8 unforgettable memoirs to start with

A great memoir does something fiction can’t quite: it hands you a real life, fully felt. If you want to start — or just want a guaranteed good one — here are eight that read like the best novels.

1. Educated — Tara Westover

A woman raised off-grid with no formal schooling finds her way to Cambridge. Astonishing, and almost universally beloved.

2. The Glass Castle — Jeannette Walls

A chaotic, unforgettable childhood, told with remarkable grace and no self-pity. A modern classic.

3. Just Kids — Patti Smith

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe in late-1960s New York. A tender, gorgeous portrait of young artists and friendship.

4. Born a Crime — Trevor Noah

Growing up mixed-race in apartheid South Africa, told with warmth and comic timing. Funny and profound in equal measure.

5. When Breath Becomes Air — Paul Kalanithi

A neurosurgeon faces his own terminal diagnosis. Short, luminous, and quietly devastating.

6. Wild — Cheryl Strayed

A thousand-mile solo hike and a life put back together. The original grief-and-trail memoir, and still the best.

7. Crying in H Mart — Michelle Zauner

Food, grief, and a Korean-American mother-daughter bond. Tender and precise; bring tissues.

8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — Maya Angelou

The foundational American memoir — lyrical, painful, and triumphant. Essential reading.

Where to begin

Memoirs are some of the most-traded books we see — once read, they’re meant to be passed on. Find one on our shelves, ask the Matchmaker for one in your wheelhouse, and trade it forwardwhen you’re done.