![]() Memoirs We Love
You'll be swept away by these powerful true stories, from a rich tapestry of a Southern life to a brave tale of survival following a tragic accident.
O, The Oprah Magazine |
November 05, 2010
Lucia Greenhouse
320 pages
Watching your mother die is horrible enough. Watching her die because your father is denying her medical treatment is, for most of us, unimaginable. But not for Lucia Greenhouse, whose fathermothergod is as much an indictment of Christian Science as it is a memoir of her family's experience of loss.
Dawn Raffel
160 pages
You may never look at that lamp the same way again after reading this evocative memoir told through physical objects.
Alexandra Fuller
256 pages
Fuller celebrates her mother's unconventional life in Africa with a book that's both prequel and sequel to her acclaimed memoir Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.
Julie Salamon
480 pages
Playwright Wendy Wasserstein lived creatively, died young, and left an impressive body of work. This exhaustive biography reveals her public triumphs and private heartaches.
Erica Heller
288 pages
What was it like to grow up the daughter of author Joseph Heller? This memoir suggests it was a catch-22.
Jeanette Winterson
224 pages
To read Jeanette Winterson is to love her. Best known as the author of such provocative novels as Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Sexing the Cherry, the fierce, curious, brilliant British writer is winningly candid in her memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Stephen Davis
432 pages
A revealing look at the singer's hit songs, famous friends (Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty), rocky marriage to James Taylor, and struggle to hold on to stardom in late middle age.
Deborah Feldman
272 pages
A young woman's memoir about finding the courage to break with a cloistered community.
Wenguang Huang
272 pages
A memoir centered on a coffin? Yes, and it works. A Chinese journalist writes about honoring his grandmother's wish to be buried in defiance of government rules.
Jenny Lawson
336 pages
If you're a fan of Jenny Lawson's blog, The Bloggess, you already know about her wondrous knack for bawdy storytelling.
Imran Ahmad
352 pages
Yes, you can laugh while having your consciousness raised; this Pakistani immigrant's memoir of aspiring to be the ideal Englishman proves it.
Carole King
496 pages
The singer-songwriter and liberal activist explores the highs and lows of a career that's spanned more than half a century (so far).
Mark Kram Jr.
272 pages
Whether you agree or disagree with their decision, you'll be unable to turn away from the heartbreaking true story of a paralyzed man and the devoted brother who helps him die.
Anna Quindlen
208 pages
Notes from the best-selling columnist in whose writing women have long seen themselves.
Rosecrans Baldwin
304 pages
So much for the honeymoon stage. A comic memoir by an American who endures endless frustrations after moving to the city he'd long romanticized.
Monica Wood
256 pages
An American family grieves for what might have been.
Claire Bidwell Smith
304 pages
Meir Shalev
224 pages
The Israeli author remembers his family matriarch's love-hate affair with both dirt and her electric "svieeperrr."
Lucette Lagnado
352 pages
A memoir by a young woman who had to learn to leave the past behind.
Emmanuel Carrere
256 pages
While Lives Other Than My Own (Metropolitan) might have been just another "why me?" memoir, it is, in the French novelist and biographer's hands, a wise study of the roots and rewards of altruism.
Mark Whitaker
368 pages
Joan Didion
208 pages
Blue Nights' 'does what memoirs can do best: illuminate a crucial portion—and not the entirety—of a human life. In this case, prose master Joan Didion focuses on her relationship with her daughter, Quintana Roo, who she adopted in the late 1960s.
Donna Johnson
278 pages
Miranda July
208 pages
Suffering from writer's block, Miranda July found diversion from her stalled screenplay in an unlikely place—the' 'PennySaver.
Diane Keaton
304 pages
Diane Keaton's heartfelt memoir full of personal memories and behind-the-scenes celebrity moments.
Donna Britt
320 pages
An African-American journalist examines her lifelong habit of being emotional caretaker to men who rarely appreciate, let alone reciprocate, her sacrifices.
Rachel Bertsche
384 pages
The author of this lighthearted memoir moves to Chicago for her man, and finds herself friendless. Her solution: 52 "girl dates" in as many weeks.
Cami Ostman
304 pages
In her charming memoir, Second Wind, Cami Ostman sets out on a quest to find herself—26.2 grueling miles at a time.
Gabrielle Hamilton
304 pages
A memoir that flings open the kitchen door to expose the backbreaking toil and passionate obsession of a world-class chef.
Norris Church Mailer
416 pages
Looking for a great read? We've got 10 addictive true stories.
Diana Joseph
208 pages
Diana Joseph is a wisecracking memoirist whose hard-boiled sense of humor--on full display in I'm Sorry You Feel That Way--will have readers snorting and shaking their heads.
Malcolm Jones
240 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews Little Boy Blues by Malcolm Jones, a memoir of the author's childhood in an impoverished, fractured North Carolina household in the 1950s and '60s.
Roger Rosenblatt
176 pages
Ellen Feldman reviews Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt, a deeply affecting and unsparing memoir of moving in with his three grandchildren after his daughter's sudden death.
Larry McMurtry
192 pages
Kristy Davis reviews Literary Life by Larry McMurtry, a memoir (the second in a trilogy) of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's life.
Frank Bruni
368 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews Born Round by Frank Bruni, a hugely enjoyable memoir about overeating, dieting, dating, and learning to think judiciously about the dizzying danger zone of dinner.
