Past Kindle Book Deals but Still Must Read Books!
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495 past books matching Biographies & Memoirs
Best for readers drawn to reflective historical fiction, literary biographies, and intimate portraits of creative lives.
The Master
Biographies & Memoirs · Historical Fiction · LGBTQIA+ · Biographical Fiction
Our take
In this historical novel, Colm Tóibín imagines the private life of author Henry James during the late nineteenth century, exploring his relationships, memories, artistic ambitions, and isolation as he builds his literary career in Europe. Best for readers drawn to reflective historical fiction, literary biographies, and intimate portraits of creative lives.
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About the book
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE • WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
“Colm Tóibín’s beautiful, subtle illumination of Henry James’s inner life” (The New York Times) captures the loneliness and hope of the celebrated American writer in this profoundly moving historical novel about art, desire, and the elusive nature of intimacy.
Beautiful and profoundly moving, The Master tells the story of Henry James, a man born into one of America’s first intellectual families who leaves his country in the late nineteenth century to live in Paris, Rome, Venice, and London among privileged artists and writers.
The emotional intensity of Tóibín's portrait of James is riveting. Time and again, James, a master of psychological subtlety in his fiction, proves blind to his own heart and incapable of reconciling his dreams of passion with his own fragility. With stunningly resonant prose, “The Master is unquestionably the work of a first-rate novelist: artful, moving, and very beautiful” (The New York Times Book Review).
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An inviting choice for readers who enjoy animal memoirs, nature writing, and true stories about the bond between people and their dogs.
The Dog Who Came to Stay
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
A national bestselling memoir praised by The New York Times Book Review as a story that “will appeal to many sportsmen and to all people who have ever been closely attached to a dog,” this book recounts nature writer Hal Borland's friendship with Pat, a hungry foxhound who appears at his Connecticut farmhouse during a winter storm. As Pat becomes part of the household, Borland reflects on companionship, trust, and the natural world, with a 4.2-star average from more than 2,900 Goodreads ratings. An inviting choice for readers who enjoy animal memoirs, nature writing, and true stories about the bond between people and their dogs.
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About the book
The national bestselling memoir of a friendship between a New England outdoorsman and the scrawny foxhound who came to his door one snowy day.
In the midst of a blizzard, late one Christmas night in the 1950s, author Hal Borland heard a howl at the back door of his home on a hundred-acre farm in the Housatonic Valley of northwest Connecticut. Resistant at first, he called around trying to find an owner whose dog had gone missing—with no luck. Finally, with the encouragement of his wife and haunted by memories of his childhood collie, Borland brought some scraps of leftover steak outside. This was his introduction to Pat, a miserable, half-starved, but deeply trusting black-and-white foxhound mutt.
Pat would soon become a member of the family, accompanying Borland on hunts and terrorizing the local woodchuck population—and teaching him that sometimes our most immediate connection to the natural world is through the animals we live with. A longtime journalist and a winner of the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished nature writing, Borland tells the tale of the time he shared with Pat in this touching true story that "will appeal to many sportsmen and to all people who have ever been closely attached to a dog" (The New York Times Book Review).
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Readers who enjoy true stories about kindness, poverty, and friendships across different circumstances should find plenty to like here.
An Invisible Thread
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
A #1 New York Times bestseller called “An incredible story” by Clayton Morris, this memoir recounts how advertising executive Laura Schroff’s lunch with Maurice, an eleven-year-old homeless boy in Manhattan, became a friendship lasting decades. Readers who enjoy true stories about kindness, poverty, and friendships across different circumstances should find plenty to like here.
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About the book
This 10th anniversary edition of the beloved #1 New York Times bestseller includes a new introduction and afterword by the author. Chronicling the lifelong friendship between a busy sales executive and a disadvantaged young boy that began with one small act of kindness, this is a “ray of hope for a better future, as well as an assurance that love is a stronger force than injustice and inequality” (Sybrina Fulton, mother of Travyon Martin and coauthor of Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin).
Stopping was never part of the plan...
She was a successful ad sales rep in Manhattan. He was a homeless, eleven-year-old panhandler on the street. He asked for spare change; she kept walking. But then something stopped her in her tracks, and she went back. And she continued to go back, again and again. They met up nearly every week for years and built an unexpected, life-changing friendship that has today spanned almost three decades.
Whatever made me notice him on that street corner so many years ago is clearly something that cannot be extinguished, no matter how relentless the forces aligned against it. Some may call it spirit. Some may call it heart. It drew me to him, as if we were bound by some invisible, unbreakable thread. And whatever it is, it binds us still.
Now with new material that brings the life-changing story up to date for its tenth anniversary, An Invisible Thread is “a book capable of restoring our faith in each other and in the very idea that maybe everything is going to be okay after all” (Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay It Forward).
