For some readers, real life is much more compelling than fiction, and real people are far more interesting than any character an author could dream up. If you're one of those readers, then biographies, autobiographies and memoirs are for you.
The types of true stories are endless—there are romantic memoirs and tragic memoirs. There are short, essay-length memoirs that give you just a taste of an author’s writing. Perhaps you’re interested in a travel memoir that will make you feel as though you’ve walked the same steps as the writer, or you’re an American history buff looking for a bucket list of biographies on every American president. You could read a first-hand account from a former slave who became a dressmaker for Mary Todd Lincoln, or immerse yourself in Ruth Gruber’s own account of how she helped 1000 refugees find asylum.
From biographies of politicians, business leaders, artists and celebrities, to memoirs that tell unforgettable true stories with unflinching honesty, these are the books that let you fully step into someone else's shoes.
Every list has different criteria, but the most sold autobiographies that rank on all of them are Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
A memoir is a narrative written in the author’s perspective that details an important part of their life or a personal observation. While autobiographies are detailed accounts of a person’s life from beginning to end, memoirs are more narrative in tone and don’t have such a rigid structure, nor do they need to talk about a person’s entire life.
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