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The 23 best memoirs to read in 2021, according to Goodreads members

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• Goodreads is the world's largest book recommendation platform.
• These are the 23 top-rated memoirs, according to Goodreads members.
• Want more books? Here are the best books of 2021 so far, according to Goodreads .

Goodreads is a popular online platform for readers to rate and review books. With over 125 million users, Goodreads members can discover new releases , participate in reading challenges, and see what their friends are reading. On this platform made entirely for readers, users confidently rave about their favorite reads .

The books on this list are the most-read and top-rated memoirs from the last five years, with no book averaging less than 3.5 stars. With millions of reviews and ratings on everything from celebrity origin stories to remarkable accounts of survival, here Goodreads users' 23 favorite memoirs.

The 23 best memoirs, according to Goodreads users:

"educated" by tara westover.

" Educated" by Tara Westover, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $13 

With one million ratings and over 600,000 five-star reviews, "Educated" is the top-rated memoir by Goodreads users, (and also voted the best memoir of 2018 in the Goodreads Choice Awards). This memoir is about Tara Westover, whose lifelong quest for knowledge gave her the ability to explore the world and herself — even though she didn't step into her first classroom until she was 17.

"When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi

"When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $14.63

At 36, Paul Kalanithi was nearly finished with his training to become a neurosurgeon when he received the devastating diagnosis of terminal stage IV lung cancer. Though he passed away before he could finish this book, his memoir became his search to find what makes life worth living when everything suddenly changes.

"Born A Crime" by Trevor Noah

"Born A Crime" by Trevor Noah, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.21

Before Trevor Noah became the host of "The Daily Show," he was born in South Africa to a white father and a Black mother — a criminal act at the time. Trevor's memoir is deeply emotional (yet equally funny) as he transitions from growing up a secret to navigating and celebrating the adventure of life.

"Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance

"Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.85

In this memoir about middle-class America and the American Dream, J.D. Vance tells the Vance family story, beginning with his grandparents moving to Ohio to escape poverty. Through the generations, his family struggled with abuse, poverty, and trauma as they sought the middle-class goal of upward mobility. 

"Untamed" by Glennon Doyle

"Untamed" by Glennon Doyle, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $13.98

"Untamed" is a memoir that turns both the readers' and the author's failures, weaknesses, and differences into inspiration by acknowledging the humanity behind imperfection. After her divorce, Glennon Doyle redefined her family, her motherhood, and herself in this memoir that encourages readers to fully be themselves.

"Maybe You Should Talk To Someone" by Lori Gottlieb

"Maybe You Should Talk To Someone" by Lori Gottlieb, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.29

When a sudden crisis affects her whole life, therapist Lori Gottlieb finds herself seeking therapy to process her own mental health. This memoir is full of fascinating anecdotes from Gottlieb's experience as both a therapist and a patient, while also exploring why we seek therapy and how it can improve our lives. 

"This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor" by Adam Kay

"This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor" by Adam Kay, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.89

Written from diary entries in between seemingly endless days as a medical resident, Adam Kay's memoir reveals all the highs and lows of the medical field. With all the gripping excitement and heartbreak of a fictional medical drama, this very real memoir is easily read in one sitting. 

"Know My Name" by Chanel Miller

Know My Name by Chanel Miller, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $16.20

"Know My Name" is the memoir of a young woman formerly known only as "Emily Doe" yet championed millions of sexual assault survivors through her victim impact statement in 2015. Now ready to identify herself and tell her story, Chanel Miller's memoir is a heartbreaking chronicle of trauma and healing after sexual assault.

"Greenlights" by Matthew McConaughey

"Greenlights" by Matthew McConaughey, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $16.95

In a book that feels like you're sitting with the author and listening to his life experiences, Matthew McConaughey has proudly dubbed his memoir "a love letter to life." After looking over 35 years of his personal journals, Matthew encourages readers to enjoy success while facing life's challenges.  

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

"The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo" by Amy Schumer, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.86

Amy Schumer is most famously known for her raunchy comedy. While her memoir has its moments of hilarity, it is also a humanizing account of her efforts, her darkest days, and her journey to become herself. This is a collection of extremely personal essays that allow the reader to see a new side of the comedian.

"Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" by Roxane Gay

"Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" by Roxane Gay, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.23

Roxane Gay, the author of the bestselling book " Bad Feminist ," uses her own experiences with food, self-image, and self-care to explore our shared experiences of balancing hunger and fullness. Far more than a discussion of food, weight, and our bodies, this memoir is beloved for its bravery, power, and embracing dark experiences. 

"Talking as Fast as I Can" by Lauren Graham

"Talking as Fast as I Can" by Lauren Graham, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.53

The winner in the "humor" genre of the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards, Lauren Graham's "Talking as Fast as I Can" is a memoir told through personal essays about her life before, during, and after her role as Lorelai Gilmore. Lauren Graham' offers her unique voice in this short, nostalgic, and highly amusing memoir.

"Scrappy Little Nobody" by Anna Kendrick

"Scrappy Little Nobody" by Anna Kendrick, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.78

Anna Kendrick's collection of autobiographical essays chronicle her rise to stardom from her shy beginnings. It's a charming and fun memoir that lets readers know the "Twilight" and "Pitch Perfect" star on a much more intimate level.

"Dear Girls" by Ali Wong

"Dear Girls" by Ali Wong, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $15.99

Written as a letter to her daughters, Ali Wong's memoir is a series of anecdotes and life advice from dating, to their Asian heritage, to being a working mom. "Dear Girls" is a fascinating, enlightening, and heartwarming gift of everything Ali wants to teach her daughters about life.

"The Princess Diarist" by Carrie Fisher

"The Princess Diarist" by Carrie Fisher, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.39

Woven with cherished memories, this memoir is full of excerpts from journals Carrie Fisher kept when filming the first "Star Wars" movie. Overflowing with nostalgia, the memoir offers a unique view of Carrie's young life, her crush on Harrison Ford, and the early stages of the "Star Wars" empire.

