Friends, this is a selection of some of the best memoirs you will ever read. However, they come with a twist. These memoirs are not just accounts of powerful and life-altering events in the lives of the authors, but are also laced with humor which makes the stories even more memorable.
What makes them the best memoirs?
The best memoirs are almost a legal way to snoop into the lives of famous people. Well, it’s not really snooping because they get to tell the stories themselves, but you get my point.
Many a time, readers have lamented that memoirs can be boring/unremarkable with lackluster writing (probably because the authors are not professional writers), however, this selection contains some of the best memoirs ever written: heartfelt, poignant, seminal, and every other blurby adjective you can think of to describe a phenomenal read.
Here’s a list of some of the best memoirs of our time.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy
How could a child be glad about her mother’s death?
As you read this poignant memoir and witness the abusive relationship Jenette McCurdy had with her mother, you start to see the weight behind the book’s title.
What makes it great?
With this heartfelt memoir, Jenette McCurdy shows us the complicated family relationships that exist in Hollywood as she recounts her own life as a child star with a momager.
Starring in hit shows on Nickelodeon- icarly and Sam & Cat, McCurdy publicly painted the picture of a happy, bubbly, funniest-kid-in-the-room, however when the cameras were not glaring at her, she was battling eating disorders, addictions, and a level of abuse a child should not experience from their mother.
Though the book is quite tear-jerking, Jeanette infuses humor to make this deeply personal memoir less harrowing.
Hollywood actress Lena Dunham says in her review, “Jennette McCurdy is the queen of lemonade from lemons, using her trauma to weave a painfully funny story that also illuminates the commodification of teenage girls in America. An important cultural document just as much as a searingly personal one.”
Check out – I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy
Buy Yourself The F*cking Lillies by Tara Schuster
It takes unapologetic audacity to have a cuss word as your book title, which says a lot about the author and the story behind this memoir.
Tara Schuster describes her home as a place where “.. things came to die: from pets to plants, everything was neglected.” including herself. Despite achieving great success, her childhood began to shake the adult life she thought she had figured out.
At just 25, Tara had become a TV executive having worked with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and launched a successful series Key & Peele to superstardom. However, behind the scenes, it was a mental and emotional world war. Tara was anxious and borderline depressed.
She knew she had hit rock bottom and needed to change her life when she drunk-called her therapist.
What makes it great?
Buy Your F*cking Lillies is a memoir that is an exquisite memoir full of personal history and unflinching honesty tied together using humorous writing. It takes readers on Tara’s path of self-parenting, self-love, and self-care.
Glennon Doyle, author of New York Bestseller UNTAMED gushed about the author and the story saying, “You’re going to want Tara Schuster to become your new best friend after reading this.”
Check out – Buy Yourself The F*cking Lillies by Tara Schuster
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
If you haven’t watched any of Trevor Noah’s stand-up shows or an episode of The Daily Show, then his memoir will be a fantastic introduction to this young black man whose first crime in this world was being born. Yes, the title actually describes his entry on earth.
Born to a black Xhosa mother and a Swiss father in the twilight of apartheid in South Africa, the birth of this light-skinned boy was punishable by five years in prison.
This collection of eighteen personal essays tells us of the life of this mischievous boy and his growth into a young man desperate to find his place in a world he should never have existed.
From substituting caterpillars for dinner on difficult days to being thrown off a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, Noah gives us a look into not just his life, but that of his mother- a strongly religious woman who was rebellious and relentless at ensuring she saved her son from the cycle of poverty and crime that surrounded them.
What makes it great?
Noah weaves this profoundly personal story with pure honesty and his usual humorous mastery of words, painting a vivid picture and giving us an excellent memoir.
Commenting about this #1 New York Times bestseller, internet personality and comedian Hannah Hart says, “Everyone must read this book for a strong dose of reality served with a side of laughter.”
It is by far one of the most beautifully-written memoirs and dare I say, an essential read.
Check out – Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
Bossypants by Tina Fey
You are no one until someone calls you bossy.
