Reading List: Memoirs

INTRODUCTION
As with all of the reading lists on this site, this is a living document, meaning I will add to it as I come across books I've omitted, and would love suggestions of any noncelebrity memoir you would highly recommend. As far as the categories, I've done my best--some books fall under multiple categories so I went with the most dominant/specific theme (i.e. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is primarily about Sedaris's childhood, but not entirely, and it's humorous as is Bryson's memoir). I've read many but not all of these, so please let me know if a book belongs under a different heading. If you're interested in travel memoirs, there's a extensive separate reading list posted.

ABUSE MEMOIRS

Please Stop Laughing at Me - Jodee Blanco
Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
Blackbird - Jennifer Lauck

A Child Called It - Dave Pelzer

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Jesus Land  - Julia Scheeres
Lucky - Alice Sebold
The Glass Castle - Jeannete Walls

ANIMAL MEMOIRS

Marley and Me - John Grogan

Seabiscuit - Laura Hillenbrand

Dewey - Vicki Myron
Alex & Me - Irene Pepperberg

CHILDHOOD MEMOIRS
An American Childhood - Annie Dillard
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim - David Sedaris

GRIEF MEMOIRS
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion

HUMOROUS MEMOIRS

Close Encounters of the Third-grade Kind - Phillip Done
A Red State of Mind - Nancy French

Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris

INTERNATIONAL MEMOIRS
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah
Wild Swans - Jung Chang
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - William Kamkwamba with Bryan Mealer
Child of the Jungle - Sabine Kuegler
Chinese Cinderella - Adeline Yen Mah
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi

NATURE MEMOIRS
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
Life in the Treetops - Margaret D. Lowman

RELIGIOUS & SPIRITUALITY MEMOIRS

Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
Angry Conversations with God - Susan Isaacs
The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs
Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott
Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
Shattered Dreams - Irene Spenser

SOCIAL EXPERIMENT MEMOIRS
Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin
The Know-It-All - AJ Jacobs
The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs
Living Oprah - Robyn Okrant
Julie and Julia - Julie Powell
The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin

OTHER MEMOIRS
Minor Characters - Joyce Johnson

Reading List: Travel Narratives

INTRODUCTION
The following are travel narratives, with a few international memoirs mixed in. They are organized by continent. The books on this list I’ve either read, plan to read, or have been highly successful. Most are contemporary, but a few were written over 50 years ago (i.e. Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Freya Stark, Theodore Roosevelt). I've listed specific countries where appropriate if they're not evident from the title. I know this list is far from comprehensive, so recommendations would be appreciated.

NORTH AMERICA
I'm a Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson
The Lost Continent – Bill Bryson
A Walk in the Woods [Appalachian Trail] – Bill Bryson
Blue Highways - William Least Heat-Moon
Roads to Quoz - William Least Heat-Moon
A Walk Across America – Peter Jenkins
The Walk West - Peter & Barbara Jenkins
Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
You Can Get Arrested for That – Rich Smith
Travels with Charley – John Steinbeck
The Call of the Weird – Louis Theroux

EUROPE
Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson
Notes From a Small Island [England] - Bill Bryson
A Year in Provence [France] - Peter Mayle
Toujours Provence [France] - Peter Mayle
Without Reservations [France, England, Italy] – Alice Steinbach
The Kingdom By the Sea [Great Britain] – Paul Theroux
A Motor-flight Through France – Edith Wharton

ASIA
Wrong About Japan - Peter Carey
Child of the Jungle [Indonesia] – Sabine Kuegler
Letters Home [Japan] – Todd Jay Leonard
Chinese Cinderella - Adeline Yen Mah
Three Cups of Tea [Pakistan] – Greg Mortenson
Japanland - Karin Muller
The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Tales [Iraq/Iran] - Freya Stark

AUSTRALIA
In a Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson
The Road from Coorain (memoir) - Jill Ker Conway
The Sex Lives of Cannibals [South Pacific island] - J. Maarten Troost

AFRICA
Don't Look Behind You - Peter Allison
Whatever You Do, Don’t Run [Botswana] – Peter Allison
Bill Bryson's African Diary [Kenya] - Bill Bryson
In Morocco – Edith Wharton

SOUTH AMERICA
Road Fever - Tim Cahill
The Enchanted Isles [Galapagos Islands] - Herman Melville
Nothing to Declare – Mary Morris
Through the Brazilian Wilderness – Theodore Roosevelt

WORLD TRAVEL
Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine
Pecked to Death by Ducks – Tim Cahill
Around the World in 80 Dates - Jennifer Cox
Where the Hell Is Matt? - Matt Harding
The Ridiculous Race - Steve Hely & Vali Chandrasekaran
101 Places Not to See Before You Die - Catherine Price
Mark Twain on Travel – Mark Twain, Terry Mort, ed.

ESSAY COLLECTIONS
Not So Funny When It Happened – Tim Cahill, ed.
The Risks of Sunbathing Topless - Kate Chynoweth, ed.
Bad Trips - Keath Fraser, ed.
By the Seat of My Pants – Don George, ed.
The Conde Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys - Klara Glowczewska, ed.
Sand in My Bra - Jennifer L. Leo, ed.
The Gift of Travel - Habegger, O'Reilly & O'Reilly, eds.
The Blessings of a Good Thick Skirt - Mary Russell

ANNUAL COLLECTIONS
The Best Travel Writing
The Best American Travel Writing
The Best Women’s Travel Writing