12 Memoirs So Good You'll Forget They're True

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]I almost didn't make this video, not because there isn't a plethora of incredible memoirs out there, but because I wasn't exactly sure how to do it justice. I've read a lot of different memoirs, and they all have very different themes, and they're all telling different stories, but I find there tends to be kind of a universal thread throughout all of them. And these 12 are 12 of my absolute favorites. They span wildly different lives. Trevor and Noah in a partite South Africa, Phil Knight building Nike from nothing. A doctor writing about his own death. But again, I think even these have kind of one core theme that I continue to see stand out time and time again. Building yourself out of whatever you were handed and figuring out who you are on the other side of that. For each book, I'm going to tell you what it's about, what it does that I think makes it worth the read, and ultimately who it's for. And keep an eye out for Attekus. Anytime you see him, that's my way of telling you that that particular book is one that I think anyone can read and appreciate.

[00:00:56]So, welcome to the library. Today we're talking about memoirs. Real quick, I want to ask, what is a memoir that has stayed with you? Drop that down in the comments so we can build out a more complete list for one another. All right, let's start with what I think is probably one of the most accessible memoirs out there. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. This memoir follows Noah growing up in a partid South Africa as the child of a black mother and a white father, something that was literally illegal at the time of his birth. It moves through stories about family, survival, identity, poverty, religion, and the strange absurdities of life when a mother just absolutely refuses to be broken by the world around her. What makes this memoir work so well is the balance. It's incredibly funny at times, even though it's sometimes dark humor, but it never uses humor to avoid reality. If anything, it just highlights the absurdity of reality. Trevor Noah has this way of telling stories that feel very conversational and effortless while also still building towards some really heavy emotional moments. His mother kind of becomes the emotional center of the entire book. And the more that the story unfolds, the more you realize this isn't just about Trevor becoming successful. It's really a story about resilience, of sacrifice, and the really complicated ways that families shape us. So, if you're someone who says you don't really read memoirs, this is one of the easiest entry points I could recommend, especially if you enjoy humor mixed with meaningful reflection. Next up is one of the most well-known and universally lauded memoirs, Educated by Tara Westover. Educated follows Westover growing up in an isolated survivalist family in rural Idaho, where formal education, modern medicine, and governmental institutions were all pretty deeply distrusted. Despite never receiving a traditional education as a child, she eventually teaches herself enough to attend college, setting her life on a path that increasingly clashes with the world that she came from. And I just found this book to be incredibly fascinating because it constantly forces you to wrestle with competing emotions.

[00:03:00]There's admiration, there's frustration, there's heartbreak, there's anger and confusion all tangled together at the same time. And Tara never writes herself as a perfect victim or perfect hero. And I think that that vulnerability and and really kind of almost duality is why this memoir lands so strongly with so many people. The book also explores how education isn't just about knowledge. It really is a core reality of what ultimately shapes us, our our relationships, and even our own understanding of our memories and experiences. There are moments in this book that are pretty difficult to read.

[00:03:35]Not because they're graphic or anything like that, but because at least for me, the honesty on display just kind of kicked up a lot of stuff in me that I don't know if I was ready to necessarily unravel. All that to say, this is for readers who enjoy emotionally layered memoirs, complicated family dynamics, and stories about self-discovery that don't really offer easy answers. Then there's When Breath Becomes Air, and look, if you're a crier, just know that you're going to you're just going to cry. This memoir follows Dr. Paul Kolani, a neurosurgeon at the height of his medical training after he's diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in his 30s. The book explores mortality and meaning and medicine and marriage and ambition and what it means to build a life while simultaneously confronting the reality of death. And look, this book needs to be on more list and it needs to be read by more people. It's thoughtful and honest, but without ever becoming self-important, and it's emotional, but I don't think it ever felt manipulative. Colony writes with the perspective of someone who spent years studying the human brain and trying to preserve life only to suddenly become the patient himself. And then knowing that behind all of this, all of this writing is this perspective that he has and his desire to preserve some things for his daughters and his wife after he was gone. And all of that just makes it land so incredibly meaningfully. The book never tries to solve the philosophical or religious questions of death. Instead, it really wrestles honestly with uncertainty, purpose, and the reality that life often remains unfinished. And the final portions of the memoir are going to make you think and feel all of the things.

