Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
Memoirs That Stay With You
36
items These aren’t just books, they’re lives, cracked open and generously shared. If you’re someone who loves to step into someone else’s shoes, learn from their missteps, cry through their heartbreak, or laugh at their absurd truths, this list is for you....
Sections
4
Coming of Age & Finding Identity
Overcoming Adversity
Creative Lives & Unconditional Paths
Celebrity Memoirs That Deliver
Coming of Age & Finding Identity
Memoirs that explore the messy, beautiful process of growing up and figuring out who you are, especially when the world makes it complicated
A riveting story of a woman who grows up in a strict survivalist family in rural Idaho and finds her way to Cambridge University. It’s a powerful testament to the life-changing force of education and the courage it takes to question your roots
Educated: A Memoir
Written by the woman once known as “Emily Doe” in the Brock Turner sexual assault case, this memoir reclaims identity, power, and voice. It’s raw, poetic, and necessary
Know My Name: A Memoir
Jeannette’s childhood was marked by instability, poverty, and wildly unorthodox parenting, yet her storytelling is full of empathy and humor. A modern classic of resilience
The Glass Castle: A Memoir (book)
Darkly funny and deeply honest, this memoir pulls back the curtain on childhood fame, complex family dynamics, and the long road to healing from emotional abuse
I'm Glad My Mom Died
A gorgeous, grief-soaked reflection on identity, food, and mother-daughter relationships. Michelle (of Japanese Breakfast) writes about growing up Korean-American and how food tethered her to her heritage
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir
Funny, sharp, and wildly relatable, this collection of essays from the creator of Insecure is perfect for anyone who's ever felt like the awkward one in the room. Issa’s voice is fresh, honest, and hilarious
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl Memoir
A graphic memoir that’s as literary as it is visual. Bechdel recounts her childhood, her coming out, and her complex relationship with her father with brutal emotional clarity and gorgeous illustrations
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Though fiction, this book reads like a lived experience and is often recommended alongside queer memoirs for its honest portrayal of gender, identity, and parenthood. A good bridge if you want to blur the genre lines
Detransition, Baby: A Novel
Written in verse, this memoir captures Woodson’s experience growing up Black in America, first in the segregated South, then in New York. Gentle, poetic, and deeply moving
Brown Girl Dreaming
A haunting account of being sent to a religious conversion therapy program. It’s a heartbreaking but hopeful story about reclaiming your truth after being taught to deny it
Boy Erased: Memoir of Identity & Faith
This debut memoir traces the author’s childhood as an undocumented immigrant in New York. It’s a poignant, beautifully told story about shame, hunger, language, and slowly finding power in your own voice
Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood
A memoir that’s part comedy, part cultural analysis, and 100% heart. Jacob breaks down gender norms with humor, insight, and a whole lot of glitter
Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story
A deeply personal and poetic memoir of growing up Black and gay in the American South. It’s fierce and intimate, grappling with identity, grief, and survival with breathtaking language
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir
Overcoming Adversity
These memoirs don’t shy away from the hard stuff (trauma, illness, loss, poverty, addiction, and everything in between). But they’re not just about surviving, they’re about what comes after. These are stories of grit, growth, and the power of the hum...
Written by a neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer, this memoir is part reflection, part love letter, part philosophical exploration of what makes life meaningful
When Breath Becomes Air: Pulitzer Prize Finalist
A beautifully written account of a young woman’s leukemia diagnosis, survival, and the search for identity and purpose after illness. It's about more than cancer, it’s about how to live.
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir
A haunting and lyrical memoir about race, body image, family, and what it means to carry emotional weight. Kiese’s vulnerability on the page is stunning
Heavy: An American Memoir
After losing her mother and spiraling into self-destruction, Cheryl impulsively hikes over 1,000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone. It’s a raw, unforgettable story about grief, healing, and finding your way back to yourself
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
A quiet, devastating masterpiece about love and sudden loss. After her husband dies unexpectedly, Didion writes through the fog of grief in a way only she can: precise, sharp, and heart-wrenching
The Year of Magical Thinking: Natl Book Award
In this brutally honest and darkly funny memoir, Karr reflects on her journey from addiction and chaos to sobriety and motherhood. Her writing is electric, vulnerable, sharp, and wise
Lit: A Memoir (P.S.)