That’s what Tina Fey demonstrates from the first paragraph to the very last sentence in this memoir.
Before ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Sarah Palin’, Tina Fey was your girl next door who had a recurring dream; a dream where she was chased by her middle-school gym teacher through a local airport. Besides that, she had a dream she would one day become a comedian on Tv.
Tina got to see both of these dreams come true.
What makes it great?
The autobiographical essays in this laugh-out-loud, smart, utterly authentic memoir are pure gold. Tina finally gets to tell her true story: the good, the bad, the utterly unbelievable, and the heart-warming.
Though it is quite a funny and easy read, she includes some profound pointers on crucial topics making it an even more interesting memoir.
Check out – Bossypants by Tina Fey
The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
Humor and telling jokes were Tiffany’s way of surviving her rough start in life.
Growing up poor, being abused by her biological mother then put in the foster system as a teen, and struggling to keep up in school, Haddish making people laugh was the only way she would endure the stress that surrounded her life.
Given a chance between the Laugh Factory comedy camp and going for counseling to deal with the trauma foster care had inflicted upon her, Haddish chose the former and in that path found her purpose.
What makes it great?
The Last Black Unicorn gives us an entry into Tiffany’s life all the way from being the paid high school mascot to when she hit stardom.
The Last Black Unicorn gives us an entry into Tiffany’s life all the way from being the paid high school mascot to when she hit stardom.
It is impossible for Tiffany to not be funny, even when she narrates plotting revenge on her ex-boyfriend, or trying to navigate her new life in Hollywood, or even living in her dream house while still having a broke girl mindset.
This memoir is ribcrackingly funny, but also heartbreakingly sad, you cannot help but love it.
The Breakfast Club co-host and Tv personality, Charlamagne tha God gushed over Tiffany’s vibrance in life saying, “I can’t get enough of Tiffany. Whatever God gave her in the energy department needs to be bottled up and sold so everybody can instantly feel good. Once you hear her story and her approach to life you literally feel like you can do anything.”
Check out – The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
Too Much Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood by Andrew Rannells
All the way from Omaha, Nebraska, Andrew Rannells was enthralled by New York City. He saw a bright opportunity for life on Broadway as the leading star he knew he was.
What makes it great?
Too Much is Not Enough is a true story that confirms that overnight success takes a LONG time to come by.
In the funniest yet honest way, Rannells takes readers on the journey of a young twenty-something-year-old sexually confused young man yearning to experience everything.
A journey punctuated with crashing heartbreak, standing ovations, wild nights, and life-altering realizations.
While right at the height of his ascent on the Greate White Way, Rannels lost his father to a heart attack. In his very personal essays, he shares the lessons that came with that loss and how they shifted his life.
From broadway leading man to voice actor and now author, Andrew Rannells gives us a sneak peek behind the curtain on just how hard it is to break out and hit success in showbiz in this seminal memoir.
Andy Cohen, the author of Most Talkative, praises this memoir saying, ” Andrew’s coming-of-age, coming-of-fame story is hilarious, touching, and relatable. I devoured it in a day and I already can’t wait to read his next book?”
Check out – Too Much Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood by Andrew Rannells
The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Get Pregnant
Dan Savage is known for his notorious read-under-the-covers sex-advice column Savage Love, which has provided a weekly dose of juicy, read-under-the-covers stories for thirty years. In his memoir, Dan lets his audience into his natural world: his family and relationship
As a gay couple, trying to adopt a child is a grueling experience no one can ever prepare you for.
For Dan and his husband it was no different, actually, it was actually world war level of tension between the couple and the rest of their family, friends, conservative groups, adoption agencies, and then the problematic biological mother.
What makes it great?
In a country where gay adoption still stirs great tension, this memoir makes an essential read in understanding the struggles of non-conventional couples when it comes to starting a family.
The journey of trying to create a loving and fun home for a child in dire need of love and parenting is well penned out in this memoir.
Check out – The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Get Pregnant
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? By Roz Chast
Have you seen a memoir that feels like a comic book?
