Memoir

As a literary genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire from the Latin memoria, meaning "memory", or a reminiscence), forms a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable in modern parlance. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir.

Memoirs are structured differently from formal autobiographies which tend to encompass the writer's entire life span, focusing on the development of his/her personality. The chronological scope of memoir is determined by the work's context and is ...more

New Releases Tagged "Memoir"

Monster of a Land: On the Road in Search of Modern America

Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register

A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond

The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness

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Giveaways

The Necktie and the Jaguar by Carl Greer

The Necktie and the Jaguar: A memoir to help you change your story and find fulfillment

Carl Greer (Goodreads Author)

Release date: Apr 22, 2021

Enter to win 1 of 25 copies of The Necktie and the Jaguar: A Memoir to Help You Change Your Story and Find Fulfillment by Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD
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Availability: 25 copies available, 4699 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Jun 19 - Jul 18, 2026

Countries available: U.S.

Hotshot: A Life on Fire

River Selby (Goodreads Author)

Release date: Aug 12, 2025

The fierce debut memoir of a female firefighter, Hotshot navigates the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting

From 2000 to 2010, R The fierce debut memoir of a female firefighter, Hotshot navigates the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting

From 2000 to 2010, River Selby was a wildland firefighter whose given name was Anastasia. This is a memoir of that time in their life—of Ana, the struggles she encountered, and the contours of what it meant to be female-bodied in a male-dominated profession.

By the time they were 19, Selby had been homeless, addicted to drugs, and sexually assaulted more than once. In a last-ditch effort to find direction, they applied to be a wildland firefighter. Soon immersed in the world of firefighting and its arcana—from specialized tools named for the fire pioneers who invented them, to the back-breaking labor of racing against time to create firebreaks—Selby began to find an internal balance. Then, after two years of ragtag contract firefighting, Selby joined an elite class of specially trained wildland firefighters known as hotshots.

Over the course of five fire seasons, Selby delves into the world of the people—almost entirely men—who risk their lives to fight and sometimes prevent wildfires. Marked out in a sea of machismo, Selby was simultaneously hyper visible and invisible, and Hotshot deftly parses the odd mix of camaraderie and rampant sexism she experienced on her fire crews, and how, when challenged, it resulted in a violent closing of ranks that excluded her from the work she’d come to love. Drawing on years of firsthand experience on the frontlines of fire, followed by years of research into the science and history of fire, Hotshot also reckons with our fraught stewardship of the land—how federal fire policy is maladapted to the realities of fire-prone landscapes and how it has led to ever more severe fire seasons.

Hotshot is a work of intimacy and authority, nimbly merging a personal journey of reinvention and self-acceptance with expert insight into the textured history of ecological systems and Indigenous land tending, the modern practices that have led to their imbalance, and the people who fight fire. ...more
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Availability: 5 copies available, 3797 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Jun 19 - Jul 18, 2026

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Across the Ocean: The Return

Christopher Do (Goodreads Author)

Release date: May 12, 2026

We are giving away 4 first signed copies of this book by Christopher Do, author of “Across the Ocean: A Memoir.” Enter today!”
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Availability: 4 copies available, 1713 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Jun 19 - Jul 19, 2026

Countries available: U.S.

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Lists

Best Memoir / Biography / Autobiography

6,589 books — 7,856 voters

Best Biographies

1,754 books — 3,013 voters

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Medicine and Literature

2,012 books — 2,275 voters

Must Read Non-Fiction

5,425 books — 5,045 voters

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Books White People Need to Read

1,450 books — 1,815 voters

Best Woman-Authored Books

8,923 books — 6,583 voters

Memoir Books

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

More memoir books...

Related Genres

Biography
Autobiography
LGBT Memoir
Biograpĥy

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Quotes Tagged “Memoir”

“ Everyone knows that Africa is not reasonable place but if we can get across that neither are we, we strengthen the bond with the continent. People are not conscious beings, just ask any marketer. Irrationality of the early explorers, irrationality of the new ones, irrationality of the place we go into. What a great canvas we have to paint on... ”
― Hendri Coetzee, Living the Best Day Ever

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