memoir
about
As a literary genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire from the Latin memoria, meaning "memory", or a reminiscence), forms a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable in modern parlance. Memoir is autobiographical writing, bu...more
popular memoir books (showing 1-50 of 9,119)
The Glass Castle: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Jeannette Walls (shelved 546 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.13 — 77,275 ratings — published 2005
my rating:
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Paperback)
by Elizabeth Gilbert (shelved 510 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.61 — 151,233 ratings — published 2006
my rating:
Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs (shelved 498 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.47 — 50,830 ratings — published 2002
my rating:
Me Talk Pretty One Day (Paperback)
by David Sedaris (shelved 430 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.97 — 137,370 ratings — published 2000
my rating:
Night
by Elie Wiesel (shelved 328 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.27 — 59,290 ratings — published 1958
my rating:
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (Paperback)
by Anne Frank (shelved 320 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.06 — 152,295 ratings — published 1947
my rating:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Paperback)
by Dave Eggers (shelved 314 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.58 — 55,081 ratings — published 2000
my rating:
Angela's Ashes (Paperback)
by Frank McCourt (shelved 312 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.96 — 34,722 ratings — published 1996
my rating:
The Year of Magical Thinking (Paperback)
by Joan Didion (shelved 286 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.74 — 20,049 ratings — published 2005
my rating:
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Paperback)
by Azar Nafisi (Goodreads author) (shelved 277 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.40 — 27,435 ratings — published 2003
my rating:
Naked (Paperback)
by David Sedaris (shelved 257 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.02 — 59,177 ratings — published 1997
my rating:
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (Paperback)
by David Sedaris (shelved 251 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.96 — 36,738 ratings — published 2004
my rating:
Dry: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs (shelved 196 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.93 — 17,027 ratings — published 2002
my rating:
Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood (Paperback)
by Marjane Satrapi (shelved 191 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.28 — 16,778 ratings — published 2000
my rating:
Dreams from My Father (Paperback)
by Barack Obama (shelved 190 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.93 — 19,984 ratings — published 1995
my rating:
Lucky (Paperback)
by Alice Sebold (shelved 182 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.68 — 15,499 ratings — published 1999
my rating:
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Hardcover)
by Alison Bechdel (shelved 177 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.24 — 7,066 ratings — published 2006
my rating:
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (Hardcover)
by Julie Powell (shelved 177 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.36 — 13,522 ratings — published 2005
my rating:
When You Are Engulfed in Flames (Hardcover)
by David Sedaris (shelved 172 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.87 — 33,440 ratings — published 2008
my rating:
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson (Paperback)
by Mitch Albom (shelved 156 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.89 — 51,430 ratings — published 1997
my rating:
A Million Little Pieces (Paperback)
by James Frey (shelved 155 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.48 — 35,955 ratings — published 2003
my rating:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Mass Market Paperback)
by Maya Angelou (shelved 152 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.96 — 19,807 ratings — published 1970
my rating:
Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog (Hardcover)
by John Grogan (shelved 144 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 36,011 ratings — published 2005
my rating:
Girl, Interrupted (Paperback)
by Susanna Kaysen (shelved 143 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.57 — 10,351 ratings — published 1993
my rating:
The Liars' Club: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Mary Karr (shelved 142 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.80 — 5,433 ratings — published 1995
my rating:
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Hardcover)
by Ishmael Beah (shelved 139 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 17,432 ratings — published 2007
my rating:
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (updated edition)
by Anthony Bourdain (shelved 136 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.94 — 15,603 ratings — published 2000
my rating:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Hardcover)
by Barbara Kingsolver (shelved 129 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 29,187 ratings — published 2007
my rating:
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time (Paperback)
by Greg Mortenson (shelved 128 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.98 — 62,342 ratings — published 2006
my rating:
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Mass Market Paperback)
by Bill Bryson (shelved 121 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.01 — 23,830 ratings — published 1997
my rating:
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship (Paperback)
by Ann Patchett (shelved 118 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.90 — 6,257 ratings — published 2004
my rating:
The Last Lecture (Hardcover)
by Randy Pausch (shelved 116 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 32,970 ratings — published 2008
my rating:
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Paperback)
by Marjane Satrapi (shelved 115 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.14 — 8,416 ratings — published 2001
my rating:
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's (Hardcover)
by John Elder Robison (Goodreads author) (shelved 113 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.67 — 6,831 ratings — published 2007
my rating:
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother (Paperback)
by James McBride (shelved 112 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.97 — 11,604 ratings — published 1996
my rating:
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (Paperback)
by Kay Redfield Jamison (shelved 111 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.92 — 4,818 ratings — published 1995
my rating:
A Girl Named Zippy (Paperback)
by Haven Kimmel (shelved 111 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.83 — 7,787 ratings — published 2001
my rating:
Holidays on Ice (Paperback)
by David Sedaris (shelved 110 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.94 — 21,344 ratings — published 1997
my rating:
My Life in France (Hardcover)
by Julia Child (shelved 107 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 8,066 ratings — published 2006
my rating:
'Tis (Paperback)
by Frank McCourt (shelved 107 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.46 — 8,118 ratings — published 1999
my rating:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Paperback)
by Jean-Dominique Bauby (shelved 100 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.99 — 9,353 ratings — published 1997
my rating:
A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive (Paperback)
by Dave Pelzer (shelved 99 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.97 — 21,147 ratings — published 1992
my rating:
Prozac Nation (Paperback)
by Elizabeth Wurtzel (shelved 99 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.17 — 6,755 ratings — published 1994
my rating:
Magical Thinking: True Stories (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs (shelved 98 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.87 — 10,605 ratings — published 2004
my rating:
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (Paperback)
by Alexandra Fuller (shelved 97 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.94 — 6,148 ratings — published 2002
my rating:
Autobiography of a Face (Paperback)
by Lucy Grealy (shelved 97 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.84 — 3,653 ratings — published 1995
my rating:
This Boy's Life: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Tobias Wolff (shelved 96 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.94 — 3,732 ratings — published 1988
my rating:
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (Paperback)
by Jon Krakauer (shelved 95 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.98 — 54,074 ratings — published 1997
my rating:
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Hardcover)
by Bill Bryson (shelved 95 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.84 — 7,071 ratings — published 2006
my rating:
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Hardcover)
by Steve Martin (shelved 95 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.78 — 7,472 ratings — published 2007
my rating:
all shelves
More quotes...
"In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices."
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)
tags:
memoir
2 people liked it
"'You are putting yourself in serious danger...'
I think that I preferred to put myself in serious danger rather than confront my shame. My shame at not having become someone, the shame of not having made my parents proud after all the sacrifices they had made for me. The shame of having become a mediocre nihilist."
— Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return)
I think that I preferred to put myself in serious danger rather than confront my shame. My shame at not having become someone, the shame of not having made my parents proud after all the sacrifices they had made for me. The shame of having become a mediocre nihilist."
— Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return)
