TL;DR: The best memoir examples include Educated by Tara Westover, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Becoming by Michelle Obama, and Wild by Cheryl Strayed. What makes these books stand out is not fame or shock value, it’s a focused theme, emotional honesty, and a story arc that connects to something universal. This list covers 35 standout memoirs across grief, identity, resilience, addiction, faith, and more.
As an aspiring author, it’s likely you’re an avid reader. And, if you already have dreams of sharing your story with the world, it’s important to read and learn from other memoir examples that have resonated with readers.
But we don’t suggest just picking up any book.
If you want to learn how to write a memoir, we recommend checking out a book that has been written by an author with whom you have a shared lived experience, who has a similar style or writing tone to your own, or who writes about a similar topic. While the intention is never to copy someone else’s work, reading memoirs that might show up in the same category as yours could be immensely helpful.
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While reading, take note of how vulnerable the author gets, how much they share, how they relate to the reader, what details impact you the most, and what about the delivery makes it so moving.
What makes a great memoir example?
A great memoir is not an autobiography. It’s a focused story about a specific period, theme, or transformation and is told with honesty, craft, and a clear emotional arc.
A few key elements separate forgettable memoirs from ones readers press into their friends’ hands:
- A clear desire line. The struggle to achieve the desire drives the book. What the narrator wants and what stands in the way is the engine of the whole story.
- Emotional honesty. Readers are smart. They can tell if something feels untrue, and it can permanently damage the relationship between author and reader.
- A theme that connects to the universal. Your story is personal, but the best memoirs make readers feel like they’re reading about themselves.
- Selective memory. Omission is not betrayal, it is craft. The strongest memoirs select only the scenes, relationships, and revelations that deepen the reader’s experience of the story being told.
- A distinctive voice. Voice is the fingerprint of the writer. The sentence rhythms, recurring images, and linguistic choices that make a memoir feel like only one person could have written it.
Keep these elements in mind as you read through the examples below. When something lands, ask yourself why.
Our top 35 memoir examples
From famous best-sellers to the lesser-known reads on this list, the following memoir examples include common universal literary themes, very intimate glimpses into the writers’ lives, hard-earned life lessons, and a variety of topics and tones to inspire your own memorable memoir.
1. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
A classic memoir example that captures childhood, racism, trauma, and resilience in all its nuanced forms. Angelou’s ability to render the emotional reality of a child without losing the perspective of the adult looking back is a masterclass in memoir craft.
Study this for: Writing about childhood with both innocence and retrospective clarity
Related: See our blog on inspirational Maya Angelou quotes.
2. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Resilience and redemption co-star in this bestseller about Jeannette Walls’ unconventional, often chaotic childhood with brilliant but deeply irresponsible parents. The writing never tips into bitterness or sentimentality – which is what makes it so powerful.
Study this for: Writing about difficult family members without villainizing them
3. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
An evangelist and Holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom’s story of faith maintained through Nazi concentration camps is one of the most enduring memoir examples of the twentieth century. It’s harrowing without being hopeless.
Study this for: Writing about faith and suffering without preaching
4. The Puma Years by Laura Coleman
A personal look at the illegal pet trade, deforestation, and the bond between humans and animals, told through Coleman’s time volunteering at a Bolivian wildlife sanctuary. The emotional core is the relationship between the author and a traumatized puma named Wayra.
Study this for: Writing environmental memoir with an intimate human story at the center
5. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Not a typical memoir, but one of the foundational examples of personal narrative in American literature. Thoreau’s account of two years living deliberately in the woods near Concord, Massachusetts remains one of the most cited examples of a life examined through place.
Study this for: Using physical environment to carry philosophical meaning
6. Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Steve Martin writes about why he started, and eventually stopped, his stand-up career with a level of self-examination rare in celebrity memoir. It’s less about fame and more about the obsessive pursuit of craft.
Study this for: Writing about ambition and artistic identity
7. Life by Keith Richards
Co-founder of The Rolling Stones tells his story with a chaotic, immediate energy that mirrors the music itself. One of the most entertaining rock memoirs ever written.
Study this for: Letting voice carry structure when personality is the argument
8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Semi-autobiographical and deeply personal, The Bell Jar traces Esther Greenwood’s descent into and recovery from mental illness. It’s not a traditional memoir, but it belongs on this list because of how directly it draws from Plath’s own breakdown, and because of the craft with which it handles a first-person narrator in psychological crisis.
Study this for: Writing about mental illness from the inside
9. All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
Known for its expert prose, this memoir tells of a life headed for the cotton mills that culminated in a career as a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter. The portrait of his mother is among the most quietly devastating in the genre.
Study this for: Writing about poverty and class with precision and dignity
10. The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
One hundred years of a New Orleans family history told through the story of a single house. It’s part family memoir, part portrait of a neighborhood, and one of the most formally inventive memoirs in recent memory.
