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16 memorable memoirs told in essays, stories, and snapshots

When I’m not sure what to read next, I often turn to memoir. My own reading habits skew towards fiction, and a good memoir allows me to read nonfiction that is still driven by story, in much the same way a good novel is.

In recent years, I’ve noticed the rise of memoir-in-essays, as well as memoirs that play with the format in interesting ways. (You know I’m a total nerd when it comes to format and structure, right?) A bonus: memoirs told in essays, stories, and snapshots are a great option for anyone dealing with a short attention span, something I admit to struggling with these days.

With books like these, you can read one essay or short chapter at a time or gobble them down in one sitting. The memoirs featured here run the gamut of emotions, from funny and light to poignant and serious. I hope you’ll find a few attractive options for your every reading mood.

We’ve included one graphic memoir; if you’re interested in more along those lines, be sure to check out WSIRN producer Brenna Frederick’s recommendations in Patreon Bonus Episode #79: Comics and graphic novels for the curious. As if that’s not enough, team member Shannan Malone shared the memoirs that changed her life in this Patreon bonus episode.

A special note for audiobook fans: I love listening to memoirs, especially when the author reads their own story. Many of these are fantastic in that format.

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16 well-crafted memoirs to read in small bites or one sitting

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir)

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir)

Author:
The debut memoir from Jenny Lawson aka The Bloggess is a compilation of the best stories from her blog plus fresh content. Bless Jenny for being willing to share her most mortifying moments with readers because she makes them laugh-out-loud funny. The chapters have titles like “A Series of Angry Post-It Notes to My Husband” and “And Then I Snuck a Dead Cuban Alligator on an Airplane” to give you an idea of what we’re working with. Heads up: with f-bombs galore and all manner of sexual references, as well as discussion (and photos) of taxidermy experiments, this content is not for everyone. More info →
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Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations

Author:
This list wouldn’t be complete without a graphic memoir! Mira Jacob deftly balances vulnerable reflections with humor while tackling racism, grief, 9/11, election anxiety, and more. Producer Brenna Frederick recommended this in Patreon Bonus Episode #79: Comics and graphic novels for the curious. More info →
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84, Charing Cross Road

84, Charing Cross Road

Author:
This is the true story of the twenty-year relationship between a New York writer and a gentlemanly London bookseller, as told through their correspondence. A must-read classic for bibliophiles, you'll feel compelled to discuss the heartwarming way books bring people together with all your book-loving buddies. If you're craving a gentle, warm, and witty read, this short book belongs on your nightstand. More info →
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Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told to me) story

Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told to me) story

Author:
In this unusual memoir, Bess Kalb tells the story of her grandmother Bobby Bell's life and their special relationship, using her deceased grandmother's voice to do so. (On the second page of the book Bobby, speaking from her own funeral, is telling the readers, "It's a terrible thing to be dead.") I enjoyed this story so much: Bobby is spry and spunky, fiercely opinionated, a force of nature—and firmly invested in (or committed to meddling in, depending on how Bess is feeling at the moment) her granddaughter's life. Bobby's fierce and sometimes persnickety devotion to Bess shines on every page, from Bess's birth to Bobby's dying days at age 90. For most of Bess's life, the two spoke on the phone every day, and my favorite parts of the book were these phone conversations. More info →
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Stories I Only Tell My Friends

Stories I Only Tell My Friends

Author:
I knew very little about Lowe's career before reading this; I had only seen St Elmo's Fire and The West Wing, and didn't even realize that was him in Wayne's World! Therefore I was constantly surprised by his stories from his unusual childhood, his early acting days, the scope of his current work, and how he seems to know everyone in Hollywood and beyond. My favorite stories were those about JFK Jr and 9/11. This was fantastic on audio; Lowe narrates his own story. More info →
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We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True

