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 8,986)
The Glass Castle: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Jeannette Walls (shelved 533 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.13 — 76,286 ratings — published 2005
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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Paperback)
by Elizabeth Gilbert (shelved 498 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.62 — 148,342 ratings — published 2006
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Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs (shelved 492 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.48 — 50,285 ratings — published 2002
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Me Talk Pretty One Day (Paperback)
by David Sedaris (shelved 424 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.97 — 134,589 ratings — published 2000
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Night
by Elie Wiesel (shelved 322 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.27 — 58,270 ratings — published 1958
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Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (Paperback)
by Anne Frank (shelved 314 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.06 — 147,052 ratings — published 1947
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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Paperback)
by Dave Eggers (shelved 310 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.58 — 54,632 ratings — published 2000
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Angela's Ashes (Paperback)
by Frank McCourt (shelved 308 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.96 — 34,035 ratings — published 1996
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The Year of Magical Thinking (Paperback)
by Joan Didion (shelved 283 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.75 — 19,837 ratings — published 2005
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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Paperback)
by Azar Nafisi (Goodreads author) (shelved 273 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.40 — 27,124 ratings — published 2003
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Naked (Paperback)
by David Sedaris (shelved 256 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.02 — 58,808 ratings — published 1997
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Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (Paperback)
by David Sedaris (shelved 249 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.96 — 36,378 ratings — published 2004
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Dry: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs (shelved 194 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.93 — 16,853 ratings — published 2002
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Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood (Paperback)
by Marjane Satrapi (shelved 185 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.28 — 16,568 ratings — published 2000
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Dreams from My Father (Paperback)
by Barack Obama (shelved 185 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.93 — 19,806 ratings — published 1995
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Lucky (Paperback)
by Alice Sebold (shelved 175 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.68 — 15,321 ratings — published 1999
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Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Hardcover)
by Alison Bechdel (shelved 173 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.24 — 6,970 ratings — published 2006
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Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (Hardcover)
by Julie Powell (shelved 171 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.37 — 13,390 ratings — published 2005
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When You Are Engulfed in Flames (Hardcover)
by David Sedaris (shelved 167 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.88 — 33,001 ratings — published 2008
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A Million Little Pieces (Paperback)
by James Frey (shelved 154 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.49 — 35,571 ratings — published 2003
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Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson (Paperback)
by Mitch Albom (shelved 153 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.90 — 50,645 ratings — published 1997
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Mass Market Paperback)
by Maya Angelou (shelved 149 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.97 — 19,504 ratings — published 1970
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Girl, Interrupted (Paperback)
by Susanna Kaysen (shelved 140 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.57 — 10,154 ratings — published 1993
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Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog (Hardcover)
by John Grogan (shelved 138 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 35,665 ratings — published 2005
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Hardcover)
by Ishmael Beah (shelved 137 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 17,217 ratings — published 2007
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The Liars' Club: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Mary Karr (shelved 136 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.80 — 5,252 ratings — published 1995
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Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (updated edition)
by Anthony Bourdain (shelved 133 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.95 — 15,411 ratings — published 2000
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Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time (Paperback)
by Greg Mortenson (shelved 124 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.98 — 61,348 ratings — published 2006
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Hardcover)
by Barbara Kingsolver (shelved 124 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.12 — 28,796 ratings — published 2007
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A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Mass Market Paperback)
by Bill Bryson (shelved 119 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.01 — 23,550 ratings — published 1997
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Truth & Beauty: A Friendship (Paperback)
by Ann Patchett (shelved 117 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.90 — 6,189 ratings — published 2004
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The Last Lecture (Hardcover)
by Randy Pausch (shelved 114 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 32,506 ratings — published 2008
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Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Paperback)
by Marjane Satrapi (shelved 112 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.14 — 8,307 ratings — published 2001
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Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's (Hardcover)
by John Elder Robison (Goodreads author) (shelved 112 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.67 — 6,723 ratings — published 2007
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Holidays on Ice (Paperback)
by David Sedaris (shelved 109 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.94 — 21,114 ratings — published 1997
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An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (Paperback)
by Kay Redfield Jamison (shelved 109 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.92 — 4,739 ratings — published 1995
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The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother (Paperback)
by James McBride (shelved 109 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.98 — 11,450 ratings — published 1996
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A Girl Named Zippy (Paperback)
by Haven Kimmel (shelved 108 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.83 — 7,696 ratings — published 2001
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'Tis (Paperback)
by Frank McCourt (shelved 105 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.46 — 7,989 ratings — published 1999
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My Life in France (Hardcover)
by Julia Child (shelved 103 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.11 — 7,751 ratings — published 2006
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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Paperback)
by Jean-Dominique Bauby (shelved 98 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.99 — 9,240 ratings — published 1997
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A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive (Paperback)
by Dave Pelzer (shelved 96 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.97 — 20,752 ratings — published 1992
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Autobiography of a Face (Paperback)
by Lucy Grealy (shelved 96 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.84 — 3,603 ratings — published 1995
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Prozac Nation (Paperback)
by Elizabeth Wurtzel (shelved 95 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.17 — 6,673 ratings — published 1994
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Magical Thinking: True Stories (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs (shelved 95 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.87 — 10,490 ratings — published 2004
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Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (Paperback)
by Alexandra Fuller (shelved 94 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.94 — 6,064 ratings — published 2002
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Infidel (Hardcover)
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (shelved 94 times as memoir)
avg rating 4.26 — 9,053 ratings — published 2006
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The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Hardcover)
by Bill Bryson (shelved 93 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.85 — 6,982 ratings — published 2006
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Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (Paperback)
by Jon Krakauer (shelved 92 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.98 — 52,536 ratings — published 1997
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Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (Paperback)
by Ruth Reichl (shelved 92 times as memoir)
avg rating 3.84 — 6,661 ratings — published 2005
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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)