"I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness" by Austin Channing Brown

"I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness" by Austin Channing Brown, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.62

In a country that appears to pride itself on diversity, Austin Channing Brown first realized the ways in which the world centered around whiteness when she was seven and discovered her parents had made her name sound like that of a white man so she wouldn't be discriminated against when she applied for jobs. In this short but stunning memoir, Austin writes about genuinely celebrating Blackness and diversity in majority-white schools, companies, and organizations.

"In the Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $14.40

Using a variety of narrative tropes that express her fractured reality, Carmen Maria Machado's memoir is about surviving abuse in a same-sex relationship. This book is complex and fragile, a series of chronological revelations that leave readers feeling haunted.

"Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered" by Karen Kilgariff and Georgina Hardstark

"Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered" by Karen Kilgariff and Georgina Hardstark, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $15.49

Karen Kilgariff and Georgina Hardstark are the hosts of the hit true crime podcast "Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered," where the pair researched and discusses murders. In their dual memoir, the women trade stories from their childhoods, their path to their podcast, and advice on how not to get murdered.

"The Choice: Embrace the Possible" by Dr. Edith Eva Eger

"The Choice: Embrace the Possible" by Dr. Edith Eva Eger, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.37

In 1944, when Dr. Edith Eva Eger was sent to Auschwitz when she was 16 years old. Immediately separated from her parents, she survived unimaginable horrors until the day she was pulled from a pile of bodies once the camp was liberated. Now, Dr. Eger is a psychologist who helps patients work through their own trauma in this memoir of pain, healing, and recovery.

"Love Warrior" by Glennon Doyle Melton

"Love Warrior" by Glennon Doyle Melton, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.33

With a second hugely popular memoir on this list, Glennon Doyle's first memoir "Love Warrior",  published in 2016, focuses on her marriage to her husband and the bravery needed to embark on a journey of self-discovery. This memoir challenges readers' ideas of being our whole selves and encourages us to be our own warriors and champions, despite any pain we may carry.

"The Last Black Unicorn" by Tiffany Haddish

"The Last Black Unicorn" by Tiffany Haddish, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.18

Winner of the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards in the "humor" category is comedian Tiffany Haddish's memoir. Her inspiring and heartbreaking story of surviving the foster care system through comedy is one that draws both tears of laughter and overwhelming emotion.

"Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman" by Lindy West

"Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman" by Lindy West, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.89

Lindy West is a writer, comedian, and activist who is far from what she was told society expects women to be and is proud of it. Lindy's book is a hysterical and honest account of internet harassment, being a woman in comedy, and letting go of the external expectations the world has for us and our bodies. 

"Crying in H Mart" by Michelle Zauner

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $16.17

Michelle Zauner grew up as the only Korean American student at her school, thriving on memories and meals shared in her grandmother's apartment in Seoul. When her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Michelle's journey to discover her own identity became urgent in this memoir about self-discovery, family, and food.

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The Best Reviewed Memoirs and Biographies of 2020

Featuring barack obama, natasha trethewey, helen macdonald, sylvia plath, the beatles, and more.

Natasha Trethewey’s Memorial Drive , Barack Obama’s A Promised Land , Helen Macdonald’s Vesper Flights , Craig Brown’s 150 Glimpses of the Beatles , and Heather Clark’s Red Comet all feature among the best reviewed memoirs and biographies of 2020.

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener (MCD)

10 Rave • 19 Positive • 6 Mixed

Read a Profile of Anna Wiener here

“Wiener was, and maybe still is, one of us; far from seeking to disabuse civic-minded techno-skeptics of our views, she is here to fill out our worst-case scenarios with shrewd insight and literary detail … Wiener is a droll yet gentle guide … Wiener frequently emphasizes that, at the time, she didn’t realize all these buoyant 25-year-olds in performance outerwear were leading mankind down a treacherous path. She also sort of does know all along. Luckily, the tech industry controls the means of production for excuses to justify a fascination with its shiny surfaces and twisted logic … It’s possible to create a realistic portrait of contemporary San Francisco by simply listing all the harebrained new-money antics and ‘mindful’ hippie-redux principles that flourish there. All you have to do after that is juxtapose them with the effects of the city’s rocket-ship rents: a once-lively counterculture gasping for air and a ‘concentration of public pain’ shameful and shocking even to a native New Yorker. Wiener deploys this strategy liberally, with adroit specificity and arch timing. But the real strength of Uncanny Valley  comes from her careful parsing of the complex motivations and implications that fortify this new surreality at every level, from the individual body to the body politic.”

–Lauren Oyler  ( The New York Times Book Review )

2. Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey (Ecco)

20 Rave • 3 Positive

Listen to an interview with Natasha Trethewey here

“ Memorial Drive  is, among so many other wondrous things, an exploration of a Black mother and daughter trying to get free in a land that conflates survival with freedom and womanhood with girlhood … A book that makes a reader feel as much as Memorial Drive  does cannot be written without an absolute mastery of varied modes of discourse … In one of the book’s most devastating and artful chapters, Trethewey makes an unexpected but wholly necessary switch to the second person … What happens in most riveting literature is seldom located solely in plot. I’ve not read an American memoir where more happens in the assemblage of language than Memorial Drive … Memorial Drive  forces the reader to think about how the sublime Southern conjurers of words, spaces, sounds and patterns protect themselves from trauma when trauma may be, in part, what nudged them down the dusty road to poetic mastery.”

