New Biographies & Memoirs To Read in Fall 2026

The New York Times bestselling author of The In-Between presents a vulnerable, moving memoir about the unraveling of her marriage and her evolving journey to find beauty in life’s endings and beginnings. Like her beloved first memoir, How to Let Go is a beautiful reminder that every moment — even a difficult and complicated one — is an opportunity: Until we take our final breath, we always have the ability to connect, to grow, and to begin again.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road comes the heart-wrenching journey of a family facing an unthinkable destiny, whose flawed genetic code might hold the long-sought key to a cure for dementia. Moving, intimate, unexpectedly hopeful and redemptive, The Vanishing Family is an enthralling narrative about one family’s fate, and a medical detective story that speaks to all of us who fear losing ourselves at the end.

One of Hollywood’s most accomplished, feared — and funny — dealmakers has some stuff he wants to get off his chest. A lifetime worth of stuff. And secrets. And stories. And it all makes for one hell of a ride, and one of the must-read books of the year.

The authorized biography of a brilliant theoretical physicist and science communicator, featuring revelations from never-before-seen personal records, by an award-winning writer and biographer. Vividly told and rigorously researched, Hawking is the definitive portrait of an exceptional man and an extraordinary intellect.

Willie Nelson is 93, and he has not been slowing down. Here, the beloved American icon shares his well-earned wisdom about reaching an astonishing creative flourishing, and not coincidentally, an even deeper union with the love of his life, Annie.

The revelatory, much-anticipated memoir from the Wall Street Journal reporter who was wrongly imprisoned in Putin’s Russia for more than a year — a glimpse inside the perils and contradictions of a country in the midst of autocracy. More than a prison memoir, This Cursed Beautiful Land is an extraordinary, deeply reported chronicle of a misunderstood people and their land — marked at once by stunning beauty and a haunting history.

This inspiring, raw memoir traces the path Devon Rodriguez took from an abusive childhood to becoming the most followed artist on social media worldwide, as he discovered the transformative power of seeing and being seen — featuring new graphite illustrations of the people and places that shaped him.

In this highly anticipated memoir, the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City, Fallout, and more shares his utterly original account of his offbeat journey in Hollywood, his battles with fear and fame, and the projects that shaped him — and created a cult icon.

A radiant new memoir from artist and writer Patti Smith, author of the National Book Award winner Just Kids. The most intimate of Smith’s memoirs, Bread of Angels showcases the power of writing — the one constant in a life driven by artistic freedom — and the power of the imagination to transform the commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope. Here, we meet Smith the vagabond, who travels to commune with herself, who lives to write and writes to live. Now in paperback!

A moving personal narrative from Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria star Eric Dane, on the most impactful days — past, present, and future — of his life.

Told through a series of “days” that each illuminate a defining experience or emotional truth, My Book of Days captures everything from the grind of his early years in Hollywood and the hard-won peace of sobriety to the profound clarity that came with his ALS diagnosis.

The New York Times bestselling author of Blackout excavates the three romantic entanglements that defined her adulthood — an electrifying examination of the blurry line between affection and obsession revealing the restless wanting that hums in us all.

The legendary actor behind Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Reading Rainbow shares never-before-told stories from a life that has shaped generations — told at last on his own terms. Generous, deeply moving, and illustrated with personal family photos, Take My Word for It is a courageous self-portrait of an iconic artist.

A powerful and startling account of the unsparing connection between a convent of cloistered nuns and the condemned women on Texas’s death row, exploring questions around crime and punishment, faith, and retribution in America as only Lawrence Wright can. Redemption is clear-eyed and rousing, layered and morally complex.

A moving reflection on the author’s father — plus a cat! — this is a beautiful short work of family history from one of our most beloved, iconic writers. This haunting personal essay examines what it means to be a father and what it means to be a son — what it means to be loved and to be abandoned — and also a particular moment of Japanese history, through the aftermath of the second world war on into the present.

How does the greatest writer of our time tell her own story? As she explores her past, Atwood reveals more and more about her writing, the connections between real life and art — and the workings of one of our very greatest imaginations. Now in paperback!

Gloria Steinem offers an inspiring and candid memoir of her early life and the journey that made her one of the world’s most influential activists and storytellers. Moving between past and present, Steinem examines the progress and setbacks of six decades of activism. As she reflects on the movements she helped build and the victories won for women’s and human rights, she also looks ahead, urging new generations to imagine bolder, more inclusive paths forward.

The extraordinary true story of an injured, abandoned fawn and the man who nurses her back to health, transforming his understanding of love and erasing the barrier between humans and animals. Woven with the joy and pain of living, Penelope is the most unlikely of true stories, and one of the most memorable.

Lea Korsgaard’s #1 international bestseller tells the story of the year she spent tracking every species of butterfly in her native Denmark. Suffused with beauty and wonder, The Butterfly Season is a love letter to the natural world and an unforgettable reflection on the precious and fleeting nature of life itself.

A delightful book about reclaiming pleasure in mid-life — a potent mix of self-help and memoir, from one of today’s wittiest, wisest voices. With self-deprecating humor, devastating insight, and bracing honesty, Priyanka shows us how to step out of the grind as a friend, as a partner, even as a parent, and welcome joy back into our lives without burning it all down. Refreshingly funny and sparklingly astute, How to Be Less Useful is the perfect book for our current moment.

As irreverent as it is insightful, Mona turns the repressed Muslim girl trope on its head as Azra, academic by day and stripper by night, navigates a double life and a political awakening. Whip-smart and wonderfully unique, Mona reveals how racism and patriarchy confront the unstoppable quest to become whole. A story of a life lived underground, and yet fully exposed, Mona is a testimony to the radical power of reinvention.

With remarkable insight and vulnerability, a leading researcher and cancer advocate distills the lessons for living that he’s learned as a doctor and as a patient, after being diagnosed with his own terminal illness — based on his enormously popular Stanford class.

A stunning narrative from one of the most powerful young writers at work today, and the director of the Oscar®-nominated documentary, Sugarcane, We Survived the Night interweaves oral history with hard-hitting journalism and a deeply personal father-son journey into a searing portrait of Indigenous survival, love, and resurgence. Now in paperback!

A profound and unparalleled literary voice, Zadie Smith returns with a resounding collection of essays. Here, Smith shows us once again her unrivalled ability to think through critically and humanely some of the most urgent preoccupations and tendencies of our troubled times. Now in paperback!

The art historian, poet, and novelist close-reads images, moving and still, canonical and lesser known, that have shaped her evolving identity as an American “Mulatta” lesbian born at the end of the Civil Rights Movement in this singular blend of life-writing and cultural studies.

An enchanting, highly personal tour of some of the most iconic cemeteries of the world — part travelogue, part memoir, part “excursions through death,” by the author of Our Share of Night and “queen of horror” (Los Angeles Times). Now in paperback!