BVBook Verdict

Nonfiction

Best Biography & Memoir Books

The best biography and memoir gives you both the person and their world. These are the books where the story of one life opens up into history, society or something essential about what it means to be human.

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Maus Art Spiegelman · 1991 Editor's Choice Get it on Amazon →
Educated Tara Westover · 2018 Essential Read Get it on Amazon →
Born a Crime Trevor Noah · 2016 Essential Read See details →
Becoming Michelle Obama · 2018 Essential Read See details →
The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank · 1947 Essential Read See details →
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou · 1969 Essential Read See details →
The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion · 2005 Essential Read See details →
Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson · 2014 Essential Read See details →
The Argonauts Maggie Nelson · 2015 Essential Read See details →
Black Boy Richard Wright · 1945 Essential Read See details →
A Small Place Jamaica Kincaid · 1988 Essential Read See details →
This Boy's Life Tobias Wolff · 1989 Essential Read See details →
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass · 1845 Essential Read See details →
The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X · 1965 Essential Read See details →
Schindler's Ark Thomas Keneally · 1982 Essential Read See details →
Hunger Roxane Gay · 2017 Essential Read See details →
Know My Name Chanel Miller · 2019 Essential Read See details →
The Volunteer Jack Fairweather · 2019 Essential Read See details →
The World of Yesterday Stefan Zweig · 1942 Essential Read See details →

More worth reading

Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson · 2011 Recommended Get it on Amazon →
Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt · 1996 Recommended Get it on Amazon →
Wild Cheryl Strayed · 2012 Recommended See details →
The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls · 2005 Recommended See details →
Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand · 2010 Recommended See details →
A Mind That Found Itself Clifford Whittingham Beers · 1908 Recommended See details →
A Tramp Abroad Mark Twain · 1878 Recommended See details →
A history of the English-speaking peoples Winston S. Churchill · 1950 Recommended See details →
Acres of diamonds Russell Herman Conwell · 1901 Recommended See details →
An autobiography Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi · 1927 Recommended See details →
Apologia pro vita sua John Henry Newman · 1860 Recommended See details →
Autobiography of a Yogi Yogananda Paramahansa · 1946 Recommended See details →
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man James Weldon Johnson · 1900 Recommended See details →
Ben Hur Lew Wallace · 1800 Recommended See details →
Captivity and Restoration Mary White Rowlandson · 1682 Recommended See details →
Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau · 1800 Recommended See details →
Diary Samuel Pepys · 1825 Recommended See details →
Dictionary of National Biography George Murray Smith · 1885 Recommended See details →
Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell · 1933 Recommended See details →
Elizabeth and Her German Garden Elizabeth von Arnim · 1898 Recommended See details →
Essais Michel de Montaigne · 1600 Recommended See details →
Exercitia spiritualia Saint Ignatius of Loyola · 1548 Recommended See details →
Fanshawe Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1828 Recommended See details →
Flush Virginia Woolf · 1694 Recommended See details →
Gorin no sho Miyamoto Musashi · 1963 Recommended See details →
Henry Moore David Sylvester · 1934 Recommended See details →
Het Achterhuis Anne Frank · 1944 Recommended See details →
Homage to Catalonia George Orwell · 1938 Recommended See details →
Hospital Sketches Louisa May Alcott · 1863 Recommended See details →
John Barleycorn Jack London · 1913 Recommended See details →
Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell · 1776 Recommended See details →
Little House in the Big Woods Laura Ingalls Wilder · 1932 Recommended See details →
Lives Plutarch · 1564 Recommended See details →
Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler · 1922 Recommended See details →
Moralia Plutarch · 1500 Recommended See details →
My bondage and my freedom Frederick Douglass · 1815 Recommended See details →
Paul Klee Paul Klee · 1930 Recommended See details →
Paul et Virginie Bernardin de Saint-Pierre · 1789 Recommended See details →
Picasso Pablo Picasso · 1926 Recommended See details →
Poems (Lover's Complaint William Shakespeare · 1771 Recommended See details →
Sailing alone around the world Joshua Slocum · 1800 Recommended See details →
Saint Francis of Assisi Gilbert Keith Chesterton · 1923 Recommended See details →
Seven Pillars of Wisdom T. E. Lawrence · 1905 Recommended See details →
Terre des hommes Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · 1936 Recommended See details →
The Bible in Spain George Henry Borrow · 1842 Recommended See details →
The Federalist, or, The New Constitution Alexander Hamilton · 1788 Recommended See details →
The Hudson Bay Company Robert Michael Ballantyne · 1848 Recommended See details →
The Life of Charlotte Bronte Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell · 1857 Recommended See details →
The Poetical Works of John Dryden John Dryden · 1777 Recommended See details →
The Razor's Edge William Somerset Maugham · 1944 Recommended See details →
The Rise of Silas Lapham William Dean Howells · 1884 Recommended See details →
The Romany Rye George Henry Borrow · 1800 Recommended See details →
The Second World War Winston S. Churchill · 1948 Recommended See details →
The Story of Philosophy Will Durant · 1926 Recommended See details →
The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen · 1899 Recommended See details →
The adventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S.A. Washington Irving · 1800 Recommended See details →
The education of Henry Adams Henry Adams · 1777 Recommended See details →
The old wives' tale Arnold Bennett · 1900 Recommended See details →
The story of the other wise man Henry van Dyke · 1895 Recommended See details →
Their Wedding Journey William Dean Howells · 1872 Recommended See details →
Twelve Men Theodore Dreiser · 1919 Recommended See details →
Twelve years a slave Solomon Northup · 1853 Recommended See details →
Up from Slavery Booker T. Washington · 1900 Recommended See details →
Vol de nuit Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · 1931 Recommended See details →
Walden, or, Life in the Woods Henry David Thoreau · 1849 Recommended See details →

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The Volunteer Jack Fairweather · 2019 Essential Read Get it on Amazon →

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