Must-Read Memoirs

Beautiful Country

A Memoir

By: Qian Julie Wang
Narrated by: Qian Julie Wang
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

“In this brutally honest coming-of-age memoir, Qian Julie Wang comes to terms with the deprivations and struggles of her undocumented Chinese upbringing in New York City in the 1990s. Read more

Fox & I

An Uncommon Friendship

By: Catherine Raven
Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
Length: 10 hours 22 minutes

"Mysterious and magical." ―Wall Street Journal

“[A] book everyone will be talking about… [A] real-life friendship that mirrors the one between Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince and his fox, full of tenderness and understanding." ―The New York Times

“Entrancing…. Raven’s gorgeous account of her bond with a fox while living in a remote cabin will open... Read more

Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light

Essays

By: Helen Ellis
Narrated by: Helen Ellis
Length: 2 hours 49 minutes

“Helen Ellis's essays in Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light are equal parts "let me tell you how it is" and sass. Her chapters celebrate the good, bad, and ugly of growing older with a dear group of friends. Read this book to find a kindred spirit then give it away to a girlfriend who needs the same. Human connection is the most important... Read more

Here for It

Or, How to Save Your Soul in America; Essays

By: R. Eric Thomas
Narrated by: R. Eric Thomas
Length: 7 hours 34 minutes

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • From the creator of Elle’s “Eric Reads the News,” a heartfelt and hilarious memoir-in-essays about growing up seeing the world differently, finding unexpected hope, and experiencing every awkward, extraordinary stumble along the way.

“Pop culture–obsessed, Sedaris-level... Read more

Unbound

My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement

By: Tarana Burke
Narrated by: Tarana Burke
Length: 7 hours 9 minutes

"Tarana Burke, I just finished Unbound. Searing. Powerful. Needed!! Thank you." —Oprah

“Sometimes a single story can change the world. Unbound is one of those stories. Tarana’s words are a testimony to liberation and love.” —Brené Brown

One of BookPage's 10 Best Audiobooks of 2021

This program is read by the author.

From the founder and activist... Read more

The Best of Me

By: David Sedaris
Narrated by: David Sedaris
Length: 13 hours 8 minutes

“As if there is anything greater than a new David Sedaris, it's listening to David Sedaris read the new David Sedaris. This self-edited collection of essays from his prolific 25-year career is exactly what we need to boost the morale of 2020 and remind ourselves what a crazy world we've always lived in when viewed through Sedaris's keen... Read more

Crying in H Mart

A Memoir

By: Michelle Zauner
Narrated by: Michelle Zauner
Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

“I was struck by just how much I loved this book for how it walks through grief not as a way to leave it behind, but as a way to remember its exact shape. I’m grateful for its funny, self-deprecating, and wise observations, and for its difficult beauty. Read more

How Y'all Doing?

Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived

By: Leslie Jordan
Narrated by: Leslie Jordan
Length: 4 hours 14 minutes

New York Times and USA Today BestsellerAudie Award Winner, HumorViral sensation and Emmy Award-winner Leslie Jordan regales fans with entertaining stories about the odd, funny, and unforgettable events in his life in this unmissable essay collection that echoes his droll, irreverent voice.When actor Leslie Jordan learned he had “gone viral,” he... Read more

Fairest

A Memoir

By: Meredith Talusan
Narrated by: Meredith Talusan
Length: 8 hours 46 minutes

Finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction
 
"Talusan sails past the conventions of trans and immigrant memoirs." --The New York Times Book Review

"A ball of light hurled into the dark undertow of migration and survival." --Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

A love story with the heart of Austen... Read more

Dear Girls

Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life

By: Ali Wong
Narrated by: Ali Wong & Justin Hakuta
Length: 6 hours 20 minutes

“If you’ve ever seen Wong’s stand-up, you already know how freaking amazing she is. What you might not know, but will by the end of the book, is: exactly what to steal from the hospital when you give birth, the best street food in Vietnam, and how to trap the love of your life into doing chores. You’ll also learn a lot about how to handle loss... Read more

A Very Punchable Face

A Memoir

By: Colin Jost
Narrated by: Colin Jost
Length: 7 hours 40 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In these hilarious essays, the Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Update co-anchor learns how to take a beating.

