New Biographies and Memoirs To Read This Year

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.

In this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain.

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.

The sexual assault that stunned the world. A courageous woman’s rallying call for shame to “change sides.” For the very first time, Gisèle Pelicot tells her story. Part memoir, part act of defiance, A Hymn to Life is a moving story of survival, testimony, and courage, and an unforgettable portrait of a woman who broke her silence, reclaimed her voice, and forced a reckoning.

From two-time National Magazine Award winner Tom Junod, a searching, brilliantly stylized memoir about a charismatic, philandering father who tried to mold his son in his image, the many secrets he hid, the son’s obsessive quest to uncover them, and ultimately, the true meaning of manhood.

The riveting true story of a legendary Spanish galleon that sunk off the coast of Colombia with over $1 billion in gold and silver — and one man’s obsessive quest to find it — from the New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth.

From one of the most electric and consequential figures to emerge from the contemporary American labor movement, the remarkable story of his battle to create the first Amazon union in the U.S. and a powerful call to arms on behalf of the working class.

The posthumous memoir of Rev. James Lawson Jr., peer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., mentor to Congressman John Lewis and the Freedom Riders, and a principal architect of a nonviolent resistance movement that changed the world. Nonviolent is a riveting historical narrative from a central figure in global liberation and a testament to compelling a nation to live up to its founding ideas of liberty and justice for all.

The dramatic and heartrending true story of one remarkable young man’s account of love in the time of war, by a celebrated historian of untold Black stories. In The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram, Ethelene Whitmire introduces us to an unforgettable character who fled from country to country as fighting advanced in WWII, was captured by Nazis and outwitted them in a daring escape, and risked it all in a personal fight for a life of love, freedom, beauty, and dignity in a world set against him.

It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn’t. With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. Strangers is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent.

New York Times bestselling author and Duke University professor Kate Bowler offers a profound, funny, and deeply human case for joy that doesn’t depend on everything getting better. Joy isn’t something you can optimize or manufacture — it finds us at the edge of expectation, when life interrupts our scripts. Joyful, Anyway gives language for the ache we all carry and practices for “putting yourself in the way of joy:” Loosening control, introducing novelty, choosing charity, and staying open to the surprising, technicolor moments that pull us back into life.

The inspiring true story of the self-made, Bronx-born portraitist who overcame all odds to become the most followed artist on social media worldwide — featuring never-before-seen drawings of the people and places that made him who he is. Frank, profound, and occasionally hilarious Work in Progress is motivational magic for the digital age.

A landmark history of North Korea, told through the rise of the Kim dynasty and its surprising ties to American Christianity — a spectacular, penetrating account of the Hermit Kingdom.

Two iconic dynasties — the Kennedys and the Windsors — whose glamour and ambition defined an era. From Queen Elizabeth’s coronation to President Kennedy’s historic London visit, from JFK Jr.’s shocking death to Prince Harry’s decisive break with his family, Hallemann traces the key moments in the lives of these two dynasties through a fresh and fascinating lens, showing how they have intersected over the generations in ways that not only shaped their images and legacies, but history itself.

What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out … From the award-winning, bestselling author of classic histories of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, a groundbreaking reckoning with the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band.

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 is a reflection on what it means to be a father and what it means to be a son — on what it means to be loved and to be abandoned — and also on a particular moment of Japanese history, through the aftermath of the second world war on into the present. Murakami fans may find common themes from beloved novels but will also be surprised by the raw honesty of this beautiful autobiographical piece.

From Nobel Prize winner Han Kang comes her first work of nonfiction published in English — a singular collection of writings including her inspiring Nobel Lecture. In this light-filled and multi-faceted book, Kang draws together the threads of her work and life, tracing the connections between her interior and exterior worlds through a sequence of essays, poems, photographs, and diaries. Both intimate and illuminating, Light and Thread is a book for all readers of Kang’s unique body of work.

An elegant, iridescent mosaic of autobiographical fragments, both real and invented, forming a portrait of a creative life, from the life of the Pulitzer Prize finalist for Same Bed Different Dreams. Profound, wily, and beautifully wrought, Three Tenses is a meeting of memory and myth, confession and obfuscation, coalescing to offer a singular picture of creativity in action.

From historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist H. W. Brands comes an inspiring portrait of George Washington that examines his unrivaled leadership in the birth of America. Arriving in time for the 250th anniversary of American independence, this is a masterful portrait of Washington as the unrivaled leader of his times.

The highly anticipated biography of one of the world’s most treasured literary voices, showcasing a life as triumphant and inspiring as the stories she crafted. Oppenheimer peels back the curtain to reveal the woman behind the literary empire in all her complex, multifaceted glory — a true gift for anyone who grew up reading and loving these extraordinary books.

The creator of the viral TikTok series “Who TF Did I Marry?” shares an even more unfiltered account of how she reclaimed herself, fought through toxic relationships, and regained her foundation through healing and deep self-reflection.

From California Governor Gavin Newsom comes an intimate and poignant account of identity, belonging, and the defining moments that inspired a life in politics.

A romantic, life-affirming memoir about a young woman’s solo honeymoon to Europe after her fiancé’s sudden death weeks before their wedding, and the community of hope and wonder she built along the way. The result is a beautiful exploration of what it means to choose life in the face of unimaginable pain. The Solo Honeymoon shines a light on the joy of love, the depths of grief, and all the beauty there is in the world.

A searing portrait of a mother’s grief and strength in the wake of unthinkable tragedy. In When We See You Again, Rachel pours her pain, love, and longing onto paper, giving voice to the broken among us, and reminding us that even when the world feels choked with darkness, light exists in a different way. How do we find it? Her own experience has been extreme, but at its essence, this is a universal story of trying to live with grief. It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love.

In this gorgeous and atmospheric family memoir, Chigudu embarks on a quest to understand how the trauma of decolonization has shaped not only his country, but his very identity — as an African, a migrant, a Black man, a doctor, a scholar, and a son. What he discovers is that colonization is a potent force that continues to upend lives and institutions. Chasing Freedom is an intimate reckoning with the ghosts of the past that haunt our politics and our psyches in ways we can’t always see.

For the long-tenured head of Goldman Sachs, an institution legendary for its culture of success, comes a candid memoir of global leadership in an age of extreme turbulence. A powerful blueprint for the wise stewardship of a cause that is larger than yourself, Streetwise will inspire and inform readers throughout the global business community and beyond.