Best memoir you’ve read?

[Anonymous]

One not yet mentioned that I enjoyed was Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne. I agree with a PP that a lot of memoirs have terrible writing or are entirely too long. This one is beautifully written and well edited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loved Beverly Cleary's 2 memoirs. I don't know if they're even in print, but if you liked her books as a kid, I think you'd really like her memoirs. She lived such an interesting life!

^Thanks for that! Didn't know she had memoirs and will look into them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Wave” about the Sri Lanka tsunami

I understand that she was grieving but I found the author of this book to be unbearable and narcissistic. I loathed her so much by the end it was hard to feel sad for her.

How so? Not sure how anyone who went through what she did, could be anything else for years and years and year. Her prose was fairly matter of fact, and I wonder if that affects the read of her too.


p.s. the opposite of a beach read, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like memoirs on audiobooks.

Good fluffy recent ones are by Jessica Simpson, Katie Couric, and Richard Marx.

Yes me too! Audio book style these really shine. J Simpson's was good, but omg her "verge of tears" voice really almost made me jump off a cliff. I still enjoyed it though, so would totally recommend.

I need to add Katie Couric's to my list. I seem to have fallen into "depressing memoir" land which is fine and all, but I need some fluffier things.

I loved Becoming by Michele Obama too. Hearing it in her voice made it that much better.

I sat around and drank with my friends and laughed at her chicken of the sea stuff. So I felt like a jerk every time her voice waivered on a public humiliation.

[Anonymous]

Liar's Club b Mary Karr was excellent. It is a tale of a very dysfucntional family and mental illness, but also laugh out funny.

[Anonymous]

Juliana Margulies’s Sunshine Girl, Bravey and Bruce Springsteen

[Anonymous]

I love memoirs also, and my all time favorite is the Night of the Gun by David Carr. It really made me think a lot about what a memoir is and how we approach them. It was also a riveting story (that is sad, but ended well—in the book; things did not end well in his life after the book.)

[Anonymous]

Born Round by Frank Bruni

[Anonymous]

Copenhagen trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen

[Anonymous]

Personal History by Katherine Graham

[Anonymous]

Patti Smith - Just Kids

[Anonymous]

Mary Cantwell’s memoirs

[Anonymous]

Jessica Simpson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I enjoyed Trevor Noah's - interesting background and experiences (and funny!).

This book was great. So well written and full of surprises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Gift From The Sea - Anne Morrow Lindberg

my mother gave this to me on my 18th birthday. I'm 55 now. I read it every year.

I loved this