includes information on tiger conservation. It’s heartfelt, inspiring and the perfect tonic for your wanderlust.
Dimestore: A Writer’s Life by Lee Smith
For fans of: The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Southern novelist Lee Smith took a detour from fiction to write a love letter to her Appalachian childhood, complete with bluegrass and pink molded salad. This is delicious 20th-century nostalgia—a remembrance of a way of life that no longer exists, as well as a peek into the makings of a writer’s life. Even if you’ve never been to Appalachia, Dimestore, which was published in 2016, will make you a little homesick.
Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance and the Science of Time by Natalie Hodges
For fans of: Sound by Bella Bathhurst and But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer
Longlisted for the National Book Award, Uncommon Measure is an uncommon memoir—one that delves into philosophical meanderings on consciousness, time and quantum physics. But Natalie Hodges’s 2022 book is also a powerful and moving treatise on letting go of what one classical musician thought her life would look like and embracing the unknown.
“I love Uncommon Measure because it is both poignant and expansive,” says Alizah Holstein, the author of My Roman History. “Poignant because it delves deeply into the author’s loss of her career as a professional musician. Expansive because she sets her personal narrative within a larger frame of research about the nature of time, neuroscience and quantum physics. While these subjects may appear disparate, Hodges connects them all as if with a fine wire, creating a beautiful structure and a meaningful story about reimagining life after loss. While I was immersed in Uncommon Measure, I felt I was in the company of a deeply sympathetic and intelligent writer.”
Threading My Prayer Rug by Sabeeha Rehman
For fans of: Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin and The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya
Sabeeha Rehman and her husband came to New York from Pakistan more than 40 years ago, following their arranged marriage (which became a beautiful love story). The culture shock was intense, but Rehman, a devout Muslim, details how she found ways to maintain her faith while befriending a wide array of neighbors and loving the country she now calls home in her memoir Threading My Prayer Rug. In addition to raising a family, she has devoted her life to advocating for interfaith understanding.
Educated by Tara Westover
For fans of: Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs and Good Morning, Monster by Catherine Gildiner
This story of grit and resilience shot to the top of bestseller lists when it was released in 2018, and it’s still required reading for anyone who wants to know what determination looks like. Raised by hardscrabble survivalists in the isolated Idaho mountains and expected only to become an obedient, unquestioning wife, Tara Westover fought for an education. Against all odds, and despite many setbacks, she made it to Harvard and earned a PhD at Cambridge University. Shocking, inspiring and eye-opening, Westover’s life story is guaranteed to change you.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
For fans of: The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs and Being Mortal by Atul Gwande
Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon and new father, was only 36 years old when he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. One day, he was saving lives, and the next, he was losing his own. In this exquisite memoir, Kalanithi raises the biggest questions of all: What makes life worth living? Where do we find meaning? What do you do when your life has no future and ordinary goals no longer make sense? There was no miracle cure, unfortunately. Kalanithi died in 2015. But When Breath Becomes Air (published posthumously in 2016) remains robustly alive.
“My husband was dying of cancer when I first read When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi,” says Joyce Maynard, a journalist, columnist and the author of Count the Ways and How the Light Gets In. “It might have seemed like the last book a person would want to pick up when facing her own terrible loss. But here’s the thing about what Kalanithi gave us in those pages: Every one of them is filled with hopefulness and a sense of gratitude for the years he had and even for the gifts afforded him by the illness that was robbing him of a future. There’s no ‘why me?’ or the complaint, ‘life isn’t fair.’ (It’s not.) The author simply reminds us that the privilege of being alive on the planet is one none of us holds forever, whose expiration date few of us know until we reach it. Making our peace with mortality—our own and that of those we lose over the course of our living—is a challenge that faces us all. Nine years after his death—eight years after the death of my own husband—I think of Kalanithi at least once a week. His words stay with me. I’d call that a definition of immortality.”