–Kiese Makeba Laymon  ( The New York Times Book Review )

3. A Promised Land by Barack Obama (Crown)

11 Rave • 14 Positive • 5 Mixed

“The Obama of A Promised Land  seems complicated or elusive or detached only if you think that these two elements of the president’s job—the practical and the symbolic—must be made to add up in every particular. Obama himself doesn’t. Even at his most inspiring, he was never a firebrand speechifier. He preached faith in the ability of Americans’ commonalities to overcome their differences. This is a creed in which he continues to believe, even if A Promised Land  contains its share of dark allusions to the advent of division and acrimony in the form of Donald Trump. Obama is not angry, the sole quality that seems obligatory across party lines in every form of political discourse today … while A Promised Land  is a pleasure to read for the intelligence, equanimity, and warmth of its author—from his unfeigned delight in his fabulously wholesome family to his manifest fondness for the people who worked for and with him, especially early on—it’s also a mournful one. Not because Obama doesn’t believe in us anymore, but because no matter how much we adore him, we no longer believe in leaders like him.”

–Laura Miller  ( Slate )

4. Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald (Grove)

18 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed

Read Helen Macdonald’s “The Things I Tell Myself When I’m Writing About Nature” here

“… a stunning book that urges us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world, and fight to preserve it … The experience of reading Vesper Flights is almost dizzying, in the best possible way. Macdonald has many fascinations, and her enthusiasm for her subjects is infectious. She takes her essays to unexpected places, but it never feels forced … Macdonald is endlessly thoughtful, but she’s also a brilliant writer— Vesper Flights  is full of sentences that reward re-reading because of how exquisitely crafted they are … What sets Vesper Flights  apart from other nature writing is the sense of adoration Macdonald brings to her subjects. She writes with an almost breathless enthusiasm that can’t be faked; she’s a deeply sincere author in an age when ironic detachment seems de rigueur … a beautiful and generous book, one that offers hope to a world in desperate need of it.”

–Michael Schaub  ( NPR )

5. What is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life by Mark Doty (W. W. Norton & Company)

11 Rave • 8 Positive • 1 Mixed

Read an excerpt from What is the Grass here

“… excellent … as a major poet who worked at both evading and establishing his sexual identity, [Whitman] is almost a perfect topic for Doty, who recalls (in some of this book’s most powerful opening chapters) his own youth spent trying to live his life as others expected him to live it … Doty has long been one of our best living American poets, and his recent memoirs, including 2008’s Dog Years,  prove him one of our best prose writers as well. What is the Grass  doesn’t possess a single inelegant sentence or poorly expressed thought. Doty does what traditional academic criticism often fails to do: He makes poetry part of how we live and how we think about living … [Doty] doesn’t simply ‘analyze’ poems or narrate events; instead he continually illuminates how those who love books can grow old reading writers who help make sense of their lives … provides an excellent opportunity to re-examine the work of one of America’s first major poets through the prose of one of its best living ones.”

–Scott Bradfield  ( The Washington Post )

1. The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes (Knopf)

8 Rave • 20 Positive

Read an excerpt from The Man in the Red Coat here

“Barnes is fascinated by facts that turn out to be untrue and by unlikely but provable connections between people and things … While Barnes is concerned in this book to find things that don’t add up, he also relishes the moments when a clear, connecting line can be drawn … Wilde and Pozzi, and perhaps even Montesquiou, admired Bernhardt; Pozzi and James were both painted by Sargent; Wilde and Montesquiou had the same response to the interior décor at the Prousts. Barnes enjoys these connections. But in ways that are subtle and sharp, he seeks to puncture easy associations, doubtful assertions, lazy assumptions. He is interested in the space between what can be presumed and what can be checked.”

–Colm Tóibín  ( The New York Review of Books )

2. 150 Glimpses of the Beatles by Craig Brown (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

12 Rave • 5 Positive • 2 Mixed

“… riveting … This quirky, irreverent book, written in the manner of Mr. Brown’s bestselling Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret  (2017), is a kaleidoscope of essays, anecdotes, party lists and personal reminiscence. You might think there was nothing more to be said about the Beatles, but Mr. Brown, a perceptive writer and a gifted satirist, makes familiar stories fresh. Along the way he unearths many fascinating tidbits … a fascinating study of the cultural and social upheaval created by the band … Mr. Brown has a keen eye for absurdist detail … After reading this book I was inspired to listen to them again. I felt just as I had the first time: sheer joy.”

–Moira Hodgson  ( The Wall Street Journal )

3. Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker (Doubleday)

14 Rave • 1 Positive

Listen to an interview with Robert Kolker here

“… part multi-generational family saga, part medical mystery, written with an extraordinary blend of rigor and empathy. The reporter in Kolker seeks accuracy above all, but there’s a notable lack of judgment in the book that feels remarkable in light of the stigma long felt by those who have the condition in their families … despite the lonely battles fought by both patients and researchers, Kolker’s Hidden Valley Road  is at heart a book about how progress, personal or scientific, can never be achieved on our own.”

–Kate Tuttle  ( The Los Angeles Times )

4. Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley (Scribner)

13 Rave • 1 Positive

“Through Tsuneno, a woman with no remarkable talents or aspirations, Stanley conjures a teeming world … Tsuneno’s restlessness and bad luck make her a rewarding subject … Stanley’s primary materials are letters from Tsuneno and her relatives, which are delightfully frank … The couple squabble, divorce, and remarry, and Tsuneno’s fortunes continue their erratic, fascinating fall and rise and fall … a lost place appears to the reader as if alive and intact.”

