swap_horiz Torch Alternatives

1

Becoming

Michelle Obamas memoir offers an intimate yet powerful look at navigating success, identity, and public life within the...

Politics Feminism Career Narrative Self Discovery

9.5 Brilliant

2

Into Thin Air

Jon Krakauer recounts the harrowing 1996 Everest disaster, transforming a mountaineering expedition into a gripping stud...

Adventure Mountaineering Survival Journalistic

9.3 Excellent

3

The Education of Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams is an autobiographical work by American historian Henry Adams, privately printed in 1907 an...

American Intellectual Adams Gilded Age

9.2 Excellent

4

Speak, Memory

Speak, Memory is Vladimir Nabokov's autobiographical account of his childhood in an aristocratic family in imperial Russ...

Literary Childhood Nabokov Russian American

9.2 Excellent

5

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiographical narrative by Harriet Jacobs, published in 1861 under the ps...

African American Feminist Slavery Jacobs

9.1 Excellent

6

Twelve Years a Slave

Twelve Years a Slave is an 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup, a free Black man from New York who was kidnapped in Washingto...

African American 19TH Century Slavery Northup

8.9 Great

7

Educated

Tara Westover's 'Educated' recounts her extraordinary journey from a survivalist upbringing in rural Idaho to earning a...

Resilience Education UK Escape

8.8 Great

8

The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls' 'The Glass Castle' chronicles her unconventional and impoverished childhood, raised by eccentric and of...

Family Dysfunction Childhood Memoir Struggle Narrative Voice

8.8 Great

9

An Autobiography

Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography, originally written in Gujarati and published in English in 1929, recounting his experime...

Mystery British Literary Agatha Christie

8.8 Great

10

The Liars' Club

The Liars' Club is Mary Karr's 1995 memoir about her childhood in an unstable family in an East Texas oil-refining town....

Texas Childhood Abuse Mary Karr

8.7 Great

11

De Profundis

De Profundis is an extended letter written by Oscar Wilde in 1897 while he was imprisoned in Reading Gaol and addressed...

Literary Victorian Prison Oscar Wilde

8.7 Great

12

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

Angela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by Frank McCourt about his childhood in poverty, principally in Limerick, Ireland, after...

Childhood Irish Poverty Mccourt

8.7 Great

13

Patrimony

Patrimony: A True Story is a 1991 memoir by American novelist Philip Roth about his father, Herman Roth, and the final p...

Family Grief Jewish American Philip Roth

8.3 Great

14

The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didions seminal work confronts the immediate, disorienting aftermath of profound loss. It is less a linear life sto...

Contemporary Grief Loss Bereavement

8.2 Great

15

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a 2000 memoir by American writer Dave Eggers. It recounts the deaths of bot...

Grief Literary Eggers Parenthood

8.2 Great

16

Blue Nights

Blue Nights is a 2011 memoir by American writer Joan Didion, centered on the death of her adopted daughter, Quintana Roo...

Grief Loss Literary Didion

7.8 Good

17

Love Is a Mix Tape

Love Is a Mix Tape is a 2007 memoir by music journalist Rob Sheffield. Organized around cassette mixtapes, it recounts h...

Music Grief Pop Culture Rob Sheffield

7.8 Good

18

The Cartographers Daughter: A Memoir

Elizabeth Brunos The Cartographers Daughter is a poignant and beautifully written memoir exploring her familys history a...

France Memory Loss Arts

7.5 Good

19

Truth & Beauty

Truth & Beauty: A Friendship is a 2004 memoir by American author Ann Patchett about her long friendship with poet and me...

Loss Literary Friendship Ann Patchett

7.5 Good

20

The House of Happy Endings

The House of Happy Endings is Leslie Garis's 2007 memoir about her family of writers, including her grandmother who auth...

American Family Grief Leslie Garis

6.3 Fair