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 16, 2026
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LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Happy Valley Library
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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.

Working on Summer Reading Book BINGO? Find more booklists to help at go.lincc.org/hvBINGObooks.

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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...
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...
Raising hare : a memoir
Dalton, Chloe
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE * A 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.
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?...
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...
One day, everyone will have always been against this
El Akkad, Omar
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * 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...
The cats of Poets Square : on care, community, & surviving capitalism
Gustafson, Courtney
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An intimate memoir about the importance of community and care in a world that can feel impossibly broken--and a story about accidentally going viral while tending to a colony of feral cats. AN NPR AND CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE...
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
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER · A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 · A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2025 · A Time Best Memoir of 2025 · Named a Best Book of 2025 by NPR,...
The trouble of color : an American family memoir
Jones, Martha S.
Paper Book
A memoir of family, color, and being Black, white, and other in America, from a preeminent historian "Intimate and searching." --Natasha Trethewey, New York Times-bestselling author of Memorial Drive Named a Best Book of the Year...
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
Sohini, Kay
Paper Book
'This is such a rich book, both visually and narratively' - Isabel Greenberg, author of Young Hag 'A ravishing new take on a storied city' - Katherine May, New York Times bestselling author of, Wintering and Enchantment At once...
The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir
White, Edmund
Paper Book
A VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "A raw, frightening, funny, and beautiful testimony." -Robert Jones, Jr. "White's love of sex makes us proud to be human." -John Irving I'm at an age when writers are supposed to say finally what...
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
The house of my mother : a daughter's quest for freedom
Franke, Shari
Paper Book
*THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER & #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog - now the subject of a new Disney+ docuseries - and the...
Shattered : a memoir
Kureishi, Hanif
Paper Book
'A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.' On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost...
Medicine River : a story of survival and the legacy of Indian boarding schools
Pember, Mary Annette
Paper Book
A sweeping and deeply personal account of Native American boarding schools in the United States, and the legacy of abuse wrought by them in an attempt to destroy Native culture and life FINALIST FOR THE PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, TIME,...
Careless people : a cautionary tale of power, greed, and lost idealism
Wynn-Williams, Sarah
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Bestseller A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK. NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, AP, THE ECONOMIST, SLATE, THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, AND MORE!
Paper girl : a memoir of home and family in a fractured America
Macy, Beth
Paper Book
Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the '70s and '80s-certainly not for her family. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her...
Wild thing : a life of Paul Gauguin
Prideaux, Sue
Paper Book
A vital re-examination of the trailblazing and controversial artist Paul Gauguin, by the prize-winning author of I Am Dynamite!
Mother Mary comes to me
Roy, Arundhati
Paper Book
The incredible first memoir from the Booker-winning radical icon Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMENS PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 2026 ...
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