“What are the best Biography and Memoir books released in 2019?” We looked at 191 of the top Biography and Memoir books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 29 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Biography and Memoir” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 150+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

Our other Best Of 2019 Articles:

• The Best Young Adult Books
• The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
• The Best Science And Nature Books
• The Best Mystery, Horror, and Thriller Books
• The Best Nonfiction Books
• The Best History Books
• The Best Fiction Books
• The Best Cookbooks
• The Best Graphic Novels And Comics
• The Best Biography And Memoir Books
• The Best Art And Photography Books
• The Best Kids, Children, and Youth Books
• The Best Poetry Books

Our Other Years: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

Happy Scrolling!

Top 29 Best Biography and Memoir Books From 2019

29 .) First: Sandra Day O’Connor written by Evan Thomas

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• NPR

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The intimate, inspiring, and authoritative biography of Sandra Day O’Connor, America’s first female Supreme Court justice, drawing on exclusive interviews and first-time access to Justice O’Connor’s archives—by the New York Time

28 .) Hector: A Boy, a Protest, and the Photograph That Changed Apartheid

Lists It Appears On:

• Booklist 2
• Kirkus

On June 16, 1976, Hector Pieterson, an ordinary boy, lost his life after getting caught up in what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. Black South African students were marching against a new law requiring that they be taught half of their subjects in A

27 .) Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares written by Aaarti Namdev Shahani

Lists It Appears On:

• Library Journal
• NPR

Here We Are is a heart-wrenching memoir about an immigrant family’s American Dream, the justice system that took it away, and the daughter who fought to get it back, from NPR correspondent Aarti Namdev Shahani. The Shahanis came to Queens—from India, by wa

26 .) Horror Stories: A Memoir written by Liz Phair

Lists It Appears On:

• SheReads
• NPR

From the two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter comes a haunting memoir in stories in the tradition of Patti Smith’s M Train. Horror Stories is a literary accomplishment that reads like the confessions of a friend.

25 .) Let ‘Er Buck! George Fletcher, the People’s Champion

Lists It Appears On:

• Kirkus Reviews
• Booklist 2

“Nelson plaits her narrative with Western lingo and homespun similes. . . . James’ painterly oils swirl with energy, visible daubs creating the dusty, monumental landscape and equally monumental horses and humans. . . . A champion indeed.” —Kirkus Reviews

24 .) Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• Library Journal

Do you have what it takes to stand between us and the enemy? “I’m here to prevent a major and imminent attack. One that will kill children. I’m alone and operational in the country where my colleague was taken and beheaded, and every hour I’m delayed is an

23 .) Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed written by Lori Gottlieb

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• NPR

“From a New York Timesbest-selling writer, psychotherapist, and advice columnist, a brilliant and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist’s world–where her patients are in crisis (and so is she)”–

22 .) On Being Human: A Memoir of Waking Up, Living Real, and Listening Hard written by Jennifer Pastiloff

Lists It Appears On:

• SheReads
• SheReads 2

An inspirational memoir about how Jennifer Pastiloff’s years of waitressing taught her to seek out unexpected beauty, how hearing loss taught her to listen fiercely, how being vulnerable allowed her to find love, and how imperfections can lead to a life fu

21 .) Once More We Saw Stars: A Memoir

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• Library Journal

“A gripping and beautiful book about the power of love in the face of unimaginable loss.” –Cheryl Strayed For readers of The Bright Hour and When Breath Becomes Air, a moving, transcendent memoir of loss and a stunning exploration of marriage in the wake

20 .) Shout written by Laurie Halse Anderson

Lists It Appears On:

• Booklist 2
• NPR

Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless. In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she’s never written about before.

19 .) The Beautiful Ones

Lists It Appears On:

• Evening Standard
• Guardian 2

The brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all time, in his own words—featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death

18 .) The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

Lists It Appears On:

• Guardian
• Goodreads

Miscast in the media for nearly 130 years, the victims of Jack the Ripper finally get their full stories told in this eye-opening and chilling reminder that life for middle-class women in Victorian London could be full of social pitfalls and peril.