–Lidija Haas  ( Harper’s )

5. Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark (Knopf)

11 Rave • 3 Positive • 3 Mixed

Read an excerpt from Red Comet here

“…just as one is wondering whether there can possibly be anything new to be said, here comes Heather Clark’s Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath  hurtling down the chute, weighing in at more than 1,000 densely printed pages … as Plath and her complex, much analyzed legacy fade with the passing of successive generations, and her work grows more removed from the cultural mainstream, now seems a prime moment to revive her tale and try to bring all of its elements together … poignant … Clark is at pains to see Plath clearly, to rescue her from the reductive clichés and distorted readings of her work largely because of the tragedy of her ending … there is no denying the book’s intellectual power and, just as important, its sheer readability. Clark is a felicitous writer and a discerning critic of Plath’s poetry … Instead of depleting my interest in Plath, the book stimulated it further … Clark’s talent for scene-painting and inserting the stray but illustrative detail contributes to create a harrowing picture of the narrow confines of the London that Plath had moved to with such high hopes.”

–Daphne Merkin  ( The New York Times Book Review )

The Book Marks System: RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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Educated Is a Brutal, One-of-a-Kind Memoir

Tara Westover's coming-of-age story follows her upbringing in a survivalist family, and her decision to leave that life behind.

T ara Westover’s one-of-a-kind memoir is about the shaping of a mind, yet page after page describes the maiming of bodies—not just hers, but the heads, limbs, and torsos of her parents and six siblings, too. The youngest child in a fundamentalist Mormon family living in the foothills of Buck’s Peak, in Idaho, she grew up with a father fanatically determined to protect his family against the “brainwashing” world. Defending his isolated tribe against the physical dangers—literally brain-crushing in some cases—of the survivalist life he imposed was another matter.

Westover, who didn’t set foot in school until she left home in adolescence, toiled at salvaging scrap in his junkyard, awaiting the end days and/or the invading feds her father constantly warned of. Neither came. Nor, amazingly, did death or defeat, despite grisly accidents. Terrified, impaled, set on fire, smashed—the members of this clan learned that pain was the rule, not the exception. But succumbing was not an option, a lesson that ultimately proved liberating for Westover.

In briskly paced prose, she evokes a childhood that completely defined her. Yet it was also, she gradually sensed, deforming her. Baffled, inspired, tenaciously patient with her ignorance, she taught herself enough to take the ACT and enter Brigham Young University at 17. She went on to Cambridge University for a doctorate in history.

For Westover, now turning 32, the mind-opening odyssey is still fresh. So is the soul-wrenching ordeal—she hasn’t seen her parents in years—that isn’t over.

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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Best Memoirs of 2020

SEPT. 1, 2020

by Kerri Arsenault

Bittersweet memories and a long-buried atrocity combine for a heartfelt, unflinching, striking narrative combination. Full review >

SEPT. 8, 2020

by Brittany K. Barnett

Considering her youthfulness, Barnett has accomplished more reform than most individuals could accomplish in two lifetimes. Full review >

MARCH 24, 2020

by Bettye Kearse

A Roots for a new generation, rich in storytelling and steeped in history. Full review >

OCT. 6, 2020

by Riva Lehrer ; illustrated by Riva Lehrer

An extraordinary memoir suffused with generosity, consistent insight, and striking artwork. Full review >

APRIL 21, 2020

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

by Phuc Tran

A highly witty and topical read—an impressive debut. Full review >

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by Billy-Ray Belcourt

An urgently needed, unyielding book of theoretical and intimate strength. Full review >

JUNE 2, 2020

by Molly McCully Brown

Heartfelt and wrenching, a significant addition to the literature of disability. Full review >

MAY 26, 2020

by Gabriela Wiener ; translated by Jessica Powell

Refreshingly literary and offbeat—a mother-to-be book for firebrands. Full review >

by Kirkland Hamill

A stunning, deeply satisfying story about how we outlive our upbringings. Full review >

by Mary L. Trump

Dripping with snideness, vibrating with rage, and gleaming with clarity—a deeply satisfying read. Full review >

FEB. 11, 2020

by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, often both at once. Everyone should read this extraordinary book. Full review >

DEC. 1, 2020

by Homeira Qaderi ; translated by Zaman Stanizai

An unvarnished, memorable portrayal of a mother’s grief and love. Full review >

MARCH 10, 2020

by Rebecca Solnit

A perceptive, radiant portrait of a writer of indelible consequence. Full review >

JULY 21, 2020

by Justin Taylor

A greater literary achievement than Taylor’s impressive fiction. Full review >

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by Adrian Tomine illustrated by Adrian Tomine

Subtle, provocative, and sharply drawn—a portrait of the perpetually dissatisfied artist. Full review >

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“Educated,” by Tara Westover

By Alexandra Schwartz

I am far from the first critic to recommend Tara Westover’s astounding memoir, “ Educated ,” but if its comet tail of glowing reviews has not yet convinced you, let me see what I can do. Westover was born sometime in September, 1986—no birth certificate was issued—on a remote mountain in Idaho, the seventh child of Mormon survivalist parents who subscribed to a paranoid patchwork of beliefs well outside the mandates of their religion. The government was always about to invade; the End of Days was always at hand. Westover’s mother worked as a midwife and an herbal healer. Her father, who claimed prophetic powers, owned a scrap yard, where his children labored without the benefit of protective equipment. (Westover recounts accidents so hideous, and so frequent, that it’s a wonder she lived to tell her tale at all.) Mainstream medicine was mistrusted, as were schools, which meant that Westover’s determination to leave home and get a formal education—the choice that drives her book, and changed her life—amounted to a rebellion against her parents’ world.

This story, remarkable as it is, might be merely another entry in the subgenre of extreme American life, were it not for the uncommon perceptiveness of the person telling it. Westover examines her childhood with unsparing clarity, and, more startlingly, with curiosity and love, even for those who have seriously failed or wronged her. In part, this is a book about being a stranger in a strange land; Westover, adrift at university, can’t help but miss her mountain home. But her deeper subject is memory. Westover is careful to note the discrepancies between her own recollections and those of her relatives. (The ones who still speak to her, anyway. Her parents cut her off long ago.) “Part of me will always believe that my father’s words ought to be my own,” she writes. If her book is an act of defiance, a way to set the record of her own life straight, it’s also an attempt to understand, even to respect, those whom she had to break away from in order to get free.

