• Memoir Books 2020
• What Is Memoir Book
• Biography Books 2020
• Best Memoir Books 2020
• How To Make A Memoir Book

23 Jul 2020

Must-Read Memoir Books | July 2020

Want to learn something new? Looking to experience life through a different set of eyes? You’ll love our latest must-read memoir book recommendations from bestselling authors Dre Carlan, Alexander Münninghoff, Alex Trebek, Patricia Heaton, Kirkland Hamill, and Oliver Stone. Enjoy your new books!

A Mother’s Tears

The best memoirs of 2020: Broaden your perspective with these must-read books. But there are also moments of poignancy in the book, such as the abuse he suffered as a child, the racism he experienced in the fashion industry and the friends he lost to AIDS. Congratulations to our winners in 20 categories! The Goodreads Choice Awards are the only major book awards decided by readers. Translated by Alison Watts.

by Dre Carlan

Let’s get talk about the first book on the 2020 shortlist for the title of best autobiography. This is Five Days Gone: The Mystery of My Mother’s Disappearance as a Child, which was first published in the UK as On Chapel Sands. It has already been a British.

The new memoir by author Dre Carlan… A Mother’s Tears explores the relationship between perseverance, disease, and never-ending determination. It follows a woman brought up under communist rule and eventually escapes. It is a heart-wrenching journey down the corridors of cancer, drugs, alcohol, and loneliness as a mother tries anything she can to make sure that both she and her son live to fight their own personal battles another day.

The Son and Heir

by Alexander Münninghoff

Prize-winning Dutch journalist, Alexander Münninghoff, was only four when he discovered that his father wore a Nazi uniform. He found this mortifying relic from his father’s past in his attic. The shameful memento came to symbolize not only his father’s misguided allegiance but also a shattered marriage and the separation of a mother and son.

The Answer Is…

by Alex Trebek

The Answer Is… is a new memoir from longtime Jeopardy! host and television icon Alex Trebek. Since his debut as the host of the popular TV show in 1984, Trebek has been a family member to millions of television viewers and was welcomed into homes five nights a week. Last year he made a startling announcement… that he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.

Your Second Act

by Patricia Heaton

Your Second Act is the new memoir from beloved television actress Patricia Heaton. She is recognized as one of TV’s most recognizable moms and knows what it’s like to stage a second act and navigate pivotal transitions in life. Filled with light-hearted anecdotes and pragmatic steps, Heaton’s new book is designed to help you discover your own path.

Filthy Beasts

by Kirkland Hamill

Wendy Hamill would shout “Wake up, you filthy beasts!” every morning to her children before school. Kirk and his two brothers would be startled from their dreams and always wonder if they would find enough food in the house for breakfast… Filthy Beasts lets readers into a world of extreme privilege and tells a powerful story of self-acceptance.

Chasing the Light

by Oliver Stone

An intimate memoir from oscar-winning director and screenwriter Oliver Stone… Before he found success with Platoon in 1986, Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam. He then spent years writing unproduced scripts while driving taxis in New York. Then he eventually ventured west to Los Angeles to start a new life. Now 73, Stone recounts his formative years.

The Buzziest Books of April | 2021

21 Apr 2021 - Biography & Memoir, Books to Read if You Like..., eBook, Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Mystery, News, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller

There’s nothing quite so compelling as reading about other people’s lives and experiences–after all, sometimes truth is stranger (or at least more entertaining) than fiction. From stories about real life people to celebrity memoirs, there’s always something entertaining and fascinating in the best memoirs. If you love real stories about real people, then you’re in luck because 2020 is a great year for the genre. Here are 20 of the best new memoirs coming out this year!

I Tried to Change So You Don’t Have To by Loni Love

This is a hilarious and heartwarming memoir about Loni Love’s youth growing up impoverished in Detroit, only to move to Hollywood and try to break into show business. Surrounded by people who didn’t look, act, or think like her, she spent years trying to conform before deciding that she was fine just the way she is.

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

In this series of comedic and personal essays, Irby extols the wonders and annoyances of married life in the Midwest, and her experiences as a show writer for the TV series Shrill, even after attempts tog et her own sitcom picked up failed. This is a searingly honest and hilarious memoir.

See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valerie Kaur

Valerie Kaur is a civil rights lawyer, activist, and filmmaker who discusses her desire to help find peace, love, and understanding in an increasingly fraught world. She recalls growing up in California and the violence of fear post 9-11, and her work as a lawyer with some of the most marginalized and disenfranchised people.

Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez

Noé Álvarez grew up the son of Mexican immigrants, and dropped out of college to participate in an Indigenous marathon from Canada to Guatemala, an act that was meant to reconnect the runners with their ancestral lands that were stolen, and help them find meaning and confidence in a society that is unkind to Indigenous peoples.

In the Land of Men by Adrienne Miller

This is a memoir about a young woman from the Midwest who was hired by GQ in the 1990s, and became their literary editor, where she struggled in a male dominated field and formed a close relationship with David Foster Wallace that was at turns friendly, collaborative, and antagonistic.

