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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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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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Knife meditations after an attempted murder
Rushdie, Salman
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * #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 A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New...
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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 * FINALIST 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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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
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "powerful" (The Guardian) reflection on basketball, life, and home--from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America "Mesmerizing . . . not only the most original...
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Traveling on the path of Joni Mitchell
Powers, Ann, 1964- author.
Paper Book
*An Observer Best New Biographies of 2024* *Now in paperback!* 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...
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A walk in the park the true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller * Winner of the 2024 National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature * Winner of the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, Air...
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We will be jaguars a memoir of my people
Nenquimo, Nemonte
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK Named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Year by Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews "An unforgettable memoir about fighting for your home and your heart." --Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club November...
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