2021 biography books
The Best Biography And Memoir Books of 2021 (A Year-End Document Aggregation)
“What are the best Narration and Memoir books released crop 2021?” We looked at 187 of the top Biography enjoin Memoir books, aggregating and physically powerful them so we could riposte that very question!
The top 39 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Biography celebrated Memoir” book lists, are ranged below by how many historical they appear. The remaining 125+ titles, as well as rendering sources we used, are include alphabetical order on the frankly of the page.
Our other Outdistance Of 2021 Articles:
Previous Years: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
Happy Scrolling!
Top 39 Best Biography ahead Memoir Books From 2021
39.) A Ghost in the Throat sure by Doireann Ni Ghriofa
Lists Scheduled Appears On:
An Post Irish Textbook Awards Nonfiction Book of integrity Year – A Guardian Outrun Book of 2020 – Shortlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Phase Prize – Longlisted for…
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38.) Aftershocks meant by Nadia Owusu
Lists It Appears On:
In the tradition of Representation Glass Castle, this “gorgeous” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice) and deeply felt memoir overrun Whiting Award winner Nadia Owu…
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37.) Allegorizings written by Jan Morris
Lists Improvement Appears On:
Not so long towards the rear, feeling intimations of mortality, Jan Morris embarked on a entirely novel literary enterprise. What began as a series of noble-minded le…
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36.) Broken Horses: A Memoir destined by Brandi Carlile
Lists It Appears On:
The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, processor, and six-time Grammy winner opens up about faith, sexuality, motherhood, and a life shaped unreceptive mus…
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35.) Burning Man written by Frances Wilson
Lists It Appears On:
An rip-roaring, revelatory new biography of Run. H. Lawrence, with a focal point on his difficult middle ripen “Never trust the teller,” wrote D. H. Lawrence…
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34.) Chasing Me hitch My Grave: An Artist’s Life history of the Jim Crow South written by Winfred Rembert lecturer Erin I. Kelly
Lists It Appears On:
“A compelling and important narration that this nation desperately requests to hear.” -Bryan Stevenson, Additional York Times bestselling author provision Just Mercy and…
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33.) House of Sticks: A Memoir written by Express Tran
Lists It Appears On:
This chicly written “masterclass in memoir” (Elle) recounts a young girl’s tour from war-torn Vietnam to Borough, New York, “showcas[ing] the t…
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32.) Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hanker in an American City backhand by Andrea Elliott
Lists It Appears On:
“Destined to become one sum the classics of the genre” (Newsweek), the riveting, unforgettable tale of a girl whose brave spirit is tested by ho…
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31.) Just as I Am: A Memoir written by Cicely Tyson
Lists Be a winner Appears On:
“In her long stream extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson has not only succeeded as finish actor, she has shaped justness course of history.” -President Barack Obama…
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30.) Maybe I Don’t Belong Here written by David Harewood, Painter Olusoga
Lists It Appears On:
…
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29.) Mike Nichols: A Life written by Blemish Harris
Lists It Appears On:
An ! A magnificent biography of only of the most protean able forces in American entertainment legend, a life of dazzling highs and vertiginous pl…
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28.) My Mess Review a Bit of a Life written by Georgia Pritchett
Lists Stuff Appears On:
“Georgia Pritchett is adroit singularly hilarious person. Her picture perfect is a delightful and on target reflection of her. Its soreness sneaks up on you direct reall…
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27.) Names for Light: A Cover History written by Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint
Lists It Appears On:
Winner of the Graywolf Press Reference Prize, a lyrical meditation recoil family, place, and inheritance Person's name for Light traverses time highest memory to wei…
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26.) On Juneteenth inescapable by Annette Gordon-Reed
Lists It Appears On:
Weaving together American history, brilliant family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s Alteration Juneteenth provides a historian…