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
For fans of: Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Cathy Park Hong’s brilliant 2020 memoir in essay form makes an invaluable contribution to the national conversation about race—in particular, the often neglected experiences of Asian Americans. The daughter of Korean immigrants, Hong explores “minor feelings” of shame and self-doubt, along with topics such as family and friendship. Some readers will find a welcome spark of recognition; others will encounter a fresh perspective.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
For fans of: Tracks by Robyn Davidson and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
At 26, Cheryl Strayed felt like her life was falling apart. Her mother had died, her marriage had ended, and she was relying on drugs to get through her days. On the grounds that she had nothing to lose, she embarked on the perilous—and exhilarating—thousand-mile Pacific Crest Trail. The long hike, for which she was unprepared, ultimately transformed her life. Her story, Wild, was published in 2013. It’s now considered among the most inspirational memoirs—and a someday classic—as well as the basis for a fantastic film.
On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks
For fans of: The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper and A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard
Neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote dozens of fascinating books about his medical practice (including Awakenings, which became a mega-hit movie starring Robin Williams). In a deeply personal memoir, he invites the reader into the final, surprisingly sweet chapters of his life before his death in 2015—the year On the Move was published. Also recommended: Insomniac City: New York, Oliver and Me, written by Sacks’s longtime companion, Bill Hayes, a street photographer who celebrates their love.
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
For fans of: The Color of Water by James McBride and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
Recounting the devastating loss of five young Black men within five years, Jesmyn Ward explores the toll of institutional racism and poverty. One of these men was the author’s brother; the others were all from the rural Mississippi community where she was raised, their untimely deaths a result of addiction and economic struggle. Published in 2013, Men We Reaped is eye-opening and necessary reading.
Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
For fans of: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon
A witty and compulsively readable memoir about New York Times food critic Ruth Reichl’s unorthodox childhood, Tender at the Bone is the hilarious and often heartbreaking tale of a woman and her lifelong passion for food. Published in 2010, it’s now recognized as a classic.
“Ruth Reichl has the ability to make the reader salivate just by turning a page,” says Karen Katz, former executive producer at the Food Network and the author of Getting Sauced. “[Reichl is] known as one of the leading culinary writers in the world, [and] Tender at the Bone is a touching narrative of how her lifetime interest and passion for food came into focus. Her laugh-out-loud yet often tragic stories of a childhood with a manic-depressive mother and a father at a loss for how to manage it all make the reader root for her as she escapes to Berkeley to begin her own journey of self-discovery. Her writing makes you feel as if you’re sitting with a good friend sharing tales while drinking a nice sauvignon blanc. Its words are just as crisp and refreshing as the wine.”
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
For fans of: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and Here After by Amy Lin
Grieving the death of her father, naturalist Helen Macdonald healed herself in a most unusual way: by adopting a hawk. Specifically, she adopted a goshawk she named Mabel, whose wild ferocity mirrored the author’s own grief; the emotional migration is brilliant. MacDonald followed up this riveting bestseller, which came out in 2016, with a gorgeous collection of personal essays, Vesper Flights, a book suffused with awe at the natural world. Be warned, though: This definitely makes the list of amazing but sad books.
Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson
For fans of: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher and In Pieces by Sally Field
No roundup of best memoirs would be complete without a salute to the nonagenarian who passed away in January 2021, days after the book’s publication. The groundbreaking actress defied racial barriers, accepting only roles that presented Black women with realistic dignity. Cicely Tyson won Emmy, Tony and Oscar awards and inspired a generation before her death at 96. In Just As I Am, she shares wise words about her journey.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
For fans of: Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer and The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a scientist? Hope Jahren, a paleobiologist whose specialty is plants and trees, offers an accessible, sometimes intimate, look at life in the lab and in the field in her 2016 memoir, Lab Girl. The reader gets to experience Jahren’s passion and focus in this memorable ride down a road few of us will travel, and she successfully pulls off the impossible: making botany—what most might consider a boring topic—absolutely riveting.
Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith and Family by Garrard Conley
For fans of: How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones and All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks
Garrard Conley was 19 when his parents found out his secret: He’s gay. They pressured him to enter inpatient gay conversion therapy with the goal of making him heterosexual. Published in 2016, this bracing, compassionate memoir chronicles Conley’s courageous journey to come to terms with his sexuality, stand up for his own identity and still love the people with whom he grew up. It also sheds necessary light on a dark practice—that’s still ongoing in some parts of America.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
For fans of: Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker and Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel
At age 24, newspaper journalist Susannah Cahalan feared she was going crazy, with uncontrollable violent outbursts and terrifying delusions. At first, her doctors weren’t much help—some thought she’d been drinking; others believed she was suffering from severe mental illness. Fortunately, a single dedicated doctor diagnosed her with a rare but treatable autoimmune disease called anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. With the help of her family and her own perseverance, she not only recovered but also put together the pieces of a medical mystery that could have ended tragically. She chronicled the captivating story in her 2012 memoir, Brain on Fire, which went on to become a hit movie.
A River Could Be a Tree by Angela Himsel
For fans of: Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman and Escape by Carolyn Jessop
Angela Himsel grew up in a doomsday cult in Indiana. Raised to believe the world was ending and that even the eye makeup she craved was a mortal sin, she made her way to a new life in New York, ultimately converting to Judaism. One of the most remarkable parts of her story is the steady bond between family members. Some siblings remained in the cult, as did her parents. Others left. Yet no one disowned anyone. Himsel’s gem of a book, published in 2018, is suffused with wisdom, humor and, above all, love.
Once We Were Sisters by Sheila Kohler
For fans of: Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett and Sisters First by Jenna Bush and Barbara Bush
Sheila Kohler grew up privileged in South Africa—but that didn’t save her sister from an abusive husband. After 39-year-old Maxine died in a highly suspicious car accident, the evidence strongly pointed toward murder, yet her heart surgeon husband walked free. Kohler illuminates the special bond between sisters as she recalls a life cut cruelly short. Like all the best memoirs, 2017’s Once We Were Sisters is both personal and universal, a reminder that women remain at risk for domestic violence not only abroad but in the United States as well.
The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
For fans of: Lit by Mary Karr and Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
Mary Karr’s memoir about growing up with alcoholic parents in Texas in the 1960s inspired a generation of writers to tell their truth. First published in 1995, the book was reissued 10 years later and forever belongs on any list of best memoirs. Karr’s writing is marked by candor, dry humor and courage as she refuses to let family secrets fester in darkness.
Beloved Strangers by Maria Chaudhuri
For fans of: What We Carry by Maya Shanbhag Lang and Stay True by Hua Hsu
Maria Chaudhuri’s gorgeously written 2014 debut, Beloved Strangers, chronicles her childhood in Bangladesh, her education in New England and her search, between two cultures, for joy. She manages to turn every detail into poetry while moving her story powerfully forward. No matter where you’re from, you’ll recognize the very human need to find one’s place in the world.
All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
For fans of: My Exaggerated Life by Pat Conroy (as told to Katherine Clark) and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Rick Bragg grew up dirt-poor in Alabama, the son of a violent, hard-drinking father and a mother who went 18 years without a new dress so her kids could have clothes. Without losing a sense of where he came from, Bragg became a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter. But his 1998 memoir isn’t just “worthy”—Bragg’s pitch-perfect storytelling makes for stay-up-all-night reading.
Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk
For fans of: Born Round by Frank Bruni and Toast by Nigel Slater
With so many memoirs centered on hard times and family dysfunction, it’s a sheer delight to encounter Patricia Volk’s quirky, loving, exuberant restaurant family. Volk’s great-grandfather introduced pastrami to America in 1888; her dad remained in the restaurant business in New York until 1988. As we all know, food and family go great together, and in this perceptive and witty book from 2002, they’re a winning combo.
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
For fans of: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey and Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
Literary giant Peter Matthiessen died in April 2014; he left behind a legacy of great works, both fiction and nonfiction. The Snow Leopard, published in 1978, is considered a modern classic. It recounts his 1972 journey deep into the heart of the Himalayas in search of the elusive Asian snow leopard—and also in search of himself. A brilliant mixture of nature writing, cultural journalism and spiritual seeking, this is a book to read and reread.
