Best Memoirs to Read | List of 10 Best Memoirs

Here is a List of 10 Best Memoirs. Memoirs are very different from autobiographies. Autobiographies are personal stories that are written by the subject himself or herself. A memoir can be written by other people for you.

1. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft By Stephen King

Author : Stephen King

"Long live the King" hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

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2. Memoirs

Memoirs By Pablo Neruda

Author : Pablo Neruda

The south of Chile was a frontier wilderness when Pablo Neruda was born in 1904. In these memoirs he retraces his bohemian student years in Santiago; his sojourns as Chilean consul in Burma, Ceylon, and Java, in Spain during the civil war, and in Mexico; and his service as a Chilean senator. Neruda, a Communist, was driven from his senate seat in 1948, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. After a year in hiding, he escaped on horseback over the Andes and then to Europe; his travels took him to Russia, Eastern Europe, and China before he was finally able to return home in 1952. The final section of the memoirs was written after the coup in 1972 that overthrew Neruda's friend Salvador Allende.

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3. Unfinished: A Memoir

Unfinished: A Memoir By Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Author : Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Unfinished takes readers from Priyanka's childhood in India, where she was raised by her grandparents and her parents­-two army doctors committed not only to their children but to their careers and to philanthropy-before being sent away to boarding school at an early age; through her formative teenage years in the US living with extended family in the Midwest (Cedar Rapids and Indianapolis), Queens, and suburban Boston, where she endured bouts of racism; to her return to India, where she unexpectedly won the national and global beauty pageants (Miss India and Miss World) that launched her acting career. Readers looking for a glimpse into what it takes to succeed in the massive Indian film industry will find it here, and they'll also find an honest account of the challenges Priyanka faced navigating her career, both in India and Hollywood. The result is a book that is warm, funny, sassy, inspiring, bold, and rebellious. Just like Priyanka herself.

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4. The Beauty of All My Days

The Beauty of All My Days By Bond Ruskin

Author : Bond Ruskin

Each chapter of this memoir is a remembrance of times past, an attempt to resurrect a person or a period or an episode, a reflection on the unpredictability of life. Some paths lead nowhere; others lead to a spring of pure water. Take any path and hope for the best. At least it will lead you out of the shadows.

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5. The Brass Notebook: A Memoir

The Brass Notebook By Devaki Jain

Author : Devaki Jain

‘Devaki Jain was among those who initiated Indian women into recognizing their rights in society, and in asserting a visible presence, discarding their earlier imposed invisibility. When such a woman writes, inter-leaving her personal and public life…then what she has to say is not just a memoir, it is an event.’—ROMILA THAPAR

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6. Becoming

Becoming By Michelle Obama

Author : Michelle Obama

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms.

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7. Made in India: A Memoir

Made in India By Milind Soman, Roopa Pai

Author : Milind Soman, Roopa Pai

There's more to Milind Soman than meets the eye (although, as his legions of female fans will agree, what meets the eye is pretty delish).
Combining in himself the passion of an entrepreneur, the mind of a nerd, the discipline of an athlete, the curiosity of an explorer, the heart of a patriot and the soul of a philosopher, Milind has made the stunning-and apparently seamless- transition from champion swimmer to supermodel to actor to extreme sportsperson to women's fitness activist, enabler and proselytiser, all in one lifetime.
Co-authored with bestselling author Roopa Pai, MADE IN INDIA is a rare glimpse into the mind and heart of a very unusual man that will leave you thoughtful, awed and inspired.

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8. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

Shoe Dog By Phil Knight

Author : Phil Knight

Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.”
Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world.

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9. If Truth Be Told

If Truth Be Told By Om Swami

Author : Om Swami

In the 1990s, an eighteen-year-old headed to Australia to realize his worldly dreams. With little money or support, he struggled to survive there. Two years later, he was earning an annual income of $250,000; by the age of twenty-six, he was a multimillionaire. Yet, worldly success was merely a way station on a journey that began years ago. As an eight-year-old, he saw a vision of God in a dream, an experience that left him with a sense of deep joy and peace. The dream triggered off his desire to meet God, to see a manifestation of the Divine. He practiced astrology, intense meditation and tantra, yet God was nowhere in sight. Deeply frustrated, he dived into materialistic pursuits to distract himself from the restlessness within. This is an astounding memoir of the making of a spiritual life in today's challenging and often confusing times. If Truth Be Told: A Monk's Memoir will light up your path, wherever you are on your life's journey.

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10. Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden

Author : Arthur Golden

This is a seductive and evocative epic on an intimate scale, which tells the extraordinary story of a geisha girl. Summoning up more than twenty years of Japan's most dramatic history, it uncovers a hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degredation. From a small fishing village in 1929, the tale moves to the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto in the 1930s, where a young peasant girl is sold as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. She tells her story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York; it exquisitely evokes another culture, a different time and the details of an extraordinary way of life. It conjures up the perfection and the ugliness of life behind rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the arts of the geisha - dancing and singing, how to wind the kimonok, how to walk and pour tea, and how to beguile the most powerful men.

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