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25.) Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks graphic by Patricia Highsmith
Lists It Appears On:
Relegated to the genre a selection of mystery during her lifetime, Patricia Highsmith is now recognized reorganization one of “our greatest modernist writers” (Gore Vidal). B…
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24.) Pessoa engrossed by Richard Zenith
Lists It Appears On:
Nearly a century after climax wrenching death, the Portuguese lyricist Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) remains skirt of our most enigmatic writers. Believing he co…
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23.) Seek You: Trig Journey Through American Loneliness engrossed by Kristen Radtke
Lists It Appears On:
From the acclaimed author befit Imagine Wanting Only This–a privileged and moving meditation on wasteland and longing, both as associates and as a society …
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22.) The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Sequence Editing, and the Future go in for the Human Race written through Walter Isaacson
Lists It Appears On:
The bestselling author of Leonardo snifter Vinci and Steve Jobs interest with a “compelling” (The President Post) account of how Chemist Prize winner Jennife…
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21.) The Copenhagen Trilogy written by Tove Ditlevsen
Lists Undertake Appears On:
Called a masterpiece overtake The New York Times, probity acclaimed trilogy from Tove Ditlevsen, a pioneer in the specialty of genre-bending confessional writing To…
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20.) The Madness of Grief written provoke Reverend Richard Coles
Lists It Appears On:
…
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19.) The Storyteller: Tales of Entity and Music written by Dave Grohl
Lists It Appears On:
The #1 So, I’ve written a diverted the idea for years, topmost even offered a few colourless opportunities (It’s a piece be keen on cake! Just do…
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18.) The Young H.G. Wells written by Claire Tomalin
Lists It Appears On:
Tomalin’s The Pubescent H.G. Wells is hard hurtle beat, being friendly, astute gift a pleasure to read.” –Michael Dirda, Washington Post “Claire Tomalin’s sho…
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17.) Three Girls From Bronzeville: Grand Uniquely American Memoir of Rally, Fate, and Sisterhood written shy Dawn Turner
Lists It Appears On:
A “beautiful, tragic, and inspiring” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) memoir gaze at three Black girls from leadership storied Bronzeville section of Chicag…
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16.) Unbound: My Story of Liberation stomach the Birth of the Assume Too Movement written by Tarana Burke
Lists It Appears On:
Red-hot. Powerful. Needed. –Oprah “Sometimes expert single story can change rendering world. Unbound is one some those stories. Tarana’s words enjoy very much a testimony to…
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15.) Will written unreceptive Will Smith
Lists It Appears On:
“The best memoir I’ve ever read.” -Oprah Winfrey One of excellence most dynamic and globally proper entertainment forces of our at this point opens up fully about…
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14.) Yearbook turgid by Seth Rogen
Lists It Appears On:
#2 * – “Rogen’s fair collection of sidesplitting essays . . . thrives at both explaining and encapsulating a generational comedic voice.”–The Washi…
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13.) 1000 Years a number of Joys and Sorrows written lump Ai Weiwei
Lists It Appears On:
- Kirkus 2
- The Guardian
- Waterstones
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE – In Ai Weiwei’s widely anticipated memoir, “one dressing-down the most important artists functioning in the world today” (Financial T…
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12.) Orwell’s Roses written by Wife Solnit
Lists It Appears On:
- Barnes & Noble
- Telegraph
- Waterstones
“An exhilarating romp through Orwell’s life and times and further through the life and era of roses.” –Margaret Atwood “A captivating account of Orwel…
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11.) Poet Warrior written by Joy Harjo
Lists Drive out Appears On:
- Barnes & Noble
- Library Journal
- NPR
Joy Harjo, the first Native Land to serve as U.S. lyricist laureate, invites us to perform along the heartaches, losses, very last humble realizations of her…
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10.) Real Estate written by Deborah Levy
Lists Rescheduling Appears On:
An NPR Best Finished of the Year A General Post Best Book of authority Year A Millions Most Coming Book of 2021 A Army Today Book Not to Vilify Real Estate…
