Memoir Recommendations // A RAD Reading Challenge
So many of you are off to a GREAT start with your RAD Reading Challenge progress — I’ve loved seeing all of your posts on Instagram of what you’re reading, especially when you’ve branched out into a new genre! I want to make sure you have great options in mind for each of the categories throughout the year, so I’m compiling blog posts for each topic with a bunch of ideas.
To clarify (since I was wondering this myself)… the difference between a memoir and an autobiography is really the length of time covered in the book. An autobiography typically focuses on the the author’s entire life, and a memoir usually focuses on one specific aspect of the author’s life. So basically autobiographies are on a bigger scale and memoirs are more zeroed in! Hope that’s helpful.
I’ve crowdsourced favorite memoirs on Instagram, scoured my Goodreads shelves, and brainstormed my own ideas for you — hope you find something to try, or that you’ll share in the comments what you read instead!
Here are some great memoir recommendations:
(there are affiliate links here, HOLLA!)
20 Memoirs I’ve Read (and loved):
To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret by Jedidiah Jenkins (review)
Notes from a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World by Tsh Oxenreider (review)
The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner (review)
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi (review)
Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber (review)
Wild in the Hollow: On Chasing Desire and Finding the Broken Way Home by Amber C. Haines (review)
Coming Clean: A Story of Faith by Seth Haines (review)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (review)
Educated by Tara Westover (review) — this tied with Becoming (see below!) as MOST RECOMMENDED from bookstagram friends!
Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler (review)
If You Find This Letter: My Journey to Find Purpose Through Hundreds of Letters to Strangers by Hannah Brencher (review)
Yes Please by Amy Poehler (review)
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai (review)
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown (review)
The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs (review)
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (review)
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes (review)
Fire Road: The Napalm Girl’s Journey Through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace by Kim Phuc Phan Thi (review)
Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg (review)
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (review)
Find all the memoirs I’ve read on Goodreads here!
Other Recommendations from bookstagram:
Girl Meets God by Lauren F. Winner
Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren F. Winner
When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams
Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope by Chrissy Prout
A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett
Pancakes in Paris: Loving the American Dream in France by Craig Carlson
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell
Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
Country Girl: A Memoir by Edna O’Brien
Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyeonseo Lee
Lucky by Alice Sebold
Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph by Yusra Mardini
Night by Elie Wiesel
Bare Bones: I’m Not Lonely if You’re Reading This Book by Bobby Bones
God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller
An Abbreviated Life by Ariel Leve
Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent
Switching Time: A Doctor’s Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities by Richard Baer
The Autumn Balloon by Kenny Porpora
My Own Two Feet by Beverly Cleary
My Life in France by Julia Child
Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
