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2024 Round Up: Favourite Biographies & Memoirs
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Immerse yourself in a new perspective. Here are our top personal stories from 2024.
Updated January 8, 2025
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Greater Victoria Public Library
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At the edge of empire a family's reckoning with China
Wong, Edward, 1972- author.
Paper Book
One of The Washington Post's 50 Notable Nonfiction Books of 2024 "A sprawling, complex morality tale, sweeping us along." --The Wall Street Journal "In telling this personal story about family memory, exile and return, the book also takes in the breadth of...
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Be ready when the luck happens a memoir
Garten, Ina
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten--aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon--shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table....
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Burn book a tech love story
Swisher, Kara
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead. "Swisher, the bad-ass journalist and...
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Cher the memoir. Part one
Cher, 1946- author.
Paper Book
***The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller*** ***The Global #1 Bestseller*** The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person . . . Cher herself. After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her...
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Didion & Babitz
Anolik, Lili
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Air Mail, Harper's Bazaar, The Washington Post, and more! Joan Didion is revealed at last in this "vivid, engrossing" (Vogue), and...
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Everything and nothing at all essays
Wills, Jenny Heijun
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE 2024 WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION * The Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2024 * CBC's Best Canadian Non-Fiction of 2024 "Here is my disconnect: the private and public self. My mind and body. The real person and curated spectacle. . . . Are there actual...
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The Friday afternoon club a family memoir
Dunne, Griffin
Paper Book
The instant New York Times bestseller * Named a Best Book of the Year by TIME, NPR, People, Town & Country, and Air Mail "Warm and perceptive." --New York Times "Griffin Dunne knows how to tell a story." --Washington...
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Grief is for people
Crosley, Sloane
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Year by Vogue, TIME, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Esquire, NPR, Elle, Library Journal, LitHub, Oprah Daily, Publishers Weekly, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus, Bookpage, The Independent, and New Statesman
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Here after
Lin, Amy (Teacher)
Paper Book
Starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Library Journal A Kirkus Best of 2024 Nonfiction Pick A March 2024 Book of the Month Selection An Apple Books Best Book of March A 2024...
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I heard her call my name a memoir of transition
Sante, Lucy
Paper Book
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 guidance. " --The Washington Post<...
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In exile rupture, reunion, and my grandmother's secret life
Ansari, Sadiya
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Globe 100 Best Book of 2024! The Hill Times 100 Best Book of 2024 In a deeply personal investigation, award-winning journalist Sadiya Ansari takes us across three continents and back a century as she seeks the truth behind a family secret. Why did...
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Invisible prisons Jack Whalen's tireless fight for justice
Moore, Lisa, 1964- author.
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE 2024 HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE The Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2024 * CBC's Best Canadian Non-Fiction of 2024 Riveting nonfiction from multi-award-winning author Lisa Moore, based on the shocking true story of a teenaged boy who endured abuse...
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Kingmaker Pamela Harriman's astonishing life of power, seduction, and intrigue
Purnell, Sonia
Paper Book
"A thorough account of Harriman's rise which also manages to be a brisk, twisty read ... riveting and revelatory." --The New Yorker "Rigorous but rollicking." --The New York Times Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by Apple Books, The Economist<...
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Knife meditations after an attempted murder
Rushdie, Salman
Paper Book
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Globe and Mail, The Winnipeg Free Press, NPR, The New Yorker, Slate * A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2024 *...
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Letters
Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015
Paper Book
One of The New Statesman's Best Books of the Year One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 One of The New Yorker's 'Best Books We've Read in 2024 So Far' THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE * The letters of one of the greatest observers of...
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Patriot a memoir
Navalʹnyĭ, Alekseĭ
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORKER, THE ATLANTIC, NPR * LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD * The powerful and moving memoir of a fearless political opposition leader who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs.
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Question 7
Flanagan, Richard, 1961- author.
Paper Book
THE WASHINGTON POST'S TOP TEN NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR * WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR PRIX FÉMINA ETRANGER * LONGLISTED FOR PRIX MÉDICIS * An exquisite, genre-defying new book from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Narrow...
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Raising hare : the heartwarming true story of an unlikely freindship
Dalton, Chloe
Paper Book
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. Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof...
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Sonny boy a memoir
Pacino, Al, 1940- author.
Paper Book
The Instant New York Times Bestseller * One of People Magazine's Top 10 Books of the Year "The rare celebrity memoir that's also a literary read. As funny as it is reflecive, it shares stories behind Pacino's hardscrabble upbringing, classic films and journey to icon...
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There's always this year on basketball and ascension
Abdurraqib, Hanif, 1983- author.
Paper Book
A poignant, personal reflection on basketball, talent and allegiance, and of course, LeBron James-from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America While Hanif Abdurraqib is an acclaimed author, a gifted poet, and one of our culture's most...
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Traveling on the path of Joni Mitchell
Powers, Ann, 1964- author.
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...
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A walk in the park the true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paper Book
Two friends, zero preparation, one dream. From the author of the beloved bestseller The Emerald Mile, a rollicking and poignant account of the epic misadventure of a 750-mile odyssey, on foot, through the heart of America's most magnificent national park and the grandest wilderness on...
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The war we won apart the untold story of two elite agents who became one of the most decorated couples of WWII
Ayed, Nahlah
Paper Book
On opposite sides of the pond, Sonia Butt, an adventurous young British woman, and Guy d'Artois, a French-Canadian soldier and thunderstorm of a man, are preparing to go to war. From different worlds, they make their way to fight in Winston Churchill's secret army against the German forces and,...
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We will be jaguars a memoir of my people
Nenquimo, Nemonte
Paper Book
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK Named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Year by Library Journal "An unforgettable memoir about fighting for your home and your heart." --Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club November '24 Pick) ...
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Who we are four questions for a life and a nation
Sinclair, Murray, 1951- author.
Paper Book
For decades, Senator Sinclair has fearlessly educated Canadians about the painful truths of our history. He was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba, and only the second Indigenous judge in Canadian history. He was the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and remains one of the...
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