11 Meaningful Memoirs
“One day you will tell your story of how you’ve overcome what you’re going through now, and it will become part of someone else’s survival guide.”
Okay, so I found the above quote on Instagram, of all places (insert eye roll), but it came to mind as I was compiling this list of memoirs, or “survival guides,” if you will, and reminiscing about the profound impact each of these stories has made on my own life. The truth is, we live on stories. We fuel-up on stories. Sometimes, indeed, we survive on stories. Here are some more tools for your survival kit:
*NOTE: I am a proud affiliate of these books, and I do receive a small commission from each sale.
Just Kids, Patti Smith
Look—there is not a more beautiful, devastating, inspiring, creative, or poetic tale than the real-life coming of age story Patti lived with Robert Maplethorpe. I can’t think of a book that has left me feeling more motivated to live a creative life. I also don’t remember ever crying so hard. Patti Smith is a legend. This is her origin story, a narrative about beginnings and endings, starting over and carrying on.
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
Confession: I really hated this book. I judged and side-eyed this book.
Then I read it.
I resisted reading this book because I had assumptions about popular “bestsellers.” But the truth is, the majority was right in this case: The Glass Castle is one family’s story of struggle, survival, perseverance, and unconditional love. Easy and profound reading. Tender and uplifting. Heartbreaking and true.
Any and everyone will like this book.
Ham on Rye, by Charles Bukowski
Ok, so I know Ham on Rye is not officially a memoir, but Bukowski tells the story of his own troubled childhood and youth in the voice of his alter ego, Hank Chinaski, and as Bukowski readers know, Chuck and Hank are mostly one and the same..
Bukowski is not everyone’s cup of tea. He’s an alcoholic. He’s abusive, depressed, mean, crude, etc. I get it. Like, I wouldn’t recommend this book to my mom. However, Bukowski is also a poet. He is like a dark angel, struggling through the ashes of his own life to find something beautiful to grasp onto. The beauty is the writing. His story is hard, but it’s true.
Untamed, by Glennon Doyle
This book just came out, and not a moment too soon. I had hardly clicked the “Buy Now” button on my order before the Coronavirus pandemic swiftly began shutting the world down. Between the 24-hour bad news cycles, empty grocery store shelves, toilet paper shortages, and general panic attacks that quickly began to define the early days of the COVID-19 spread, Untamed was an optimistic but profound breath of fresh air. Doyle’s story is complex and brave. It is also, ultimately very happy and endearing. In addition to sharing anecdotes about her love story with now wife Abby Wambach, Glennon unravels the idea that we need to be anyone or anything other than what we already are.
Untamed is like the literary equivalent to a sigh of relief.
A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
“There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.”
(Always let Hemingway speak for himself.)
West with the Night, by Beryl Markham
Speaking of Hemingway, in a 1942 letter to Maxwell Perkins, he sums up West with the Night as only Hemingway could, writing, "Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? She has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people's stories, are absolutely true… I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book.”
Papa has spoken.
Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, by Dolly Parton
Have you ever heard Dolly Parton tell a story? Her speaking voice is as soothing and hypnotic as her singing voice is angelic and sweet. I heard her voice as I read her story. Dolly as an author is a revved up angel recounting hillbilly lullabies, and sharing her signature nuggets of wisdom, like “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.”
Do yourself a favor, and hang out with Dolly. It’ll be the most enjoyable 332 pages you’ve ever turned.
My Life in France, by Julia Child, with Alex Prud’homme
My book club read this years ago, and turned our meeting into a dinner night. We met in a member’s kitchen, and cooked an entire meal together, using recipes from Julia’s classic cookbooks. To this day, we all remember that evening as the most joyful meeting our book club ever held, and My Life in France as one of our most enjoyable reads.
You don’t need to be in a book club, or be a Francophile, or even like to cook in order to love this book. Julia Child was a once-in-a-generation kind of woman, and reading about her early days as a fledgling chef, learning to chop onions in a city across the world from her home is, frankly, inspiring.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Legendary. Iconic. Required Reading.
Labels like these can leave a reader feeling intimidated by the thought beginning such a book. Forget what you’ve been told. Read Dr. Maya Angelou’s raw, vulnerable and courageous story. The abandonment, the poverty, the journey to redemption and self-love—these are the things legends are made of.
This legend of a story might change your heart, your mind, your life.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, by Lori Gottlieb
This book was loaned to me by a friend. I’d never heard of it. I didn’t know who Lori Gottlieb was. I went into it blind. I finished it, eyes wide and brimming with happy/sad tears. Gottlieb’s story is immediately unique and relatable—she simultaneously is a therapist and has a therapist, and she uses both experiences to help her through a hard and surprising breakup with her boyfriend. The anecdotes she shares are profound, endearing, heartbreaking, and yes, therapeutic.
This book feels like one good, juicy therapy session that ends on a happy note, and with a much smaller fee.
Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert
Reader, I must. I would be giving you a false list of the memoirs I love most, if I didn’t include this precious and unfairly spurned masterpiece of a memoir. Like The Glass Castle, I approached this book with a chip on my shoulder. I wasn’t going to be another basic bitch reading best-sellers. But this book moved me. Liz Gilbert is a master at writing as if she knows you, meaning: reading her feels like having a good conversation with a friend. It’s actually a very rare gift in a writer, but for Liz, it comes naturally.
I’ve read Eat, Pray, Love more times than I can count. I’ve given away more copies than I could afford. I’ve gone blue in the face trying to convince friends to ignore all the hype and give it a chance.
I guess that’s what I’m doing here, too.
What about You?
What are some of your favorite memoirs? Leave your recommendations in the comments below, to share with others. The more the merrier!