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Doyle writes about the unspoken and spoken rules that she lived by, forcing herself to fit into the molds of society’s expectations. All of that stopped one day when she locked eyes with another woman and knew that this was her life partner. This memoir is about breaking free of those bonds, and learning to listen to your own truths.

Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Rootsby Morgan Jerkins

Morgan Jerkins is descended from people who participated in the Great Migration, a movement from 1916 to 1970 that saw a record number of Black Americans move from the South to the North, East, and Modwest for economic opportunities–but also severed their ancestral roots. In this memoir, Jerkins retraces those roots and connects her story with the story of Black American migrants.

Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco by Alia Volz

Alia tells the story of how her mother ran an elaborate and large business illegally distributing marijuana throughout San Franciso in the 1970’s, sometimes even hiding edibles in Alia’s stroller. This business witnessed and weathered many societal changes, and became vital in the 1980’s when her mom distributed marijuana to patients dying of AIDS.

Sigh Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran

Phuc Tran’s family fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and ended up in a small Pennsylvania town, where they struggled to assimilate. This is a memoir told through the lens of classic Western literature about the author’s attempts to fit in and the art that helps him figure out his place in the world.

Here For It: or, How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas

Memoir Books 2020

R. Eric Thomas meditates on what it was like to grow up and attend a predominantly white school in a white community, the exhaustion of code switching, and covering the 2016 election. He grapples with his Christianity and sexuality, all the whole discovering that in order to save yourself, you have to redefine normal.

The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenburg

Part true crime, part memoir, this book is about the murder of two young women who were hitchhiking to a music festival when they were brutally murdered, and how this crime affected the nearby community. Emma moved there, and she began investigating the crime in all of its intricate and conflicting details.

My Autobiography of Carson McCullersby Jenn Shapland

Jenn was working in the archives when she uncovered love letters between the famed literary novelist Carson McCullers and another woman. But most accounts of McCullers’ life doesn’t include her love for other women, so Jenn set out to excavate her life and story, and along the way discovers herself.

What Is Memoir Book

The Beauty in Breakingby Michele Harper

Michele Harper is a Black ER physician, which is rare in the white, male-dominated field. In this memoir, she recounts growing up in Washington D.C. and becoming a doctor, being left by her husband shortly before her first job, and forging a new path alone, absorbing the lessons that the ER and its patients offered her.

This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dopeby Shayla Lawson

In this mix of personal memoir and manifesto, Shayla Lawson takes on stereotypes, racism, and micro aggressions in her mission to elevate the stories and voices of Black women, especially in places where they’ve been traditionally excluded.

Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelierby Victoria James

At twenty-one, Victoria James became the sommelier at a Michelin-star restaurant, an amazing feat that nonetheless came with its own sets of issues: inappropriate bosses and patrons, and other trials and stresses that came with the job. But James would have to hit rock bottom before she could rise up to become sommelier at her own restaurant.

Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small-Town Politics by Heather Lende

Lende is the author of more than a few popular memoirs about living in small-town Alaska, and this new release is about how Haines was spurred on by the 2016 election to get involved in local politics, and became the newest assembly member of her small town–only to find that despite the sleepy nature of her remote community, the politics always kept her on her toes.

Let Them Eat Pancakes: One Man’s Personal Revolution in the City of Lights by Craig Carlson

This is the funny memoir of one man who, despite never owning a restaurant before, decided to open an American-style diner in Paris. Here Carlson recounts the struggles of retaining cooks, sourcing American ingredients, and launching American food in the cuisine-obsessed City of Lights.

Biography Books 2020

Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen

For many years, Rachel Cohen only read Jane Austen’s work. Following the death of her father and the birth of her daughter, she turned to Austen’s work to make sense of her life, Jane Austen’s novels, and the meaning she found in her enduring words.

Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking by Bill Buford

In this memoir, Buford becomes determined to study, understand, and master the art of French cooking–and in order to do so, he and his family travel to Lyon, the gastronomic capital of the world, so he can study and learn from the best.

Best Memoir Books 2020

The Groom Will Keep His Name: And Other Vows I’ve Made About Race, Resistance, and Romance by Matt Ortile

Ortile recounts what it was like to grow up an immigrant in Las Vegas, and how he believed that he could better assimilate into white culture if he married a white man. One eager to distance himself from is Filipino roots, Ortile learns that there’s nothing more radical than self-acceptance.

How To Make A Memoir Book

If you’re looking for more great new memoirs and other reads, we recommend checking out the 20 best book club books of 2020! Or, sign up for TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations! TBR is a personalized book recommendation service that send you books you’ll love to read. Here’s how it works: Simply fill out the reader survey and let us know what you want more of–such as must-read memoirs–and what you’re not interested in. Then, an expert Biblioligist will read your responses and recommend three books just for you. Receive your recommendation letter via email in about two weeks, or opt to receive your recommendations as brand new hardcovers from our partner, Print: A Bookstore in Portland, ME in about three to four weeks. Learn more and sign up now!