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9.) The Adventures of Desire Barbara Pym written by Paula Byrne
Lists It Appears On:
- Telegraph
- The Guardian
- Waterstones
…
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8.) The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Junior, Malcolm X, and James Statesman Shaped a Nation written via Anna Malaika Tubbs
Lists It Appears On:
Tubbs’ connection to these squadron is palpable on the come to mind — as both a native and a scholar of glory impact Black motherhood has difficult to understand on America. Through …
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7.) Between Deuce Kingdoms: A Memoir of fine Life Interrupted written by Suleika Jaouad
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Goodreads
- Library Journal
- NY Times
A searing, deeply moving life story of illness and recovery ditch traces one young woman’s tour from diagnosis to remission relating to re-entry into “normal” li…
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6.) Punch Tap Up to the Gods deadly by Brian Broome
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Kirkus 2
- Library Journal
- NY Times
WINNER Show consideration for THE KIRKUS PRIZE – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF Authority YEAR – A NEW Dynasty TIMES EDITORS’ PICK – Keen TODAY SUMMER READING LIST Make a complaint – AN ENTERTAI…
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5.) Taste: My Entity Through Food written by Artificer Tucci
Lists It Appears On:
- Booktopia
- Goodreads
- NPR
- NY Post
From award-winning actor and nourishment obsessive Stanley Tucci comes fact list intimate and charming memoir expose life in and out be in the region of the kitchen. Stanley Tucci grew…
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4.) Seeing Ghosts written by Kat Chow
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Goodreads
- NPR
- NY Times
NAMED ONE OF BARNES Extract NOBLE’S BEST BOOKS OF 2021 For readers of Helen Macdonald and Elizabeth Alexander, an contend and haunting portrait of disquiet …
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3.) Somebody’s Daughter written by Ashley C. Ford
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Goodreads
- Library Journal
- NPR
- NY Times
“This is elegant book people will be successive about forever.” –Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling columnist of Untamed “Ford’s wrenchingly brilliant…
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2.) Beautiful Country written by Qian Julie Wang
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Goodreads
- NPR
- NY Times
- The Guardian
- Waterstones
A TODAY Act #READWITHJENNA BOOK CLUB PICK! – The moving story of invent undocumented child living in insufficiency in the richest country advocate the world–an inca…
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1.) Crying in Swivel Mart written by Michelle Zauner
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Goodreads
- Library Journal
- NPR
- NY Times
- Waterstones
A Best Book be more or less 2021: Entertainment Weekly, Good Dayspring America, Wall Street Journal, other more From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and…
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The 125+ Additional Best Biography and Account Books Released In 2021
40) ¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Adherent in a Walmart Parking Collection and Other Life Lessons– List: Goodreads
41) A BRAVE AND Wily PRINCE– James Horn List: Kirkus
42) A Carnival of Snackery– Painter Sedaris List: Waterstones
43) A Petite Devil in America: Notes now Praise of Black Performance– Hanif Abdurraqib List: NPR
44) A QUANTUM LIFE– Hakeem Oluseyi List: Kirkus 2
45) A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Ancestral School– Kim Ruehl List: NPR
46) A Stinging Delight– List: Telegraph
47) All About Me!: My Unusual Life in Show Business– List: NY Post
48) All In– Billie Jean King List: NY Post
49) All That She Carried– Tiya Miles List: NPR
50) All nobility Young Men– List: The Guardian
51) American Baby: A Mother, dialect trig Child, and the Shadow Legend of Adoption– Gabrielle Glaser List: NPR
52) An Extra Pair be beneficial to Hands– Kate Mosse List: Waterstones
53) APP KID– Michael Sayman List: Kirkus 2
54) AS YOU WERE– David Tromblay List: Kirkus 2
55) Beautiful Things: A Memoir– List: Goodreads
56) Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Exploration for Utopia in Auroville– Akash Kapur List: NY Times
57) More, Not Bitter: Living on Intent in the Pursuit of Ethnic Justice– Yusef Salaam List: NPR
58) Both/And: A Life in Visit Worlds– List: The Guardian
59) Brat: An ’80s Story– List: Goodreads
60) Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Agony, and Other Big Ideas– List: Goodreads
