Biography and Memoir

Discover the stories of their lives, in recent biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.
Updated September 6, 2024
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Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
Salman Rushdie
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring--and surviving--an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him   On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing...
Sociopath: A Memoir
Patric Gagne
Paper Book
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir of the author's struggle to understand her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder. "A cross between a podcast by relationship therapist Esther Perel and a salacious tell-all."...
The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir
Griffin Dunne
Paper Book
The instant New York Times bestseller!  "Warm and perceptive." --New York Times "Griffin Dunne knows how to tell a story." --Washington Post "Dunne is a prospector for the incandescent detail."  --Los Angeles Times ...
On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service
Anthony Fauci M.D.
Paper Book
Anthony Fauci is arguably the most famous - and most revered - doctor in the world today. His role guiding America sanely and calmly through Covid (and through the torrents of Trump) earned him the trust of millions during one of the most terrifying periods in modern American history, but this was...
Making It So: A Memoir
Patrick Stewart
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER The renowned and bestselling memoir--written with "insight, truth, and passion" (Sir Ian McKellen)--from iconic, beloved actor and living legend Sir Patrick Stewart. From his...
The Woman in Me
Britney Spears
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Year by Elle, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, NPR, Financial Times, Vanity Fair, and more! "In Britney Spears's memoir, she's stronger than ever." --The New York Times Over 2 million...
Elon Musk
Walter Isaacson
Paper Book
#1 New York Times bestseller From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era--a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of...
Consent: A Memoir
Jill Ciment
Paper Book
From the acclaimed novelist ("A virtuoso"--Donna Seaman, Booklist), a deft, shocking memoir that asks whether we can judge past behavior by today's moral codes, as the author reevaluates her decades-long marriage to the forty-seven-year-old man she met when she was seventeen, revisiting a...
Ambition Monster: A Memoir
Jennifer Romolini
Paper Book
"Entertaining and highly relatable." --The New York Times "As hilarious as it is heart-wrenching...[A] gift of storytelling, and an act of reclamation." --Ashley C. Ford, New York Times bestselling author A deeply personal...
Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones: A Memoir
Priyanka Mattoo
Paper Book
From a wry, insightful, and very funny new voice, here is one woman's search for home, from Kashmir to England to Saudi Arabia to Michigan to Rome and, finally, to Los Angeles--standalone essays that together form a sweeping portrait of a peripatetic life. "I would follow Priyanka...
I've Tried Being Nice: (Among Other Things): Essays
Ann Leary
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Ann Leary offers a literary feast of humor and wisdom told from the perspective of a recovering people pleaser. Having arrived at a certain age (her prime), Ann Leary casts a wry backward glance at a life spent trying--and often...
Life's Too Short: A Memoir
Darius Rucker
Paper Book
"Darius has always been one of my favorite people to sing with and to call a friend in this industry and yet even knowing him well for as long as I have, there are so many incredible stories in Life's Too Short that I enjoyed learning for the first time."--Sheryl Crow ...
My Name is Barbra
Barbra Streisand
Paper Book
The long-awaited memoir by the superstar of stage, screen, recordings, and television Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy,...
I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: (But I'm Going to Anyway)
Chelsea Devantez
Paper Book
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER "I could not put this book down. It's so funny" -Ru Paul "I LOVE this book for its honesty and dark (and light!) comedy" -Rachel Dratch (Instagram) "It's f*cking great!!! Raw, intimate, hilarious,...
The Uptown Local: Joy, Death, and Joan Didion: A Memoir
Cory Leadbeater
Paper Book
A brilliant debut memoir about a young writer--struggling with depression, family issues, and addiction--and his life-changing decade working for Joan Didion As an aspiring novelist in his early twenties, Cory Leadbeater was presented with an opportunity to work for a well-known writer...
Prairie Man
Dean Butler
Paper Book
Cast just before his twenty-third birthday, Dean Butler joined Little House on the Prairie halfway through its run, gaining instant celebrity and fans' enduring affection. Ironically, when the late, great Michael Landon remarked that Little House would outlive everyone involved in making it, Butler...
