2024 Round Up: Favourite Biographies & Memoirs

Immerse yourself in a new perspective. Here are our top personal stories from 2024.

Updated January 8, 2025
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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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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
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...
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<...
In exile rupture, reunion, and my grandmother's secret life
Ansari, Sadiya 
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Globe 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 her grandmother Tahira abandon her seven children to...
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...
Patriot a memoir
Navalʹnyĭ, Alekseĭ 
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The powerful and moving memoir of a fearless political opposition leader who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs. "Patriot is by turns funny, fiery, reflective and tragic, laced with Navalny's trademark wry humor and idealism....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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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