We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True

Author:
I haven't yet read this myself but several MMD team members raved about it and said it belongs on this list! Gabrielle Union’s memoir-in-essays is a shining example in the sea of celebrity memoirs. She fearlessly shares stories about race, beauty standards, Hollywood, and her own history of sexual assault. The result is moving in many places and laugh-out-loud funny in others. Not everyone can strike the right balance but Union nails it. Her follow-up memoir, You Got Anything Stronger?: Stories, is out now. More info →
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Author:
In this collection of coming-of-age essays about his South African childhood, The Daily Show star does a masterful job of alternating the deathly serious with the laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes even combining the two. His mischievous childhood and unconventional youth provide wonderful fodder for not-quite-polite but always entertaining stories. Trevor Noah narrates the audiobook, which I highly recommend. More info →
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Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir

Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir

Author:
This new release is on my nightstand right now, as trusted fellow readers have called it a luminous grief memoir written in snippets of essays (some longer than others), with a nonlinear structure. I was particularly intrigued by the title: the author’s mother died of cancer when she was 13 and she sometimes experienced her grief by imagining or sensing her mother’s ghost. Chow writes with compassion and grace, illustrating how her family responds to the loss in different ways. More info →
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Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs

Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs

These 52 "micro-memoirs" are by turns quirky, witty, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny, and so different from pretty much anything else I've ever read. Like rereading a favorite poem, these snippets of story leave much to the readers' interpretation, and the surprising twists that catch the reader unawares the first time read entirely differently on a repeat visit. Fennelly's style of relaying smart and sometimes scandalous family stories reminds me of David Sedaris. More info →
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Soldier: A Poet’s Childhood

Soldier: A Poet’s Childhood

Author:
I so appreciate memoirs by poets; this memoir by poet and activist June Jordan’s is told in a series of short and vivid vignettes, detailing her tumultuous upbringing in post-World War II Harlem and Brooklyn, the only child of a father who desperately wanted a son. She captures her childhood voice and memories through rich details. I especially appreciated glimpsing Jordan's early love of words and rhyme, and the cadence of her storytelling, as she often juxtaposed difficult moments with snapshots capturing childhood delights, like her ardent love for orange juice. More info →
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I Am, I Am, I Am

I Am, I Am, I Am

In O'Farrell's memoir-of-sorts, she tells the story of her life through seventeen brushes with death. I didn't quite believe the premise when I first heard it (Seventeen brushes? Really?), but O'Farrell doesn't mess around with this heart-pounding collection, in which she recounts near-misses with car accidents, murderers, anaphylaxis, a childhood bout with encephalitis, and more. There's obviously some sensitive content here, but I'd like to especially point out that O'Farrell's heart-rending essay on miscarriage is some of the finest writing I've seen on the subject. More info →
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My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South

My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South

Author:
This is one of the best things I've ever listened to—which I did NOT expect from an essay collection. Bragg reads 70-ish pieces of his nonfiction work, most of which have been previously published. Some are just a few minutes long; the longest runs for about fifteen. He covers A LOT of ground: football, fishing, book tour, his mama's cornbread, wardrobe concerns, New Orleans cuisine, natural disasters. These stories are compact, wistful, funny, and poignant. So good. More info →
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Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say

Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say

Author:
I adored this book; I wish I could download it into my brain. My favorite Kelly Corrigan memoir by a long shot. Kelly talks in depth about how after her friend Liz was diagnosed with cancer, they both pushed past the surface stuff to forge a powerful and enduring friendship. Oriented around her twelve favorite phrases, she gives us a good starting point for figuring out how to improve communication skills with loved ones. This book will make you want to be a better friend, and also give you insight into how. Personal, heartfelt, and really really good. More info →
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I Miss You When I Blink: Essays

I Miss You When I Blink: Essays

In her entertaining essay collection, Philpott shares real, relatable stories that feel highly personal yet manage to encompass the universal experience of managing a life that, at times, grows unwieldy. The situations Philpott writes of will be familiar to many readers; after all, we’ve lived them ourselves. But she articulates her own experience in a way that makes you see it again, for the first time—and for that, I am grateful. Funny and poignant, smart and witty, and highly recommended for fans of Kelly Corrigan, Glennon Doyle, and Beth Ann Fennelly. I also loved chatting with Mary Laura Philpott about her favorite memoirs in WSIRN Episode 195: Wanted: book enthusiast at large, plus she gives an inside look at what it's like to work at Parnassus Books in Nashville. More info →
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Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine

Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine

Author:
Described as a “memoir of sorts”, professor of African American Studies Emily Bernard explores race, motherhood, adoption, and her experience of getting randomly attacked by a stranger with a knife. (That particular essay is understandably difficult to read but you can skip it, if need be. She mentions the content in later essays, but it isn’t vital to know the details.) A nonlinear memoir, the stories aren’t connected in obvious ways but they are all powerful and moving. Bernard notes: “In every scar there’s a story. The salve is the telling itself.” That neatly sums up this collection. More info →
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Here for It: Or How to Save Your Soul in America

Here for It: Or How to Save Your Soul in America

Author:
If you love heartfelt, thoughtful memoirs that also make you laugh, then you must pick up this collection of essays by pop-culture critic R. Eric Thomas. Eric shares stories from childhood to adulthood, detailing his coming-of-age with bracing candor and hilarious honesty. He writes about discovering his identity, feeling like an outsider, and finding his voice, all while injecting hilarious pop culture references, bits of wisdom, and his signature wit. While he relays plenty of difficult experiences, his tone is persistently hopeful. I highly recommend the audiobook version, narrated by the author, for full humorous effect. More info →
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Do you have any uniquely structured memoirs to add to this list? Tell us in the comments!

P.S. Enjoy these 20 travel memoirs to take you around the world and 20 tasty and tantalizing food memoirs to inspire your culinary pursuits.

P.P.S. Find an exclusive list of my favorite autobiography, biography, and memoirs in My Reading Life: A Book Journal, available in bookstores near you!

16 memorable memoirs told in essays, stories, and snapshots

40 comments

Leave A Comment
  1. This is how I structured my books. I think writing so many sermons trained my brain to think in discrete chapters. Sermons are, after all, kind of a cousin of essays.

    I love so many of the books you listed here and will add others to my to-read list.

  2. Sandy says:

    I am currently reading an Australian memoir, Sandra Hogan’s With My Little Eye, and my book club’s choice for November is Cicely Tyson’s memoir, Just As I Am.

  3. Erin Wyman says:

    My all time favorite book is a memoir. It is in epistolary format, letters to males in the authors life. Some she has meet, some have impacted her even though she never laid eyes on them or knew their names. I have read this book seven times, and can easily see myself reading it seven more. Beautifully written, almost like poetry Mary-Louise Parker’s Dear Mr. You is an amazing book.

  4. Jill Fitzpatrick says:

    I love all things Jenny Lawson and Let’s Pretend this Never Happened is a great introduction to her. I really love her second memoir, Furiously Happy, in which she delves a little deeper into her struggles with autoimmune disease and mental health.

  5. Michele says:

    I loved Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s memoirs, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal, both of which are structured in unusual and captivating ways using text, art, and variations on formatting that give the reader a clear sense of how creative, quirky, and lovely Amy was.

    • Janice Skinner says:

      Yes! Amy Krouse Rosenthal is my favorite author. Her memoir is definitely uniquely structured. I bought the blank encyclopedia of me. I’ve always wanted to journal but the blank pages overwhelmed me. Amy’s format gave me courage! I am so glad you thought to add it to the list. I miss her, don’t you?

    • Rachel says:

      I came to comment the same thing! Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal is the most unique thing I’ve ever read: she’s clever and warm and so genuinely unique. I just read it for a second time.

  6. Susan says:

    I love the Rick Bragg book! Any of his books read on audio by him is fantastic!
    I read 84, Charing Cross Road a long time ago and I still remember the feeling I had as the main characters forge a friendship an ocean away through pen and ink and anticipation awaiting correspondence.

  7. Carolyn says:

    Born a Crime–an absolute MUST on audio! And Tell Me More…oh, my. One bit of advice: don’t do what I did! I listened on a flight. Muffled sobs…tiny airplane napkins (sad excuse for a hanky).