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Memoir Revolution

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10 More Brief Book Reviews for Memoir Readers and Writers

by Jerry Waxler

Here are ten more of the memoirs I have read in my research to learn about people and their stories. To see a longer list, click here.

“This Boy’s Life: A Memoir” by Tobias Wolff

“This Boy’s Life” is a story of a young boy growing up with a single mom.  It’s a Coming of Age tale that pried open the door and started allowing in stories of ordinary people, presaging the Memoir Revolution. (He was noted as Alice Sebold’s Creative Nonfiction professor in her memoir “Lucky.”) By publishing the story of his childhood, Wolff offers our generation a new opportunity to explore that period of our own lives.

“She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts” by Haven Kimmel

This is about an ordinary girl living in a small town in the Midwest. Her brilliant authorial voice commands attention and offers entertainment. It’s an excellent example of how great storytelling can turn ordinary life into compelling reading. It’s also a good example of a memoir sequel, following Kimmel’s first equally engaging memoir “A Girl Named Zippy.”

“What I know for sure, My story of growing up in America” by Tavis Smiley

This is a classic tale of rising from poverty into fabulous success through the power of personal charm, hard work and relentless ambition. Unique features of the book include a highly disciplined black family in a mostly white town in the Midwest, and a crossover story of a black man succeeding in white America, starting with his election as class president of his almost all-white high school. In addition, it is an example of a ghost or co-written book with David Ritz.

“The Liar’s Club: A Memoir” by Mary Karr

Mary Karr grew up in a complex childhood filled with emotional drama, including alcohol, mental breakdown, and economic hardship. But equal to the power of her circumstances is the power of her voice. It is one of the most commanding voices of any memoir I have read, filled with clever observations that ring true. Her insights provide a new way of experiencing childhood. I would go anywhere with Karr, which is why I ordered her second memoir, Cherry. (I’m falling behind. She has already released her third.) I consider “Liar’s Club” to be one of the canonical Coming of Age tales that launched the revolution. (Others are “Glass Castle,” by Jeanette Walls, “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt, and “This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff.)

“The Last Lecture,” Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow

Randy Pausch was invited to give a “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon University, not because he was retiring but dying of pancreatic cancer. In his lecture, he shared wisdom he acquired during his brilliant but brief career as a professor. The lessons were picked up by Wall Street Journal Columnist Jeff Zaslow and turned into a book called “The Last Lecture” in which Pausch shared his experience of life in short essays that translate life experience into rule the reader could live by.

The fact that the book was so fabulously successful is a testament to Pausch’s insights. Its popularity also hints at an unspoken respect for those who offer wisdom as they approach death. Like a hero soldier who throws himself on a grenade, offering a model of superhuman generosity as his final legacy, Zaslow proves you can do good things even when you are going to die.

“The Kids are All Right: A memoir” by Diana Welch, Liz Welch, Amanda Welch, Dan Welch

“The Kids are all Right” was written by an ensemble cast of four siblings. Their mom was a Soap Opera star so it may look at first like this is a “celebrity memoir,” in which case the only reason to read it would be to learn more about mom. But the memoir doesn’t belong to the mom but to her four children who, after both parents died, had to come of age in challenging circumstances. It’s an example of the experience of becoming orphaned, an example of the transition from privilege to suffering and confusion. It’s an example of a memoir written from more than one voice. And it is a portrait of siblings who turned towards each other in order to survive adversity.

“True Notebooks: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall” by Mark Salzman

Mark Salzman was a successful author who volunteered to teach creative writing to violent juvenile offenders. As he teaches them to write, they teach him who they are and how they landed in this prison, offering an amazing window into their world, their dreams, their youth and confusion, and their suffering. It’s also a window into the power of writing to reveal inner worlds. The author authentically reproduces street language, and captures individual voice tone and rhythm, slouches and expressions. Judging from the title of the memoir, it’s an amazing display of how a writer can use writer’s notebooks to capture the tone of real experience.

The book raises awareness about a segment of our population that most of try to shut out of our mind. The author was recruited into this work by Sister Janet Harris, of the Inside Out Writers program , an organization in Los Angeles that tries to humanize imprisoned kids.

“Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from The Freedom Writers” by Erin Gruwell

This is the memoir of Erin Gruwell, the mastermind behind the Freedom Writers , a band of Los Angeles high school students who delved into the meaning of their lives by writing and sharing their diaries. In “Teach With Your Heart” Erin Gruwell offers deeper insight into a world I have already started learning about. Combined with “The Freedom Writers Diary” book and movie, I now have an excellent appreciation for Gruwell’s work and her world.

Click here to see my essay about the Freedom Writers Diary.

“Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father’s House” by Miranda Seymour

Miranda Seymour as an almost-aristocrat just when the British Aristocracy was breathing its last gasp. “Oh, no,” I thought, when I first saw it. “Not another book about the demise of aristocracy! I thought I knew it all after watching the fabulous television shows “Brideshead Revisited” and Upstairs Downstairs.” But those were nearer the beginning of the Twentieth Century when the class system was starting to crumble. Miranda Seymour’s memoir takes place at the end of the century. Miranda’s father George was the last of a dying breed, while Miranda herself grew up in the post-aristocratic era. She needed to find her own way, and become her own person, making it a terrific Coming of Age story of a woman who had to move from the old world to the new one. Her transformation was captured in a memorable line. “I was dancing topless in Los Angeles, in a bar where I was the only white.” She uses research into her father’s life, including extensive use of his diaries and letters.

