100 Biographies and Memoirs to Read in a (Single) Lifetime

Description
Amazon's List
1
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
13,569 members
245 reviews
4.1
8 Members
SqueakyChu, dara85, smcwl, elkiedee, cej1027, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, the_confused_one
2
Night
by Elie Wiesel
12,944 members
240 reviews
½ 4.3
6 Members
SqueakyChu, dara85, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, FreeTickyBurden, the_confused_one
3
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
18,442 members
502 reviews
4
6 Members
hipdeep, SqueakyChu, smcwl, cej1027, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda
Explanations
cej1027: Not sure I'd count this as a biography/memoir, but I did read it.
4
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
by Jeannette Walls
23,123 members
846 reviews
4.2
5 Members
SqueakyChu, dara85, smcwl, elkiedee, ahef1963
5
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X
11,419 members
144 reviews
½ 4.3
4 Members
hipdeep, smcwl, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda
6
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
32,738 members
560 reviews
4
4 Members
smcwl, elkiedee, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda
7
A Moveable Feast
by Ernest Hemingway
10,183 members
213 reviews
4
4 Members
hipdeep, smcwl, elkiedee, FreeTickyBurden
8
The Complete Maus
by Art Spiegelman
10,776 members
286 reviews
½ 4.5
4 Members
hipdeep, SqueakyChu, cej1027, ManWithAnAgenda
9
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
20,217 members
485 reviews
3.9
4 Members
SqueakyChu, smcwl, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda
10
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
16,963 members
777 reviews
4.2
4 Members
SqueakyChu, elkiedee, cej1027, ahef1963
11
The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion
12,143 members
329 reviews
3.9
4 Members
SqueakyChu, smcwl, ahef1963, FreeTickyBurden
12
Black Like Me
by John Howard Griffin
4,747 members
87 reviews
4
3 Members
smcwl, cej1027, ahef1963
13
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
by James McBride
7,091 members
122 reviews
4
3 Members
SqueakyChu, cej1027, ManWithAnAgenda
14
Running with Scissors
by Augusten Burroughs
15,422 members
321 reviews
½ 3.5
3 Members
SqueakyChu, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda
15
The Complete Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
8,319 members
283 reviews
½ 4.3
3 Members
SqueakyChu, cej1027, ahef1963
16
Seabiscuit: An American Legend
by Laura Hillenbrand
8,659 members
159 reviews
4.2
3 Members
hipdeep, SqueakyChu, smcwl
17
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
11,508 members
291 reviews
3.9
3 Members
hipdeep, SqueakyChu, ahef1963
18
The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
5,987 members
64 reviews
3.9
2 Members
SqueakyChu, smcwl
19
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
17,563 members
260 reviews
4
2 Members
elkiedee, ManWithAnAgenda
20
The Liar's Club: A Memoir
by Mary Karr
4,374 members
90 reviews
3.8
2 Members
elkiedee, FreeTickyBurden
21
Just Kids
by Patti Smith
6,653 members
268 reviews
4.1
2 Members
hipdeep, elkiedee
22
Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues
by Jim Bouton
1,590 members
40 reviews
4.1
2 Members
hipdeep, FreeTickyBurden
23
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
30,464 members
425 reviews
½ 3.6
2 Members
SqueakyChu, FreeTickyBurden
24
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
by Frederick Douglass
11,116 members
133 reviews
4
2 Members
hipdeep, cej1027
25
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller
3,757 members
113 reviews
3.9
2 Members
SqueakyChu, cej1027
26
The Motorcycle Diaries
by Che Guevara
3,906 members
47 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
SqueakyChu, FreeTickyBurden
27
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
8,078 members
318 reviews
4
2 Members
SqueakyChu, ahef1963
28
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by Gertrude Stein
3,072 members
46 reviews
½ 3.6
2 Members
hipdeep, ahef1963
29
The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: Parts I-II
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
6,024 members
48 reviews
4.2
Member
ArchDucchess
30
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
by Dave Eggers
2,572 members
33 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
31
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
by Nancy Milford
1,870 members
25 reviews
4
Member
dhm
32
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy
by Frances Mayes
7,108 members
143 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
33
The Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
18,824 members
197 reviews
4.1
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
34
Open: An Autobiography
by Andre Agassi
2,644 members
101 reviews
4.1
Member
dara85
35
Naked
by David Sedaris
12,998 members
127 reviews
4
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
36
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume 1: 1931–1934
by Anaïs Nin
1,726 members
5 reviews
4
Member
smcwl
37
Dust Tracks on a Road
by Zora Neale Hurston
1,588 members
19 reviews
4
Member
hipdeep
39
Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited
