15 Illuminating Biographies and Autobiographies By and About Your Favorite Celebrities 

Grammy and Golden Globe-nominated artist and musician Lana Del Rey has been hailed as “the essential writer of her times” by The Atlantic, and you can see why in this collection of more than 30 new poems, many of them original to this book. 

Besides the poems themselves, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass features Lana Del Rey’s typewritten manuscript pages and her own original photography to create a book that is “achingly romantic” (Vogue) and perfect for fans of the artist’s “signature gauzy, glamorous style” (Bustle). 

“Riveting, filled with music-world intrigue and inner-city shootouts and buoyed by a self-awareness not marred by ego.” That’s how Publishers Weekly describes this autobiography of legendary rapper and trap music pioneer Gucci Mane, who began writing it while behind the bars of a federal maximum-security prison. 

The result is a contemporary classic that “provides incredible insight into one of the most influential rappers of the last decade, detailing a volatile and fascinating life” (Pitchfork) as well as “a welcome addition to hip-hop’s literary legacy” (All Hip Hop). 

Named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, comedian Chelsea Handler brings the same irreverent wit that has made her a comedy icon to this collection of essays about family, relationships, career, and more. 

“Handler’s laugh-out-loud stories will have you hooked from page one,” raves Cosmo about this #1 New York Times bestseller from the woman that Jay Leno called “a terrific comedian and a hilarious writer.” 

Winner of a Golden Globe as well as nominations for a Tony, an Oscar, and four Primetime Emmys, Taraji P. Henson has become a formidable force on both the big and small screen. Now she adds the printed page to that list, with this “engaging” biography that is “as much a manual on acting as it is a memoir” (Library Journal). 

The result is a “bona fide hit” (Essence Magazine) that is “written with vitality and enthusiasm” (Shelf Awareness) and takes readers through Henson’s life, her most important roles, and her dedication to her family and her craft. 

Teresa Giudice became a celebrity thanks to her role in the hit show The Real Housewives of New Jersey. She became an inmate due to federal fraud charges, for which she served eleven months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. 

During her time behind bars, she kept a diary, which became this New York Times bestselling memoir, featuring her ruminations on her childhood and her early life, her time spent in prison, and her thoughts after her release in 2015. 

In 1981, Rick Springfield debuted “Jessie’s Girl,” the song that catapulted him to stardom. The Australian singer wasn’t just a one hit wonder, though, going on to sell more than 17 million albums and starring as Dr. Noah Drake on the soap opera General Hospital. 

Now, in his long-awaited memoir, he details his life from start to finish in frank, candid, and sometimes haunting detail. From his lifelong struggles with depression and suicidal ideation to the peak of his stardom and what he has done since, this is the book that Springfield fans have been waiting for, in the artist’s own words. 

In 1990, actress and model Bobbie Brown became a nationwide sex symbol with her central role in the music video for Warrant’s rock anthem “Cherry Pie.” However, stardom was not within her grasp. Instead, she became a victim of the crass world of show business. 

Her marriage to Warrant’s lead singer Jani Lane fell apart, her engagement to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee followed suit, and Brown found herself adrift in a world of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. On the other side, she brings together this confessional tell all about Hollywood and the music business in the ‘90s, complete with stories of brushes with some of the biggest names of the era, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Costner, and many more. 

“Tommy James’ rock & roll education cost him millions, but at least we got this entertaining memoir,” writes Rolling Stone. In the ‘60s, Tommy James was the lead of Tommy James and the Shondells, originators of such hits as “Mony Mony,” “Crimson and Clover,” and “I Think We’re Alone Now.” 

Behind the scenes, though, mafioso tactics were the norm in this riveting story that “reads like a music-industry version of Goodfellas” (Denver Post). At last, the story can be told in this “boisterous memoir” (New York Times) that will have fans and newcomers alike eagerly turning the pages. 

Discovered by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Shirley Jones attained fame (and a wholesome, squeaky-clean image) in a parade of musicals before playing the mom in the hit musical TV series The Partridge Family, alongside her own stepson, David Cassidy. 

Now, for the first time, she puts aside that wholesome image and introduces the “real flesh-and-blood Shirley Jones” in this “candid” (Los Angeles Times), “revealing” (Associated Press), and “saucy” (Entertainment Weekly) self-portrait that proves that “sometimes, nice girls do finish first” (AudioFile). 

Today, John Wayne’s legacy is a contentious one, but there is no denying that he stood astride Hollywood’s golden age as one of the most celebrated and recognizable actors of his time. 

Now, in a biography that balances between “the reverential and the tendentious” with “graceful equilibrium,” film historian Scott Eyman “gets at the details that the bean-counters and myth-spinners miss” (Los Angeles Times) to create a portrait of an American icon that is both as flawed and as captivating as the man himself. 

The first actor to win an Oscar for a foreign language performance, Sophia Loren became an icon of beauty, elegance, and sophistication through starring roles alongside such Hollywood luminaries as Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, and many others. 

From a poverty-stricken childhood in Naples during World War II to her glowing career and her life as a wife, mother, and grandmother, Loren’s memoir “does justice” to her “fascinating life” (Daily Express). 

Despite Bruce Lee’s considerable fame and the amount of ink that has been spilled about his life, his films, his philosophies, and his martial arts acumen over the years, this “definitive” biography is the “first noteworthy treatment of its subject” (New York Times Book Review). 

The first time that a detailed biography of Bruce Lee’s life, his career, his family, and his untimely death has been attempted, Publishers Weekly calls Matthew Polly’s “well-sourced biography” an “engrossing examination of the life of a martial arts movie star and his shocking, early death.” 

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been many things. Actor. Filmmaker. Governor. But he began his stardom as a bodybuilder, where he was crowned Mr. Universe five times and Mr. Olympia seven times. 

Over the years, there have been countless books written about (and many of them written by) the man who would become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. But even as far back as 1993, when Schwarzenegger’s star was still on the rise, fans were treated to this national bestseller, in which Schwarzenegger detailed not only his early career, but the secrets and lessons of his bodybuilding work, and how they translated into his roles on screen. 

In this “definitive work about a living legend” (Publishers Weekly), author John Shea and Willie Mays himself combine their efforts to “do something for the kids and the fathers and the mothers,” in Mays’ own words. 

The result is an “unusual mix of memoir, self-help, and baseball history” that “drives home the point that there’s never been anyone quite like number 24” (Booklist), the iconic number on the uniform that Willie Mays wore while becoming widely regarded as one of the greatest players in baseball history. 

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are best known as actors, but they are also best friends and die-hard motorcycle enthusiasts. When McGregor realized that it was possible to ride all the way around the world, only hopping across the Bering Strait, he reached out to his friend and the two began a seemingly impossible odyssey that would take them more than 20,000 miles across four months. 

As they went, they kept a running account of their adventures, which has now been translated into this “readable and entertaining” (Publishers Weekly) travel memoir like no other.