“Courage to Walk” by Robert Waxler

(Publishedby Spinner Publications )

Jeremy Waxler, a vibrant young athlete and lawyer, loses control of his legs, and becomes paralyzed. The search for the cause and cure of his mysterious illness reads at first like a medical thriller, except it’s not a book about medicine. It’s about the love of a father for his son. In a previous memoir, “Losing Jonathan,” published in 2003, Robert Waxler recounts the loss of his first son to an overdose. In this current memoir, Waxler watches in horror as his second beloved son teeters on the edge of life. Waxler again travels into the abyss, trying to make sense, telling the story as a reporter, a father, and a philosopher. Robert Waxler is a professor of literature, and he uses this vast reservoir of wisdom offered by other writers to help maintain his balance.

Links to Amazon Pages

She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel “What I know for sure, My story of growing up in America” by Tavis Smiley

“The Liar’s Club: A Memoir” by Mary Karr “Last Lecture,” Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow “The Kids are All Right: A memoir” by Diana Welch, Liz Welch, Amanda Welch, Dan Welch

“True Notebooks: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall” by Mark Salzman “Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from The Freedom Writers” by Erin Gruwell

“Courage to Walk” by Robert Waxler (Publishedby Spinner Publications )

More memoir writing resources

To see brief descriptions and links to all the essays on this blog, click here.

9 thoughts on “ 10 More Brief Book Reviews for Memoir Readers and Writers ”

Nice work, Jerry–as always!!

I love these brief reviews and super easy-to-read format. Thanks, Jerry. If you have not yet seen the 11 memoirs Mary Karr ticked off as her favorites during an interview with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, you can find them here: http://www.shirleyshowalter.com/top-memoir-lists/

I, too, love these short and tantalizing reviews. They not only encourage me to read, but also to get busy on my own memoir.

Thanks to both of you for your appreciation. Shirley, I love the statement in your blog that you are writing about memoirs in order to research your own. Me too! And the same time, we are building community and sharing what we’ve learned. Marie, thanks for sharing your inspiration. These are wonderful benefits of living in the Internet Age. Jerry

Nice list! I would also add A. Manette Ansay’s LIMBO: A MEMOIR, and, for a different spin on the genre, Joan Didion’s THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING.

By the way, for those of us who have written a memoir (or narrative nonfiction book) and are looking for an agent, this contest might be of interest:

http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/Dear+Lucky+Agent+Contest+Memoir+And+Narrative+Nonfiction.aspx

Good luck to all!

Thanks for this comprehensive and well organized list. I have never really been tremendously interested in memoir writing until recently when I realized I needed to write one myself about my life and climate change.

Thanks for the comment, Beverly and good wishes on your writing. That’s a great topic. Another memoir writer passionately interested in climate and environment is Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, author of Sky Begins at my Feet – http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog//memoir-spirituality-cancer/

Best wishes, Jerry

Great site, Jerry! And your list of recommended memoirs is excellent. Might I suggest a recently published memoir that is getting a lot of attention. The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok.

Thanks for the compliment Dee. I heard Bartok interviewed and the book does sound interesting, although the situation sounds a bit terrifying. Do I really want to read about this daughter’s terrifying relationship with her schizophrenic mother? It’s easy to pass by, but in the end, the answer is a resounding yes. I do want to understand, and I want to experience what life was like for her. Memoirs for me are far more than entertainment. They are an opportunity to become personally immersed for a couple of hundred pages with the amazing variety of human experience, participate, turning personal challenge into community enlightenment. Thanks for the recommendation. I have to update that list. I recently finished an interesting one by Jeanne Denault “Sucking up Yellow Jackets” about raising three kids, one of whom was emotionally disturbed. Jerry

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How Griffin Dunne’s fairy-tale upbringing unraveled

In “The Friday Afternoon Club,” Dunne chronicles the murder and divorce that upended his family.

Griffin Dunne’s new book, “ The Friday Afternoon Club ,” opens with a terrifying scene: Dunne’s mother, Ellen (Lenny), is awakened at 3 a.m. by a Los Angeles detective and informed that her 22-year-old daughter, Dominique, has been strangled and is on life support. Lenny immediately phones her ex-husband, Dominick Dunne, in New York to relay the news. “Nick, I need you,” she tells him.

Griffin Dunne knows how to tell a story. He’s an autodidact and raconteur who from an early age regaled family and friends — Carrie Fisher among them — with gossip and worldly takes on culture. Here he uses his authorial gifts — a filmmaker’s eye, photographic memory and way with a quip — to great effect, exploring how the seemingly charmed lives of the Dunnes unraveled.

Lenny was a charismatic heiress from Arizona by way of Miss Porter’s School for girls in Connecticut. She was drawn to Dominick’s sophistication, a departure from the men she encountered in Nogales, where her father ran a cattle ranch. In Manhattan, where Dominick worked as a stage manager for television, the couple hobnobbed with the entertainment elite. After an introduction from Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart invited Dominick to L.A. to discuss a job opportunity. Upon his arrival, Dominick attended a party where he met Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner, and watched Sinatra sing a duet with Judy Garland. Dominick was enamored and accepted Bogie’s offer. The Dunnes moved to California with their sons, Griffin and Alex. A few years later, Dominique was born.

Summer reading

In 1960s and ’70s Beverly Hills, the Dunnes mingled with Tinseltown’s A-list. Griffin recalls getting fished out of the family pool by his idol, Sean Connery, who’d noticed the 8-year-old struggling in the deep end. “I saw the reflections of people smoking and drinking from below … oblivious to my efforts to reach the surface,” he writes. Suddenly “a hand lifted me by the butt and placed me at the pool’s edge.” The real-life James Bond admonished: “A wee bit early for the deep end, sonny.”

The outward glitter, though, disguised darker undercurrents. Dominick was desperate to impress and competitive with his brother, John Gregory Dunne. John and his wife, Joan Didion, were newly minted literary superstars. The tension between the siblings thickened over time. To onlookers, Lenny and Dominick seemed devoted to one another, but Dominick’s heavy drinking and affairs with men eroded their bond.