    To this list, I would add Maggie Smith’s Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. I also love May Sarton’s journals.

  8. Indiana Gigi says:

    This is my favorite genre!!! All of Kelly Corrigan’s books are perfection. Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens For A Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved, and her just published No Cure for Being Human are both stunning! Nora McInerny’s It’s OK to Laugh(Crying is Cool Too) is also great. On the lighter side, Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking never fails to make me laugh, and Leslie Jordan’s How Y’all Doin’? On audiobook in his distinctive voice is a delight:)

  9. Robin L Munn says:

    I loved Born a Crime. I listened to it on audio as read by the author. Fantastic! Thanks for the Rick Bragg recommendation. I recently finished his All Over but the Shoutin’. Excellent. That book had me smitten from chapter 1, page 1.

  10. Jená says:

    I nominate John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed, which doesn’t sound like a memoir but very much is. The audio version, which he narrates, is especially wonderful.

  11. Kristin says:

    I love Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas. The vignette structure appeals to me and she makes me laugh! I haven’t yet read her follow-up memoir, Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad, but I’d expect another stellar read.

  12. Betsy says:

    El Deafo is fantastic! I also loved Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes–a memoir in verse that is beautiful, breathtaking, and bittersweet (warning: some sexual abuse). Dear Exile by Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery is a dual memoir told through letters (sort of like 84 Charing Cross). One of the women is in Africa, serving in the Peace Corps for a year, and the other is in New York City. Fascinating and one I’ve read several times.

  13. Marta says:

    The Bright Hour. Achingly honest telling of Nina Riggs end of life – she lives each day lovingly and doesn’t lose her passion or humor.

  14. Jill Duffin says:

    Highly recommend I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell. Every chapter is her wonderful, extraordinary, rich prose. She has lived an amazingly different life and the talent to write so well about it.

  15. Libby says:

    If you liked Rob Lowe’s book, you will like Mathew McConaughney’s book, Greenlights. He narrates and is a great story teller. He too had an interesting childhood & outlook on life.

  16. Suzy says:

    I just want to comment that lately, when I try to click on the link in the email, to go to Modernmrsdarcy.com for one of these blog articles—- on both my android tablet and my iPad I get “Security Risk” and it won’t go there. On my computer it’s fine. Is it just me, or has anybody else had this issue?

  17. Suzy says:

    I really did enjoy I Miss You When I Blink, and I’m not one for a book of essays! But what about these excellent ones?
    My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
    The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
    When We Were the Kennedys by Monica Wood
    Four Seasons in Rome, by Anthony Doerr
    Lunch in Paris and Picnic in Provence, by Elizabeth Bard
    The Olive Farm, by Carol Drinkwater
    My Life in France, by Julia Child
    Animals in Translation, by Temple Grandin
    and Here if You Need Me, by Kate Braestrup

  18. Mary Anne Shew says:

    The style you’re talking about is creative non-fiction, defined as “true stories, well told.” For anyone interested in writing their own memoir in this style, I highly recommend “Fifty-Two Snapshots: A Memoir Starter Kit” by Sonja Livingston. Her book, “Ghostbread,” is a stellar example of this style and is about her childhood in upstate New York.

  19. Hilary says:

    Ree Drummond’s Frontier Follies made me laugh so hard that I cried! It was a book that was hard to put down. She is smart, witty, and tells about a life unlike most. Highly recommend!

  20. Karen Parnell says:

    Does Crying in H Mart count? I listened on audio, so it was hard to tell if is was written in essays, or just narrative.

    • Anne says:

      And I read the egalley, and the formatting isn’t always the best on those. I’m inclined to count it, and regardless, I thought it was incredible.

  21. Debbie says:

    Found this older list while looking for memoirs. Very helpful! I recommend The Beastie Boy Book, which is a memoir of the surviving Beastie Boys, written in essays, playlists, recipes, etc. I read it more for the 1980s NYC stories than because I am a big Beastie Boys fan, and I was surprised by how much I loved the whole thing! It’s really fun book.

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