Biography and Memoir

Discover the stories of their lives, in recent biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.
Updated May 20, 2026
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Mark Twain
Ron Chernow
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times Bestseller * One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2025* A Washington Post and New York Times Notable Book * Named a Best Book of 2025 by TIME, The Guardian, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, and Kirkus Reviews ...
Phases: A Memoir
Brandy
Paper Book
* INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! * The iconic, multiplatinum, Grammy Award®-winning performer Brandy brings us a raw, intimate portrait of her life, charting her journey from Mississippi churches to Hollywood spotlights ...
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Jenny Lawson
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Warm, insightful, and witty, the first book of advice from New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson--aka the Bloggess Jenny Lawson is full of contradictions. She's a celebrated author but battles self-doubt,...
Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln
Matthew Pinsker
Paper Book
We know Lincoln as the eloquent, compassionate leader of a nation torn by civil war. But he had another, less visible side, equally central to his character and leadership: Lincoln was a master of party politics. Schooled as a Whig in the rough-and-tumble of Illinois electioneering in the 1830s,...
The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family
Dorothy Roberts
Paper Book
From Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body and a writer who "has brilliantly illuminated the Black experience in America for decades" (Bryan Stevenson), comes a spirited and riveting memoir of growing up in an interracial family in 1960s Chicago and a daughter's journey...
Famesick: A Memoir
Lena Dunham
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been...
100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life
Dick Van Dyke
Paper Book
On the eve of his 100th birthday, national treasure Dick Van Dyke brings us this autobiographical collection of stories, reflections, and life advice on how he's maintained a zest for life. Dick Van Dyke danced his way into our hearts with iconic roles in ...
Traversal
Maria Popova
Paper Book
From the Marginalian creator and bestselling author Maria Popova, a bold exploration of what makes a meaningful life. What is life? What is death? What makes a body a person? What makes a planet a...
Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic
Bunnie Xo
Paper Book
***The INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!*** From the trailer parks of Vegas to the mansions of Nashville, Bunnie Xo has lived a lot of lives and seen the darkest sides of humanity. Her memoir, Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic, is cold, clear...
Winter: The Story of a Season
Val McDermid
Paper Book
"The perfect little book to get you through winter's doldrums . . . a warm look at a dark time."--Washington Post In this radiant work of creative nonfiction, internationally beloved novelist Val McDermid delivers a dazzling ode to a lost world, ruminating on a single...
The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg―and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema
Paul Fischer
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Riveting, grade A smack for cinema junkies...Fischer's writing pulsates." --Steven Soderbergh, filmmaker The untold, intimate story of how three young visionaries--Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg...
Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World
Julia Cooke
I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Matt Kaplan
Paper Book
An energetic and impassioned work of popular science about scientists who have had to fight for their revolutionary ideas to be accepted--from Darwin to Pasteur to modern day Nobel Prize winners. For two decades, Matt Kaplan has covered science for the Economist. He's...
The Look
Michelle Obama
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD * Beautifully illustrated with more than 200 photographs, including never-before-seen images, The Look is a stunning journey through Michelle Obama's style evolution, in her own words for the first time. ...
Thank You, Teachers: True Stories from America’s Teachers, Our Last Line of Defense and Our First Line of Hope (Heroes Among Us, 6)
James Patterson
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller! Teachers deserve recognition every day, especially on National Teacher's Day! This Teacher Appreciation Week and end of school year, express your...
Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund
Molly Crabapple
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The dramatic story of the Jewish Bund--a revolutionary movement from a vanished world--and its radical vision of solidarity in an age of division. "Molly Crabapple beckons readers through a portal to an irresistible, lost world, one bound...
I Identify as Blind: A Brazen Celebration of Disability Culture, Identity, and Power
Lachi
Paper Book
Lachi is an award-winning musician and an unapologetic activist who awakens the world to this truth: Disability is an identity worth brazenly celebrating. In her book, Lachi spotlights how disabled people have to be driven, persistent, perceptive, and highly adaptable just to get through any given...
Junglekeeper: What It Takes to Change the World
Paul Rosolie
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Most people assume that the world has been explored and true adventure is dead: This book is one man's rebuttal. Explorer and conservationist Paul Rosolie shares his incredible life in the Amazon rainforest--and what we can learn from the people fighting to...

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