Newyorker’s cartoonist Roz Chast introduces us to a different kind of memoir. Using four-color comic characters, Chast shares the story of her family and offers great comfort to anyone dealing with taking responsibility of elderly parents.
What makes it great?
Roz Chast transfers her creative acumen into this tear-jerking as it is a rib-cracking memoir about her aging parents’ lives. She had been in denial about her parents’ aging, but when things clearly were no longer looking the same, it was time to accept.
She soon realized she could no longer put off being the adult child who takes up the parental role of making the tough decisions.
The most difficult decision she had to make was moving her unstable parents from their dream house to an institution and hiring strangers to offer the most personal care.
With the numerous awards this memoir has garnered, we see Roz’s extensive skill and mastery not only as a cartoonist but as a phenomenal storyteller as well.
Check out – Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? By Roz Chast
Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas.
In these hilarious yet heartfelt memoir essays, we see the author Eric Thomas navigate self-doubt and try to find his place in a world where he always felt like an ‘other’.
From attending a fancy predominantly white high school, to the conservative black church his family fellowshipped, he excellently defines what it felt like growing up looking at the world from the outside.
What makes it great?
Taking a look at his life growing up, Eric articulately pens the struggle of existing in conflicting worlds.
In college, he had to code switch to fit in, as he came to understand his sexuality he struggled to reconcile it with the Christian beliefs instilled in him as a child, and then came hitting internet fame for the wrong reasons and so much more.
This is an honest yet hilarious story of a young man seeking to find his place, write his story and redefine what ‘normal’ looks like.
Award-winning humorist and author Broken Jenny Lawson says, “I laughed. I cried. I wish wI would have written it myself.”
Check out – Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas.
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb
When Bess Kalb left home for Hollywood, she never deleted her grandmother Bobby’s voicemails. In 2017, her grandma died.
Bess decided to immortalize Bobby by writing a book where her grandma spoke to her one more time. This beautiful memoir is an oral family history that captures four generations of the Kalb women- from great-grandmother, grandmother (Bobby), mother, and finally Bess.
What makes it great?
We begin with the great-grandmother (Bobby’s mother)- she escaped the pogroms of Belarus as a teenager and traveled to the US on her own.
During her stay, she had five children: four boys and a last-born daughter who seemed to have arrived a little late and felt like a child too many. This made her less affectionate and never quite present with the little girl.
This little girl grew to become Bobby, who unfortunately passed down the distance mothering she received to her own daughter as well.
During the writing of the book, Bess held multiple interviews with her mother where she learned that although Bobby was a doting grandmother, she was a distant mother.
“I have not been as profoundly moved by a book in years.” Bestselling author Jodi Picoult confessed in her review. “If you have a mother or grandmother, or ARE a mother or a grandmother, this is required reading. Bess Kalb’s fictional-factual tribute to the relationship she had with her grandmother—the way her history was passed to her by blood, along with bright memories and Jewish guilt and fierce, fierce love—could have been my own story. When I stop crying, I’m calling my mother immediately and making her read it.”
Check out – Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb
The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell
You probably know him from his CNN hit show United Shades of America or from the Newyorker and the New York Times praising his unique brand of humor-writing.
W. Kamau Bell is exceptionally skilled at breaking down and dissecting world issues in humorous informative ways.
Famous for speaking unequivocally about race, the LGBT community, and women’s issues, Kamau Bell finally puts down his thoughts on paper in this debut book.
What makes it great?
Staying true to his brand, Kamau Bell wittily tackles a range of evergreen topics such as what it means to be a black nerd, growing up in a family of black strong-willed race-conscious parents, the state of law enforcement in the United States, being in an interracial marriage, and so much more.
This is one timeless memoir that strikes a unique balance between entertaining and informative.
Check out – The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell
The Girl With The Lower-Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
Taking a walk down memory lane, Emmy award-winning actor Amy Schumer shares this ridiculously hilarious collection of essays about her life: from her teenage quest for popularity to her lust-at-first-sight encounter at an airport waiting line and how all these little occurrences contribute to the woman she is today.