[00:05:16]But as difficult as that is, and as scary as that can be, I don't think that that's ever a bad thing. If you connect with reflective non-fiction books about meaning and mortality or stories that just sit with difficult questions rather than trying to neatly answer them, this is absolutely worth your time. Let's shift gears a little with Shoe Dog. Shoe Dog follows Phil Knight from the earliest days of selling shoes out of the trunk of his car to the eventual rise of Nike into a global company. And along the way, the book explores risk and obsession, entrepreneurship, failure, branding, relationships, and all the other bits of chaos that come with starting a business or running a business. I thought this was going to be just a fun picture of a company with some good like business lessons. And it is that, but this book also really kind of stressed me out a little bit. Most people see Nike as this polished corporate giant. At least I I did. But this book lays bare just how tenuous businesses really are. There are constant financial problems. shipping disasters, internal conflicts, lawsuits, and moment where it's just everything feels like it's going to collapse at any given time. And because of all that, the result is a memoir that feels surprisingly personal rather than self- congratulatory, which sometimes that's what business books feel like. And I think it's one of the best examples of how memoirs can teach more than a business book can. This is for readers who enjoy entrepreneurial stories, business memoirs that actually feel human, or just simply books about ambition and creativity under pressure.

[00:06:42]Okay, one of my most recent favorites that I thought was absolutely superb is Crying in HMart. This memoir follows Michelle Zoner as she reflects on her KoreanAmerican identity, her relationship with her mother, and the grief that follows her mother's death from cancer. food, memory, culture, and family all become mixed up together throughout this story in a really engaging and beautiful way. And the grief in this book feels so specific yet somehow completely universal. It's to me a prime example of not only how we're able to learn from one another's experiences to kind of open our eyes to to new things and new realities, but also that we just really aren't that different from one another. Zoner writes so vividly about family traditions and food that the emotional weight of what she was writing kind of snuck up on me and I I found myself kind of getting caught up in emotion that I didn't even know was there until it was kind of coming out to the surface. I think this book also captures the tension that can exist in parent child relationships pretty well where love is present but sometimes it's not always shown or verbalized at least in a way that both parties really understand. There's frustration and tenderness constantly existing side by side with other conflicting emotions and thoughts, further kind of making this a surprisingly relatable read, at least for me. So, if you enjoy emotionally intimate memoirs, books centered around family relationships and food and kind of cultural identity or how our identities and culture kind of help define us, definitely check this one out. And speaking of emotionally complicated memoirs, let's talk about Angela's Ashes. Angela's Ashes follows Frank McCort's childhood, growing up in extreme poverty in Ireland after his family returns from America during the Great Depression. The memoir explores the things that you would expect it to and then some. You've got poverty and hunger and family dysfunction, but you also got things like religion and shame and survival and how that strange mix of humor and heartbreak defined much of McCort's early life. This was and I think still is my wife's favorite memoir. this in McCord's other book, Teacher Man. She convinced me to read it over a decade ago, and it is a book I still think about, and I still think about it in no small part because of McCort's voice. That's the only way I know how to say it. The the material itself is often incredibly bleak.

[00:09:04]There's no real way around that. But McCort writes with such warmth and compassion and heart and wit and sharp observation that the story never feels emotionally one note or just completely oppressive. There's a clear throughine of resilience running underneath the entire memoir, especially in the way childhood perspective shapes the storytelling. McCort has this ability to describe horribly painful circumstances with honesty while still finding absurdity and humanity inside of them. I think it also captures how poverty impacts not just material conditions but also a person's dignity, a family's dignity, the relationships amongst themselves and in their community as well as one's own imagination. This is for readers who appreciate literary memoirs, emotionally reflective storytelling, family centered narratives, or books that balance hardship with humor and humanity. Next up is A Long Way Gone by Ishmail Bea.

[00:09:59]This memoir tells a story of Bea's experience as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone. After being separated from his family, he's eventually pulled into the violence of conflict and forced to survive circumstances a child should never have to endure. And this all started, I think, when he was 12 or 13 years old.

