“What are the best Biography and Memoir books released in 2020?” We looked at 160 of the top Biography and Memoir books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 37 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Biography and Memoir” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 100+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Our other Best Of 2020 Articles:
Previous Years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
All titles have been added to a Bookshop list as well!
Happy Scrolling!
Lists It Appears On:
What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize-finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are tradi
Lists It Appears On:
As his mother was dying, Philip Kennicott began to listen to the music of Bach obsessively. It was the only music that didn’t seem trivial or irrelevant, and it enabled him to both experience her death and remove himself from it. For him, Bach’s music held the elements of both joy and despair, life
Lists It Appears On:
A hilariously self-deprecating, highly obsessive account of the author’s adventures, in the world of French haute cuisine, for anyone whose ever found joy in cooking and eating food with their family–from the author of the best-selling, widely acclaimed Heat. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ C
Lists It Appears On:
Jenna Bush Hager, the former first daughter and granddaughter, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and coanchor of the Today show, shares moving, funny stories about her beloved grandparents and the wisdom they passed on that has shaped her life.To the world, George and Barbara Bush were America’s
Lists It Appears On:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – From the Academy Award(R)-winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction “Unflinchingly honest and remarkably candid, Matthew McConaughey’s book invites us to g
Lists It Appears On:
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science’s great hope in the quest to understand the disease. Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dre
Lists It Appears On:
**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** “A Gen-X This Boy’s Life…Music and his fierce brilliance boost Jollett; a visceral urge to leave his background behind propels him to excel… In the end, Jollett shakes off the past to become the captain of his own soul. Hollywood Park is a triumph. –O,
Lists It Appears On:
Inferno is a disturbing and masterfully told memoir, but it’s also an important one that pushes back against powerful taboos. . . –The New York Times Book Review Explosive –Good Morning America Sublime –Bookpage (starred review) When Catherine Cho and her husband set off from London to introduce
Lists It Appears On:
The final work from the award winning and inspirational journalist, Motherwell interrogates the psychological inheritance that we receive from our parents and how close family ties can prevent us from achieving cherished goals.
Lists It Appears On:
How do you tell the real story of someone misremembered–an icon and idol–alongside your own? Jenn Shapland’s celebrated debut is both question and answer: an immersive, surprising exploration of one of America’s most beloved writers, alongside a genre-defying examination of identity, queerness, me
Lists It Appears On:
“Anyone striving to understand and improve this country should read her story.” –Gloria Steinem, author of My Life on the Road The Emmy Award-winning journalist and anchor of NPR’s Latino USA tells the story of immigration in America through her family’s experiences and decades of reporting, painti
Lists It Appears On:
The #1 New York Times BestsellerJessica reveals for the first time her inner monologue and most intimate struggles. Guided by the journals she’s kept since age fifteen, and brimming with her unique humor and down-to-earth humanity, Open Book is as inspiring as it is entertaining.This was supposed to
Lists It Appears On:
An electric portrait of the artist as a young woman that asks how a writer finds her voice in a society that prefers women to be silent In Recollections of My Nonexistence, Rebecca Solnit describes her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, in an atmosphere of gender violenc
Lists It Appears On:
“Finally, the biography that Sylvia Plath deserves . . . A spectacular achievement.” –Ruth Franklin, author of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life The highly anticipated new biography of Sylvia Plath that focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual achievements, while restoring the woman
Lists It Appears On:
A comedic memoir about fandom, fame, and other embarrassments from the life of a New York Times bestseller What happens when a childhood hobby grows into a lifelong career? The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, Adrian Tomine’s funniest and most revealing foray into autobiography, offers an
Lists It Appears On:
The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller The global icon, award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, mother, daughter, sister, storyteller, and artist finally tells the unfiltered story of her life in The Meaning of Mariah Carey It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to
Lists It Appears On:
The incredible follow-up to the international bestseller The Salt Path, a story of finding your way back home. Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth. After walking 630 homeless miles along The Salt Path, living on the windswept and wild English coastline; the cliffs, the sky and t
Lists It Appears On:
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Winner of the 2019 National Book Award in Nonfiction A brilliant, haunting and unforgettable memoir from a stunning new talent about the inexorable pull of home and family, set in a shotgun house in New Orleans East. In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a sho
Lists It Appears On:
Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by ELLE, Buzzfeed, Esquire, Bitch Media, Good Housekeeping, Electric Literature, Parade and BookRiot “One of the smartest young writers of her generation.”–Book RiotFrom the acclaimed cultural critic and New York Times bestselling author of This W
Lists It Appears On:
A Kirkus Prize Finalist for Nonfiction An Indie Next Pick, September 2019 A Publishers Weekly “Big Indie Book of Fall 2020” A BuzzFeed Best Book of Fall 2020 A Literary Hub “Most Anticipated Book of 2020 An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2020 A Ralph Lauren Summer Reading Recommendation A Garden & Gun Su
Lists It Appears On:
*AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* “Stay-up-all-night, miss-your-subway-stop, spit-out-your-beverage funny…. irresistible as a snack tray, as intimately pleasurable as an Irish goodbye.” –Jia Tolentino From Samantha Irby, beloved author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, a rip-roaring,
Lists It Appears On:
The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it–an urgent work of literary journalism. “I don’t know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or a more dogged reporter in Ame
Lists It Appears On:
