Biography and Memoir

Discover the stories of their lives, in recent biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.
Updated May 20, 2026
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Biography and Memoir

Discover the stories of their lives, in recent biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.
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In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man : a memoir
Junod, Tom
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE . From two-time National Magazine Award winner Tom Junod, a searching, brilliantly stylized memoir about a charismatic, philandering father who tried to mold his son in his image, the many secrets he hid, the son's obsessive quest to uncover...
Mark Twain
Chernow, Ron
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 (Original)
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 ...
North of ordinary : how one woman left it all behind for wilderness and wonder in Alaska's frozen frontier
Aikens, Sue
Paper Book
When the wild strips everything away, what's left is who you are. In the raw, untamed wilds of Alaska--where the wind howls, predators hunt, and the sun disappears for months--only a rare few figure out how to survive. Sue Aikens, the breakout star of National Geographic's long-running TV...
Labor: One Woman's Work
Afsari, Mary Fariba
Paper Book
A powerful memoir of medicine, identity, and family secrets from an esteemed ob-gyn as she unravels her grandmother's mysterious death while reimagining women's health care from a mobile clinic--for readers of The Beauty in Breaking and The In-Between. In...
Small Town Girls: A Writer's Memoir
Phillips, Jayne Anne.
Paper Book
OPRAH'S #1 MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 * A luminous memoir in essays from the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, who reflects on her origins and the mysteries of memory. "A brilliant, wide-ranging book, nostalgic and tough-minded at the same time. Like Willa Cather and Stephen Crane,...
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny.
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,...
Lost: Amelia Earhart's Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life
Hartigan, Rachel.
Paper Book
Unravel one of history's greatest mysteries in this spellbinding narrative, filled with compelling images, that explores the three leading theories of Amelia Earhart's tragic disappearance. When Amelia Earhart's plane disappeared in 1937, the clues poured in, attracting wild...
Boss Lincoln : the partisan life of Abraham Lincoln
Pinsker, Matthew
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
Roberts, Dorothy.
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...
A Room in Bombay: A Memoir
Suri, Manil
Paper Book
Indian American author Manil Suri grew up in a large crumbling apartment in Bombay (now Mumbai) which his parents, who were Hindu, shared with three Muslim families. Their single room, at times a refuge from the religious and territorial tensions pervading the apartment, was also a prison that...
We mend with gold : an immigrant daughter's reckoning with American Christianity
Lee, Kristin T.
"A smart, searching look at the need for more inclusive forms of Christianity in the U.S." --Publishers Weekly,starred review A daughter of the Asian American church wrestles with faith, exile, and belonging. Being a Christian has nothing to do with being Chinese American--that's...
Famesick: A Memoir
Dunham, Lena.
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...
Joyful, anyway
Bowler, Kate
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * New York Times bestselling author and Duke University professor Kate Bowler offers a profound, funny, and deeply human case for joy that doesn't depend on everything getting better. "Joyful, Anyway is colorful and layered, unafraid of the...
CAVE MOUNTAIN : A DISAPPEARANCE AND A RECKONING IN THE OZARKS
Hale, Benjamin.
Paper Book
"The damnedest mixing of true crime, memoir, and maybe (?) ghost story I've ever read. The original Harper's article gave me the shivers, and this deeper dive is going to have me looking over my shoulder on every hike. Unputdownable." -- Patton Oswalt With the immediacy...
100 Rules for Living to 100 : An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life
Van Dyke, Dick.
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 ...
American Men
Conn, Jordan Ritter.
Paper Book
A deeply intimate portrait of the lives of four men that examines--in profound and comprehensive ways--what it means to be a man in America. Men wield outsized power across all major institutions. But they are falling behind across all measures of well-being and success. They include...
The Irish goodbye : micro-memoirs
Fennelly, Beth Ann 1971-
Paper Book
What can we learn from an ordinary life observed with extraordinary skill? In The Irish Goodbye, Beth Ann Fennelly writes of the small moments that shape a life, whether moving or perplexing or troubling or gladdening, in the process dignifying the diminutive through the act of attention....
Traversal
Popova, Maria.
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
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 evidence that no one is irredeemable. With a heavy dose of humor and a...
David Bowie and the search for life, death and God
Ormerod, Peter
Paper Book
'The Bowie you thought you knew is recast completely' Helen Barrett, The Spectator ''Ormerod had me singing in the choir with him' Simon Critchley, The Guardian 'a transfixing look at David Bowie's life through a spiritual lens......
Winter : the story of a season
McDermid, Val
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
Fischer, Paul.
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...
Boomtown : the true story of the wickedest town in Texas
Pappalardo, Joe
Paper Book
Just a year after the town of Borger, Texas was founded, the press called it "the wickedest in the state" for good reason. The town, sprung into existence overnight to support the oilfields, had become a lawless haven for bootleggers, pimps and gamblers, run by a crooked city hall. That environment...