[00:10:17]This was another book my wife made me read. And it's a difficult read, don't get me wrong. Uh, it is definitely a difficult read, but it is 100% worth it.

[00:10:25]the the horrific things that he witnesses that he endures were so eye-opening to me and in a way that I just couldn't even imagine. However, I I found it interesting that the book never reduces Ishmael solely to a victim or victimhood. The memoir is definitely brutal at times, but it's really focused on survival and recovery and the possibility of rebuilding a life after unimaginable trauma. There's also something I think kind of haunting about how quickly violence becomes normalized within the narrative. That shift is one of the more disturbing aspects of the entire book, but that contrasts so much with the hopeful tone of where the story ultimately ends that it creates this really interesting dynamic. If you read memoirs to better understand lived experiences radically different from your own, or if you value books that confront difficult historical realities head-on, this is this is a valuable read. On a similarly difficult note is A Child Called It by David Pelzer. A Child Called It recounts David Pelzer's experiences enduring just horrible abuse and neglect as a child at the hands of his mother. The book focuses primarily on survival and the small moments of hope that allowed him to endure the incredibly painful circumstances. And again, this is not an easy read, like at all. I read this when I was in college, and it truly shifted my perspective on not just my own experiences of life and how I viewed them, but just to the reality that I really have no idea what some people have endured. And unless I'm willing to have a posture of curiosity and patience, I may never know how to show up best for the people in my life, let alone the people that come across my path or in my community. Whether this book works for someone, I think is going to depend on what they're looking for from a memoir. But this is a book that I think challenges our own personal narratives of our childhood experiences and the difficulties that we've had and truly how much we can grow from them and have fruitful meaningful lives. The emotional impact largely comes from the sheer reality that a child experienced these things and survive them. And there are moments that are truly are just examples of unbearable cruelty. But I think it also has opened up conversations for a lot of different readers, at least quite a few people that I've talked to about some abuse that they've experienced that they've never confronted before. And as scary as that can be, sometimes I think it is a book like this or a story like this that allows us the courage to take steps forward to a place of recovery and ultimately freedom. I think this is for readers prepared for very heavy material and a story centered primarily around survival rather than reflection or literary pros. I also think it's a great book for anyone looking to be challenged and to just have their own childhood life kind of reframed in a new way.

[00:13:25]Okay, we've reached the last four and these four are my four favorite memoirs of all time. First up is Onwriting by Stephen King. It's part memoir and part writing guide. On writing explores Stephen King's life, his careers, struggles with addiction, a near fatal accident, and thoughts on storytelling and the writing process. It moves between personal history and practical advice for writers. And it's great.

[00:13:49]Well, I think it's great. I think this book works so well because it's conversational. It's honest. It's self-aware. And it's occasionally really funny. The writing advice itself is pretty straightforward and practical in the sense that the principles behind them can be applied to nearly any area of your life. But for me, it is the memoir portions that make this one of my favorites. You get to see how persistence and discipline and luck and talent and personal hardships all kind of crisscross one another in King's life and career. It also avoids romanticizing creativity in a way that I really appreciated because sometimes I think like the idea of creativity. The idea of being an artist or or producing things that people see gets romanticized in a way that sometimes becomes so idealized that it never feels grounded. And I and Stephen King never does that in this book. The best thing I can say is that it just feels normal.

[00:14:44]That's really the only way I know how to explain it. There's nothing grandstanding about this book or look at me. It really is just a portrait of a person's life and process and how that has helped or hindered his career. I think this is a great book for writers, aspiring writers, or honestly anyone that's just curious about creativity, storytelling, and the realities behind a long artistic career, particularly of one of the most well-known authors of the last 50 years. Then there's Traveling Mercy's. Traveling Mercy's follows Annne Lamont through reflections on faith and motherhood and addiction and community and just really the mess of realities of spiritual life. Rather than presenting belief as this polished certainty, the memoir really focuses on doubt and imperfection and humor and grace and how all of those things kind of exist altogether. There is just something about Ann Lamont to me. her willingness to be blunt but vulnerable, plain but poetic, kind of put together but also a little bit of a mess. There's this authenticity that exists with her that I think is why so many people have enjoyed her writing. In this book, she writes about spirituality in a way that feels so stinking real rather than like just performative. There's self-deprecating humor all throughout the book, but there's also this really deep and healthy, I think, emotional insight. Even readers who don't share her beliefs often connect with the honesty of her reflections because the book spends more time talking about struggle than pretending that life suddenly becomes easy or simple just because faith has entered the picture.

