Serious and true
Best Memoirs
Sorted by the kind of life, because nobody wants two childhood memoirs in a row.
Updated September 2026 · By Sawyer V.
The short version
The memoir shelf divides by the life being told. Educated and The Glass Castle are the extraordinary childhoods, Born a Crime and Just Kids the coming-of-age in a particular place, Wild and When Breath Becomes Air the reckonings, and Kitchen Confidential the working life. Start with whichever kind you would sit through at a dinner party.
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How we picked
We sorted by subject rather than by ranking, because memoir is the genre where the match matters most: a reader who wants a working life does not want a bereavement. Every pick names what it costs to read, since several deal with abuse, addiction or dying. We have not read all nine.
What we do on every list: read the publisher’s own description rather than a summary of it, check print length and first publication year against library catalog data (last refreshed September 24, 2026), confirm the book is still sold in the format we suggest, and write the match line before the blurb. What we do not do is claim to have read every book here cover to cover. The full method is published, and it is written so anyone can check it.
The short answer
Who each book is for, at a glance. Select a row for the full write-up.
| # | Book | Give this if | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  EducatedTara Westover · 388 pagesThe extraordinary childhood | they want the one everybody read | |
| 2 |  The Glass CastleJeannette Walls · 347 pagesThe other one | they finished Educated in a weekend | |
| 3 |  Born a CrimeTrevor Noah · 304 pagesThe place | they want funny as well as serious | |
| 4 |  Just KidsPatti Smith · 320 pagesThe artistic life | they love 1970s New York | |
| 5 |  Kitchen ConfidentialAnthony Bourdain · 320 pagesThe working life | they want a job told honestly | |
| 6 |  WildCheryl Strayed · 363 pagesThe reckoning | they are between things | |
| 7 |  When Breath Becomes AirPaul Kalanithi · 232 pagesThe diagnosis | they can take a book about dying | |
| 8 |  Crying in H MartMichelle Zauner · 256 pagesGrief and food | they cook to remember somebody | |
| 9 |  I'm Glad My Mom DiedJennette McCurdy · 320 pagesThe blunt one | they want no comfort at all |
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Nine, by the kind of life
1. The extraordinary childhood
Educated
Tara Westover
Give this ifthey want the one everybody read
A woman raised by survivalist parents in Idaho and kept out of school teaches herself enough to reach college, and eventually a PhD. It is about the price of an education rather than its rewards, which is what keeps it from being a triumph story.
One caveat: Family violence throughout.
- Print length
- 388 pages
- First published
- 2018
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
2. The other one
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
Give this ifthey finished Educated in a weekend
A journalist recounts a childhood with brilliant, unstable parents who moved between the desert Southwest and a West Virginia mining town, often without food. Unsentimental and loving at the same time, which is a hard trick.
- Print length
- 347 pages
- First published
- 2005
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
3. The place
Born a Crime
Trevor Noah
Give this ifthey want funny as well as serious
Trevor Noah's childhood in South Africa as the son of a Black mother and a white father, when his existence was illegal. Very funny, and finally a portrait of his mother rather than of himself.
- Print length
- 304 pages
- First published
- 2016
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
4. The artistic life
Just Kids
Patti Smith
Give this ifthey love 1970s New York
Patti Smith on her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe when both were young, broke and becoming artists. Tender about poverty and ambition, and a winner of the National Book Award.
- Print length
- 320 pages
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
5. The working life
Kitchen Confidential
Anthony Bourdain
Give this ifthey want a job told honestly
A chef's profane account of restaurant kitchens, written before he became famous for it. The best book on this list about what work actually feels like from the inside.
One caveat: Profane, and frank about drugs.
- Print length
- 320 pages
- First published
- 2000
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
6. The reckoning
Wild
Cheryl Strayed
Give this ifthey are between things
After her mother's death and her own unraveling, a young woman hikes more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail with no experience. About grief far more than about hiking.
- Print length
- 363 pages
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
7. The diagnosis
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
Give this ifthey can take a book about dying
A neurosurgeon in his thirties is diagnosed with lung cancer and writes about what makes a life worth living when the time is short. Short, clear and unbearable in the best way.
One caveat: He died before finishing it. His wife wrote the afterword.
