Biography and Memoir

Discover the stories of their lives, in recent biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.
Updated February 19, 2026
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire
Julian Sancton
A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction
Elizabeth McCracken
From bestselling and award-winning author and professor Elizabeth McCracken comes an irresistible look at the art of writing. Writing can feel like an endless series of decisions. How does one face the blank page? Move a character around a room? Deal with time? Undertake revision?...
Junglekeeper: What It Takes to Change the World
Paul Rosolie
I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Matt Kaplan
Art Work: On the Creative Life
Sally Mann
Paper Book
"A big and beautiful gift-worthy holiday art book" (New York Times), this new bookby artist Sally Mann about the challenges and transcendent pleasures of the creative process, is now a New York Times bestseller. "Erudite, frank,...
The Look
Michelle Obama
100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life
Dick Van Dyke
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 ...
The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg―and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema
Paul Fischer
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...
The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir, and the Rise of the Surveillance State
Michael Steinberger
An acclaimed New York Times Magazine writer brings us into the world of the controversial technology firm Palantir and its very colorful and outspoken CEO, Alex Karp, tracing the ascent of Big Data, the rise of surveillance technology, and the shifting global balance of power in the 21st...
Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II
Bruce Henderson
Paper Book
The untold history of a top-secret operation in the run-up to D-Day in which American flyers and Allied spies carried out some of the most daring cloak-and-dagger operations of World War II. In 1943, the OSS--precursor to the CIA--came up with a plan to increase its support to...
Grit, Spit, and Never Quit: A Marine's Guide to Comedy and Life
Rob Riggle
Comedian Rob Riggle's frank, funny, and inspirational memoir about how the lessons he learned while serving in the US Marines prepared him for life, especially when it came to pursuing his comedy dreams. Before he graced movie screens in films like The...
Care and Feeding: A Memoir
Laurie Woolever
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller! A candid, funny, and occasionally devastating culinary memoir of a woman making her way through the food world, navigating addiction, a cultural reckoning, and an unexpected tragedy In this moving, hilarious, and insightful...
Say Everything: A Memoir
Ione Skye
Paper Book
In this instant New York Times bestselling memoir, Gen X icon Ione Skye shares her "delightfully juicy" (People) and achingly vulnerable story about chasing fame, desire, and true love in the shadow of her famous, absent father. In 1987, sixteen-year-old Ione Skye...
Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put
Annie B. Jones
A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a Nun
Sister Monica Clare
Paper Book
The soulful, hilarious memoir of a chronic people pleaser who surprised everyone in her life by abandoning an unfulfilling career and marriage to join a convent-and learned how much we stand to gain when we fully embrace our authentic selves "A Change of Habit follows...
Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer
Dylan Mulvaney
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestseller! "Dylan makes me laugh and makes me brave. I love Paper Doll, and I love this woman." --Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed Actress and content...
Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand
Jeff Chu
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A profound meditation on nature, heritage, and belonging, from an accomplished journalist who left New York City for life on a working farm "I needed this book. I think you need it, too."--Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could...
Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy
Michael Kosta
Paper Book
From a host of The Daily Show and stand-up comic, Michael Kosta, comes a wildly funny and insightful comedian memoir about his unlikely journey from professional tennis player (#864 in the world) to professional comedian (there's no ranking system in comedy but he's probably . . . top 50?).<...
Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly
Hannah Selinger
What happens when a career you love doesn't love you back? As Hannah Selinger will tell you, to be a good restaurant employee is to be invisible. At the height of her career as a server and then sommelier at some of New York's most famed dining institutions,...
Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary
Victoria Amelina
Paper Book
WINNER, THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING SHORT LIST, THE 2025 MOORE PRIZE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS WRITING WITH A FOREWORD BY MARGARET ATWOOD A NATIONAL BESTSELLERNPR BOOKS WE LOVE, 2025 "Remarkable...powerful, eloquently testifying to the...
This Dog Will Change Your Life
Elias Weiss Friedman
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . A uniquely insightful, uplifting, emotional, and informative book that shows us how dogs make our lives better by making us better people, from the Dogist The stunning hardcover of This Dog Will Change Your Life features a custom...
Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s First Stuntwoman
Mallory O'Meara
Paper Book
From LA Times bestselling author Mallory O'Meara, the story of America's first professional stuntwoman, Helen Gibson, who rose to fame during a time when women ruled Hollywood. Helen Gibson was a woman willing to do anything to give audiences a thrill. Advertised as "The...
Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age
Amanda Hess
Paper Book
"Second Life is not only a book for parents; it's for anyone intrigued (and concerned) by the ways in which our digital footprints impact the circle of life itself." --Elle "Engrossing....With a reporter's gimlet eye, Hess lenses out from her personal experience.....
Maybe This Will Save Me: A Memoir of Art, Addiction and Transformation
Tommy Dorfman
*NATIONAL BESTSELLER* *An Autostraddle Most Anticipated Queer Book* "I'm determined to get to know the real Tommy, to trace the shape of my scars." For years, Tommy Dorfman turned her back on her thoughts and emotions, hoping...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.