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Called “a stereotype-shattering look at a tenacious woman whose brain is her best friend and her worst enemy” by Time, The Center Cannot Hold is Elyn R. Saks’s…
The Center Cannot Hold
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
Called “a stereotype-shattering look at a tenacious woman whose brain is her best friend and her worst enemy” by Time, The Center Cannot Hold is Elyn R. Saks’s memoir of living with schizophrenia while pursuing an academic and professional career. This will appeal to readers interested in candid first-person accounts of mental illness, treatment, education, and professional life.
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About the book
A much-praised memoir of living and surviving mental illness as well as "a stereotype-shattering look at a tenacious woman whose brain is her best friend and her worst enemy" (Time).
Elyn R. Saks is an esteemed professor, lawyer, and psychiatrist and is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry, and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Law School, yet she has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, and still has ongoing major episodes of the illness.
The Center Cannot Hold is the eloquent, moving story of Elyn's life, from the first time that she heard voices speaking to her as a young teenager, to attempted suicides in college, through learning to live on her own as an adult in an often terrifying world. Saks discusses frankly the paranoia, the inability to tell imaginary fears from real ones, the voices in her head telling her to kill herself (and to harm others), as well as the incredibly difficult obstacles she overcame to become a highly respected professional. This beautifully written memoir is destined to become a classic in its genre.
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Best for readers who like candid celebrity memoirs that spend as much time on family history and personal identity as they do on a public career.
In Pieces
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
A New York Times bestseller, Sally Field’s memoir traces her challenging childhood, early Hollywood career, lifelong relationship with acting, motherhood, and complicated family relationships, including her bond with her mother. It has a 4.0-star average from more than 45,000 Goodreads ratings. Best for readers who like candid celebrity memoirs that spend as much time on family history and personal identity as they do on a public career.
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About the book
In this haunting memoir, an American icon tells her story of a challenging childhood, the craft that helped her find her voice, and a powerful legacy that shaped her journey as a daughter and a mother.
One of the most celebrated and beloved actors of our time, Sally Field has an infectious charm that has captivated the nation for more than five decades. From the dazzling complexity of Sybil, to the Academy Award-winning performances in Norma Rae and Lincoln, Field has stunned audiences time and time again with her artistic range and emotional acuity. Yet there is one character who always remained hidden: the shy and anxious little girl within.
With raw honesty, humility, and authenticity her fans have come to expect, Field brings readers behind-the-scenes for not only the highs and lows of her star-studded early career in Hollywood, but deep into the truth of her lifelong relationships–including her complicated love for her own mother.
Powerful and unforgettable, In Pieces is an inspiring account of life as a woman in the second half of the twentieth century.
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A New York Times bestseller, investigative journalist Charles Graeber examines the crimes of nurse Charles Cullen, his years moving through hospitals, and the detectives and fellow nurse who…
The Good Nurse
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
A New York Times bestseller, investigative journalist Charles Graeber examines the crimes of nurse Charles Cullen, his years moving through hospitals, and the detectives and fellow nurse who helped bring his killing career to an end, with a 3.9-star average from more than 28,700 Goodreads ratings. This will appeal to true crime readers interested in investigative reporting, medical settings, and the systems that allowed a killer to keep working.
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About the book
This New York Times bestselling book is the mesmerizing basis for the movie starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain that takes you inside the mind of America's most prolific serial killer, whose 16-year long "nursing" career left hundreds dead.
“The best book(s) I read this year” (top ten books, EW) —Stephen King
Registered nurse Charlie Cullen was dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 400 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history. Now, in a riveting piece of investigative journalism nearly ten years in the making, Charles Graeber gives us the unbelievable true story.
The Good Nurse weaves an urgent and terrifying tale of madness, humanity and heroism, utilizing previously unseen police records, wire-trap recordings, interviews, and jailhouse conversations with Cullen himself—all provided by the homicide detectives who worked around the clock, and the nurse who had to choose between protecting her colleague and stopping a potential serial killer.
For years Cullen continued to work and kill, shielded by a hospital system that, by accident or design, successfully protected the institution while failing to protect patients. The Good Nurse is a searing indictment of a crushing and dehumanizing for-profit medical system, and an inspiring human story of the previously unknown individuals who chose to risk their jobs and lives to do the right thing.
Mesmerizing and irresistibly paced, this book will make you look at hospitals and the people who work in them in an entirely different way.
Edgar Award Nomination, Mystery Writers of America BBC (Top Ten Books of the Year)
“The Best Journalism of the Year." —The Daily Beast
“The most terrifying book published this year. It is also one of the most thoughtful ... call it literary true crime ...” —Kirkus Reviews ("Best Books of the year")
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Readers who enjoy celebrity memoirs focused on acting, career development, personal history, and creative work should find plenty to like here.