By Griffin’s account, he was a precocious prankster who early found that “if you dare to be sneaky enough, you will get away with anything.” Still, his boyish misdeeds landed him in enough trouble to get him kicked out of two boarding schools; he never graduated from high school.

Griffin confesses to wishing, as a young boy, that his father was more like his more macho uncle. He writes, “My fragile identity at that time was tied to a father who couldn’t throw to third and gave me two French poodles named after famous homosexuals.” He recounts a father-son baseball game Dominick volunteered for, to his son’s chagrin. On game day, Dominick was assigned right field, where it was thought he would do the least harm. But in the midst of play, Natalie Wood walked over “to keep him company.” The two bantered, unaware that Jack Palance was at bat. Palance smashed the ball; all watched as it sailed over Dominick’s head. When Dominick finally reached it after several boggled attempts, he threw it in Wood’s direction.

On the page — and one imagines, in life — Griffin skillfully deploys humor to soften life’s blows. And there were many blows to deflect. In the mid-1960s, when Griffin was 11, his parents divorced. In 1973, Lenny was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which eventually confined her to a wheelchair. Griffin’s brother, Alex, experienced crippling mental illness, which resulted in a suicide attempt and periodic institutionalization. Dominick’s successful run as a TV executive came to a crashing halt when, in a drunken rant, he publicly insulted the legendary talent agent Sue Mengers and was subsequently blackballed. And then, in 1982, just after Griffin finally landed a dream role as the star of “An American Werewolf in London,” his beloved sister, Dominique, herself on the cusp of fame, was killed.

At that point, Dominick was sober and determined to reinvent himself as a writer. At work on what would become the best-selling novel “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles,” he befriended editor Tina Brown, who pressed him to cover his daughter’s murder trial for Vanity Fair. Griffin was ambivalent about his father’s assignment, writing that “I was happy for my father. He had touched bottom and I wanted him to come back as the person he felt he truly was. … But his enthusiasm and excitement also unnerved me. He seemed all too ready and willing to use Dominique’s trial as a springboard for his own midlife metamorphosis.”

The Dunne family’s exploits and tragedies often split them apart, but after the murder trial, they were more closely bonded than ever, which Griffin recounts wistfully, still contemplating the fairy-tale aspects of his childhood amid the fraught. Griffin, the accomplished actor, producer and director, does occasionally take center stage. But in this account, aptly subtitled “A Family Memoir,” Griffin mainly occupies the role of son and brother — a bit player in his own story — allowing his larger-than-life parents and the life they constructed to take the lead. Now 69, a husband and father with a long string of professional achievements to his credit, Griffin can afford to let the light shine on his storied family.

His sister’s memory still haunts and comforts him. “The Friday Afternoon Club” ends with the birth of Griffin’s daughter, Hannah, in 1990. As he sat with his newborn in a hospital room, he writes, “a presence had joined us, and I knew at once it was Dominique. … ‘Oh, Dominique,’ I whispered, ‘look what I have. Isn’t she beautiful?’”

Leigh Haber is an independent editor, writer and publishing strategist who for 10 years ran Oprah’s Book Club.

The Friday Afternoon Club

A Family Memoir

By Griffin Dunne

Penguin Press. 400 pp. $30

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Book Review: Glamour and tragedy intertwine in Griffin Dunne’s memoir ‘The Friday Afternoon Club’

This cover image released by Penguin shows “The Friday Afternoon Club” by Griffin Dunne. (Penguin via AP)

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Actor and producer Griffin Dunne grew up in New York and Los Angeles with the glitterati all around. His father, Dominick Dunne, a television executive and film producer when Dunne was young, liked to hobnob with the rich and famous. His uncle, journalist and screenwriter John Gregory Dunne, married writer Joan Didion and they became an L.A. power couple.

Growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s, he attended seemingly endless parties with Sean Connery, Warren Beatty and many others, even Judy Garland. Celebrity hobnobbing continued when Dunne moved to New York to try to make it as an actor. For his 27th birthday, Susan Sarandon brought him premium LSD from Timothy Leary. He roomed with his best friend Carrie Fisher until she hit it big with “Star Wars.”

But tragedy was always brewing close under the surface of Dunne’s seemingly idyllic life. Even as he began to make a name for himself as a producer and then an actor in movies like “An American Werewolf in London” and Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours,” his mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, his brother battled mental illness and his father decamped to rural Oregon to fight his substance abuse issues.

But the biggest tragedy came in 1982 when his sister, Dominique Dunne, herself an up-and-coming actress with a role in “Poltergeist,” was murdered on her front lawn by an abusive ex-boyfriend. Dunne’s family attended the trial every day, which ended in a light sentence for Dunne’s killer. Griffin’s father later chronicled the trial for Vanity Fair, kicking off his second career as a writer and novelist.

With a breezy style, Dunne chronicles how his family got through good times and bad — despite interfamilial spats — by coming together as a family when it counted.

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An arresting memoir of 'Consent' asks: Does a marriage's end excuse its beginning?

Maureen Corrigan

Jill Ciment was 17 in 1970 when she got involved with the 47-year-old teacher who would become her husband. Now widowed, she reconsiders the relationship — and its "poisonous" beginnings.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

‘Memoir of a Snail’ Review: Adam Elliot Spins a Series of Unfortunate Events Into a Stop-Motion Heart-Tugger

Eight years in the making, the 'Mary and Max' animator's droll, delightfully quotable second feature gives voice to the unforgettable Gracie Pudel, who retreats from a world she finds overwhelming.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Calling all amateur malacologists: With “ Memoir of a Snail ,” stop-motion director Adam Elliot (an Oscar winner for “Harvie Krumpet”) invites us to study snails of every shape and size, starting with a gastropod-hoarding outcast named Gracie Pudel (pronounced “puddle”), who withdrew from the world after an unhappy childhood in which she was bullied and orphaned and shipped off to Canberra to be raised by a pair of negligent swingers.