Still Points North: One Alaskan Childhood, One Grown-Up World, One Long Journey Home by Leigh Newman
For fans of: Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang and Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs by Alexandra Fuller
Leigh Newman’s exhilarating 2013 memoir moves through an unconventional Alaskan childhood to a lifetime of travel and, ultimately, a true sense of home. Her quest for courage, connection and life’s deepest adventures is not to be missed.
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen
For fans of: Paradise Falls by Keith O’Brien and Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Raised near a top-secret nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and working there as an adult, Kristen Iversen became increasingly troubled by the safety risks and health hazards, especially as people in the area became ill at an alarming rate. In Full Body Burden, her 2013 memoir, she entwines two narratives: one about environmental peril and the other about her own family’s toxic secrets. The result is a compelling, moving and deeply thought-provoking book.
Warrenpoint by Denis Donoghue
For fans of: Country Girl by Edna O’Brien and All Souls by Michael Patrick MacDonald
Literary scholar Denis Donoghue grew up Catholic in largely Protestant Northern Ireland. Warrenpoint, the memoir he published in 2013, is an extraordinary hybrid of personal reflection, theology, philosophy and intellectual adventure. If that makes it seem forbidding, it shouldn’t. This short book has at its heart the love between a father and son.
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
For fans of: Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín and Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
At the mention of Irish memoirs, it’s hard not to think of Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt’s blockbuster, Pulitzer Prize–winning account of a cruel childhood, rich only in storytelling and surprising humor. First published in 1996, it stayed on bestseller lists for more than two years, selling 4 million copies in hardcover. One of the most celebrated Irish authors of our time, McCourt died in 2009. But his book lives on as a landmark for contemporary memoirs, one that made the genre’s popularity skyrocket.
“I read Angela’s Ashes in one sitting, mesmerized by the gorgeous storytelling and the tragicomic view into the extreme poverty of Frank McCourt’s childhood in Ireland,” says Ann Hood, author of The Stolen Child, The Knitting Circle and The Book That Matters Most and a creative writing professor. “A book that so completely transports a reader is, to me, a perfect book. Whenever I teach memoir, this book is on the reading list because I think everybody needs to read it.”
When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
For fans of: Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer DeLeon and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
Esmeralda Santiago’s 1993 account of growing up in a large family in rural Puerto Rico, moving to Brooklyn, translating for her mother at the welfare office and ultimately graduating from Harvard with high honors has become a welcome staple in schools. If you’re too old to have read it in class, you should pick it up now. The warmth and palpable tenderness of Santiago’s story feels like an invigorating embrace.
About Alice by Calvin Trillin
For fans of: Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy by Cassandra King Conroy and Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
At 78 pages, About Alice is a small book with a big heart. It’s a kind of love letter to the humorist’s late wife, who died in 2001, five years before the book was published. You can read this tender, good-humored portrait of their marriage in an hour, maybe two, but you won’t forget it anytime soon.
Bald in the Land of Big Hair by Joni Rodgers
For fans of: Mortality by Christopher Hitchens and Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler
Joni Rodgers was 32 and raising two young children with her husband when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. While many cancer memoirs have been published since 2001’s Bald in the Land of Big Hair, few can match Rodgers’s candor and her wisecracking, laugh-out-loud humor. Perhaps laughter was the best medicine, as Rodgers is alive and well today.
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
For fans of: Still Life by Sarah Winman and Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Rebecca Solnit redefines—and defies—genre in her 2013 memoir, The Faraway Nearby. The book opens with her mother’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease, then takes us on an entirely unexpected journey encompassing everything from fairy tales and myths to a trip to Iceland to the birth of Frankenstein. The result is both wholly original and deeply moving.
In Pharoah’s Army: Memories of the Lost War by Tobias Wolff
For fans of: When I Turned Nineteen by Glyn Haynie and Kill Anything That Moves by Nick Turse
Tobias Wolff is well known for his award-winning fiction and for This Boy’s Life, the first of his extraordinary coming-of-age memoirs. But the sequel, In Pharoah’s Army, published in 1995 and detailing his service in Vietnam and the carnage of the Tet offensive, is also essential reading. His vivid prose transports us back to a previous age, just like these great time-travel books.
