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
2116 Just Kids Patti Smith 2010 American English
2183 Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon 2012 American English
2295 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2326 Being Mortal Atul Gawande 2014 American English
2395 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls 2005 American English
2416 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2528 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
2596 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
2608 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2679 H Is For Hawk Helen MacDonald 2014 British English
2809 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2850 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
2927 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
3078 River Town Peter Hessler 2001 American English
3090 Factory Girls Leslie T. Chang 2008 American English
3092 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3102 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
3178 Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood 2017 American English
3217 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson 2014 American English
3235 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3282 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
3946 In The Dream House Carmen Maria Machado 2019 American English
4068 Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère 2009 French French
4137 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4189 Age of Ambition Evan Osnos 2014 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
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
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
5344 White Girls Hilton Als 2013 American English
5353 Stasiland Anna Funder 2002 Australian English
5388 In Memory Of Memory Maria Stepanova 2017 Russian Russian
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
5707 The Sum Of Us Heather McGhee 2021 American English
5720 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
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
5928 Hope in the Dark Rebecca Solnit 2004 American English
5932 King Kong Theory Virginie Despentes 2006 French French
5934 Small Fry Lisa Brennan-Jobs 2018 American English
5986 Maximum City Suketu Mehta 2004 American English
6122 The Best We Could Do Thi Bui 2017 American English
6130 Negroland Margo Jefferson 2015 American English
6196 Know My Name Chanel Miller 2019 American English
6284 Sur La Scène Intérieure Marcel Cohen 2013 French French
6295 Oracle Bones Peter Hessler 2006 American English
6329 No Good Men Among The Living Anand Gopal 2014 American English
6342 Nothing Holds Back The Night Delphine de Vigan 2011 French French
6361 The Library Book Susan Orlean 2018 American English
6411 Bluets Maggie Nelson 2009 American English
6416 My Forbidden Face Latifa 2001 Afghan French
6435 On Immunity Eula Biss 2014 American English
6531 Born A Crime Trevor Noah 2016 South African English
6541 Hold Still Sally Mann 2015 American English
6590 American Shaolin Matthew Polly 2007 American English
6605 Hillbilly Elegy J. D. Vance 2016 American English
6612 Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker 2020 American English
6647 Tortura Pe înțelesul Tuturor Florin Constantin Pavlovici 2001 Romanian Romanian
6655 Invisible Child Andrea Elliott 2021 American English
6664 How The Word Is Passed Clint Smith 2021 American English
6665 Crying In H Mart Michelle Zauner 2021 American English
6673 India After Gandhi Ramachandra Guha 2007 Indian English
6731 The Afterlife Donald Antrim 2006 American English
6737 My Misspent Youth Meghan Daum 2001 American English
6737 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6748 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
6756 The Corpse Walker Liao Yiwu 2008 Chinese Chinese
6787 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