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“Dad used to say that childhood was like being drunk. Everyone remembers what you did except you,” quotes Gracie (voiced by “Succession” heir Sarah Snook ), who can’t quite relate to her alcoholic parent’s point of view. Gracie has crystal-clear memories of her childhood (it wasn’t all that long ago). She adored her beloved twin brother, Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and hated the bullies who called her names for having a cleft palate. The more Gracie was mistreated, the more she curled up into her proverbial shell — an idea Elliot illustrates by superimposing a giant gastropod on Gracie in the schoolyard.

When we meet Gracie, she’s wearing a dingy knit cap with ping-pong-ball eyes on bendy stalks, and standing by the deathbed of her elderly friend Pinky (Jacki Weaver, whose raspy voice perfectly conveys the incorrigibly rebellious spirit of a woman who could never stay married for long). An ex-table dancer with a heart of gold, Pinky’s the first of several characters to kick the bucket in a movie that doesn’t get too sentimental about death or sex — even if adult Gracie’s pet guinea pigs are having a lot more of it than she is.

Gracie agrees to honor Pinky’s dying wish, taking her ashes out to the vegetable garden, where she also liberates the jar full of snails that have kept her company all these years. Over the next 90 minutes, Gracie shares why she came to be so obsessed with the slimy mollusks (who’ve had quite the run in stop-motion animation lately, from “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” to the snails in last year’s “Chicken Run” sequel). As life got more difficult, she disappeared into books and surrounded herself with everything snail-related she could find: ceramic figurines, a music box, even novelty condoms.

Gracie doesn’t make friends easily, but the bonds she does form leave an impression, starting with her twin brother. Design-wise, she and Gilbert look like “Peanuts” characters as Tim Burton might have drawn them: squatty, roundheaded kids with wiry black hair and dark circles under their rotten-egg eyes. In another movie, they’d be the weirdos — Gilbert is a budding arsonist with depressive tendencies, and Gracie has all kinds of social anxieties — whereas Elliot is drawn to such traits. Here, the adults appear pockmarked and deviant, flaunting their eccentricities in plain view of the kids (one reason you might want to leave your own at home).

After the death of Gilbert and Gracie’s father — who had been a Parisian street performer until a drunk driver rendered him a paraplegic — the kids are split up and sent to foster homes on opposite coasts of Australia. Gracie gets the better deal: Her new folks are nudists, but they leave her alone, whereas Gilbert is raised by a family of holy rollers, who see his pyromania as the devil’s influence. The pleasure of “Memoir” is in the details, and Elliot has a knack for picking unusual ones that are too often excluded from screen stories, but which render his creations more true to life than many live-action characters.

Elements that might feel frivolous on first mention invariably pay off later, as Elliot brings things around in thoughtful and emotional ways, to the point you forget you’re watching people made of Plasticine. Still, there’s a magic to 100%-CG-free stop-motion, with its cellophane flames and tears made of sexual lubricant. Don’t be surprised if “Memoir” has you shedding real ones in your seat.

Reviewed at Annecy Animation Festival, June 10, 2024. Running time: 95 MIN.

• Production: (Animated – Australia) An IFC Films release of a Screen Australia presentation, in association with VicScreen, Melbourte Intl. Film Festival Premiere Fund, Soundfirm, Anton, Charades of a Arenamedia prodcution. (World sales: Anton, London; Charades, Paris.) Producers: Liz Kearney, Adam Elliot. Executive producers: Robert Connolly, Robert Patterson, Sébastien Raybaud, Louis Balsan, Grace Adams, Carole Baraton, Johann Comte, Jean-Félix Dealberto, Pierre Mazars, Ricci Swart, Tony King, Paul Wiegard, Roger Savage, Michael Agar, Ester Harding, Shaun Miller.
• Crew: Director, writer: Adam Elliot. Camera: Gerald Thompson. Editor: Bill Murphy. Music: Elena Kats-Chernin. Animation supervisor: John Lewis.
• With: Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Magda Szubanski, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, Paul Capsis, Bernie Clifford, Davey Thompson, Charlotte Belsey, Mason Litsos, Nick Cave, Jacki Weaver.

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Memoir by Trump’s Nephew Will Shed Light Into ‘Darker Corner’ of Family

Fred C. Trump III’s “All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way” will hit shelves July 30.

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By Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter

Fred C. Trump III, the nephew of former President Donald J. Trump and the older brother of Mary Trump, will publish a memoir about the Trump family, according to his publisher, Simon & Schuster.

The memoir, titled “All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way,” is set to come out on July 30 from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster — just a few months before the 2024 presidential election, in which former President Trump is running as the presumptive Republican nominee against President Joe Biden.

Gallery described the memoir as a “candid and revealing” account of what it was like to grow up in the Trump family, and noted that the book will include “never-before-told stories” that shed “a light into the darker corner of the Trump empire.” The publisher also stated that Mr. Trump was motivated to tell his family’s story because of the upcoming election, and suggested that his book could “shape the decision of a nation.” It was not clear to what extent “All in the Family” would focus on former President Trump, or in what light. Gallery declined to share more information about the book beyond a brief description.

Fred Trump III, who has largely remained out of the public eye and has not been a vocal critic of the former president, declined to be interviewed, according to his publisher.

The memoir will add another layer to the complex and often combative Trump family saga. Fred and Mary Trump are the children of the former president’s older brother, Fred Trump Jr., who suffered from alcoholism and died of a heart attack in 1981. After their grandfather Fred Trump Sr.’s death in 1999, Mary and Fred Trump filed a lawsuit contesting his will , arguing that they had been cheated out of their inheritance by their father’s siblings.

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