| 1 |
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Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by
4.07 avg rating — 869,108 ratings
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| 2 |
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Just Kids
by
4.21 avg rating — 355,388 ratings
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| 3 |
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The Glass Castle
by
4.33 avg rating — 1,365,894 ratings
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| 4 |
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Eat, Pray, Love
by
3.65 avg rating — 1,845,891 ratings
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| 5 |
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This Childhood of Mine: A Memoir of My Last Summer with My Mentally Ill Mother and Alcoholic Father
by
4.30 avg rating — 43 ratings
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| 6 |
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The Last Bar In NYC
by
4.30 avg rating — 131 ratings
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| 7 |
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A Moveable Feast
by
4.02 avg rating — 167,397 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Year of Magical Thinking
by
3.93 avg rating — 302,194 ratings
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| 9 |
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)
by
4.30 avg rating — 582,677 ratings
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| 10 |
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Come to the Edge
by
3.92 avg rating — 3,387 ratings
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| 11 |
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What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love
by
4.20 avg rating — 23,144 ratings
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| 12 |
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Night
by
4.38 avg rating — 1,367,026 ratings
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| 13 |
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Down and Out in Paris and London
by
4.09 avg rating — 101,556 ratings
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| 14 |
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Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
by
3.84 avg rating — 505,324 ratings
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| 15 |
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The Complete Persepolis
by
4.40 avg rating — 205,923 ratings
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| 16 |
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The Liars' Club
by
3.94 avg rating — 72,077 ratings
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| 17 |
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Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt, #1)
by
4.15 avg rating — 659,164 ratings
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| 17 |
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Orange Is the New Black
by
3.72 avg rating — 206,138 ratings
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| 19 |
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Prozac Nation
by
3.64 avg rating — 63,986 ratings
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| 20 |
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Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by
4.08 avg rating — 29,900 ratings
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| 21 |
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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by
3.66 avg rating — 140,500 ratings
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| 22 |
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Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by
3.94 avg rating — 231,238 ratings
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| 23 |
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Running with Scissors
by
3.77 avg rating — 404,275 ratings
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| 24 |
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The Chronology of Water
by
4.20 avg rating — 17,202 ratings
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| 25 |
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Confessions of an English Opium Eater
by
3.29 avg rating — 11,157 ratings
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| 26 |
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Truth & Beauty
by
3.97 avg rating — 47,432 ratings
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| 27 |
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Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
by
4.13 avg rating — 6,135 ratings
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| 28 |
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An American Childhood: A Poignant Memoir About Parents and Passion in 1950s Pittsburgh
by
3.91 avg rating — 10,563 ratings
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| 29 |
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Blue Nights
by
3.95 avg rating — 48,766 ratings
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| 30 |
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Stop-Time
by
3.94 avg rating — 2,541 ratings
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| 31 |
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Negative Space
by
4.22 avg rating — 1,080 ratings
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| 32 |
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Confessions
by
3.60 avg rating — 9,149 ratings
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| 33 |
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Down Below
by
3.81 avg rating — 3,389 ratings
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| 34 |
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Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art
by
4.37 avg rating — 1,027 ratings
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| 35 |
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When Breath Becomes Air
by
4.41 avg rating — 810,061 ratings
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| 36 |
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Autobiography of a Face
by
3.97 avg rating — 30,034 ratings
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| 37 |
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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
by
3.69 avg rating — 183,765 ratings
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| 38 |
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The Lover
by
3.70 avg rating — 73,509 ratings
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| 39 |
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West with the Night
by
4.15 avg rating — 41,074 ratings
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| 40 |
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The Complete Maus
by
4.58 avg rating — 255,112 ratings
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| 41 |
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Lessons from a CF Cornerman: 38 Lessons I Learned During My Wife's Illness And Lung Transplant
by
4.69 avg rating — 45 ratings
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| 41 |
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Rain of Gold
by
4.50 avg rating — 8,377 ratings
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| 41 |
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The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir
by
4.23 avg rating — 60 ratings
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| 41 |
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Dispatches from the Couch: A Neuroscientist and Her Therapist Conspire to Reboot Her Brain
by
4.80 avg rating — 50 ratings
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| 45 |
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Reveries of the Solitary Walker
by
3.61 avg rating — 7,579 ratings
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| 45 |
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Whip Smart: A Memoir
by
3.64 avg rating — 4,125 ratings
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| 45 |
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The Glass Eye: A Memoir
by
3.96 avg rating — 1,427 ratings
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| 48 |
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Adventure, romance and war in the Far East: The Iris Hay-Edie Diary: A historical memoir
by
4.28 avg rating — 162 ratings
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| 48 |
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Jackson's Track : Memoir of a Dreamtime Place
by
4.11 avg rating — 198 ratings
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| 50 |
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Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
by
3.80 avg rating — 11,933 ratings
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| 51 |
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Paris to the Moon
by
3.75 avg rating — 15,450 ratings
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| 52 |
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Passing Clouds
by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 15 ratings
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| 53 |
