Biography & Memoir

Extraordinary lives told in first person and by master biographers.

10 books

Memoir

Becoming

Michelle Obama · 2018

The former First Lady's journey from Chicago's South Side to the White House.

bestsellerfirst-lady

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Memoir

Born a Crime

Trevor Noah · 2016

The comedian's stories of growing up mixed-race under apartheid.

south-africahumor

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Memoir

Educated

Tara Westover · 2018

A woman raised by survivalists in Idaho educates herself all the way to Cambridge.

bestsellereducation

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Memoir

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou · 1969

Angelou's luminous memoir of a childhood in the segregated American South.

classiccivil-rights

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Autobiography

Long Walk to Freedom

Nelson Mandela · 1994

Mandela's account of his life, imprisonment and the birth of a new South Africa.

south-africaapartheid

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Biography

Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson · 2011

The authorized biography of Apple's co-founder, built on forty interviews.

technologyapple

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Autobiography

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X & Alex Haley · 1965

Malcolm X's life story, from Harlem streets to national leadership, as told to Alex Haley.

classiccivil-rights

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Memoir

The Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank · 1947

Anne Frank's diary written in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam.

classicwwii

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Memoir

When Breath Becomes Air

Paul Kalanithi · 2016

A neurosurgeon faces his own terminal diagnosis and asks what makes life meaningful.

medicinemortality

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Memoir

Wild

Cheryl Strayed · 2012

Grieving and adrift, Strayed hikes 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone.

film-adaptationhiking

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