What makes it great?
Schumer defies describing her memoir as an autobiography or a self-help book, rather referring to it as a collection of stories borrowed from her journal entries beginning at the age of thirteen to twenty-three.
If you only take one thing from this book it should be that Amy Schumer is honest with herself- even the parts many of us battle to hide.
Schumer’s co-star in the movie Trainwreck, Tilda Swinton gushed about the author saying, “Amy’s got your back. She’s in your corner. She’s an honesty bomb. And she’s coming for you.”
It is in the stories she recounts that we learn just how these imperfect parts shaped and built her confidence to stand up for what she believes in.
Check out – The Girl With The Lower-Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
You’re Never Wierd On The Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day
The internet is not all makeup tutorials, dance videos and fashion hauls, there’s Felicia Day- an actress, a talented violinist, a compulsive gamer, a content creator, and an internet mogul.
Growing up as a lonely homeschooled girl, Felicia carved out a place for herself in the world through acting. Starting out in community theatres, she ended up in Hollywood.
The acting world did not quite turn out to be as exciting and fulfilling as she had hoped, so she turned to gaming- a pass time she loved dearly that quickly spiraled into an addiction.
What makes it great?
In her hilarious yet inspiring book, Felicia talks about embracing being different, being bold enough to share this uniqueness with the world, and finding happiness through it all.
If you did not know Felicia Day before this, you are bound to be her biggest fan after reading this book.
Jane Espenson, writer for Buffy the Vampire Slayer- one of the shows Felicia starred in says, “Math nerd defies physics! Felicia Day, who is woven from moonbeams, has written a book that seems lighter than air, but that ends up punching you firmly in the emotions. Felicia lays out a hilarious tale of how her unique upbringing, eclectic skill set, and killer work ethic led to The Guild, one of the pioneering works of online creativity. In the process, she pulls you inside her delicate skull, so that the final moving chapters aren’t as much read as they are experienced. An excellent book.”
Check out – You’re Never Wierd On The Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? , we meet Mindy Kaling before Hollywood and fame. Young Mindy was an obedient little girl to immigrant parents, a Ben Affleck impersonator, and a chubby kid with awkward social skills.
What makes it great?
As the story progresses, we see Mindy evolve from the chubby kid afraid of her own bike, to an award-winning playwright, a comedy writer, an actor, and the founder of ‘The Mindy Project.’
In this memoir, she pens her unscientific opinion and observation on Hollywood, love, friendship and so much more.
You will be thoroughly fascinated by what she thinks makes a good best friend (a person who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night) or the perfect level of fame (famous enough to never get convicted of murder in court).
When it comes to Mindy, expect pure comedy and thorough honesty in her thoughts and adventures.
Check out – Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Here sits a unique read that introduces us to a unique lady (Allie Brosh) and her even more unique dog.
Allie is a comic artist, blogger, and writer best known for the webcomic-style blog Hyperbole and a Half, which happens to be the title of her debut book.
In her book, she tells stories about things that happened to her, things that happened because of her, stories about dogs, and adventures that seem to have only taken place in her head.
What makes it great?
To say that this book is ‘just good’ would be a gross understatement, it is absolutely special.
Even billionaire and author, Bill Gates concurs, “[This book] is an honest-to-goodness summer read. You will rip through it in three hours, tops. But you’ll wish it went on longer because it’s funny and smart as hell.”
On her blog, Allie tells laugh-out-loud stories and brings the same energy to her books.
With how-did-you-think-of-that titles such as The God of Cake, she chronicles her highs and lows, the mishaps and learnings from her character flaws, her boisterous childhood, the joys and challenges of owning a mentally challenged dog, and her tear-jerking yet comical account of struggling with depression.
The book contains some very heavy and heart-wrenching parts that will have you shed some tears, but it will also crack your ribs.
In addition to the great writing, the book is splashed with pictures- the author is a comic artist after all.
Check out – Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh