Memorable Memoirs

Updated March 20, 2024
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The color of water : a Black man's tribute to his white mother
McBride, James
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird: The modern classic that spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list and that Oprah.com calls one of the best memoirs of a generation....
Why be happy when you could be normal?
Winterson, Jeanette
Paper Book
In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It tells the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents. The girl is supposed to grow up and be a missionary. Instead she falls in love with a woman. Disaster. Written when...
The dance of the dissident daughter : a woman's journey from Christian tradition to the sacred feminine
Kidd, Sue Monk.
Paper Book
The acclaimed spiritual memoir from the author of The Secret Life of Bees I was amazed to find that I had no idea how to unfold my spiritual life in a feminine way. I was surprised and, in fact, a little terrified when I found myself in the middle of a feminist spiritual reawakening. Sue Monk...
Educated : a memoir
Westover, Tara
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University ...
The cancer journals
Lorde, Audre
Paper Book
Moving between journal entry, memoir, and exposition, Audre Lorde fuses the personal and political as she reflects on her experience coping with breast cancer and a radical mastectomy. A Penguin Classic First published over forty years ago, The Cancer Journals...
Between the world and me
Coates, Ta-Nehisi.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST * ONE OF OPRAH'S "BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH" * NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT ...
Go tell it on the mountain : a novel
Baldwin, James
Paper Book
A gorgeous deluxe edition of James Baldwin's bestselling first novel--a coming-of-age story that depicts incredible resilience in pursuit of self-invention, now hailed as an American classic "A novel of extraordinary sensitivity and poetry."--Chicago Tribune ...
Between the world and me
Coates, Ta-Nehisi.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST * ONE OF OPRAH'S "BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH" * NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT ...
Educated : a memoir
Westover, Tara
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University ...
Angela's ashes : a memoir
McCourt, Frank.
Paper Book
A Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland--now with a new introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe. "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all...
Born a crime : stories from a South African childhood
Noah, Trevor
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * More than one million copies sold! A "brilliant" (Lupita Nyong'o, Time), "poignant" (Entertainment Weekly), "soul-nourishing" (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid  
Are you my mother? : a comic drama
Bechdel, Alison
Paper Book
From the best-selling author ofFun Home,Timemagazine's No. 1 Book of the Year, a brilliantly told graphic memoir of Alison Bechdel becoming the artist her mother wanted to be. Alison Bechdel'sFun Home was a pop culture and literary phenomenon. Now, a second...
The color of water : a black man's tribute to his white mother
McBride, James
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird: The modern classic that spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list and that Oprah.com calls one of the best memoirs of a generation....
Angela's ashes : a memoir
McCourt, Frank.
Paper Book
A Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland--now with a new introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe. "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all...
The autobiography of Malcolm X
X, Malcolm
Paper Book
They called him the 'angriest black man in America' ...Malcolm X inspired many people in the United States. This autobiography, tells of a young, disenfranchised man whose descent into drug addition, robbery and prison was only reversed by his belief in the rights struggle for black America, and his...
What I talk about when I talk about running : a memoir
Murakami, Haruki
Paper Book
In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the...
The collected schizophrenias : essays
Wang, Esmé Weijun
Ebook
Between two kingdoms : what almost dying taught me about living
Jaouad, Suleika
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER We all face moments that bring us to our knees- heartbreak, trauma, illness. When things don't go to plan this is the book to reach for - an inspirational memoir about what the struggle to survive teaches us about how to live.<...
Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. "A wholly original achievement.... Satrapi evokes herself and her schoolmates coming of age in a...
Born a crime : stories from a South African childhood
Noah, Trevor
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * More than one million copies sold! A "brilliant" (Lupita Nyong'o, Time), "poignant" (Entertainment Weekly), "soul-nourishing" (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid  
Fun home : a family tragicomic
Bechdel, Alison
Paper Book
DISCOVER the BESTSELLING GRAPHIC MEMOIR behind the Olivier Award nominated musical. 'A sapphic graphic treat' The Times A moving and darkly humorous family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Alison Bechdel's gothic...
What my bones know : a memoir of healing from complex trauma
Foo, Stephanie
Paper Book
A searing memoir of reckoning and healing which investigates the little-understood science behind complex PTSD.

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