Tim Page
208 pages
Peter Smith reviews Parallel Play by Tim Page, a memoir in which the author looks back on his life with the newly added perspective of knowing he has Asperger's syndrome.
Staceyann Chin
288 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews The Other Side of Paradise by Staceyann Chin, a memoir about growing up biracial in Jamaica.
Walter Kirn
288 pages
Vince Passaro reviews Lost in the Meritocracy by Walter Kirn, a sad, true, and funny memoir based on life's lessons.
Christopher Buckley
251 pages
Michele Owens reviews Losing Mum and Pup by Christopher Buckley, a son's fond, fizzy memoir of two witty, incorrigible parents.
Azar Nafisi
386 pages
Francine Prose reviews Things I've Been Silent About, a vivid memoir of a family's turmoil and a country's fate.
Isabel Gillies
272 pages
Patricia Volk reviews Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies, an all-too-true story of love and betrayal.
Said Sayrafiezadeh
304 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews When Skateboards Will be Free, a wry, lovely memoir about growing up with a deeply political parent.
Carrie Fisher
176 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews Wishful Drinking, actress Carrie Fisher's memoir adapted from her one-woman show.
Kelly McMasters
234 pages
Elaina Richardson reviews Welcome to Shirley by Kelly McMasters for O, The Oprah Magazine
Catherine Goldhammer
192 pages
Valerie Monroe reviews Winging It by Catherine Goldhammer.
Meredith Norton
224 pages
Michele Owens reviews Lopsided by Meredith Norton for O, The Oprah Magazine
Meredith Hall
256 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews Without a Map by Meredith Hall for O, The Oprah Magazine
Steve Martin
209 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews Born Standing Up by Steve Martin for O, The Oprah Magazine
David Sheff
336 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews Beautiful Boy by David Sheff for O, The Oprah Magazine
Darin Strauss
204 pages
Half a Life, a beyond-brave memoir by Darin Strauss, offers an intensely personal look at the most agonizing events in the author's life after a tragic accident.
Lisa Kogan
208 pages
In Someone Will Be with You Shortly, O columnist Lisa Kogan riffs on motherhood, politics, relationships, and life itself, displaying the deadpan wit which we've come to love.
Mary Karr
400 pages
In the letter to her son that opens Mary Karr's irresistible memoir' 'Lit, chronicling a decade of motherhood, alcoholism, and a long, skeptical slog toward faith, she writes, "Any way I tell this story is a lie, so I ask you to disconnect the device in your head that repeats at intervals how ancient and addled I am."' '
Susie Boyt
320 pages
Elaina Richardson reviews My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir by Susie Boyt, a loving, loopy memoir costarring the girl from Oz.
Mishna Wolff
288 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews I'm Down by Mishna Wolff, a memoir about growing up with a single white father--not too unusual, except that he is convinced he is black.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
261 pages
Cathleen Medwick reviews Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali for O, The Oprah Magazine
Heather Sellers
368 pages
Learn more about the book and the author.
Meghan O'Rourke
320 pages
"After a loss, you have to learn to believe the dead one is dead. It
doesn't come naturally." That seemingly simple observation is just one
of the many profound thoughts in Meghan O'Rourke's The Long Goodbye
(Riverhead), an achingly moving memoir about her mother's death in 2008
at age 55.
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Peter Godwin
384 pages
Passionate, personal, and exhaustively researched, this memoir by journalist and Zimbabwe native Peter Godwin exposes the ravages of dictator Robert Mugabe's reign.
Diane Ackerman
322 pages
In her memoir of science and medical miracles, Ackerman writes affectionately of her husband's battle to recover from a stroke that robbed him of language.
Martin Kihn
224 pages
An irreverent memoir about a recovering alcoholic and the pet whose antics could drive a man to drink.
Alexandra Styron
304 pages
The Sophie's Choice author's glamorous, brilliant, drunken life, and brutally tormented mind, as recalled by his youngest child.
Jill Bialosky
272 pages
Moments of exquisite pain and surprising joy fill this memoir by a poet who sets out to understand the shocking death of her sibling.
Ben Ryder Howe
320 pages
A preppy editor ends up working the night shift behind the counter at his immigrant in-laws' Brooklyn grocery store in this funny, poignant, true story.
We dare you to turn away from these two disturbing but beautifully written memoirs.
Conor Grennan
304 pages
Little Princes is the story of Conor Grennan's accidental career as a rescuer of displaced kids in Nepal.
Susan Conley
288 pages
An American mother recounts her struggle to adjust to a new life in Beijing—and then face another challenge, this one medical.
Annia Ciezadlo
400 pages
An American reporter who moves to the Middle East paints an intimate portrait of civilian life in war-torn Baghdad and Beirut.
Sally Ryder Brady
256 pages
Now widowed, a wife of 47 years explains how she came to terms with the hidden demons of the man she married.
Andre Dubus III
400 pages
The author of House of Sand and Fog reveals a youth spent fighting on the streets and in the ring—and a lifetime of trying to connect with his father.
Mira Bartók
320 pages
In lyrically elegant prose, Mira Bartók's The Memory
Palace explores not just relationships but the
slippery nature of memory itself.
Susan Maushart
288 pages
One family, six months, zero digital devices. Read this true story for inspiration. Read it for laughs. Maybe even read it on your iPad.
Annie Proulx
256 pages
In Annie Proulx's Bird Cloud, the beloved author couples masterly prose with her obsessive research on history, ecology and genealogy in a memoir of how she ended up building a ranch in Wyoming.
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