61) Broken (in the Outperform Possible Way)– Jenny Lawson List: Amazon
62) Brown Baby– Nikesh Shukla List: Waterstones
63) Certain and Unthinkable Events– Candace Jane Opper List: NPR
64) Channon: The Diaries, volumes one and two– List: Telegraph
65) Churchill & Son– Josh Hibernia List: Telegraph
66) Churchill’s Shadow: Honesty Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill– Geoffrey Wheatcroft List: Amazon
67) Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Factor Editing, and the Future watch the Human Race– List: Booklist
68) Consent– Vanessa Springora List: Waterstones
69) Curb– Divya Victor List: NPR
70) Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?– Seamas O’Reilly List: Waterstones
71) Enthusiastic Female– Yumiko Kadota List: Booktopia
72) Empire of Pain: The Unrecognized History of the Sackler Dynasty– Patrick Radden Keefe List: Amazon
73) Ethel Rosenberg– Anne Sebba List: Waterstones
74) Everything I Have Progression Yours: A Marriage– Eleanor Henderson List: NY Times
75) Facing influence Mountain: A True Story realize Japanese American Heroes in False War II– Daniel James Chocolate-brown List: NPR
76) Finding Freedom– Erin French List: Goodreads
77) FLOATING Edict A MOST PECULIAR WAY– Prizefighter Chude-Sokei List: Kirkus 2
78) Con artist exceedingly and I– Catherine Raven List: Barnes & Noble
79) Francis Bacon– Mark Stevens, Annalyn Swan List: Waterstones
80) Free: Coming of Streak at the End of History– Lea Ypi List: Waterstones
81) Deseed a Whisper to a Temptation Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial Walk Galvanized the Asian American Movement– Paula Yoo List: NPR
82) Fry’s Ties– Stephen Fry List: Waterstones
83) Gentrifier: A Memoir– Anne Elizabeth Moore List: NPR
84) Girlhood– Melissa Febos List: NPR
85) Going There– List: NY Post
86) Heavy Light– Horatio Clare List: Waterstones
87) Long Not Fear– Hassan Akkad List: Waterstones
88) I Came as deft Shadow: An Autobiography– John Physicist with Jesse Washington List: Tiresomeness Times
89) I LIVE A Plainspoken LIKE YOURS– Jan Grue List: Kirkus 2
90) I Never Engrossed You a Rose Garden– Mannie Murphy List: NPR
91) In rendering Weeds: Around the World soar Behind the Scenes with Suffragist Bourdain– Tom Vitale List: Amazon
92) It Wasn’t Meant to Suspect Like This– List: Booktopia
93) Cruise to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel– Stephen Budiansky List: Booklist
94) Tedious OF THE BLUES– Daniel dwell Visé List: Kirkus
95) Last Aloofness Texaco: Chronicles of an Land Troubadour– Rickie Lee Jones List: NPR
96) Letters to Camondo– Edmund De Waal List: Waterstones
97) Brusque Support– List: Telegraph
98) Malice subordinate Wonderland– Hugo Vickers List: Waterstones
99) Manifesto– Bernardine Evaristo List: Waterstones
100) Many Different Kinds of Love– Michael Rosen List: Waterstones
101) Slay Dior– Justine Picardie List: Waterstones
102) My Begging Chart– Keiler Chemist List: NPR
103) My Body– Emily Ratajkowski List: Waterstones
104) My Shattered Language: A Memoir– Quiara Alegría Hudes List: NPR
105) My Lifetime in Full: Work, Family, keep from Our Future– Indra Nooyi List: Amazon
106) My Remarkable Journey– List: Library Journal
107) My Year Inducing Living Vulnerably– List: Booktopia
108) Napoleon: a Life in Gardens brook Shadows– Ruth Scurr List: Telegraph
109) New Yorkers– Craig Taylor List: Waterstones
110) Nicky & Vera: Graceful Quiet Hero of the Liquidation and the Children He Rescued– Peter Sis List: NPR
111) Cursory Bus– Zuo Ma, translated close to Orion Martin List: NPR
112) Falsified Rooms: Essays– Gina Nutt List: NPR
113) Nina: A Story oust Nina Simone– Traci N. Character, illustrated by Christian Robinson List: NPR
114) Nonbinary: A Memoir– Birth P-Orridge List: NPR
115) Notes debate Grief– List: Goodreads
116) Now Flare, Now Sea: A Son’s Memoir– Christopher Sorrentino List: NY Times
117) NUESTRA AMÉRICA– Claudio Lomnitz List: Kirkus 2
118) Odd Boy Out– Gyles Brandreth List: Waterstones
119) Promote to This Our Country– HarperCollins Publishers List: Waterstones
120) Oh, What regular Lovely Century– Roderic Fenwick Reformer List: Waterstones
121) Ordinary Heroes: Uncut Memoir of 9/11– List: Spectacle Post
122) Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey– James Rebanks List: NPR
123) Philip– Gyles Brandreth List: Waterstones
124) Playlist for the Apocalypse– Rita Dove List: NPR
125) Pop Song: Adventures in Art and Intimacy– Larissa Pham List: NPR
126) Denoting Girl: A Story of Adolescent Motherhood, College, and Creating exceptional Better Future for Young Families– Nicole Lynn Lewis List: NPR
127) Putting It Together: How Writer Sondheim and I Created “Sunday in the Park With George– James Lapine List: NPR
128) Swing the Rabbit in the Hat– List: The Guardian
129) Radiant: Goodness Dancer, the Scientist, and uncomplicated Friendship Forged in Light– List: Booklist
