100 of My Favorite Memoirs

In my Memoir Mastery class, I’ve been sharing some of my favorite memoirs to illustrate the craft and technique of writing a compelling memoir. As part of that discussion, folks have asked me to compile a list of my favorite memoirs. Here it is!

100 of My Favorite Memoirs

1. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
2. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
3. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
4. Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
5. A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile by Agate Nesaule
6. The Language of Baklava: A Memoir by Diana Abu-Jaber
7. The Storyteller’s Daughter: One Woman’s Return to Her Lost Homeland by Saira Shah
8. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams
9. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
10. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez by Richard Rodriguez
11. The Tender Bar: A Memoir by J.R. Moehringer
12. Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
13. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
14. The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
15. H Is for Hawk by Helen McDonald
16. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
17. The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander
18. Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon*
19. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
20. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
21. The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah
22. Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir by Peter Balakian
23. Broken: A Love Story by Lisa Jones
24. Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach
25. Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat
26. Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
27. All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
28. The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
29. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
30. Becoming by Michelle Obama
31. Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama
32. Brothers and Keepers: A Memoir by John Edgar Wideman
33. The Places In Between by Rory Stewart
34. The Long Goodbye: A Memoir by Meghan O’Rourke
35. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield
36. Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at The Table by Ruth Reichel
37. Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman by Nuala O’Faolain
38. What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
39. Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
40. A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas
41. Fierce Attachments: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick
42. Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint by Nadia Bolz-Weber
43. Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
44. Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir by Danielle Trussoni
45. The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
46. Almost There by Nuala O’Faolain
47. After Long Silence by Helen Fremont
48. Let’s Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
49. My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem
50. Love Warrior: A Memoir by Glennon Doyle Melton
51. French Lessons: A Memoir by Alice Kaplan
52. Name All the Animals: A Memoir by Alison Smith
53. Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd
54. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
55. Lit by Mary Karr
56. Devotion: A Memoir by Dani Shapiro
57. This Boy’s Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolf
58. All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
59. Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
60. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
61. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
62. Limbo: A Memoir by A. Manette Ansay
63. Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner
64. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
65. Finding Manana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus by Mirta Ojito
66. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen
67. The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper
68. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
69. Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found by Jennifer Lauck
70. Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriquez
71. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
72. Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni
73. I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail by Gail Storey
74. The Stone Fields: An Epitah for the Living by Courtney Brkcic
75. Fury: A Memoir by Koren Zailckas
76. My Invented Country: A Memoir by Isabel Allende
77. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
78. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
79. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure by Dorothy Alison
80. Lucky by Alice Sebold
81. Bossypants by Tina Fey
82. My Life in France by Julia Child
83. Marriage and Other Acts of Charity: A Memoir by Kate Braestrup
84. Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller
85. The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman
86. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
87. The Names of Things by Susan Brind Morrow
88. Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
89. Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrup
90. An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
91. My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayer
92. The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
93. Heart in the Right Place: A Memoir by Carolyn Jourdan
94. In the Body of the World: A Memoir by Eve Ensler
95. Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamaties, and Occasional Moments of Grace by Ayelet Waldman
96. Walking Home: A Pilgrimage from Humbled to Healed by Sonia Choquette
97. Water Oak: The Happiness of Longing by Sue Frederick
98. Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself by Julie Barton
99. The Book of Separation by Tova Mirvis
100. The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Eva Edith Enger
101. The Secret Life of Grief: A Memoir by Tanja Pajevic (me!)

* Kiese and I earned our MFAs together, and I’m so happy for the incredible success he’s having with Heavy–he deserves it!

Now it’s your turn! I’d love to hear what your favorite memoirs are. Please leave a comment below. 

And if you’re interested in writing your own memoir, stay tuned–our next round of Memoir Mastery class starts this Fall!