A Life in Parts
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
Bryan Cranston recounts his path from childhood and odd jobs to a long acting career, reflecting on family, work, and the roles that took him from Seinfeld and Malcolm in the Middle to Breaking Bad, with a 4.3-star average from more than 1,400 Goodreads ratings. Readers who enjoy celebrity memoirs focused on acting, career development, personal history, and creative work should find plenty to like here.
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About the book
A poignant, intimate, funny, inspiring memoir—both a coming-of-age story and a meditation on creativity, devotion, and craft—from Bryan Cranston, the Emmy Award–winning and beloved star of Malcolm in the Middle and one of history’s most successful TV shows, Breaking Bad.
Bryan Cranston landed his first role at seven, when his father cast him in a United Way commercial. Acting was clearly the boy’s destiny, until one day his father disappeared. Destiny suddenly took a backseat to survival.
Now, in his riveting memoir, Cranston maps his zigzag journey from abandoned son to beloved star by recalling the many odd parts he’s played in real life—paperboy, farmhand, security guard, dating consultant, murder suspect, dock loader, lover, husband, father. Cranston also chronicles his evolution on camera, from soap opera player trying to master the rules of show business to legendary character actor turning in classic performances as Seinfeld dentist Tim Whatley, “a sadist with newer magazines,” and Malcolm in the Middle dad Hal Wilkerson, a lovable bumbler in tighty-whities. He also gives an inspiring account of how he prepared, physically and mentally, for the challenging role of President Lyndon Johnson, a tour de force that won him a Tony to go along with his four Emmys.
Of course, Cranston dives deep into the grittiest details of his greatest role, explaining how he searched inward for the personal darkness that would help him create one of the most memorable performances ever captured on screen: Walter White, chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin.
Discussing his life as few men do, describing his art as few actors can, Cranston has much to say about creativity, devotion, and the craft of acting, as well as innate talent and its challenges and benefits and proper maintenance. But ultimately A Life in Parts is a story about the joy, the necessity, and the transformative power of simple hard work.
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A strong fit for readers interested in true crime memoirs, prison history, and firsthand accounts of life inside Alcatraz.
Inside Alcatraz
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
Jim Quillen recounts the path that took him from a troubled youth and an escape from San Quentin to imprisonment at Alcatraz, including solitary confinement, encounters with the “Birdman,” and the deadly 1946 uprising, with a 4.3-star average from more than 300 Goodreads ratings for this Kindle edition. A strong fit for readers interested in true crime memoirs, prison history, and firsthand accounts of life inside Alcatraz.
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About the book
One man's account of Alcatraz, a rare and intimate memoir of life inside the world's most notorious prison.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Each day we saw the outside world in all its splendour, and each day that view served as a reminder that we had wasted and ruined our lives.
Jim Quillen, AZ586 - a runaway, problem child and petty thief - was jailed several times before his twentieth birthday. In August 1942, after escaping from San Quentin, he was arrested on the run and sentenced to forty-five years in prison and later transferred to Alcatraz.
From terrifying times in solitary confinement to daily encounters with 'the Birdman', and what really happened during the desperate and deadly 1946 escape attempt, this is the true story of life inside America's most notorious prison.
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Called “a gripping narrative” in a Booklist starred review, Lyudmila Pavlichenko’s memoir recounts how she left university to become one of the Soviet Union’s female snipers during World…
Lady Death
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
Called “a gripping narrative” in a Booklist starred review, Lyudmila Pavlichenko’s memoir recounts how she left university to become one of the Soviet Union’s female snipers during World War II. She recorded 309 kills before an injury ended her frontline service and later traveled abroad to support the war effort, with a 4.8-star rating from more than 100 Amazon reviewers. Essential reading for those interested in women’s military history, the Eastern Front, sniping, and firsthand wartime accounts.
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About the book
The memoir of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the Russian woman who was WWII's most accomplished sniper—and a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt.
In June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, Lyudmila Pavlichenko left her university studies, ignored the offer of a position as a nurse, and became one of Soviet Russia's two thousand female snipers. Less than a year later, she had 309 recorded kills, including 29 enemy sniper kills. By the time she was withdrawn from active duty due to injury, she was regarded as a key heroic figure for the war effort.
To continue serving the war effort, Pavlichenko spoke at rallies in Canada and the United States. She toured the White House with FDR, and the folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song, "Miss Pavlichenko," about her exploits. An advocate for women's rights, she befriended Eleanor Roosevelt and toured England to raise money for the Red Army.
Never returning to combat, Pavlichenko trained other snipers. After the war, she finished her education at Kiev University and began a career as a historian. Today, she remains a revered hero in Russia, where the 2015 film, Battle for Sevastopol, was made about her life.
