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
Sancton, Julian
Paper Book
A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction
McCracken, Elizabeth
Paper Book
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?...
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
David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God: David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God
Ormerod, Peter
Paper Book
Junglekeeper: What It Takes to Change the World
Rosolie, Paul
Paper Book
I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Kaplan, Matt
Paper Book
Art Work: On the Creative Life
Mann, Sally
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
Obama, Michelle
Paper Book
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 ...
Notes on Being a Man
Galloway, Scott
Paper Book
Bestselling author, NYU professor, and cohost of the Pivot podcast Scott Galloway offers a path forward for men and parents of boys. Boys and men are in crisis. Rarely has a cohort fallen further and faster than young men living in Western democracies. Boys are less likely...
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...
Girls Play Dead: Acts of Self-Preservation
Percy, Jen
Paper Book
A lyrical and groundbreaking exploration of the misun­derstood ways women survive and forever carry trauma from the award-winning New York Times Magazine writer Jen Percy. "Percy's subject is brutal, but her writing allays some of the impact by being almost impossibly...
Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II
Henderson, Bruce
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...
Presidential Seclusion: The Power of Camp David
Ferguson, Charles
Paper Book
Behind the gates of Camp David--where presidents find solitude, forge diplomacy, and shape history in absolute secrecy. The Presidential Retreat Camp David is shrouded in mystery, and rightfully so. The hidden retreat atop the Catoctin Mountains is the one place the President,...
My Little Donkey: And Other Essays
Cooley, Martha
Paper Book
In 2021, in her mid-sixties, Martha Cooley moved with her husband from the United States to Castiglione del Terziere, a village in northernmost Tuscany. Prompted by this relocation, the essays in My Little Donkey chronicle her encounters with people, animals, the past, and herself as she reckons...
Grit, Spit, and Never Quit: A Marine's Guide to Comedy and Life
Riggle, Rob
Paper Book
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
Woolever, Laurie
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...
The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex
Febos, Melissa
Paper Book
From Melissa Febos, the national bestselling author of Girlhood, comes an examination of the solitude, freedoms, and feminist heroes she discovered during a year of celibacy and a wise and transformative look at relationships and self-knowledge. "Only Melissa Febos could...
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
Mulvaney, Dylan
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
Chu, Jeff
Paper Book
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 Make This Place Beautiful...
Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy
Kosta, Michael
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?).<...
Spellbound: My Life as a Dyslexic Wordsmith
Hanley, Phil
Paper Book
National Bestseller An Amazon Best of Biography/Memoir Comedian and severe dyslexic Phil Hanley reveals his unlikely path to success in a story that is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. When Phil Hanley...
Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly
Selinger, Hannah
Paper Book
Town & Country's Best Books of Spring 2025 | Kirkus Reviews's Most Anticipated Nonfiction of Spring 2025 | Amazon's Best Books of the Month | American Writers Museum's Staff Picks What happens when a career you love doesn't love you back? ...
Making the Best of What's Left: When We're Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered
Viorst, Judith
Paper Book
From the bestselling author Judith Viorst comes a witty and poignant exploration of the joys and sorrows of life's twilight years--one that leaves us laughing, pondering, and grateful for the moments we have left. In a career that has spanned more than fifty years, Judith Viorst...
Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary
Amelina, Victoria
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
Weiss Friedman, Elias
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...
Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson
Hoffman, Claire
Paper Book
A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year A Must-Read: The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Millions, Alta Long-listed for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography "Magnificent."<...
Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood's First Stuntwoman (Original)
O'Meara, Mallory
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
Hess, Amanda
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.....
Sucker Punch: Essays
Koul, Scaachi
Paper Book
The long-awaited follow-up from one of the most original and hilarious voices writing today. Scaachi Koul's first book was a collection of raw, perceptive, and hilarious essays reckoning with the issues of race, body image, love, friendship, and growing up the daughter of...
Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star
Sen, Mayukh
Paper Book
Merle Oberon made history when she was announced as a nominee for the Best Actress Oscar in 1936. Hers was a face that "launched a thousand ships," a so-called exotic beauty who the camera loved and fans adored. Her nomination for The Dark Angel marked the first time the Academy recognized a...
Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
Ioffe, Julia
Paper Book
NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD WINNER FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NAMED ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2025 BY THE WASHINGTON POST NAMED ONE OF THE 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2025 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2025 ...
Maybe This Will Save Me: A Memoir of Art, Addiction and Transformation (Original)
Dorfman, Tommy
Paper Book
*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.