A deeply personal account of living with schizophrenia, from breakdowns and hospitalizations to earning a law degree from Yale. Saks proves that living with mental illness doesn’t mean giving up on a meaningful life.
The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
Told through essays and fragments, this experimental memoir dives into mental illness, trauma, sexual violence, and Native identity. Washuta’s voice is raw, intelligent, and unapologetically honest
My Body Is a Book of Rules
A candid and powerful memoir about trauma, food, body image, and how we learn to exist in bodies that carry pain. Roxane Gay writes with fierce honesty and no apology
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
Creative Lives & Unconditional Paths
For those who are drawn to the art of storytelling and the creative process, these memoirs dive into the inner world of writers, performers, and dreamers
Patti’s tender tribute to her friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and their gritty beginnings in the New York art scene. It's as much about love and loss as it is about becoming an artist
Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner
With sharp wit and an open heart, Trevor shares his experience growing up as a mixed-race child in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. It's both hilarious and deeply insightful
Born a Crime: Stories from South African Childhood
A British journalist reflects on her wild twenties with humor, heartache, and surprising insight. Think Sex and the City meets Fleabag, but with more toast. Not just about romance, it’s about friendship, ambition, and finding your way
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir
Legendary actress Cicely Tyson reflects on her 70-year career and the strength it took to rise up in a world stacked against her. It’s elegant, powerful, and full of hard-earned wisdom
Just as I Am: A Memoir
What happens when the queen of TV writing decides to say “yes” to everything for a year? Magic. This memoir is part inspiration, part pep talk, and 100% behind-the-scenes look at one of the most powerful creative minds in entertainment
Year of Yes: Dance It Out & Be Yourself
Smart, sharp, and full of laugh-out-loud moments, Fey’s memoir gives you a peek into her rise through comedy, motherhood, and the weird world of showbiz. Her voice is as strong on the page as it is on screen
Bossypants
Actress Busy Philipps brings humor, vulnerability, and fire to her stories about fame, sexism in Hollywood, body image, and motherhood. Feels like chatting with your boldest, most unfiltered friend
This Will Only Hurt a Little - Memoir
Celebrity Memoirs That Deliver
Sometimes you just want to peek behind the curtain and sometimes what you find there is even better than the performance. These memoirs are smart, juicy, emotional, and wildly entertaining. Whether they’re spilling tea, making you cry-laugh, or tell...
Not your typical celeb memoir. This is part philosophy book, part campfire story, part chaotic life advice. McConaughey reflects on fame, failure, and “catching greenlights” in life, all with his signature weird-charm energy
Greenlights
Poised, powerful, and full of grace. Michelle takes us from her childhood in Chicago to the White House and everywhere in between. It’s about identity, ambition, motherhood, and making space for yourself in rooms that weren’t built for you
Becoming
Surprisingly deep, heartbreakingly honest, and way more emotionally raw than you’d expect. Jessica opens up about addiction, trauma, heartbreak, and the ways she was underestimated and how she reclaimed her voice
Open Book
Will takes us from his childhood in West Philly to global superstardom, all while unpacking deep emotional wounds, perfectionism, and the cost of always trying to be "the entertainer." It’s surprisingly vulnerable
Will
Told in lyrical prose and poetry, this is a reclamation of Pamela’s story after decades of being reduced to headlines and paparazzi. Soft, smart, and healing: it gives her narrative the dignity it deserves
Love, Pamela: A Memoir
A raw and gripping account of addiction, motherhood, body image, and fame. Demi’s honesty about trauma and reinvention makes this feel less like a gossip-fest and more like a survival story
Inside Out: A Memoir
An incredible memoir about poverty, resilience, and rising above. Viola’s writing is as powerful as her performances, you’ll leave this book in awe of her strength and grace
Finding Me: Memoir of Overcoming & Self-Love