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A strong match for readers drawn to memoirs about queer identity, Islam, immigration, faith, and finding ways to understand yourself through sacred stories.
Hijab Butch Blues
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
Winner of the Stonewall Book Award and Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, Hijab Butch Blues follows Lamya H. through coming of age, immigration, queerness, and faith as she draws on stories from the Quran to understand her life and identity, with a 4.5-star average from more than 22,100 Goodreads ratings. A strong match for readers drawn to memoirs about queer identity, Islam, immigration, faith, and finding ways to understand yourself through sacred stories.
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About the book
A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran in this “raw and relatable memoir that challenges societal norms and expectations” (Linah Mohammad, NPR).
“A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust with my whole heart.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed
THEM’S HONOREE IN LITERATURE • AN AUDACIOUS BOOK CLUB PICK • WINNER: The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, the Stonewall Book Award, the Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award • Lambda Literary Award Finalist
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Autostraddle, Book Riot, BookPage, Harper’s Bazaar, Electric Lit, She Reads
When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher—her female teacher—she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can’t yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don’t matter, and it’s easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: When Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her. Could Maryam, uninterested in men, be . . . like Lamya?
From that moment on, Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the pharoah; asks if Allah, who is neither male nor female, might instead be nonbinary; and, drawing on the faith and hope Nuh needed to construct his ark, begins to build a life of her own—ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant.
This searingly intimate memoir in essays, spanning Lamya’s childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City, tells a universal story of courage, trust, and love, celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one’s own life.
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A compelling choice for readers interested in exploration memoirs, underwater science, extreme risk, and the realities of cave diving.
Into the Planet
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
Into the Planet recounts cave diver Jill Heinerth’s experiences exploring underwater caves, Antarctic iceberg chambers, and other environments few people have entered. She writes about dangerous decisions, scientific discoveries, discrimination in a male-dominated field, and the loss of fellow divers. A compelling choice for readers interested in exploration memoirs, underwater science, extreme risk, and the realities of cave diving.
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About the book
The renowned cave diver takes readers on "a thrill ride into unfamiliar worlds"—exploring the hidden depths of our oceans and sunken caves (Publishers Weekly).
More people have died exploring underwater caves than climbing Mount Everest, and we know more about deep space than we do about the depths of our oceans. In this thrilling firsthand account, Jill Heinerth blends science, adventure, and memoir to bring readers face-to-face with the terror and beauty of earth's final frontier—and the extremes of human capability.
One of the world's foremost cave divers, Heinerth's achievements include leading a team that discovered the ancient watery remains of Mayan civilizations and becoming the first person in history to dive deep into an Antarctic iceberg. In Into the Planet, she vividly recounts everything from discovering new species and examining our finite freshwater reserves to the prejudices women face when pursuing careers underwater.
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A good pick for readers who enjoy music biographies, behind-the-scenes career stories, and the business side of celebrity.
Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way
Biographies & Memoirs
Our take
Ryan White traces Jimmy Buffett’s rise from singing for beer to becoming a tropical music icon and the businessman behind the Margaritaville empire, with a 4.5-star rating from more than 1,200 Amazon reviewers. A good pick for readers who enjoy music biographies, behind-the-scenes career stories, and the business side of celebrity.
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About the book
A candid, compelling, and rollicking portrait of “one of America’s most potent cultural icons” (Peter Ames Carlin, New York Times bestselling author)—the legendary pirate captain of Margaritaville—Jimmy Buffett.
In Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way, acclaimed music critic Ryan White has crafted the definitive account of Buffett’s rise from singing songs for beer to his becoming a tropical icon and inspiration behind the Margaritaville industrial complex, a vast network of merchandise, chain restaurants, resorts, and lifestyle products all inspired by his sunny but disillusioned hit “Margaritaville.”
Filled with interviews from friends, musicians, Coral Reefer Band members, and business partners who were there, this book is a top-down joyride with plenty of side trips and meanderings from Mobile and Pascagoula to New Orleans, Key West, down into the islands aboard the Euphoria and the Euphoria II, and into the studios and onto the stages where the foundation of Buffett’s reputation was laid.
Buffett wasn’t always the pied piper of beaches, bars, and laid-back living. Born on the Gulf Coast, the son of a son of a sailing ship captain, Buffett scuffed around New Orleans in the late sixties, flunked out of Nashville (and a marriage) in 1971, and found refuge among the artists, dopers, shrimpers, and genuine characters who’d collected at the end of the road in Key West. And it was there, in those waning outlaw days at the last American exit, where Buffett, like Hemingway before him, found his voice and eventually brought to life the song that would launch Parrot Head nation.
And just where is Margaritaville? It’s wherever it’s five o’clock; it’s wherever there’s a breeze and salt in the air; and it’s wherever Buffett set his bare feet, smiled, and sang his songs.
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