50 Best Memoires

The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years - The New York Times’s book critics select the most outstanding memoirs published since 1969.

Position	Details	Readers Count
#1	Fierce Attachments: A Memoir Vivian Gornick	5 reads
#2	The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts Maxine Hong Kingston	22 reads
#3	Fun home Alison Bechdel	210 reads
#4	The Liars' Club Mary Karr	28 reads
#5	Hitch-22 Christopher Hitchens	4 reads
#6	Men We Reaped: A Memoir Jesmyn Ward	24 reads
#7	Palimpsest Gore Vidal	0 reads
#8	Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel	2 reads
#9	A Childhood	0 reads
#10	Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Barack Obama	85 reads
#11	Patrimony Philip Roth	2 reads
#12	All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw Theodore Rosengarten Nate Shaw	0 reads
#13	Lives Other than My Own: A Memoir Linda Coverdale Emmanuel Carrère	0 reads
#14	A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz Nicholas de Lange (Translator)	8 reads
#15	This Boy's Life: A Memoir Tobias Wolff	16 reads
#16	A Life's Work Rachel Cusk	7 reads
#17	Boyhood J.M. Coetzee	2 reads
#18	Conundrum Jan Morris	2 reads
#19	Wave Sonali Deraniyagala	14 reads
#20	Always Unreliable Clive James	1 read
#21	Travels with Lizbeth Lars Eighner	2 reads
#22	Hold Still Sally Mann	4 reads
#23	Country Girl Country Girl: A Memoir Edna O'Brien	0 reads
#24	Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Marjane Satrapi Mattias Ripa (Translator)	273 reads
#25	Negroland: A Memoir Margo Jefferson	1 read
#26	Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys Viv Albertine	8 reads
#27	Experience Martin Amis	0 reads
#28	Slow Days, Fast Company Eve Babitz	6 reads
#29	Growing Up Russell Baker Gilbert Riswold	2 reads
#30	Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir Anatole Broyard	2 reads
#31	The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion	188 reads
#32	Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life William Finnegan	48 reads
#33	Personal History Katharine Graham	7 reads
#34	Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism Temple Grandin	9 reads
#35	Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy	10 reads
#36	Dancing With Cuba Alma Guillermoprieto Esther Allen (Translator)	0 reads
#37	Minor Characters Joyce Johnson	0 reads
#38	The Memory Chalet Tony Judt	4 reads
#39	Heavy Kiese Laymon	26 reads
#40	Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood	46 reads
#41	H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald	85 reads
#42	The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother James McBride	33 reads
#43	Las cenizas de Ángela Frank McCourt	138 reads
#44	Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga	2 reads
#45	Life Keith Richards James Fox	26 reads
#46	A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.	0 reads
#47	My Lives Edmund White	0 reads
#48	Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson	32 reads
#49	Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration David Wojnarowicz	6 reads

Position	Details	Readers Count
#1	Fierce Attachments: A Memoir Vivian Gornick	5 reads
#2	The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts Maxine Hong Kingston	22 reads
#3	Fun home Alison Bechdel	210 reads
#4	The Liars' Club Mary Karr	28 reads
#5	Hitch-22 Christopher Hitchens	4 reads
#6	Men We Reaped: A Memoir Jesmyn Ward	24 reads
#7	Palimpsest Gore Vidal	0 reads
#8	Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel	2 reads
#9	A Childhood	0 reads
#10	Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Barack Obama	85 reads
#11	Patrimony Philip Roth	2 reads
#12	All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw Theodore Rosengarten Nate Shaw	0 reads
#13	Lives Other than My Own: A Memoir Linda Coverdale Emmanuel Carrère	0 reads
#14	A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz Nicholas de Lange (Translator)	8 reads
#15	This Boy's Life: A Memoir Tobias Wolff	16 reads
#16	A Life's Work Rachel Cusk	7 reads
#17	Boyhood J.M. Coetzee	2 reads
#18	Conundrum Jan Morris	2 reads
#19	Wave Sonali Deraniyagala	14 reads
#20	Always Unreliable Clive James	1 read
#21	Travels with Lizbeth Lars Eighner	2 reads
#22	Hold Still Sally Mann	4 reads
#23	Country Girl Country Girl: A Memoir Edna O'Brien	0 reads
#24	Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Marjane Satrapi Mattias Ripa (Translator)	273 reads
#25	Negroland: A Memoir Margo Jefferson	1 read
#26	Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys Viv Albertine	8 reads
#27	Experience Martin Amis	0 reads
#28	Slow Days, Fast Company Eve Babitz	6 reads
#29	Growing Up Russell Baker Gilbert Riswold	2 reads
#30	Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir Anatole Broyard	2 reads
#31	The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion	188 reads
#32	Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life William Finnegan	48 reads
#33	Personal History Katharine Graham	7 reads
#34	Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism Temple Grandin	9 reads
#35	Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy	10 reads
#36	Dancing With Cuba Alma Guillermoprieto Esther Allen (Translator)	0 reads
#37	Minor Characters Joyce Johnson	0 reads
#38	The Memory Chalet Tony Judt	4 reads
#39	Heavy Kiese Laymon	26 reads
#40	Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood	46 reads
#41	H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald	85 reads
#42	The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother James McBride	33 reads
#43	Las cenizas de Ángela Frank McCourt	138 reads
#44	Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga	2 reads
#45	Life Keith Richards James Fox	26 reads
#46	A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.	0 reads
#47	My Lives Edmund White	0 reads
#48	Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson	32 reads
#49	Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration David Wojnarowicz	6 reads

50 Best Memoires

Footer links