17 .) The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, And Care written by Anne Boyer

Lists It Appears On:

• BookMarks
• NPR

“The Undying is a startling, urgent intervention in our discourses about sickness and health, art and science, language and literature, and mortality and death. In dissecting what she terms ‘the ideological regime of cancer,’ Anne Boyer has produced a prof

16 .) The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After written by Julie Yip-Williams

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• SheReads 2

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ‘Julie Yip-Williams conquered blindness and adversity only to be struck down. Her book is heartbreaking and necessary.’ Guardian ‘Eloquent, gutting and at times disarmingly funny … a magnificent writer.’ New York Times Born

15 .) The Yellow House written by Sarah M. Broom

Lists It Appears On:

• BookMarks
• NPR

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION A brilliant, haunting and unforgettable memoir from a stunning new talent about the inexorable pull of home and family, set in a shotgun house in New Orleans East. In 1961, S

14 .) Face It: A Memoir written by Debbie Harry

Lists It Appears On:

• Evening Standard
• Guardian 2
• SheReads

“I was saying things in songs that female singers didn’t really say back then. I wasn’t submissive or begging him to come back, I was kicking his ass, kicking him out, kicking my own ass too. My Blondie character was an inflatable doll but with a dark, pro

13 .) Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years written by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton

Lists It Appears On:

• Guardian 2
• SheReads
• Goodreads 2

In this follow-up to her critically acclaimed and bestselling memoir Home, the enchanting Julie Andrews picks up her story with her arrival in Hollywood, sharing the career highlights, personal experiences and reflections behind her astonishing career, inc

12 .) How We Fight For Our Lives written by Saeed Jones

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads 2
• Library Journal
• NPR

WINNER OF THE 2019 KIRKUS PRIZE IN NONFICTION One of the most anticipated books of Fall 2019—as selected by O, The Oprah Magazine; Marie Claire; Entertainment Weekly; Time; The Millions; Refinery29; Good Housekeeping; and many more. “A moving, bracingly ho

11 .) Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love written by Dani Shapiro

Lists It Appears On:

• SheReads 2
• Goodreads 2
• Kirkus Reviews 3

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A gripping genetic detective story, and a meditation on the meaning of parenthood and family.” —Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach From the acclaimed, best-selling memoirist, novelist—“a writer of rare talent” (Cheryl Stray

10 .) Inside Out: A Memoir written by Demi Moore

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads 2
• Guardian 2
• SheReads

Famed American actress Demi Moore at last tells her own story in a surprisingly intimate and emotionally charged memoir. For decades, Demi Moore has been synonymous with celebrity. From iconic film roles to high-profile relationships, Moore has never been

9.) Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive written by Stephanie Land

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads 2
• Amazon
• SheReads 2

Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed in Stephanie Land’s memoir about working as a maid, a beautiful and gritty exploration of poverty in America. Includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich. At 28, Stephanie Land’s plans of breaking free from the roots of her hom

8.) They Called Us Enemy written by George Takei, Justin Eisinger and Steven

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• Washington Post
• NPR

George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war

7.) Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, And Me written by Adrienne Brodeur

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• Library Journal
• NPR

On a hot July night on Cape Cod, at the age of 14, Brodeur became a confidante to her mother’s affair with her husband’s closest friend. Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help, but when the affair had calamitous consequences for everyone involved, Br

6.) Year of the Monkey written by Patti Smith

Lists It Appears On:

• SheReads
• Evening Standard
• NPR

From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year. Following a run of New Year’s concerts at San Francisco’

5.) A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II written by Sonia Purnell

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• Booklist
• Goodreads
• BookMarks

The never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of the World War II, from the author of Clementine In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: “She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and

4.) Me written by Elton John

Lists It Appears On:

• Evening Standard
• Goodreads 2
• Guardian 2
• BookMarks

In the past twenty years, as the structures of Canadian culture have begun to change, so has the fate of As For Me and My House.

3.) Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century written by George Packer

Lists It Appears On:

• BookMarks
• Library Journal
• NPR
• Kirkus Reviews 2

From one of America’s greatest non-fiction writers, an epic saga of the rise and fall of American power, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, told through the life of one man. Richard Holbrooke was one of the most legendary and complicated figures in recent Americ

2.) In the Dream House: A Memoir written by Carmen Maria Machado

Lists It Appears On:

• BookMarks
• Kirkus Reviews 3
• Amazon
• Library Journal
• NPR

In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing experience with a charismatic but volatile woman, this is a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural

1.) Know My Name: A Memoir written by Chanel Miller

Lists It Appears On:

• BookMarks
• Goodreads 2
• SheReads 2
• Library Journal
• NPR
• Kirkus Reviews 3

‘I can’t wait to read it’ Dolly Alderton ‘Extraordinary woman turning pain into power. Chanel Miller, it’s a privilege to know your name, and to celebrate it’ Thandie Newton ‘You are a brave soul. You are more than the identity given to you by the media an

The 150+ Additional Best Biography and Memoir Books Released In 2019

21 Best Biography and Memoir Book Sources/Lists