Study this for: Using a place as a central character in your memoir
11. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay invites readers into an unflinching look at body image, food, safety, and the relationship between all three. It’s a memoir that resists easy resolution, and is more honest because of it.
Study this for: Writing about the body without redemption arc clichés
12. God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew
Brother Andrew’s dedication to smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain reads like a thriller, except it’s entirely true. The writing is propulsive and the stakes are real.
Study this for: Writing spiritual conviction as action rather than reflection
13. The Long Goodbye by Meghan O’Rourke
Memoir examples that address grief and how to grieve are rare. Meghan O’Rourke tackles the loss of her mother with both intellectual rigor and raw emotion — and manages to say things about grief that most writers can’t find the words for.
Study this for: Writing about grief without grief becoming the whole book
14. Her by Christa Parravani
Losing a twin sister and knowing that as a twin yourself, your own survival odds are statistically altered, this memoir covers a uniquely intimate kind of grief and love. It’s also one of the most formally controlled memoirs on this list.
Study this for: Writing about a relationship so close it’s hard to separate from your own identity
15. South Island Tiny House by Corianne Holmes
While many of our memoir examples cover large periods of time or even an author’s entire lifetime, this is a story about a pivotal, life-changing season in a person’s life. Written by one of our very own Self Publishing students, Corianne shares her experience of moving to a new country and into a tiny home – divulging plenty of lessons learned.
Study this for: Writing a memoir about a single season rather than an entire life
16. Fullness by Azure Moyna
Azure shares her story of surviving a brilliant but deeply destructive father, her struggle with bulimia, and her hunger for love in its many forms. A raw and searching memoir from a selfpublishing.com community author.
Study this for: Writing about family dysfunction and eating disorders without flinching
17. My Mother’s Daughter by Perdita Felicien
Opportunity, suffering, faith, perseverance and grit, Olympics, and nannying – each one of these topics shows up within the pages of this book that’s based on a true story.
Study this for: Weaving multiple life chapters into a single coherent narrative thread
18. Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction By David Sheff
This memoir, written by a father about his son’s addiction to methamphetamine, is so compelling it was adapted into a major motion picture. It’s a reminder that addiction memoirs don’t have to be written by the person in the grip of the addiction.
Study this for: Writing about someone else’s story with honesty and restraint
19. Cowboy in a Corporate World by Ray Marxer
A modern take on life on the American ranch, blending historical nonfiction with personal narrative. Written by another selfpublishing.com author, it’s a strong example of how a niche life experience can find a wide audience.
Study this for: Turning a specific subculture into a universally readable story
20. Personal History by Katharine Graham
Presidents, mental illness, wealth, suicide, and deep loneliness – the life of the Washington Post publisher reads like a novel, but every page is real. It’s also an object lesson in how to write about public life without losing the personal.
Study this for: Writing about power and private suffering simultaneously
21. Let’s Take The Long Way Home: A Memoir Of Friendship By Gail Caldwell
A Pulitzer Prize winner, Gail Caldwell writes about friendship, loss, and the particular intimacy of a bond between two women. The book is also a meditation on what we owe each other and how we survive being left.
Study this for: Writing about friendship with the depth usually reserved for romantic love
22. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
From the New York Times bestseller list, this is a book about a 36-year-old neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He writes about the transition from doctor to patient, and from a life of building meaning to one of contemplating its end. It’s one of the most quietly profound memoirs ever written.
Study this for: Writing toward death with clarity rather than despair
23. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
McCourt chronicles his childhood as an Irish immigrant in Limerick – poverty, loss, and the grit of surviving daily life told with exacting detail and, somehow, dark humor. He describes scenes without telling the reader how to feel about them, which allows readers to respond more emotionally than the narrator does on the page.
Study this for: Using restraint to amplify emotional impact
24. Ain’t That a Miracle? by Jeremy Occhipinti
Funny and frank, while addressing some of the extremes of human emotion, this memoir by a selfpublishing.com author is proof that humor and depth aren’t mutually exclusive.
Study this for: Blending comedy with genuine emotional weight
25. Educated by Tara Westover
Tara grew up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho with no formal schooling. She taught herself enough to enter Brigham Young University at seventeen, eventually earning a PhD from Cambridge. This is the rare memoir that works equally as a coming-of-age story, a family drama, and an exploration of how identity is shaped, and reshaped, by education.
Study this for: Balancing external plot with internal transformation
26. Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother’s Story by David Payne
A deeply personal memoir about two brothers – their rivalry, their love, and the tragedy that ended too early. It’s structured as a kind of reckoning, moving between the past and the present as the narrator tries to understand what happened and why.
Study this for: Writing memoir as an act of making peace with the past
27. Heart Berries By Terese Marie Mailhot
Terese’s memoir covers a dysfunctional past, a life-changing diagnosis, and her hard-won journey toward healing. It’s written in a lyrical, fragmented style that mirrors the experience of trauma itself.
