Which are the best 'memoirs' to read?

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#1

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER

One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambr... More details on Educated

My strongest memory is not a memory. It’s something I imagined, then came to remember as if it had happened. The memory was formed when I was five, just before I turned six, from a story my father tol...
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#2

What do readers say about The Glass Castle?

deeply disturbing memoir the best memoir I have ever read

MORE THAN EIGHT YEARS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST

The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, "nothing short of spectacular" (Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world's most gifted storytellers.

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of ... More details on The Glass Castle

I WAS SITTING IN a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster. It was just after dark. A blustery March wind whipped the ...
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#3

What do readers say about Born a Crime?

coming of age memoir funny and touching

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

More than one million copies sold! A "brilliant" (Lupita Nyong'o, Time), "poignant" (Entertainment Weekly), "soul-nourishing" (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid

"Noah's childhood sto... More details on Born a Crime

Sometimes in big Hollywood movies they’ll have these crazy chase scenes where somebody jumps or gets thrown from a moving car. The person hits the ground and rolls for a bit. Then they come to a stop ...
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#4

What do readers say about Wild?

engaging and exciting intensely personal book

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impu... More details on Wild

My solo three-month hike on the Pacific Crest Trail had many beginnings. There was the first, flip decision to do it, followed by the second, more serious decision to actually do it, and then the long...
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#5

What do readers say about Angela's Ashes?

stream of consciousness spare and beautiful

A Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland.

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childho... More details on Angela's Ashes

My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born. Instead, they returned to Ireland when I was four, my brother, Malachy, three, the twins, Oliver an...
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#6

What do readers say about Know My Name?

campus rape story an american masterpiece

Universally acclaimed, rapturously reviewed, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography, and an instant New York Times bestseller, Chanel Miller's breathtaking memoir "gives readers the privilege of knowing her not just as Emi... More details on Know My Name

I AM SHY. In elementary school for a play about a safari, everyone else was an animal. I was grass. I’ve never asked a question in a large lecture hall. You can find me hidden in the corner of any exe...
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#7

What do readers say about The Wanderess And Her Suitcase?

cult related documentaries very emotional read

Meara O'Hara grew up under the constant glare of a violent and charismatic cult leader as she drifted between Germany, Switzerland and Austria. This is her story. It is a true story.Years later, while travelling through the USA, she is revisited by t... More details on The Wanderess And Her Suitcase

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#8

What do readers say about When Breath Becomes Air?

thought-provoking and insightful matter of fact

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST

This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth ... More details on When Breath Becomes Air

PAUL DIED ON MONDAY, March 9, 2015, surrounded by his family, in a hospital bed roughly two hundred yards from the labor and delivery ward where our daughter, Cady, had entered the world eight months ...
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#9

What do readers say about Running with Scissors?

coming of age memoir shallow & almost banal

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

An Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year

Now a Major Motion Picture

Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorth... More details on Running with Scissors

Y MOTHER IS STANDING IN FRONT OF THE BATHROOM MIRror smelling polished and ready; like Jean Naté, Dippity Do and the waxy sweetness of lipstick. Her white, handgunshaped blow-dryer is lying on top of ...
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#10

What do readers say about Just Kids?

tender, eloquent, and sweet an overwritten memoir

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.

Patti Smith would evolve as a poet... More details on Just Kids

WHEN I WAS VERY YOUNG, MY MOTHER TOOK ME FOR walks in Humboldt Park, along the edge of the Prairie River. I have vague memories, like impressions on glass plates, of an old boathouse, a circular band ...
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