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Fugitive Spring: A Memoir
by
3.57 avg rating — 42 ratings
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| 53 |
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Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo
by
3.76 avg rating — 12,433 ratings
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| 53 |
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The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story
by
4.12 avg rating — 11,469 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
by
4.33 avg rating — 23,175 ratings
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| 57 |
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My Sergei: A Love Story
by
4.14 avg rating — 5,411 ratings
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| 58 |
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Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy
by
3.77 avg rating — 330,251 ratings
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| 58 |
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That Summer in Paris
by
3.89 avg rating — 530 ratings
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| 60 |
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Minor Characters
by
4.07 avg rating — 2,874 ratings
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| 61 |
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A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the aftermath of the Columbine tragedy
by
4.14 avg rating — 46,292 ratings
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| 61 |
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Smile (Smile, #1)
by
4.23 avg rating — 309,729 ratings
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| 63 |
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Me Talk Pretty One Day
by
4.01 avg rating — 721,394 ratings
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| 64 |
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Love Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction
by
3.78 avg rating — 502 ratings
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| 65 |
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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
by
4.15 avg rating — 21,672 ratings
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| 66 |
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The Balloonists
by
4.17 avg rating — 715 ratings
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| 67 |
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The Argonauts
by
4.02 avg rating — 56,488 ratings
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| 68 |
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The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss
by
3.96 avg rating — 63,666 ratings
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| 69 |
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Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites
by
3.37 avg rating — 2,583 ratings
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| 70 |
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Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life
by
4.21 avg rating — 2,047 ratings
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| 71 |
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Fat Girl: A True Story
by
3.32 avg rating — 4,031 ratings
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| 72 |
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If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir
by
3.65 avg rating — 409 ratings
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| 73 |
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When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
by
4.21 avg rating — 9,454 ratings
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| 74 |
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Wave
by
3.80 avg rating — 23,101 ratings
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| 75 |
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Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir
by
4.14 avg rating — 3,439 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Queen of Whale Cay: The Eccentric Story of "Joe" Carstairs, Fastest Woman on Water
by
3.71 avg rating — 696 ratings
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| 76 |
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Finding My Invincible Summer
by
4.14 avg rating — 37 ratings
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| 76 |
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Narrative of the life of James Allen, alias George Walton, alias Jonas Pierce, alias James H. York, alias Burley Grove, the highwayman: being his death-bed confession, to the warden of the Massachusetts state prison
by
3.68 avg rating — 25 ratings
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| 76 |
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A Naive Heart
by
3.23 avg rating — 22 ratings
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| 76 |
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The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir
by
3.61 avg rating — 7,471 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Natural History of Selborne
by
3.96 avg rating — 577 ratings
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| 76 |
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Quit or Die Trying
by
4.43 avg rating — 23 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Orton Diaries
by
4.04 avg rating — 686 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Hospital by the River
by
4.10 avg rating — 2,615 ratings
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| 76 |
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Just Another Number
by
3.69 avg rating — 87 ratings
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| 76 |
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Things The Grandchildren Should Know
by
4.24 avg rating — 9,278 ratings
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| 76 |
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Dysfunction: The Memoirs of a Junkie Who No Longer Exists
by
4.43 avg rating — 14 ratings
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| 76 |
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Persona Medusa: A Tale of Selective Mutism & Social Anxiety
by
4.31 avg rating — 16 ratings
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| 76 |
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Realizing River City
by
4.30 avg rating — 53 ratings
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| 76 |
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Now for the Disappointing Part: A Pseudo-Adult?s Decade of Short-Term Jobs, Long-Term Relationships, and Holding Out for Something Better
by
3.97 avg rating — 116 ratings
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| 76 |
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I Shock Myself : the Autobiography of Beatrice Wood
by
4.18 avg rating — 263 ratings
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| 76 |
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Through Innocent Eyes: The Chosen Girls of the Hitler Youth
by
4.35 avg rating — 46 ratings
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| 76 |
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Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
by
3.87 avg rating — 42,062 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,518 ratings
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| 76 |
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My Body Is a Book of Rules
by
4.06 avg rating — 1,190 ratings
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| 76 |
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At Death Do Us Part: A Grieving Widower Heals After Losing his Wife to Breast Cancer
by
4.27 avg rating — 70 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Obsidian Mirror: Healing from Childhood Sexual Abuse
by
4.33 avg rating — 102 ratings
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| 76 |
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Busted: A Memoir of Teenage Years
by
4.29 avg rating — 14 ratings
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| 76 |
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Long Daze at Long Binh: The humorous adventures of two Wisconsin draftees trained as combat medics and sent off to set up a field hospital in South Vietnam
by
4.02 avg rating — 48 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Hitchhiker Man
by
4.01 avg rating — 123 ratings
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I’m researching memoir for my PhD and a helpful term I came across is the ‘nobody memoir’*. It seems relevant to this list.
The term relates to these non-celebrity type memoirs, where we don’t already know about the author’s life. The author is instead ‘ordinary’, ‘nobody’ as opposed to a ‘somebody’, a celebrity or well-known figure.
Secondly...
Recommendations? I’m looking for feminist/female authored experimental memoirs that could be said to engage in theory (social/political/philosophical)
If anyone knows of any memoirs from this list (or not on the list) that would fit my research I’d be grateful to hear recommendations!
(* Thomas Couser, ‘Memoir: An Introduction’ borrows the term from a Washington Post article by Lorraine Adams)