The Boy He Left Behind: A Man’s Search for His Lost Father by Mark Matousek
For fans of: Philomena: The True Story of a Mother and the Son She Had to Give Away by Martin Sixsmith and Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
At 38, Mark Matousek hired a detective to help him find the father who abandoned him at age 4. Matousek’s reconstruction of his parents’ lives and his remembrances of a painful childhood are as searing as his survival as an HIV-positive man is triumphant. Unflinching honesty and compassion set 2000’s The Boy He Left Behind apart from other dysfunctional-family memoirs.
The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M. Homes
For fans of: Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford and All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
A.M. Homes was in her early 30s, with a well-established career as a novelist, when she met her birth parents. What she found surprised and unsettled her—and sent her digging deeper into her genealogy. Adoption memoirs like Homes’s 2007 account are important not only for those who’ve experienced adoption but also for anyone interested in exploring personal and family identity.
The Memory Palace by Mira Bartók
For fans of: What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo and The Body Keeps the Score by Besser van der Kolk, MD
After a traumatic brain injury, Mira Bartók joins her sister to reconnect with their mentally ill mother, whom they hadn’t seen in 17 years. The family’s reconciliation makes for a powerful story of forgiveness—and the discovery of a locker the mother kept holds a key to many of Bartók’s missing memories. A National Book Critics Circle winner, The Memory Palace, published in 2011, is beautifully illustrated by the author. For more works that mix words and pictures, try these graphic novels for adults.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
For fans of: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
No roundup of the best memoirs would be complete without the sublime Maya Angelou, who chronicled her long, remarkable life in a riveting series of books. Start with the acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a modern classic published in 1969, then dig into the renowned poet and author’s other works, including Letters to My Daughter and Mom & Me & Mom.
Just Jerry: How Drawing Shaped My Life by Jerry Pinkney
For fans of: What’s So Funny? by David Sipress and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
In his memoir, celebrated children’s book illustrator Jerry Pinkney takes readers on a journey to his childhood in postwar Philadelphia, where segregation was standard and drawing offered comfort and escape. The bestselling, award-winning illustrator of more than 100 books, Pinkney enlivens the pages of Just Jerry with artwork chronicling moments from his life. The author passed away in 2021, so instead of his planned drawings and illustrated panels reminiscent of graphic novels, the book contains his original sketches, giving readers a sense of art in creation.
Appropriate for adults who grew up with Pinkney’s illustrations in their favorite books but really written for kids, this short memoir is flush with inspiration, particularly for aspiring artists. A very cool addition: Pinkney struggled with dyslexia as a child, so the book uses a font designed for dyslexic readers.
Additional reporting by Chloë Nannestad.
Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more books, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.
About the experts
|
Why trust us
At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite books for over 100 years. We’ve worked with bestselling authors including Susan Orlean, Janet Evanovich and Alex Haley, whose Pulitzer Prize–winning Roots grew out of a project funded by and originally published in the magazine. Through Fiction Favorites (formerly Select Editions and Condensed Books), Reader’s Digesthas been publishing anthologies of abridged novels for decades. We’ve worked with some of the biggest names in fiction, including James Patterson, Ruth Ware, Kristin Hannah and more. The Reader’s Digest Book Club, helmed by Books Editor Tracey Neithercott, introduces readers to even more of today’s best fiction by upcoming, bestselling and award-winning authors. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Angela Hui, author of Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter
- Gila Pfeffer, author of Nearly Departed
- Sarah Tomlinson, author of Good Girl and The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers
- Alizah Holstein, author of My Roman History
- Joyce Maynard, author of 18 books, including Count the Ways and How the Light Gets In
- Karen Katz, author of Getting Sauced
- Ann Hood, creative writing professor and author of The Stolen Child, The Knitting Circle and The Book That Matters Most
Originally Published: March 03, 2021