Crossing the Desert: The Power of Embracing Life's Difficult Journeys
Payam Zamani
Paper Book
USA Today Bestseller Publishers Weekly Bestseller Publisher Marketplace Bestseller At the age of 16, he escaped persecution and made his way to America as a refugee. At 28, he secured a billion-dollar IPO. Today, he's redefining what it means to be an...
Joyful Recollections of Trauma
Paul Scheer
Paper Book
From award-winning actor and comedian Paul Scheer, a candid and humorous memoir-in-essays on coming to terms with childhood trauma and finding the joy in embracing your authentic self. Paul Scheer has entertained countless fans and podcast listeners with stories about the odd...
What a Fool Believes: A Memoir
Michael McDonald
Paper Book
* INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A sweeping and evocative memoir from the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Grammy Award-winning, platinum selling singer-songwriter Michael McDonald, written with his friend, Emmy Award-nominated actor, comedian, and #1 New York Times ...
Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great
Rachel Kousser
Paper Book
"A heart-pounding, mind-bending adventure." --Ilyon Woo A riveting biography of Alexander the Great's final years, when the leader's insatiable desire to conquer the world set him off on an exhilarating, harrowing journey that would define his legacy.   By 330 B.C.E., Alexander...
Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice
David S. Tatel
Paper Book
The "moving, thoughtful, and inspiring memoir" (Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy) by one of America's most accomplished public servants and legal thinkers--who spent years denying and working around his blindness, before finally embracing it as an essential part of his identity....
The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, Normandy, and the Birth of the American Superpower
Michel Paradis
Paper Book
A thrilling new biography of Dwight Eisenhower set in the months leading up to D-Day, when he grew from a well-liked general into one of the singular figures of American history. "This is hands-down the most deeply researched, sensitive, intimate, and nuanced portrait of...
Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius
Carrie Courogen
Paper Book
Miss May Does Not Exist, by Carrie Courogen is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America's greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the...
The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America
Sara B. Franklin
Paper Book
Legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th century--including Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath--finally gets her due in this "surprising, granular, luminous, and path-breaking biography" (Edward Hirsch,...
Tiger, Tiger: The Untold Story of the G.O.A.T.
James Patterson
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller! "Patterson's account is compelling" (Daily Mail). The only major author to have nine holes-in-one gets inside the mystery of Tiger Woods in a biography that reads like an unputdownable...
Down with the System: A Memoir (of Sorts)
Serj Tankian
Paper Book
THE *INSTANT* NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  USA TODAY BESTSELLER An exhilarating, thoughtful, and beautifully written memoir by musician, songwriter, and lead singer-lyricist of Grammy award-winning metal band, System Of A...
Under a Rock
Chris Stein
Paper Book
Foreword by Debbie Harry "A Downtown Memory" by Romy Ashby Debbie Harry defined iconic band Blondie's look. Chris Stein--her performing partner, lover, and lifelong friend--was its architect and defined its sound. "Parallel Lines", their third album, catapulted to #1,...
All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians
Phil Elwood
Paper Book
"A rollicking, unexpectedly affecting story. . . It's going to be one of the big, buzzy Beltway books of the year." --Politico A bridge-burning, riotous memoir by a top PR operative in Washington who exposes the secrets of the $129-billion industry that...
T-Shirt Swim Club: The Struggle, Stretch Marks, and Solitude of Being Fat in a World Made for Thin People
Ian Karmel
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Comedian Ian Karmel, with help from his sister, Dr. Alisa Karmel, opens up about the daily humiliations of being fat and why it's so hard to talk about something so visible. "As charming and funny as it is poignant and thoughtful."--Roxane Gay, author of...
Another Word for Love: A Memoir
Carvell Wallace
Paper Book
A transformative memoir that reimagines the conventions of love and posits a radical vision for healing. In Another Word for Love, Carvell Wallace excavates layers of his own history, situated in the struggles and beauty of growing up Black and queer in America. ...
Coming Home
Brittney Griner
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the nine-time women's basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist--a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home. "Compelling . . . An intimate, honest recollection of Griner's time...
Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer's Life
Paul Hendrickson
Paper Book
From the acclaimed and best-selling author of Hemingway's Boat, the profoundly moving story of his father's wartime service as a night fighter pilot, and the prices he and his fellow soldiers paid for their acts of selfless, patriotic sacrifice In the fall of 1944, Joe...
Love and Whiskey
Fawn Weaver
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Embark on a captivating journey with Love & Whiskey. New York Times bestselling author Fawn Weaver unveils the hidden narrative behind one of America's most iconic whiskey brands. This book is a vibrant exploration set in the...
Fi: A Memoir of My Son
Alexandra Fuller
Paper Book
From the award-winning New York Times-bestselling author of Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller, comes a career defining memoir about grieving the sudden loss of her twenty-one-year-old child "A mesmeric celebration of a boy who died too soon,...
Group Living and Other Recipes: A Memoir
Lola Milholland
Paper Book
"An affirmation and celebration of our deep and radical connections with the world and each other . . . Reading this book is like finding a friend."--Ruth Ozeki A spirited and timely exploration of group living that encourages readers to reconsider the meaning of family and home....
Entrances and Exits
Michael Richards
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As seen on The Today Show, The View, and Jesse Watters The man who brought the kavorka to the Seinfeld show through one of the most remarkable and beloved television characters...
I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris
Glynnis MacNicol
Paper Book
"A delight, the literary equivalent of a long catch-up with a brilliant friend." --New York Times "One of the most talked-about books of the year." --Gayle King When you're a woman of a certain age, you are only promised that everything will get...
Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell
Ann Powers
Paper Book
*An Observer Best New Biographies of 2024* Celebrated NPR music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of Joni Mitchell in a lyrical style as fascinating and ethereal as the songs of the artist herself. "What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and...
1974: A Personal History
Francine Prose
Paper Book
"In this remarkable memoir, the qualities that have long distinguished Francine Prose's fiction and criticism--uncompromising intelligence, a gratifying aversion to sentiment, the citrus bite of irony--give rigor and, finally, an unexpected poignancy to an emotional, artistic, and political...
Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir
Annamarie Tendler
Paper Book
*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* "This book is so many things I didn't know I needed: a testament to the work of healing, a raw howl of anger, and an indictment of misogyny's insipid, predictable, infuriating reign." --Carmen Maria Machado, author of the National Book Award...
At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China
Edward Wong
Paper Book
"A sprawling, complex morality tale, sweeping us along." --The Wall Street Journal "This book's power comes from Wong's broad sense of the patterns of Chinese history, reflected in the lives of a father and son, and from his ability to toggle effortlessly between the epic and...
Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl
Hyeseung Song
Paper Book
For readers of Crying in H Mart and Minor Feelings as well as lovers of the film Minari comes a searing coming-of-age memoir about the daughter of ambitious Asian American immigrants and her search for self-worth. A daughter of Korean immigrants, Hyeseung...
Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even
Nicole Treska
Paper Book
A poignant memoir of growing up inside Boston's criminal underworld--and breaking free. Nicole Treska was born to a family of gangsters. In the 1970s, during Boston's mob wars, her grandfather's diner was an unofficial headquarters for Whitey Bulger and other members of the...
Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond
Henry Winkler
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller! From Emmy-award winning actor, author, comedian, producer, and director Henry Winkler, a deeply thoughtful memoir of the lifelong effects of stardom and the struggle to become whole. Henry Winkler, launched into...
Chasing Hope: A Reporter's Life
Nicholas D. Kristof
Paper Book
From New York Timescolumnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and best-selling author Nicholas D. Kristof, an intimate and gripping memoir about a life in journalism "Nick Kristof takes us behind the scenes as he risks his life to shine a light on the world's most pressing problems and...
The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady
Heath Hardage Lee
Paper Book
A new, revolutionary look into the brilliant life of Pat Nixon. In America's collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted "Most Admired Woman in the World" in 1972 and made Gallup Poll's top ten list of most admired women fourteen...
Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy
bellerelizabeth
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES, USA TODAY BESTSELLER The life and legacy of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy Jr., are reexamined in this captivating and effervescent biography that is perfect for fans of My Travels with Mrs....

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