Study this for: Unconventional structure and voice-driven narrative
28. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Candid but also hilarious (I mean, would we expect less?) Amy’s story belongs among the top comedic celebrity memoir examples.
Study this for: Writing humor that doesn’t undercut emotional honesty
29. Pawprints On Our Hearts by Kerk Murray
Any book about a man’s best friend is always worth the read. This international bestseller was a huge Amazon self-publishing success story, creating a legacy far bigger than just one book.
Study this for: How a narrow subject (a pet) can carry universal emotional weight
30. Homage To Catalonia by George Orwell
You likely already heard of Orwell’s fiction book 1984, which quickly because one of the most controversial books of all time. You can expect a different read in Homage to Catalonia.
Orwell’s memoir of fighting the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War is one of the most honest first-person war accounts in the English language. It’s also a masterclass in writing about ideology with clarity and humility.
Study this for: Writing about political conviction without propaganda
31. Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
Written by the sole surviving family member of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, this is a searingly honest account of catastrophic loss and the strange, nonlinear path of grief that follows.
Study this for: Writing about unimaginable tragedy without melodrama
32. What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
Childhood abuse and trauma followed by a lifetime of misdiagnosed PTSD and, finally, the healing that took years to find. Stephanie Foo doesn’t hold back, and the result is a memoir that may genuinely help readers on their own journey.
Study this for: Writing about mental health with clinical precision and personal vulnerability
Related: Read our full What My Bones Know review here.
33. Becoming by Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama traces her journey from her South Side Chicago roots through the White House and beyond. The memoir is less about politics than it is about identity: who she was, who she was expected to be, and who she chose to become.
Study this for: Structuring a memoir around a central question of identity
34. The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
Mary Karr’s turbulent childhood in East Texas, marked by her mother’s mental illness and her father’s hard-drinking storytelling, is rendered with dark humor and absolute honesty. Widely credited with helping spark the contemporary memoir revival.
Study this for: Dark humor as a survival mechanism in memoir
35. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Cheryl hikes the Pacific Crest Trail alone following her mother’s death from cancer and the collapse of her marriage. The memoir moves back and forth between the trail and her past with remarkable control, so that each revelation lands at exactly the right moment.
Study this for: Using a physical journey as a metaphor for internal transformation
What to look for when reading memoir examples
Reading memoirs as a writer is different from reading them as a reader. Here’s a simple framework for getting the most out of any memoir you study:
| What to study | Questions to ask |
|---|---|
| Theme | What is this memoir actually about underneath the surface story? |
| Voice | Could only this person have written this? What makes it distinctly theirs? |
| Vulnerability | How much does the author share? Where do they hold back and why? |
| Structure | Is it chronological? Thematic? What does the structure do that a different structure couldn’t? |
| Emotional beats | Where did you feel something? What caused it – a detail, a scene, a line of dialogue? |
| The turn | Where does the narrator change? What forces that change? |
Now it’s your turn
Reading great memoir examples is one of the best ways to prepare to write your own, but at some point, you have to close the books and open a blank page.
Your story has a theme in it. It has characters, stakes, a desire line, and a perspective only you can offer. The hardest part is usually just beginning — deciding what your memoir is really about and where it starts.
If you’re ready to take that step, selfpublishing.com’s Become a Bestseller program gives you a dedicated coach to work through every stage: from memoir outline to final manuscript to published book. You can also claim a free copy of Published. to start mapping out your path.
Your story could change someone’s life. Don’t wait any longer to write it.
Frequently asked questions
What is an example of a memoir? A memoir is a nonfiction book focused on a specific period, theme, or experience from the author’s life, rather than their entire life story. Classic examples include Educated by Tara Westover, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.
What is the difference between a memoir and an autobiography? An autobiography covers a person’s entire life from birth to the present. A memoir is narrower. It focuses on a specific chapter, relationship, or theme. Most successful memoirs are memoirs, not autobiographies, because the focused scope creates a stronger narrative arc.
What are the key elements of a great memoir? The essential elements are: a focused theme, a clear desire line (what the narrator wants), emotional honesty, selective use of memory, a distinctive voice, and a transformation or shift by the end. A consistent, engaging theme is a hallmark of a great memoir. Every scene should serve that theme.
How do I choose which memoir examples to read before writing my own? Read memoirs that share your theme, your tone, or your subject matter. If you’re writing about grief, read The Long Goodbye and Wave. If you’re writing about family dysfunction, read The Glass Castle or The Liars’ Club. Reading in your category shows you what’s possible and sets the bar you’re writing toward.
Can I write a memoir if I’m not famous? Yes. The most enduring memoirs are not celebrity memoirs. They’re books by ordinary people who had an extraordinary experience or who found a way to make an ordinary experience feel universal. What matters is not who you are but how honestly and skillfully you tell your story.
