Best Memoir Books

The deeply personal memoir of the former First Lady of the United States — from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to the White House and beyond.

The memoir of The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, born in apartheid South Africa to a Black mother and white father — an act that was literally a crime under apartheid law.

Nike founder Phil Knight's memoir of building one of the world's most iconic brands — from $50 borrowed from his father and a handshake deal for Japanese running shoes to a multi-billion dollar empire. Brutally honest and compulsively readable.

A neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at 36 confronts the questions he spent his career preparing to face — and writes a book about mortality, meaning, and what makes a life worth living.

Tara Westover's memoir of growing up in the mountains of Idaho without formal education, in a survivalist family, and her journey to Cambridge and Harvard.

Krakauer's firsthand account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers died during a single storm. One of the greatest adventure narratives ever written.

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's harrowing account of surviving Auschwitz forms the foundation of logotherapy — the idea that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of meaning. One of the most important psychological texts of the 20th century.

Andre Agassi's remarkably candid memoir about a sporting career built on hating the sport that made him famous — written with J.R. Moehringer.

George Orwell's first-person account of fighting for the POUM militia in the Spanish Civil War — the trenches outside Huesca, the revolutionary Barcelona of 1936, the May Days street fighting, the Stalinist suppression of the independent left, and his narrow escape from arrest and execution.

Part memoir, part writing guide, Stephen King reflects on his life, his near-fatal accident, and the craft principles that have made him one of the most productive writers in American literature.

The memoir of Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner David Goggins — from a traumatic childhood and an overweight, unfulfilled existence to becoming one of the world's elite endurance athletes.

Former child actress Jennette McCurdy's unflinching memoir about her mother's emotional abuse, the exploitation of the child acting industry, and her path to recovery from eating disorders and trauma.

Known publicly as 'Emily Doe,' Chanel Miller reclaims her full identity and tells the complete story of the assault, trial, and aftermath of the Brock Turner case.

Nelson Mandela's autobiography traces his journey from a Transkei village through law, activism, 27 years of imprisonment, and his emergence to lead South Africa's democratic transition.

Oscar winner Viola Davis recounts her extraordinary journey from crushing poverty in rural Rhode Island to EGOT status, with unflinching honesty about trauma, shame, and self-worth.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate tells the story of growing up in Pakistan's Swat Valley, her father's school, the Taliban occupation, and surviving a targeted assassination attempt at fifteen.

Maya Angelou's first autobiographical volume, covering her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, her rape at eight years old, her years of traumatized silence, and her eventual recovery through literature and language.

Therapist Lori Gottlieb writes about going to therapy herself after a painful breakup, interweaving her own journey as a patient with the stories of four clients she is treating simultaneously.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's collection of outrageous, funny, and illuminating adventures — from cracking safes at Los Alamos to learning to draw, playing bongo drums, and embarrassing the censors of the Brazilian physics curriculum.

The former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park recounts how an obsessive commitment to making guests feel seen and celebrated transformed a failing restaurant into the best in the world.

Barack Obama's presidential memoir covers his early life, 2008 campaign, and first term, examining both the machinery of American democracy and the personal cost of holding its highest office.

Written as a letter to his teenage son, Ta-Nehisi Coates examines the history and present reality of anti-Black racism in America — its origins in the destruction of Black bodies, its persistence through white supremacy — with unsparing intellectual force.

The Japanese Breakfast musician writes about her Korean-American identity, her mother's death from cancer, and how food became the medium for grief and memory.

Barack Obama's searingly honest memoir about race, identity, and his search for belonging across three continents.