The Greatest Memoir Books Since 1990

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1204 Nickel And Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 American English
1209 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015 American English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
1495 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1783 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
1818 Barbarian Days William Finnegan 2015 American English
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1829 To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life Hervé Guibert 1990 French French
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
2023 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
2116 Just Kids Patti Smith 2010 American English
2134 I Will Bear Witness Victor Klemperer 1995 German German
2183 Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon 2012 American English
2207 Dreams from My Father Barack Obama 1995 American English
2295 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2326 Being Mortal Atul Gawande 2014 American English
2341 Personal History Katharine Graham 1997 American English
2395 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls 2005 American English
2416 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2425 Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer 1997 American English
2528 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
2536 Into the Wild Jon Krakauer 1996 American English
2541 Journal, 1935 44 Mihail Sebastian 1996 Romanian Romanian
2596 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
2602 Darkness Visible William Styron 1990 American English
2608 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2611 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
2679 H Is For Hawk Helen MacDonald 2014 British English
2698 All Over But The Shoutin' Rick Bragg 1997 American English
2808 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2849 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
2873 Boyhood J. M. Coetzee 1997 South African English
2926 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
2973 Tuesdays With Morrie Mitch Albom 1997 American English
3006 Hideous Kinky Esther Freud 1992 British English
3074 Patrimony Philip Roth 1991 American English
3077 River Town Peter Hessler 2001 American English
3089 Factory Girls Leslie T. Chang 2008 American English
3091 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3101 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
3177 Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood 2017 American English
3203 Fever Pitch Nick Hornby 1992 British English
3216 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson 2014 American English
3234 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3279 Before Night Falls Reinaldo Arenas 1992 Cuban Spanish
3281 Blankets Craig Thompson 2003 American English
3479 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3520 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
3543 The Good Women Of China Xinran 2002 Chinese Chinese
3573 Notes from No Man's Land Eula Biss 2009 American English
3589 Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson 2014 American English
3594 Thick Tressie McMillan Cottom 2019 American English
3821 Lenin's Tomb David Remnick 1993 American English
3946 In The Dream House Carmen Maria Machado 2019 American English
4068 Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère 2009 French French
4076 Travels With Lizbeth Lars Eighner 1993 American English
4137 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4140 The Liars' Club Mary Karr 1995 American English
4189 Age of Ambition Evan Osnos 2014 American English
4296 Bird By Bird Anne Lamott 1994 American English
4367 Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain 2000 American English
4383 How To End A Story Helen Garner 2021 Australian English
4443 Oblivion Héctor Abad Faciolince 2006 Colombian Spanish
4456 Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder 2003 American English
4589 Columbine Dave Cullen 2009 American English
4653 The Forever War Dexter Filkins 2008 American English
4741 Tell Me How It Ends Valeria Luiselli 2017 Mexican English
4936 Exile And Pride Eli Clare 1999 American English
4950 Dark Money Jane Mayer 2016 American English
4998 Persepolis Two Marjane Satrapi 2004 Iranian French
5036 I Feel Bad About My Neck Nora Ephron 2006 American English
5042 The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out Richard P. Feynman 1999 American English
5083 Autobiography Of A Face Lucy Grealy 1994 American English
5094 Amity and Prosperity Eliza Griswold 2018 American English
5144 Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert 2006 American English
5169 Bad Feminist Roxane Gay 2014 American English
5189 Stay True Hua Hsu 2022 Chinese English
5258 Tiny Beautiful Things Cheryl Strayed 2012 American English
5260 Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga 2006 French French
5268 A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah 2007 Sierra Leonean English
5274 Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener 2020 American English
5284 Strangers To Ourselves Rachel Aviv 2022 American English
5315 Stasiland Anna Funder 2002 Australian English
5345 White Girls Hilton Als 2013 American English
5388 In Memory Of Memory Maria Stepanova 2017 Russian Russian
5407 I Love Dick Chris Kraus 1997 American English
5448 Imperium Ryszard Kapuscinski 1993 Polish Polish
5461 The Yellow House Sarah M. Broom 2019 American English
5462 Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel 2003 British English
5589 Caste Isabel Wilkerson 2020 American English
5596 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
5625 Wave Sonali Deraniyagala 2013 Sri Lankan English
5635 A Life's Work Rachel Cusk 2001 British English
5636 Pictures From Home Larry Sultan 1992 American English
5639 Diary Of Happiness Nicolae Steinhardt 1991 Romanian Romanian
5639 Închisoarea Noastră Cea De Toate Zilele Ion Ioanid 1991 Romanian Romanian
5707 The Sum Of Us Heather McGhee 2021 American English
5708 Kafka Was The Rage Anatole Broyard 1993 American English
5720 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
5727 Simple Passion Annie Ernaux 1991 French French
5729 My Kind of Place Susan Orlean 2004 American English
5732 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
5741 One Of Us Asne Seierstad 2013 Norwegian Norwegian
5743 Diaries Alan Clark 1993 British English
5753 Shadows On The Tundra Dalia Grinkevičiutė 1997 Lithuanian Lithuanian
5847 The Last Shot Darcy Frey 1994 American English
5928 Hope in the Dark Rebecca Solnit 2004 American English