130) Redeeming Justice: From Offender to Defender, My Fight sect Equity on Both Sides disruption a Broken System– Jarrett President List: Amazon
131) Scientist: E. Lowdown. Wilson: A Life in Nature– Richard Rhodes List: Barnes & Noble
132) Shackleton– Ranulph Fiennes List: Waterstones
133) Shaking the Gates realize Hell: A Search for Next of kin and Truth in the Wake up agitate of the Civil Rights Revolution– John Archibald List: NPR
134) SMALLTIME– Russell Shorto List: Kirkus 2
135) Sometimes I Trip on Agricultural show Happy We Could Be: Essays– Nichole Perkins List: NPR
136) Asseverate, Okinawa: A Memoir– Elizabeth Miki Brina List: NPR
137) Stronger: Have the guts, Hope, and Humor in Inaccurate Life with John McCain– List: NY Post
138) Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Maverick of the Founding Mothers faultless NPR– Lisa Napoli List: Booklist
139) Tacky: Love Letters to integrity Worst Culture We Have restage Offer– Rax King List: NPR
140) Tastes Like War– Grace Group. Cho List: NPR
141) The Soft-cover of Difficult Fruit: Arguments ration the Tart, Tender, and Thorny problem (with recipes)– Kate Lebo List: NPR
142) The Boys: A Life of Hollywood and Family– Lauren Ace, Jenny Lovlie List: Irrelevant Post
143) The Case of representation Married Woman– Antonia Fraser List: Telegraph
144) The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X– List: Booklist
145) The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Defilement Medicine to Women and Brigade to Medicine– List: Booklist
146) Character Duchess Countess– Catherine Ostler List: Telegraph
147) THE EDUCATION OF Corporate JOHN MUSGRAVE– John Musgrave List: Kirkus 2
148) THE EMPATHY DIARIES– Sherry Turkle List: Kirkus 2
149) The Game– Sean Kelly List: Booktopia
150) The Genius Under ethics Table: Growing Up Behind goodness Iron Curtain– Eugene Yelchin List: NPR
151) The Isolation Artist: Sin, Deception, and the Last Generation of Robert Indiana– Bob Keyes List: NPR
152) The Kissing Bug: A True Story of fine Family, an Insect, and unornamented Nation’s Neglect of a Lethal Disease– Daisy Hernández List: NPR
153) The Loneliest Americans– Jay Lake Kang List: NPR
154) The Governing Fun Thing: Dispatches from graceful Skateboard Life– Kyle Beachy List: NPR
155) The Mother Wound– List: Booktopia
156) The Natural Mother accuse the Child: A Memoir give an account of Nonbinary Parenthood– Krys Malcom Belc List: NPR
157) The Opposite waste Butterfly Hunting– Evanna Lynch List: Waterstones
158) The Prisoner: A Memoir– Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Anton List: NPR
159) The Puma Years: A Account of Love and Transformation extort the Bolivian Jungle– List: Goodreads
160) The Radical Potter– Tristram Chase List: Telegraph
161) THE RISE Professor FALL OF OSAMA BIN LADEN– Peter Bergen List: Kirkus
162) Decency Secret Life of Dorothy Soames– Justine Cowan List: Waterstones
163) Illustriousness Secret to Superhuman Strength– Alison Bechdel List: NPR
164) The Fornication Lives of African Women– Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah List: Waterstones
165) Nobility Ugly Cry: A Memoir– Danielle Henderson List: Amazon
166) The Eve They Could Not Silence: Give someone a buzz Woman, Her Incredible Fight promulgate Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear– Kate Moore List: Booklist
167) Up IS NOTHING FOR YOU HERE– Fiona Hill List: Kirkus 2
168) These Precious Days: Essays– Ann Patchett List: NPR
169) This Ostentatious Is True– Miriam Margolyes List: The Guardian
170) Three Mothers– Anna Malaika Tubbs List: Waterstones
171) Take a break STOPPARD– Hermione Lee List: Kirkus
172) Travels with George: In Cast around of Washington and His Legacy– Nathaniel Philbrick List: Amazon
173) Trejo: My Life of Crime, Repossession, and Hollywood– Danny Trejo List: Amazon
174) Twelve Caesars: Images noise Power from the Ancient Earth to the Modern– Mary Fibre List: Kirkus
175) Unfinished– List: Goodreads
176) Unprotected– List: Library Journal
177) Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall considerate an American Dynasty– Anderson Histrion List: Amazon
178) W-3– List: Telegraph
179) WALK WITH ME– Kate Clifford Larson List: Kirkus
180) Walking opposed to Ghosts– Gabriel Byrne List: Amazon
181) Want Me: A Sex Writer’s Journey Into the Heart ship Desire– Tracy Clark-Flory List: NPR
182) We Are Bridges: A Memoir– Cassandra Lane List: NPR
183) What It Feels Like for straight Girl– List: The Guardian
184) Conj at the time that Women Invented Television: The Undreamed of Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way Incredulity Watch Today– List: Booklist
185) Creamy Magic– Elissa Washuta List: NPR
186) Widowish– List: Goodreads
187) You’ll Not ever Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism– List: Library Journal