Western star : the life and legends of Larry McMurtry
Streitfeld, David
Paper Book
By his longtime friend and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, the definitive biography of Larry McMurtry, the legendary author and screenwriter of Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and Brokeback Mountain, who transformed our vision of the West. Before...
The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution
O'Malley, Gregory E.
Paper Book
"Gregory E. O'Malley's The Escapes of David George is a gripping, novelistic study of the remarkable man whose life forces all of us to reexamine the realities of colonial slavery and the conflicted legacies of the American Revolution." --Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ...
Starry and restless : three women who changed work, writing, and the world
Cooke, Julia
Paper Book
She hid on a Red Cross boat to reach Omaha Beach on D-Day. She walked the abandoned streets of Hong Kong to take food to her daughter's father, a prisoner of war. She fought off the advances of overzealous Yugoslavian diplomats, found overlooked details of world history in a dentist's kitchen in...
I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Kaplan, Matt.
Paper Book
For two decades, Matt Kaplan has covered science for the Economist. He's seen breakthroughs often occur in spite of, rather than because of, the behavior of the research community, and how support can be withheld for those who don't conform or have the right connections. In this passionately...
Black. single. mother. : real-life tales of longing and belonging
Lemieux, Jamilah
Paper Book
A personal meditation on, examination of, and tribute to Black single motherhood, unapologetically told through poignant essays and candid interviews by a celebrated cultural critic "Jamilah Lemieux is one of the most important feminist writers of the twenty-first century."...
The Look
Obama, Michelle.
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. ...
The madness pill : one doctor's quest to understand schizophrenia
Garson, Justin
Paper Book
In the 1950s, the field of psychiatry had nothing to show for itself. While polio was being cured, antibiotics were being discovered, and cancer research was developing, the mental health world had no wins. Asylums were full and nobody had figured out how to fix insanity--specifically schizophrenia,...
Thank You, Teachers: True Stories from America's Teachers, Our Last Line of Defense and Our First Line of Hope
Patterson, James.
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
Crabapple, Molly.
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...
The hour of the wolf : a memoir
Bhutto, Fatima 1982-
Paper Book
From acclaimed journalist and novelist Fatima Bhutto, whose work has been hailed as "intense and powerful" (NPR), comes a searing, intimate memoir of grief, heartbreak, and what we owe the natural world--all learned from the dog who saved her life. Fatima Bhutto was a teenager...
I Identify as Blind
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...
Partially devoured : how Night of the Living Dead saved my life and changed the world
Kraus, Daniel 1975-
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF ANGEL DOWN "A stroke of genius! This is the definitive love letter to the film, written with such meticulous passion and demented glee that you feel yourself standing on the set during the shoot." --Greg Nicotero The New York...
Hard feelings : finding the wisdom in our darkest emotions
Smith, Daniel B. 1977-
Paper Book
From a psychotherapist and the New York Times bestselling author of Monkey Mind, a thoughtful, deeply personal exploration of our most difficult emotions, arguing that they are not obstacles to overcome but essential messengers that can lead us toward wisdom and wholeness. ...
The real ones : how to disrupt the hidden ways racism makes us less authentic
Rupert, Maya
Paper Book
One of Maya Rupert's earliest life lessons was learning how to be inauthentic. That performance-the ability to make white people feel comfortable about race and their own racism-has perversely conferred upon her everything from safety and acceptance to professional success and social capital. As...
My America : Langston Hughes on democracy
Jelks, Randal Maurice 1956-
"An engaging, introspective view of poet Langston Hughes and curates a compelling narrative of Hughes as an activist, advocate, and champion of justice through his poetry." --Library Journal "By resisting a sanitized version of Hughes, My Americapresents him as a radical thinker who, at...
Junglekeeper: What It Takes to Change the World
Rosolie, Paul.
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...
Ludwig Wittgenstein : Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes
Gottlieb, Anthony 1956-
Paper Book
The first biography in more than three decades of the Austrian-born thinker Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century "An engrossing biography [that] focuses on what is most essential and interesting in the philosopher's work and life....
Wanderers : A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II
Gerson, Daniela.
Paper Book
"Powerful." -- Wall Street Journal An immigration journalist and her wife trace their family's intertwined past to unearth a history of how hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews survived Hitler's Holocaust at the brutal hands of Stalin--a story that...
Empire of Madness: Reimagining Western Mental Health Care for Everyone
Kidia, Khameer.
Paper Book
An urgent rethinking of the Western approach to mental health, which treats the symptoms rather than the exploitative systems causing our distress-by a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Medical School physician-anthropologist-offering lessons from the rest of the world. What if the...
The Secret History of French Cooking: The Outlaw Chefs Who Made Food Modern
Barr, Luke.
Paper Book
In The Secret History of French Cooking, Barr takes us through the tumultuous birth of nouvelle cuisine, illustrating the triumphs and controversies within this culinary counterculture revolution with intimate looks at some of the most famous chefs of the era, names like Paul Bocuse and Michael...
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