books / memoir
Looking for a memoir that doesn't bore me
Memoirs that work as books, not as therapy. Voice-driven, specific, readable.
- Just Kids — Patti Smith 2010New York, Robert Mapplethorpe, becoming.
- H is for Hawk — Helen Macdonald 2014Grief, goshawk training, T.H. White.
- Wild — Cheryl Strayed 2012PCT solo, the boots.
- Born a Crime — Trevor Noah 2016South Africa, mother, apartheid.
- The Glass Castle — Jeannette Walls 2005Unsettled childhood. Vivid.
- Educated — Tara Westover 2018Off-grid Idaho to Cambridge PhD.
- Crying in H Mart — Michelle Zauner 2021Grief, food, mother.
- Hunger — Roxane Gay 2017Body, trauma, honesty.
- Lab Girl — Hope Jahren 2016Scientist, plants, partnership.
- Heavy — Kiese Laymon 2018Mississippi, mother, body, weight.