Memoirs That Changed a Generation

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There was a time when writing one's memoir was an activity reserved for illustrious public figures (usually men) in their twilight years. Think Winston Churchill. Tales of intimate personal lives, family dynamics, the challenges of coming of age, of facing demons from within and without—these stories were told in novels, through the veil of fictional characters. Then, all of sudden, at the close of the last century, young women stormed onto the shelves, breaking out with books like Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen (1993), Autobiography of a Face, by Lucy Grealy (1994), and The Liars' Club (1995), by Mary Karr. The genre was completely reinvented, and a generation of writers (mostly women) came of age rejecting the culture of secrecy and shame that had surrounded everything from addiction to illness to family dysfunction.

In the three decades since, the memoir has become a powerful force for healing and change on both the individual and the cultural level. Here are 33 unforgettable personal narratives: the naked truth of real lives, elevated by gorgeous language, unforgettable scenes, breathtaking humor, and artful suspense. Each has the power to change your life and heal your heart.

Autobiography of a Face, by Lucy Grealy

Childhood cancer left Grealy with half her jaw removed, a disfigurement that filled her with self-loathing. A heartbreakingly wise child reborn as a brilliant writer, she puts readers in touch with a self beyond ugliness or pain.

The Liars' Club, by Mary Karr

With deadpan humor, a killer eye for detail, and a badass persona founded at age 7, Karr makes a convincing case that there's no dysfunctional childhood that can't be redeemed with a great story.

Prozac Nation, by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Wurtzel's raw emotional honesty about coming of age with a diagnosis and a bottomless pill bottle stirred up a storm of criticism and outrage but spoke straight to the hearts of the Kurt Cobain generation.

Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt

A childhood of abject poverty and brutal loss in Limerick, Ireland, becomes a luminous legend in this extraordinary account. Feeling sorry for yourself about something? Here's a sure end to that.

Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel

LGBTQIA+ hero Bechdel grew up in a small-town funeral home run by her father, a man with many secrets. This beautifully illustrated graphic memoir inspires us to rethink the mysteries of our own pasts.

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed

Strayed cut short a self-destructive spinout after her mother's death with an 1,100-mile hike up the Pacific Crest Trail, blazing a path for readers who are having trouble forgiving themselves.

Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

Lifting up brokenhearted women since 2006, this iconic story of reinvention after divorce goes from the pits—a cold bathroom floor—to the peaks, a year of sensory delights and spiritual magic in Italy, India, and Bali.

Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen

Kaysen's parents were so frightened by her adolescent melodrama that they hustled her into treatment and she spent over a year in a mental hospital. Her ability to recreate the mindset of a miserable 18-year-old qualifies this memoir as a self-help book for parents.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers

When their parents died within weeks of each other, leaving him the caretaker of his 8-year-old brother, the 21-year-old author had just one superpower—irony. If there's a grief guide for the cool kids, this is it.

When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi

If you need to know what makes life worth living in the face of a terminal diagnosis, this book has an answer. The heartfelt reckoning of a 36-year-old neurosurgery resident with stage IV cancer was completed by his wife after he died.

Drinking, by Caroline Knapp

Knapp was exactly the kind of well-educated, high-powered woman nobody dreams has a drinking problem, partly because she was so good at hiding it. The gift she gained by ending the denial is one she shares.

Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi

Does your book club need a reboot? Nafisi's account of gathering with her former students to read forbidden classics in the midst of the Islamist crackdown comes with the world's most powerful reading list.

Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs

Burroughs's no-holds-barred account of his harrowing childhood—gross, hilarious, completely outrageous—writes a bold permission slip for anyone who worries her secrets are too much to share.

H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald

Macdonald's experience of bonding with her goshawk Mabel opens a bright window into the bond between people and animals, deepening our understanding of our role as custodians of the natural world.

Just Kids, by Patti Smith

A magic carpet ride to the bohemian New York of the late ’60s and early ’70s, the future punk heroine's love letter to her friend Robert Mapplethorpe is filled with idealism, beauty, and sweetness.

Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward

Ward wrote this book to understand the unjust, untimely deaths of her brother and four other beloved Black men, revealing the forces of poverty and racism in their most personal and vicious form.

First They Killed My Father, by Loung Ung

The author's survival of the violence and terror of the Cambodian Pol Pot regime is a stirring testimony to the resilience of children, a green shoot of hope and goodness in the devastation of the killing fields.

The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

Read this book to be astonished—by the gutting nightmare of Didion's loss, and by the power of her intellect and her sentences to transform it into an immortal thing of beauty and deep humanity.

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

Without a bit of sugarcoating, Walls shows how we can love our families and our history no matter how much of a nightmare it all was. Her journey from the trailer park to the limo is an all-American success story.

Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris

If laughter is the best medicine, Sedaris is a great big bottle of it. The avatar of dysfunctional families everywhere, his sardonic, self-deprecating storytelling is guaranteed to deliver comic relief.

The Color of Water, by James McBride

One of 12 Black siblings raised by their white Jewish mother in a Brooklyn housing project, the author offers a rare angle on race and identity. This love letter of a memoir packs all the pleasure of McBride's novels.

Mom & Me & Mom, by Maya Angelou

In this story of reconciliation with a mother who sent her away at the age of 3, Angelou—as always—distills the essential wisdom that has gotten her through, making adversity her teacher.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby

If ever you face what seems an impossible task, take courage from this extraordinary memoir, written one letter at a time by eye blinks after the author was completely paralyzed by a stroke.

When I Was Puerto Rican, by Esmeralda Santiago

Beginning with an immersive recollection of her tropical childhood, Santiago's story limns the boundaries of class and culture and then jumps them entirely. From the barrio to Harvard, she transports and inspires.

Educated, by Tara Westover

This memoir of growing up off the grid in a survivalist Idaho family, kept out of school, never to see a doctor, constantly placed in harm's way, is recommended reading for entitled complainers of all ages.

This Body I Wore, by Diana Goetsch

Coming out as a woman at the age of 50, the author grew up in a time when even the language was not ready for her. Her journey allows the reader to understand viscerally what it means to be trans.

Minor Feelings, by Cathy Park Hong

Clawing her way through the stereotypes that undercut and overshadow the experience of Asian identity, Hong gives us full access to her anger, her frustration, and her determination. We need to know.

First Comes Love, by Marion Winik

Winik's passionate, heartbreaking memoir of her marriage to a handsome figure skater who died of AIDS when their sons were 6 and 4 takes honesty and vulnerability to rare extremes. A time capsule of the 1980s.

Easy Beauty, Chloé Cooper Jones

Moving through the world in a disabled body gave the author rare insight into the power of beauty standards, and beautiful things, to hurt, mesmerize, challenge, and delight. A book with the potential to change the way you see.

Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner

Put your nearest Korean takeout on speed dial before you dive into this memoir of an indelible mother-daughter bond. Indie rockstar Zauner's book is comfort food (and a bowl of jjigae) for the soul.

Becoming, by Michelle Obama

To revitalize your faith in good works and good people, and to hear our beloved former First Lady describe the beginnings of her love affair with Barack Obama, listen to this memoir in audio, and thank us later.

The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom

A house that was wiped off the map by Hurricane Katrina and the family that struggled to exist inside it live forever in these pages. With the tenacity of memory and sharp tools of research, Broom proves you can go home again.

Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren

Jahren takes us inside her lab, and her life as a geobiologist, to show us the grace of the natural world. Her dedication to science challenges each of us to find purpose and commit with everything we have.

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