SUGGESTED MEMOIRS
Because I read a lot of memoir and teach memoir writing, people often ask me what memoirs I can recommend. If you only have time to read a few memoirs, here are some I suggest you place on your nightstand. There's a more extensive list in the Appendix of WRITING FOR BLISS.
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
Darkness Invisible by William Styron
Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Lust & Wonder: A memoir by Augusten Burroughs
Memoirs of a Catholic Childhood by Mary McCarthy
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Ongoingness by Sarah Manguso
Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith
Paula by Isabel Allende
Poetry Will Save Your Life by Jill Bialosky
Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams
Speak Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
The Best Day The Worst Day by Donald Hall
The Color of Water by James McBride
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
Townie by Andre Dubus III
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson
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