The Greatest Memoir Books Since 2000

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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
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
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 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
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
2115 Just Kids Patti Smith 2010 American English
2182 Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon 2012 American English
2294 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2325 Being Mortal Atul Gawande 2014 American English
2393 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls 2005 American English
2414 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2526 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
2595 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
2607 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2678 H Is For Hawk Helen MacDonald 2014 British English
2807 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2847 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
2925 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
3076 River Town Peter Hessler 2001 American English
3088 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
3216 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson 2014 American English
3234 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3281 Blankets Craig Thompson 2003 American English
3480 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3521 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
3544 The Good Women Of China Xinran 2002 Chinese Chinese
3574 Notes from No Man's Land Eula Biss 2009 American English
3590 Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson 2014 American English
3595 Thick Tressie McMillan Cottom 2019 American English
3945 In The Dream House Carmen Maria Machado 2019 American English
4067 Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère 2009 French French
4136 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4188 Age of Ambition Evan Osnos 2014 American English
4366 Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain 2000 American English
4382 How To End A Story Helen Garner 2021 Australian English
4442 Oblivion Héctor Abad Faciolince 2006 Colombian Spanish
4455 Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder 2003 American English
4588 Columbine Dave Cullen 2009 American English
4652 The Forever War Dexter Filkins 2008 American English
4740 Tell Me How It Ends Valeria Luiselli 2017 Mexican English
4948 Dark Money Jane Mayer 2016 American English
4995 Persepolis Two Marjane Satrapi 2004 Iranian French
5033 I Feel Bad About My Neck Nora Ephron 2006 American English
5092 Amity and Prosperity Eliza Griswold 2018 American English
5142 Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert 2006 American English
5167 Bad Feminist Roxane Gay 2014 American English
5187 Stay True Hua Hsu 2022 Chinese English
5257 Tiny Beautiful Things Cheryl Strayed 2012 American English
5259 Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga 2006 French French
5267 A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah 2007 Sierra Leonean English
5273 Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener 2020 American English
5283 Strangers To Ourselves Rachel Aviv 2022 American English
5343 White Girls Hilton Als 2013 American English
5352 Stasiland Anna Funder 2002 Australian English
5386 In Memory Of Memory Maria Stepanova 2017 Russian Russian
5459 The Yellow House Sarah M. Broom 2019 American English
5460 Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel 2003 British English
5587 Caste Isabel Wilkerson 2020 American English
5593 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
5622 Wave Sonali Deraniyagala 2013 Sri Lankan English
5632 A Life's Work Rachel Cusk 2001 British English
5704 The Sum Of Us Heather McGhee 2021 American English
5717 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
5726 My Kind of Place Susan Orlean 2004 American English
5729 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
5738 One Of Us Asne Seierstad 2013 Norwegian Norwegian
5925 Hope in the Dark Rebecca Solnit 2004 American English
5929 King Kong Theory Virginie Despentes 2006 French French
5931 Small Fry Lisa Brennan-Jobs 2018 American English
5983 Maximum City Suketu Mehta 2004 American English
6119 The Best We Could Do Thi Bui 2017 American English
6127 Negroland Margo Jefferson 2015 American English
6192 Know My Name Chanel Miller 2019 American English
6281 Sur La Scène Intérieure Marcel Cohen 2013 French French
6292 Oracle Bones Peter Hessler 2006 American English
6326 No Good Men Among The Living Anand Gopal 2014 American English
6339 Nothing Holds Back The Night Delphine de Vigan 2011 French French
6358 The Library Book Susan Orlean 2018 American English
6408 Bluets Maggie Nelson 2009 American English
6413 My Forbidden Face Latifa 2001 Afghan French
6432 On Immunity Eula Biss 2014 American English
6529 Born A Crime Trevor Noah 2016 South African English
6539 Hold Still Sally Mann 2015 American English
6588 American Shaolin Matthew Polly 2007 American English
6603 Hillbilly Elegy J. D. Vance 2016 American English
6610 Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker 2020 American English
6645 Tortura Pe înțelesul Tuturor Florin Constantin Pavlovici 2001 Romanian Romanian
6653 Invisible Child Andrea Elliott 2021 American English
6663 How The Word Is Passed Clint Smith 2021 American English
6664 Crying In H Mart Michelle Zauner 2021 American English
6672 India After Gandhi Ramachandra Guha 2007 Indian English
6730 The Afterlife Donald Antrim 2006 American English
6736 My Misspent Youth Meghan Daum 2001 American English
6736 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6747 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
6755 The Corpse Walker Liao Yiwu 2008 Chinese Chinese
6786 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman 2019 American English
6816 Open Andre Agassi 2009 American English
6842 Timpul Trăirii, Timpul Mărturisirii. Jurnal Parizian Eugen Simion 2003 Romanian Romanian
6873 Povedal Mi Veštec Tiziano Terzani 2002 Italian Italian
6898 A City Possessed Lynley Hood 2001 New Zealand English
6926 The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine Rashid Khalidi 2020 American English
6957 There Will Be No Miracles Here Casey Gerald 2018 American English
6980 We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live Joan Didion 2006 American English