[00:16:18]And I may not necessarily agree with all of her theology, but I share in the struggle and messiness of an honest faith. I've been a follower of Christ since I was 18 years old, and I can tell you honestly that my faith is deeper and stronger than it's ever been. But I can also say honestly, I have more questions than I've ever had. I'm always going to be drawn to people who could be honest with their doubts and fears rather than those who pretend like they have everything figured out and that all of life is perfect. Those are the ones that I don't usually know how to connect with. This is for readers who enjoy reflective memoirs, spiritually oriented non-fiction, or authors who write with vulnerability and humor side by side.

[00:16:59]Okay, our second to last book is The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom. This memoir centers around Sarah Broom's family home in New Orleans East and uses the house as a lens to explore family and family history, race, uh, class, displacement, and just the changing realities of New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina. The story moves between personal memory and broader social history in a way that constantly connects the two, I think, in a really poetic and beautiful way, but still incredibly approachable. My wife and I actually met in New Orleans and we lived there before and after Katrina. So, the sense of place in this book and a few of the experience spoken about really pulled me in. The house itself essentially becomes a living memory holding generations of history inside of it. And Broom explores those various threads in such an insightful and beautiful way that's both frustrating at times because you're having to face the realities that so many face, but also being incredibly hopeful. Broom also writes with, I think, a level of detail and reflection that makes the memoir feel pretty expansive, but never losing that emotional core. Though it seems like it's about one family, it really does expand past that and becomes a book I think about community and identity, systemic neglect and systemic issues and the way a place can shape someone or even an entire community. This is for readers who enjoy memoirs deeply tied to place, multigenerational family stories, or non-fiction that blends personal narrative with cultural history in a way that helps you see your own community in a different or new way. And finally, my favorite memoir, Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis. This book traces Lewis's early life, his intellectual development and experiences with loss, and the eventual movement from atheism towards Christianity. The book focuses heavily on the idea of joy as a deep longing that continually shaped his imagination and his worldview. Now look, I'm a big CS Lewis guy. I've read every one of his books, most multiple times, and this is one I come back to again and again, and I just I appreciate it so much because I appreciate how Lewis approaches faith.

[00:19:15]It's not just through emotion or trying to uh you know, guilt someone into anything. It's really about intellect and imagination and emotion and experience and everything kind of mixed together, which I just find really refreshing. So, when I could read a book about joy in a way that makes me think and ponder, but he also ties it to his own experiences with his wife and his life, it just makes this book come alive in a way that a lot of other books haven't for me. I mean, the man was clearly brilliant, but the book never feels like a theological debate transcript or anything like that. And instead, it it feels more like watching someone, I don't know, gradually realize that logic and beauty and longing and literature and meaning are all interconnected in ways that maybe he didn't realize before. There are also sections that give insight into, I think, just the development of how his mind works and how he viewed the world in a way that you can see in some of his other writings, which as a fan, I just found to be really interesting and I really appreciated that. All in all, it is a book that I think helps a person ruminate on the idea of joy. And I know that at least for me in my life, that's something that I could use pretty regularly. So, this is for readers who enjoy reflective philosophical memoirs, literary thinkers, or books that are willing to explore faith through the lens of imagination and longing. I think memoirs are interesting because even when two people experience similar things, no one tells the story exactly the same way. Some of these books are funny, some are devastating, some are reflective, and some are deeply, deeply uncomfortable, but all of them in one way or another remind us that we're human beings and that all of us are complicated, that we're all imperfect, that we all carry joys as much as we carry sorrow, and everyone, every one of us has the capability to cultivate resilience. And honestly, I think that's why this genre matters and why it's always worth exploring. But over to you.

[00:21:12]Which of these have you already read and which would you like to read? Let me know down in the comments below. As always, my name is Toeer. Stay curious, read deeply, and I'll see you in the library.