“I always wanted to punch his face before I read this book. Now I just want to kick him in the balls.”—Larry David

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Cosmopolitan • Vulture • Parade

If there’s... Read more

My Broken Language

A Memoir

By: Quiara Alegría Hudes
Narrated by: Quiara Alegría Hudes
Length: 10 hours 44 minutes

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights tells her lyrical story of coming of age against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, with her sprawling Puerto Rican family as a collective muse.

“Quiara Alegría Hudes is in her own league. Her sentences will take your breath away.... Read more

Shrill

Notes from a Loud Woman

By: Lindy West
Narrated by: Lindy West
Length: 6 hours 9 minutes

“Lindy West writes about difficult subjects with a hilarious, sharp style that may make you squirm, and is guaranteed to make you laugh—possibly quite loudly. Shrill is bursting with extraordinary insights into the social system that contains and ruins us, and ways to expand beyond what we’ve internalized. With a vulnerable (but again: hilarious)... Read more

We're Going to Need More Wine

Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True

By: Gabrielle Union
Narrated by: Gabrielle Union
Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

“I know what this book looks like, and it's true that it's a '90s celebrity's memoir. But the other parts of this book are so remarkable that to limit its description to that would be an injustice. Gabrielle Union is an honest writer and cultural critic. I'm ashamed I didn't know this until now. Her reflections on race, gender, and authenticity... Read more

Educated

A Memoir

By: Tara Westover
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Length: 12 hours 9 minutes

“Tara Westover is barely 30; could she really write a necessary and timely memoir already? Absolutely. Raised largely 'off the grid' in rural Idaho - without school, doctor visits, a birth certificate, or even a family consensus on the date of her birth - Tara nevertheless decides she wants to go to college. This is a story in two parts: First,... Read more

In the Dream House

A Memoir

By: Carmen Maria Machado
Narrated by: Carmen Maria Machado
Length: 5 hours 28 minutes

“This is a spellbinding memoir that will stand the test of time. Carmen Maria Machado has crafted a memoir that turns the form on its head, that creates a stunning, chilling and winding narrative that stays true to the nature of human beings: complex and nuanced. The LGBTQ archive of intimate-partner violence needed this and helped pave a way for... Read more

Aftershocks

By: Nadia Owusu
Narrated by: Nadia Owusu
Length: 8 hours 32 minutes

In the tradition of The Glass Castle, this “gorgeous” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice) and deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owusu tells the “incredible story” (Malala Yousafzai) about the push and pull of belonging, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets, and the heart it takes to pull through.

“In Aftershocks, Nadia... Read more

We Have Always Been Here

A Queer Muslim Memoir

By: Samra Habib
Narrated by: Parmida Vand
Length: 5 hours 14 minutes

CANADA READS 2020 WINNER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 EDNA STAEBLER AWARD FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
2020 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER
ONE OF BOOK RIOT'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL QUEER BOOKS OF ALL TIME

How do you find yourself when the world tells you that you don't exist?

Samra Habib has spent most of their life searching for the safety to... Read more

Unprotected

A Memoir

By: Billy Porter
Narrated by: Billy Porter
Length: 12 hours 23 minutes

“This is not a coming-out story. It’s not a down-low story either. I never could have passed for straight, even if I’d wanted to, and so I never had the dubious luxury of living a lie.”

From the incomparable Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner, a powerful and revealing autobiography about race, sexuality, art, and healing

It’s easy to be yourself... Read more

Maid

Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

By: Stephanie Land
Narrated by: Stephanie Land
Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

“Stephanie Land’s Maid is a must-read of the highest order, a memoir of a single mother struggling to survive while performing the household labor that many of us take for granted. While at once deeply personal — you’ll fall hard for Stephanie and her daughter, Mia — it is also essential social commentary about how we treat the myriad domestic... Read more