Hello friends! I’m wondering if any of you can give me recommendations on great autobiographies/memoirs you’ve read. Thank you!
Hello friends!
I’m wondering if any of you can give me recommendations on great autobiographies/memoirs you’ve read. Thank you!
The Skin Above My Knee by Marcia Butler. One of the best memoirs and books I’ve read this year.
I have a fave that kind of fits what you’re looking for? It’s called Mary: Mrs. A Lincoln by Janis Cooke Newman. It’s historical fiction in the style of memoir, so it basically reads like the journal of Mary Todd Lincoln, and it’s presented as if someone found the journal after Mary lost it and then published it.
That sounds incredible!
It’s really great! It’s a bit sad but it’s beautifully written!
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
If you aren’t opposed to a lot of vulgarity, The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band (Motley Crüe) was really good
My Life In France by Julia Child and Wild by Cheryl Strayed are the first two that come to mind. I also liked Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, Margot Lee but it’s a biography. 🙂
Running with Scissors by Augustus Burroughs is really good. If you want to read some really funny memoirs Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson are about raising her kids in the 40s and 50s and they’re hilarious.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Mary Karr, Bill Bryson, H is for Hawk
I read 1963 A Life Of Bread and Jam, an unusual but brilliant memoir of growing up in a poor family in the North of England. It will stay with me for a long time
Finally Free by Michael Vick
Around the Way Girl by Taraji P. Henson
Can’t think of the titles but Elizabeth Montgomery & Barbara Eden have good books too
Wasted by marya hornbacher
This was a good one
I actually once wrote her an Email and she replied!
Really? That’s awesome! Ive never written to an author before
You should!
This n that Bette Davis.
The Art of Asking is incredible. Tuesday’s with Morrie is really touching. A Piece of Cake, although I haven’t read it in years, I remember loving it. It is a really hard read, she had a very rough childhood, but I’m pretty sure it has a very hopeful & inspiring ending.
I second the art of asking
testament of youth – vera britain
Some good recommendations here will check some of them out ???
I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust
by Livia Bitton
The Pursuit of Happyness by Christopher Gardner
Memoirs of a geisha !
Choose your own autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris
Jackie Kennedy, Abigail Adams
Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming was really good. I also enjoy the book 41 (a biography about George W Bush written by his son George H W Bush), it made me laugh and also shed some more light on events in American history.
Coming Clean
Rita Moreno: A Memoir, Sh*t My Dad Says, The Boy on the Wooden Box, Left to Tell (about surviving the Rwandan genocide) and I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.
The Quiet Room, Leaving Dirty Jersey, Angela’s Ashes, Coreography…I could recommend more as I love memoirs, but I’m not home right now.
Yes Please by Amy Poehler, it also has a great audiobook that she reads herself and has guests read parts as well. I love books by comedians so I would also recommend Jim Gaffigans, Amy Schumers, and Tina Feys books.
Scar Tissue
It’s nor necessarily stunning in terms of wording, but the story is heartbreaking. A Child Called It is my favorite autobiography
James Herriott
On the Move, Oliver Sacks
The glass castle
This Road I Ride!
Born with teeth
Scrappy little nobody by Anna Kendrick, and You’re Never weird on the Internet by Felicia day
Those two too!
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay and Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama are two recent favorites of mine.
Soul Surfer and Bob(don’t know the excact title but it’s about james and his cat named bob)
life without limits by nick vujicic (is that right?) is great too
He’s a comedian right?
@Caroline Not really though… He’s an evangelist and motivation-speaker. He IS indeed funny but he’s not really a comedian?
Oh really? I was thinking about the wrong person then 🙂
my booky wook by russell brand
Idk if anyone said this as I haven’t scrolled the comments but “after the eclipse” !
Dancing on my grave by gelsey Kirkland — old book but great. Primal ballerina
Just finished Endurance by Scott Kelly, which is about his yearlong trip to the International Space Station and his journey to becoming an astronaut. Loved it ❤️
Wild- Cheryl Strayed
Ordeal – Linda Lovelace. It’s super good but also, extremely graphic and disturbing, so if that’s a trigger for you, don’t read it!
Based on a True Story – Norm Macdonald. By far, the funniest book I’ve ever read in my life!
Bird by Bird, can’t remember author, Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, On Writing by Stephen King
The Rules Do Not Apply by, Ariel Levy, Born a Crime by, Trevor Noah
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Angela’s Ashes//The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt//Mosaic by Amy Grant
We Are Never Meeting In real Life by Samantha Irby
Ron Chernow’s Hamilton is very good. Patricia O;Toole’s The Five of Hearts on Henry Adams and friends is also good. I’m currently reading Harvey Sachs’ biography on Toscanini. If you like music, it’s a good read.
Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters. He rose up in the ranks of the company that Band of Brothers is about. Amazing, amazing man and very thought-provoking read. Good if you like military-related as it details all the company’s movements.
Small Steps: The Year I got Polio by Peg Kehret. I read it in gradeschool but have read it often because it is such a good read!
The center cannot hold, the glass castle, the center cannot hold and an unquiet mind
My Dancing White Horses by Alois Podhajsky…..he ran the Spanish Riding School during WWII & saved the Lipizzan Stallions.
Hunger by Roxanne Gay. It is so powerful.
I keep meaning to read more by her. I once read an essay she wrote and it was so incredible and moving and such a powerful point of view. I will definitely check it out.
The Glass Castle
My Story by Elizabeth Smart!
What area do you like?
The Paul O’Grady autobiographys and the Street Cat named Bob trilogy by James Bowen
I Am Malala
David Jason, both My Life and the new one out about Only Fools and Horses. They were really good.
Angela’s Ashes by Frank MCcourt.
It’ll Feel Better When it Quits Hurting by Lisa Orban.
Anne Frank Remembered by Miep Gies.
I try to read at least 6 memoir/autobiographies a year so I have quite a few for you. Ill try to just list the ones I liked the most 🙂
A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy’s Gift to Medical Science by Gray, Sarah. Its Not yet Dark by Simon Fitzmaurice, Troublemaker by Leah Remini, My Name is Mahtob by Mahtob Mahmoody, I came home but I wasnt me by Bruce Taneski ( my uncle 🙂 I knew a lot of this story but not all. I was a baby at the time)
The Joey Song: A Mother’s Story of Her Son’s Addiction by Swenson, Sandy, Night by Elie Weisel , A Mothers Reckoning by Susan Klebold. Hope these give you some ideas 🙂 Youre welcome to my Goodreads list if you like
My Experiments with truth, by Gandhiji.(Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi)
Dry & Running With Scissors both by Augustin Burrows
Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland by Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus
The Glass Castle