by Vladimir Nabokov
4,053 members
48 reviews
4.2
Member
smcwl
40
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
by Malala Yousafzai
7,949 members
290 reviews
4.1
Member
cej1027
41
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
by William Styron
3,348 members
86 reviews
3.9
Member
smcwl
42
Personal History
by Katharine Graham
2,954 members
47 reviews
4
Member
smcwl
43
Notes of a Native Son
by James Baldwin
2,503 members
34 reviews
4.2
Member
hipdeep
44
My Life in France
by Julia Child
5,636 members
213 reviews
4.2
Member
ahef1963
45
Chronicles: Volume One
by Bob Dylan
4,897 members
78 reviews
3.9
Member
smcwl
46
De Profundis and Other Writings
by Oscar Wilde
795 members
6 reviews
4.1
Member
hipdeep
47
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
by Nelson Mandela
5,603 members
72 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
ahef1963
48
Black Boy
by Richard Wright
5,888 members
73 reviews
4
Member
hipdeep
49
Out of Africa
by Isak Dinesen
5,816 members
111 reviews
3.9
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
50
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia
by Elizabeth Gilbert
23,962 members
888 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
ahef1963
51
Travels with Charley: In Search of America
by John Steinbeck
9,639 members
235 reviews
4
Member
hipdeep
52
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character
by Richard Feynman
11,004 members
200 reviews
4.2
Member
hipdeep
53
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
by Laura Hillenbrand
14,380 members
618 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
SqueakyChu
54
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
10,173 members
554 reviews
3.9
Member
ahef1963
56
Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
10,785 members
304 reviews
4.1
Member
SqueakyChu
57
Bossypants
by Tina Fey
10,595 members
556 reviews
3.8
58
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang
9,268 members
174 reviews
4.2
59
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Revised Edition
by Barack Obama
7,108 members
126 reviews
4
60
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing
6,275 members
153 reviews
½ 4.4
61
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
by Maxine Hong Kingston
5,475 members
75 reviews
3.8
63
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
by Edmund Morris
4,646 members
58 reviews
½ 4.4
64
The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo
by Irving Stone
4,403 members
87 reviews
4
65
American Sniper
by Chris Kyle
4,215 members
99 reviews
½ 3.7
66
West with the Night
by Beryl Markham
4,018 members
143 reviews
4.1
67
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
by Steve Martin
3,985 members
172 reviews
3.8
68
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
by Jon Meacham
3,751 members
70 reviews
½ 3.7
69
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
by Kai Bird
3,577 members
66 reviews
½ 4.3
70
Life
by Keith Richards
3,558 members
141 reviews
3.9
71
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
by Robert K. Massie
3,402 members
152 reviews
4.1
72
This Boy's Life: A Memoir
by Tobias Wolff
3,244 members
50 reviews
3.9
73
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
by Joseph J. Ellis
3,109 members
37 reviews
3.9
74
The Tender Bar
by J. R. Moehringer
3,026 members
107 reviews
3.8
75
Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival
by Joe Simpson
2,933 members
78 reviews
4.2
76
The Soul of A New Machine
by Tracy Kidder
2,873 members
55 reviews
4
77
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
by Ron Chernow
2,846 members
30 reviews
4.2
78
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
by Mark Twain
2,311 members
42 reviews
4
79
Autobiography of a Face
by Lucy Grealy
2,275 members
74 reviews
3.8
80
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964
by William Manchester
2,034 members
18 reviews
4.1
81
Cash
by Johnny Cash
1,941 members
26 reviews
3.9
82
Napoleon: A Life
by Andrew Roberts
1,897 members
43 reviews
4.2
83
Mortality
by Christopher Hitchens
1,837 members
82 reviews
4
84
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
by Phillip Hoose
1,409 members
217 reviews
½ 4.5
85
Drinking: A Love Story
by Caroline Knapp
1,371 members
34 reviews
4
86
The Basketball Diaries
by Jim Carroll
1,270 members
21 reviews
3.9
87
Churchill: A Life
by Martin Gilbert
1,254 members
15 reviews
4.1
88
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
by Carlos Fuentes
1,140 members
13 reviews
½ 4.3
90
The Andy Warhol Diaries
by Andy Warhol
974 members
12 reviews
½ 3.7
91
Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?
by Marion Meade
913 members
16 reviews
4
92
Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)
by Stacy Schiff
647 members
8 reviews
3.9
93
The Kid Stays In The Picture
by Robert Evans
615 members
11 reviews
3.8
94
Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story
by Amanda Vaill
578 members
11 reviews
4.1
95
Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
by John Lahr
255 members
7 reviews
4
96
Knock Wood
by Candice Bergen
202 members
7 reviews
3.8
97
Updike
by Adam Begley
191 members
6 reviews
3.8
98
The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television
by Evan I. Schwartz
124 members
4 reviews
3.9