EDIT: Looking for your fav autobiography (or memoir) recommendations. Anything that inspired you, captivated you, amazed you, or was just a great book. Looking forward to your thoughts.
**Knife** by Salman Rushdie was phenomenal. Not sure it’s an autobiography, but it’s definitely a memoir. Rushdie has had a fatwa on his head since the 70s or 80s, and in 2022 someone tried to carry it out by assaulting him with a knife while he was giving a speech on freedom of speech.
He almost died but didn’t, and this is his attempt to make sense of what happened and heal. Beautiful, funny, insightful, harrowing… but above all, hopeful.
port_okali on
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. It is the best autobiography I know. I particularly recommend the audiobook narrated by the author.
SoICanWrite on
It’s an autobiography detailing a small section of one girl’s life. Go in blind. Don’t google anything about the book. It was made into a movie I don’t think anyone saw. Hopefully, you weren’t one of the few who did. Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan
LongLiveCowboys on
Memoirs are my favourite genre! Here are a few that I love:
1. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (I always recommend this to everyone and they always love it with rave reviews)
2. Educated by Tara Westover (amazingly written, subject matter is tough and dark but left me feeling hopeful)
3. Know My Name by Chanel Miller (another amazing memoir with a tough subject matter)
4. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (this was a wild ride)
iiiamash01i0 on
{{ Not Dead and Not For Sale: A Memoir by Scott Weiland }}
I just finished {{ The Woman in Me by Britney Spears }} and it was pretty good.
YerManOnTheMac on
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby.
He was a journalist who had a massive stroke and suffered from locked-in syndrome. He could subsequently only move a single eyelid and wrote the book by blinking every letter.
It is beautiful and incredibly moving.
iloveatl on
Know My Name by Chanel Miller, My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor, I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
KatJen76 on
Yak Girl by Dorje Dolma. A memoir of growing up in the isolated Dolpapa region of Nepal following an ancient way of life.
mckrd0 on
Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey!
FriendlyMixture4353 on
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Would love it if he wrote another detailing more of his life/history of Nike.
wooricat on
Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman. Jessica toured as a violinist with a fake orchestra who “played” Titanic-esque music. It’s a pretty bizarre story. But it’s also a coming of age memoir, too. She explores her childhood in West Virginia and being a millennial college student during the 9/11 era. It sounds like it shouldn’t work together, but I enjoyed it and she has a great sense of humor.
liz_mf on
“Liliana’s Invincible Summer” is a memoir that plays with form and I found breathtaking. It mixes letters, stuff from diary entries, a chronicle of opening a police file and more to tell the life story of Liliana Rivera Garza, the author’s sister who was murdered
BernardFerguson1944 on
*With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa* by E.B. Sledge.
*Japanese Destroyer Captain* by Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito and Roger Pineau.
*Requiem for Battleship Yamato* by Yoshida Mitsuru.
*Kamikaze: A Japanese Pilot’s Own Spectacular Story of the Famous Suicide Squadrons* by Yasuo Kuwahara and Gordon T. Allred.
*Samurai!: the Unforgettable Saga of Japan’s Greatest Fighter Pilot* by Saburo Sakai and Martin Caidin.
*The Divine Wind* by Rikihei Inoguchi and Tadashi Nakajima.
*Return of the Enola Gay* by Paul W. Tibbets.
*No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War* by Hiroo Onoda.
*Soldier* by Anthony B. Herbert.
*Guns Up!* by Johnnie M. Clark.
*We Were Soldiers Once… and Young* by Lt. Gen. Harold G. ‘Hal’ Moore.
*Peacekeepers at War: Beirut 1983 – The Marine Commander Tells His Story* by Timothy J. Geraghty.
*First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers* by Loung Ung.
*No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden* by Mark Owen.
13 Comments
**Knife** by Salman Rushdie was phenomenal. Not sure it’s an autobiography, but it’s definitely a memoir. Rushdie has had a fatwa on his head since the 70s or 80s, and in 2022 someone tried to carry it out by assaulting him with a knife while he was giving a speech on freedom of speech.
He almost died but didn’t, and this is his attempt to make sense of what happened and heal. Beautiful, funny, insightful, harrowing… but above all, hopeful.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. It is the best autobiography I know. I particularly recommend the audiobook narrated by the author.
It’s an autobiography detailing a small section of one girl’s life. Go in blind. Don’t google anything about the book. It was made into a movie I don’t think anyone saw. Hopefully, you weren’t one of the few who did. Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan
Memoirs are my favourite genre! Here are a few that I love:
1. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (I always recommend this to everyone and they always love it with rave reviews)
2. Educated by Tara Westover (amazingly written, subject matter is tough and dark but left me feeling hopeful)
3. Know My Name by Chanel Miller (another amazing memoir with a tough subject matter)
4. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (this was a wild ride)
{{ Not Dead and Not For Sale: A Memoir by Scott Weiland }}
I just finished {{ The Woman in Me by Britney Spears }} and it was pretty good.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby.
He was a journalist who had a massive stroke and suffered from locked-in syndrome. He could subsequently only move a single eyelid and wrote the book by blinking every letter.
It is beautiful and incredibly moving.
Know My Name by Chanel Miller, My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor, I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Yak Girl by Dorje Dolma. A memoir of growing up in the isolated Dolpapa region of Nepal following an ancient way of life.
Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey!
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Would love it if he wrote another detailing more of his life/history of Nike.
Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman. Jessica toured as a violinist with a fake orchestra who “played” Titanic-esque music. It’s a pretty bizarre story. But it’s also a coming of age memoir, too. She explores her childhood in West Virginia and being a millennial college student during the 9/11 era. It sounds like it shouldn’t work together, but I enjoyed it and she has a great sense of humor.
“Liliana’s Invincible Summer” is a memoir that plays with form and I found breathtaking. It mixes letters, stuff from diary entries, a chronicle of opening a police file and more to tell the life story of Liliana Rivera Garza, the author’s sister who was murdered
*With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa* by E.B. Sledge.
*Japanese Destroyer Captain* by Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito and Roger Pineau.
*Requiem for Battleship Yamato* by Yoshida Mitsuru.
*Kamikaze: A Japanese Pilot’s Own Spectacular Story of the Famous Suicide Squadrons* by Yasuo Kuwahara and Gordon T. Allred.
*Samurai!: the Unforgettable Saga of Japan’s Greatest Fighter Pilot* by Saburo Sakai and Martin Caidin.
*The Divine Wind* by Rikihei Inoguchi and Tadashi Nakajima.
*Return of the Enola Gay* by Paul W. Tibbets.
*No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War* by Hiroo Onoda.
*Soldier* by Anthony B. Herbert.
*Guns Up!* by Johnnie M. Clark.
*We Were Soldiers Once… and Young* by Lt. Gen. Harold G. ‘Hal’ Moore.
*Peacekeepers at War: Beirut 1983 – The Marine Commander Tells His Story* by Timothy J. Geraghty.
*First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers* by Loung Ung.
*No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden* by Mark Owen.