"When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do — well, that’s Memoirs."
Will Rogers was known for being quick with a quip like the one above, but I beg to differ on this point — the best memoirs tell everything, messy mistakes and all!
Recently I mentally roamed over the list of memoirs I've read and loved, which ones I need to read again, which I haven't read yet but want to. Some of these are life stories, some focus mainly on a particular experience or career, some are even a memoir of a vocation, like writing.
I'm sharing my personal list of riveting memoirs here, including links to Goodreads so you can explore the titles yourself and add any you find compelling to your "Want to Read" lists. I'm sure I've left a few out unintentionally, but these are the ones that sprang to mind as I thought back on my reading life.
The Best Memoirs I've Ever Read
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg
Educated by Tara Westover (Here's my review.)
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Just Kids by Patti Smith (Here's my review.)
Hallelujah! The Welcome Table by Maya Angelou (Here's my review.)
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
EVERYTHING by David Sedaris. I don't really think of him as writing memoirs, but at the same time his work seems to qualify. After all, he's written many books of essays focusing on his life story and the stories of those closest to him. Which can get tricky at times, relationship-wise. But as Anne Lamott wrote:
“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better."
Memoirs I Can't Wait to Read
The following are on my TBR pile. Some I already own, some are on hold at the library, and some sit on my Amazon wish list waiting for a sale. All come with multiple glowing recommendations from others, prompting me to long to read them as well.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Open by Andre Agassi
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir by Amy Tan
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
I'd love it if you'd follow or friend me on Goodreads. Let's be book buddies!
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