- Print length
- 232 pages
- First published
- 2016
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
8. Grief and food
Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner
Give this ifthey cook to remember somebody
A musician's memoir of her Korean American mother, her mother's death, and the food that held the relationship together. Specific in a way that makes it universal.
One caveat: About a parent's death, in detail.
- Print length
- 256 pages
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
9. The blunt one
I'm Glad My Mom Died
Jennette McCurdy
Give this ifthey want no comfort at all
A former child actor on her mother's control over her career and body, and her recovery afterward. The title is not a provocation; it is the book's argument, made carefully.
One caveat: Eating disorders and abuse.
- Print length
- 320 pages
- First published
- 2022
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
#ad — how we’re funded · price as of September 24, 2026
Pick by the kind of life, not the ranking
Memoir is the genre where a recommendation most often misses, because the label covers a childhood in Idaho and a chef's kitchen equally. Nobody wants two harrowing childhoods in a row, and somebody who asked for something funny will not thank you for a bereavement.
- A childhood: Educated, The Glass Castle, I'm Glad My Mom Died.
- A place and a time: Born a Crime, Just Kids.
- A job: Kitchen Confidential.
- A loss: Crying in H Mart, When Breath Becomes Air, Wild.
What these cost to read
Memoir earns its reputation for intensity honestly: the ones that last are usually about the hardest years of a life. We note the content on every pick, not as a warning against them but because a reader going through something similar deserves to choose deliberately. Books for someone who is grieving is the gentler shelf if that is the situation.
Where to go next
Memoir audiobooks covers the ones read by their authors, which is the format this genre suits best. Books like Educated goes deeper on the childhood shelf, and nonfiction sorts the wider category by mode rather than by subject.
Two ways to read this list for less
If several books here appeal, a subscription usually beats buying them one at a time — but only for the right kind of reader. Here is who each one actually suits.
Audible Premium Plus
For anyone whose hands are busy
Driving, walking, cooking, cleaning. It converts hours that were never available for reading, which is a bigger effect than any discount. Books bought with a credit stay yours after you cancel — titles from the included catalog do not, and confusing the two is the most common complaint about the service.
See Audible plans and current pricingHow Audible actually works — credits, gifting and what happens when you cancel.
Kindle Unlimited
For fast readers who browse
It pays off from about three ebooks a month, in the genres the catalog covers well — romance, romantasy, cozy mystery, thriller, progression fantasy. It does not pay off if you are waiting on a specific new hardcover, because those are usually not included. Everything is borrowed, not owned.
See Kindle Unlimited terms and pricingIs Kindle Unlimited worth it? — the arithmetic, done on your own reading.
#ad — how we are funded. We print no subscription prices anywhere on this site, because they change and a stale figure sends you to a checkout expecting something that is not there. And if you read in silence in a chair, neither of these is for you — buy the book, or borrow it from your library.
What we would skip
A celebrity memoir bought for the name
Memoirs ghostwritten during a famous person's peak tend to be careful, legally reviewed and empty, and they are the ones that fill remainder tables two years later. The test is whether the writer has something to say about a life rather than a career to promote; every pick here passes it.
Questions people ask
What is the best memoir to start with?
Educated if you want the one everybody has read, or Born a Crime if you want the same intensity with jokes in it.
What is a good memoir that is not depressing?
Born a Crime and Just Kids. Both deal with hard years without asking the reader to sit in them.
What memoirs are good on audio?
The ones the author reads. Born a Crime and Crying in H Mart are both read by their writers; our memoir audiobooks page covers the rest.
What is the difference between a memoir and an autobiography?
An autobiography covers a whole life in order. A memoir takes one part of it — a childhood, a job, a year — and is under no obligation to reach the present.
Sources
- Open Library Search API — First publication year, median print length and cover art for every book on this page. Queried 8 September 2026.
- Audible Premium Plus membership page — The only authoritative source for current Audible plans, prices and terms.
Read next
- Best Nonfiction Books
Ten nonfiction books split by mode — narrative, argument or explainer.
- Best Memoirs on Audiobook
Nine author-read memoirs — the one category where the recording reliably beats the page.
- Books Like Educated
Eight memoirs for an Educated reader: hard childhoods, family reckonings and the way out.
- Best Books for Someone Who Is Grieving
Six books that describe grief rather than prescribing a way through it.
- Best True Crime Books
Eight true crime books chosen for their reporting and for how they treat the victims.