The New York Times's 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years

December 19, 2021
49 Books
Stats
nytimes.com

The New York Times' Book critics far and wide have selected the top best memoirs published since 1969.

Details	Rating	Readers Count
A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.	0	0 reads
Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga	4.17	3 reads
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother James McBride	3.9	53 reads
The Memory Chalet Tony Judt	4.33	4 reads
Dancing With Cuba Alma Guillermoprieto Esther Allen (Translator)	0	0 reads
Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy	3.94	12 reads
Personal History Katharine Graham	4.33	10 reads
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life William Finnegan	4.32	56 reads
Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir Anatole Broyard	3.5	3 reads
Growing Up Russell Baker Gilbert Riswold	3.25	4 reads
Slow Days, Fast Company Eve Babitz	4.44	10 reads
Experience Martin Amis	0	0 reads
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys Viv Albertine	4.17	13 reads
Hold Still Sally Mann	3.75	6 reads
Always Unreliable Clive James	0	1 read
Boyhood J.M. Coetzee	4.67	5 reads
A Life's Work Rachel Cusk	5	10 reads
All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw Theodore Rosengarten Nate Shaw	0	0 reads
Patrimony Philip Roth	3.33	3 reads
A Childhood	3.88	4 reads
Palimpsest Gore Vidal	4	1 read
Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration David Wojnarowicz	4.25	7 reads
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson	4.37	38 reads
My Lives Edmund White	0	1 read
Life Keith Richards James Fox	3.8	10 reads
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir Frank McCourt	3.84	31 reads
H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald	3.85	102 reads
Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood	3.99	60 reads
Heavy Kiese Laymon	4.65	38 reads
Minor Characters Joyce Johnson	4	1 read
Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism Temple Grandin	3.88	12 reads
The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion	4.02	225 reads
Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates	4.55	466 reads
Negroland Margo Jefferson	4.25	6 reads
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Marjane Satrapi Mattias Ripa (Translator)	4.34	325 reads
Country girl Edna O'Brien	0	0 reads
Travels with Lizbeth Lars Eighner	3	2 reads
Wave Sonali Deraniyagala	0	0 reads
Conundrum Jan Morris	3.67	4 reads
This Boy's Life: A Memoir Tobias Wolff	4	22 reads
Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère	0	0 reads
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Barack Obama	4.02	106 reads
Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel	3.67	4 reads
Men We Reaped: A Memoir Jesmyn Ward	4.46	28 reads
Hitch-22 Christopher Hitchens	2.5	5 reads
The Liars' Club Mary Karr	3.77	35 reads
Fun home Alison Bechdel	3.99	253 reads
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts Maxine Hong Kingston	3.22	29 reads
Fierce Attachments: A Memoir Vivian Gornick	4.33	9 reads

Details	Rating	Readers Count
A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.	0	0 reads
Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga	4.17	3 reads
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother James McBride	3.9	53 reads
The Memory Chalet Tony Judt	4.33	4 reads
Dancing With Cuba Alma Guillermoprieto Esther Allen (Translator)	0	0 reads
Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy	3.94	12 reads
Personal History Katharine Graham	4.33	10 reads
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life William Finnegan	4.32	56 reads
Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir Anatole Broyard	3.5	3 reads
Growing Up Russell Baker Gilbert Riswold	3.25	4 reads
Slow Days, Fast Company Eve Babitz	4.44	10 reads
Experience Martin Amis	0	0 reads
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys Viv Albertine	4.17	13 reads
Hold Still Sally Mann	3.75	6 reads
Always Unreliable Clive James	0	1 read
Boyhood J.M. Coetzee	4.67	5 reads
A Life's Work Rachel Cusk	5	10 reads
All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw Theodore Rosengarten Nate Shaw	0	0 reads
Patrimony Philip Roth	3.33	3 reads
A Childhood	3.88	4 reads
Palimpsest Gore Vidal	4	1 read
Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration David Wojnarowicz	4.25	7 reads
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson	4.37	38 reads
My Lives Edmund White	0	1 read
Life Keith Richards James Fox	3.8	10 reads
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir Frank McCourt	3.84	31 reads
H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald	3.85	102 reads
Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood	3.99	60 reads
Heavy Kiese Laymon	4.65	38 reads
Minor Characters Joyce Johnson	4	1 read
Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism Temple Grandin	3.88	12 reads
The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion	4.02	225 reads
Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates	4.55	466 reads
Negroland Margo Jefferson	4.25	6 reads
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Marjane Satrapi Mattias Ripa (Translator)	4.34	325 reads
Country girl Edna O'Brien	0	0 reads
Travels with Lizbeth Lars Eighner	3	2 reads
Wave Sonali Deraniyagala	0	0 reads
Conundrum Jan Morris	3.67	4 reads
This Boy's Life: A Memoir Tobias Wolff	4	22 reads
Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère	0	0 reads
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Barack Obama	4.02	106 reads
Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel	3.67	4 reads
Men We Reaped: A Memoir Jesmyn Ward	4.46	28 reads
Hitch-22 Christopher Hitchens	2.5	5 reads
The Liars' Club Mary Karr	3.77	35 reads
Fun home Alison Bechdel	3.99	253 reads
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts Maxine Hong Kingston	3.22	29 reads
Fierce Attachments: A Memoir Vivian Gornick	4.33	9 reads

The New York Times's 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years

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