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The Best Biographies and Memoirs to Read in Summer 2024

Add some nonfiction to your TBR list.

They say that reading increases empathy, and it’s true. But nowhere is that more the case than when you’re reading biographies and memoirs, which let us leave our own lives and step inside the lived experiences of other real people for at least a few hundred pages. 

We can experience tragedy, triumph, love, and loss from a different perspective, while also seeing how much alike we all really are. Ranging from Hollywood to the battlefield, from the Olympics to a farm on the Olympic Peninsula, these unforgettable biographies and memoirs are as fascinating as they are hard to put down, and they all make for perfect summer reading.

This list fulfills a prompt in our 2024 Summer Reading Challenge! Learn more and join here .

By Debbie Reynolds, Dorian Hannaway

Known as “America’s Sweetheart,” Debbie Reynolds was “indisputably a grand dame of show business” (NPR) who experienced the end of Hollywood’s golden age. Now, in this “lively” ( People ) memoir, she takes a clear-eyed look at her Hollywood memories, her lifelong friendship with Elizabeth Taylor, her experiences as a collector of Hollywood memorabilia, and her family life, including her daughter, Carrie Fisher. 

Just as she did on the big screen, “Debbie Reynolds knows exactly how to steal the scene, wring tears, and most important, how to leave the audience feeling thoroughly entertained” ( New York Journal of Books ).

By Dyan Cannon

Actress and filmmaker Dyan Cannon became one of the first women to ever be nominated for Academy Awards for her work both in front of and behind the camera. Yet, her career has often been overshadowed by her May-December romance with her first husband, legendary actor Cary Grant, a story that she has finally told in this “complex and captivating memoir” ( New York Journal of Books ). 

Cannon’s long-in-coming reminiscence has since been adapted to the screen as a four-part miniseries on BritBox starring Jason Isaacs and Laura Aikman, and it’s a must-read for “those who enjoy memoirs of gutsy survivors” ( Library Journal ).

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By Suzy Favor Hamilton

Suzy Favor Hamilton was an Olympic runner who became a star of track and field. She was also struggling with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which helped drive her to win but also later manifested itself as a shocking double life in which she worked as a high-priced Las Vegas escort.

In Fast Girl , Hamilton tells her own story for the first time and “dishes in detail” ( New York Post ) about everything from the “psychological demands of high-level sports” ( New Yorker ) to the Olympics, her clients in Las Vegas, and the destructive mental illness that threatened her very life.

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Tibetan Peach Pie

By Tom Robbins

Tom Robbins “knows words the way a pool hustler knows chalk” raves NPR Books. In this self-proclaimed “un-memoir,” the legendary counter-culture novelist and author of such classics as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues takes readers on an episodic journey through his own life, one as quixotic and wild as any of his fiction. 

“The story of how Tom Robbins became Tom Robbins is a pretty good one,” says The New York Times , “and in relating it, he’s written his best book in many years.” Once you’ve read it, you’re not likely to forget it anytime soon.

Alexander the Great

By Philip Freeman

We all know the name – but how much do you really know about Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king who was crowned at age 19 and dead by 32, who was supposedly never defeated in battle, and whose strategic acumen has been studied by generals and would-be conquerors for centuries? 

In a “rollicking read” as “racy and pacey as any novel” ( Wall Street Journal ) classicist and historian brings to life the story of Alexander the Great in a sweeping biography of this legendary historical figure written for a general audience for the first time in decades.

Little Princes

By Conor Grennan

For Conor Grennan, his work at the Little Princes Children’s Home in Nepal was meant to be nothing more than a stepping stone on a globe-spanning adventure. What he found there, however, changed his life, and encouraged him to try to change the lives of the children in his charge, as he attempted to reunite trafficked children with the families from whom they had been stolen. 

The result is a story that is “by turns self-pokingly humorous, exciting, and inspiring” ( Publishers Weekly ); a tale of “determination, courage and love that will not leave you unchanged” ( Daytona Beach News ).

It's Okay to Laugh

By Nora McInerny Purmort

“An emotional rollercoaster of the highest order.” That’s how BuzzFeed describes this memoir by author and podcaster Nora McInerny Purmort, which describes how she met, fell in love with, and lost her husband Aaron to a rare form of brain cancer, all in just a few years. The result is “deeply moving yet refreshingly funny” (PopSugar), “an unapologetic tale of heartbreak and loss that is devoid of platitudes” (Rebecca Soffer, co-founder of  Modern Loss ). 

As the back cover copy proclaims, “This book is for people who have been through some shit.” But even if you haven’t, you might find yourself drawn to this touching and funny memoir that is “one of the best books you’ll read this year” ( MSP Magazine ).

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The Egg & I

By Betty MacDonald

This classic memoir tells the story of the MacDonalds, who (as you might have guessed from the name) had a farm on the Olympic Peninsula. 

When she first married her husband and moved to the farm, Betty MacDonald didn’t know what she was getting into, but this “astoundingly light-hearted book” ( New York Times ) takes readers through all the travails and tragedies of life on the farm near the turn of the century with an abounding humor that “crackles with the innocent deviltry of acorns hitting the roof-tops” ( Saturday Review of Literature ).

Life and Death in Shanghai

By Nien Cheng

Named a  New York Times Best Book of the Year,  Life and Death in Shanghai is an “absorbing tale of resourcefulness and courage” ( New York Times ) that tells the personal story of Nien Cheng, a London-educated woman who worked for Shell Oil in Shanghai when the Cultural Revolution took place. 

Red Guard soldiers ransacked her home and took her prisoner, trying to force her to admit that she was an imperialist spy. When she steadfastly refused, she was placed in solitary confinement for more than six years. A national bestseller, the “passion and insight” of her memoir assures “its place among the distinguished voices of our age proclaiming the ascendancy of the human spirit over tyranny” ( Publishers Weekly ).

The Heart of Everything That Is

By Bob Drury, Tom Clavin

Hailed as one of the only Native American chiefs to ever defeat the United States Army in war, Red Cloud forced the government to sue for peace on his terms. His life touched such legendary historical figures as Crazy Horse, General William Tecumseh Sherman, mountain man Jim Bridger, and more. 

Until this “compelling and fiery narrative” ( USA Today ), however, Red Cloud’s story remained often untold. Combining a rarely-seen autobiography with extensive research, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin have sought to correct that oversight in this  New York Times bestselling “page-turner” with the “narrative sweep of a great Western” ( The Boston Globe ).

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