Biography/Memoir

Discover the stories of writers, artists, musicians, politicians, taste-makers, and others whose lives invite reflection on our concepts and experiences of culture; what (and who) it includes and how it changes.

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Updated May 28, 2025
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I heard her call my name : a memoir of transition
Sante, Lucy
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Slate "Reading this book is a joy . . . much to say about the trans journey and will undoubtedly become a standard for those in need of...
What have we here? : portraits of a life
Williams, Billy Dee
Paper Book
WHAT HAVE WE HERE? follows Billy Dee Williams from his childhood growing up in Harlem to his days on Broadway and in Hollywood before landing the role in George Lucas' space opera that would win him everlasting fame. Over a 60-year career spanning Broadway, music, movies, and...
How to be old : lessons in living boldly from the accidental icon
Slater, Lyn
Paper Book
One of Elle's Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of 2024 A personal memoir in which Lyn Slater, known on Instagram as "Accidental Icon," brings her characteristic style, optimism, forward-thinking, and rules-are-meant-to-be-broken attitude to the question of how to live...
The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon
Shatz, Adam.
Paper Book
Longlisted for The Baillie Gifford Prize 2024 Prospect Magazine Books of the Year 2024: Lives Guardian Best Biographies & Memoirs 2024 Frantz Fanon was born in Martinique, a French colony, in 1925. As a young man, he...
But you don't look Arab : and other tales of unbelonging
Gorani, Hala
Paper Book
Emmy Award-winning international journalist Hala Gorani weaves stories from her time as a globe-trotting correspondent and anchor with her own lifelong search for identity as the daughter of Syrian immigrants. What is it like to have no clear identity in a world full of labels?...
Raising hare : a memoir
Dalton, Chloe
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE * A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman's unlikely friendship with a wild hare. One of The New...
One day, everyone will have always been against this
El Akkad, Omar
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values "[A] bracing memoir and manifesto."--The New York Times "I can...
My brother, my land : a story from Palestine
Hermez, Sami Samir
Paper Book
A riveting and unapologetic account of Palestinian resistance, the story of one family's care for their land, and a reflection on love and heartache while living under military occupation. In 1967, Sireen Sawalha's mother, with her young children, walked back to Palestine against...
The house of hidden meanings : a memoir
RuPaul
Paper Book
***An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!*** From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date--a deeply intimate memoir of discovery, found family, and self-acceptance. The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the...
Rental person who does nothing : a memoir
Morimoto, Shoji
Paper Book
Today, I'm starting a 'rent a person who does nothing' service . . . Except for very simple conversation, I'm afraid I can do nothing.Shoji Morimoto was constantly being told that he was a 'do-nothing' because he lacked initiative. Dispirited and unemployed, it occurred to him that if he was so good...
Where rivers part : a story of my mother's life
Yang, Kao Kalia
Paper Book
This powerful memoir about a Hmong family's epic journey to safety is a profound "testament to the miraculous strength of women and the indomitable resolve of the human spirit" (Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans). Born in 1961 in war-torn Laos,...
Memorial days
Brooks, Geraldine
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller "Brooks tracks the geography of grief with patience and grace as she comes to terms with the ongoing nature of outliving the ones you love most. ... Her memoir is certainly a testament to her own unique loss, but it's moreover a lifeline to others...
The trouble of color : an American family memoir
Jones, Martha S.
Paper Book
An "intimate and searching" (Natasha Trethewey, New York Times-bestselling author of Memorial Drive) memoir of family, color, and being Black, white, and other in America, from "one of our country's greatest historians" (Clint Smith, #1 New York Times-bestselling author...
Saving five : a memoir of hope
Nguyen, Amanda
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Natalie Portman's Book Club Pick for March. "Amanda's story--innovatively told by versions of herself at different ages--underscores the lasting power of speaking...
This beautiful, ridiculous city : a graphic memoir
Sohini, Kay
Paper Book
A vibrant graphic memoir of a woman--an immigrant, a survivor, a writer, a foodie, and, ultimately, an optimist--who rebuilds her life in New York City while recovering from the trauma of an abusive relationship. "An intimate portrait of the city not only as a place of dreams,...
The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir
White, Edmund.
Paper Book
'Trousers down from page one ... NSFW' THE TIMES 'The gayest book ever written' HENRY HOKE, author of Open Throat 'Daddy's diary fully delivers' JEREMY ATHERTON LIN, author of Gay Bar --------------------------------------------
Fearless and free : a memoir
Baker, Josephine
Paper Book
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: The TODAY Show, Vanity Fair, Financial Times, W Magazine, Oprah Daily, LibraryReads Praised as "funny and witty" by Kwame Alexander on the TODAY show, now published in the US for the first time, Fearless and Free is the...
The harder I fight the more I love you : a memoir
Case, Neko
Paper Book

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