An urgent call to free those buried alive by America’s legal system, and an inspiring true story about unwavering belief in humanity–from a gifted young lawyer and important new voice in the movement to transform the system. “An essential book for our time . . . Brittany K. Barnett is a star.”–Van
Lists It Appears On:
*An Amazon Best Book of the Year optioned for television by Gabrielle Union!* In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked
Lists It Appears On:
An Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, and LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2020 This unforgettable memoir from a prize-winning poet about growing up undocumented in the United States recounts the sorrows and joys of a family torn apart by draconian policies and chronicles one young man’s attempt to
Lists It Appears On:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – From the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious–an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure. “David puts wo
Lists It Appears On:
A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human “Brilliant . . . To read this book is to become more human.”–Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blen
Lists It Appears On:
A “powerful and scary and important and true” memoir (Sally Mann, Carnegie Medal-winning author of Hold Still) of a young woman’s struggle to regain her sense of self after trauma, and the efforts by a powerful New England boarding school to silence her—at any cost. A New York Times Book Review Ed
Lists It Appears On:
For anyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong, Sigh, Gone shares an irreverent, funny, and moving tale of displacement and assimilation woven together with poignant themes from beloved works of classic literature. In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran immigrates to America along with h
Lists It Appears On:
A RECOMMENDED SUMMER READ BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, TIME, AND NEWSWEEK Longtime Jeopardy! host and television icon Alex Trebek reflects on his life and career. Since debuting as the host of Jeopardy! in 1984, Alex Trebek has been something like a family member to millions of television viewe
Lists It Appears On:
The New York Times Bestseller “Riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring.” –The New York Times Book Review As seen/heard on Fresh Air, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Weekend Edition, and more An emergency room physician explores how a life of service
Lists It Appears On:
Finalist — National Book Award for Nonfiction – Excerpted in The New Yorker – Longlisted — Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction – New Books to Watch Out for in October — New York Times – Best Books of Fall 2020 — O, the Oprah Magazine, The Week, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Best New B
Lists It Appears On:
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD – One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation. “Karla’s book sheds light on people’s personal experiences and allow
Lists It Appears On:
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A definitive document of a world in transition: I won’t be alone in returning to it for clarity and consolation for many years to come. –Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a January 2020 In
Lists It Appears On:
A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making–from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his
Lists It Appears On:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”–Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick) In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment
Lists It Appears On:
An Instant New York Times BestsellerA chillingly personal and exquisitely wrought memoir of a daughter reckoning with the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather, and the moving, intimate story of a poet coming into her own in the wake of a tragedy At age nineteen, Natasha
| # | Books | Author | List |
| 38 | A Dutiful Boy: A Memoir of a Gay Muslim’s Journey to Acceptance | Mohsin Zaidi | The Guardian |
| 39 | A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings | Helen Jukes | Bookpage |
| 40 | A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team | Arshay Cooper | Amazon |
| 41 | A Silenced Voice: The Life Of Journalist Kim Wall | Ingrid Wall and Joachim Wall | NPR |
| 42 | All The Way To The Tigers: A Memoir | Mary Morris | NPR |
| 43 | Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir | Robin Ha | NPR |
| 44 | American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, And The Marriage Of Money And Power | Andrea Bernstein | NPR |
| 45 | Apple: (Skin To The Core) | Eric Gansworth | NPR |
| 46 | Banned Book Club | Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada | NPR |
| 47 | Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs Of A Neurotic Filmmaker | Barry Sonnenfeld | NPR |
| 48 | Big Black: Stand at Attica | Frank “Big Black” Smith & Jared… | NYPL |
| 49 | Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close | Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman | NPR |
| 50 | Born To Be Public | Greg Mania | NPR |
| 51 | Broken Greek — A Language to Belong | Adrianne Kalfopoulou | The Guardian |
| 52 | Child of Light: A Biography of Robert Stone | Madison Smartt Bell | Booklist |
| 53 | Clothes… and other things that matter | Alexandra Shulman | Waterstones |
| 54 | Coming Undone | Terri White | The Guardian |
| 55 | Dancing After Ten | Vivian Chong Georgia Webber | NPR |
| 56 | Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographer’s Journey | Bob Avian with Tom Santopietro | NPR |
| 57 | Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime | Debora Harding | Bookpage |
| 58 | Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy | Larry Tye | Booklist |
| 59 | Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time | Ben Ehrenreich | NY Times |
| 60 | Diary of an MP’s Wife | Sasha Swire | Waterstones |
| 61 | Empty | Susan Burton | Booklist 2 |
| 62 | Everything Man: The Form And Function Of Paul Robeson | Shana L. Redmond | NPR |
| 63 | Family In Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, An American Daughter | Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao | NPR |
| 64 | Fannie Lou Hamer: America’s Freedom Fighting Woman | Maegan Parker Brooks | Booklist |
| 65 | Father Of Lions: One Man’s Remarkable Quest To Save Mosul’s Zoo | Louise Callaghan | NPR |
| 66 | Featherhood: A Memoir of Two Fathers and a Magpie | Charlie Gilmour | The Guardian |
| 67 | Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener | Kimberly A. Hamlin | Booklist |
| 68 | Friends and Enemies | Barbara Amiel | Waterstones |
| 69 | Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto | Miren Arzalluz | NPR |
| 70 | Golem Girl: A Memoir | Riva Lehrer | Amazon |
| 71 | Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls | Nina Renata Aron | Booklist 2 |
| 72 | Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery | Catherine Gildiner | Amazon |
| 73 | Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life | Christie Tate | Amazon |
| 74 | Hanging Tree Guitars | Freeman Vines with Zoe van Buren | NPR |
| 75 | Here For It: Or, How To Save Your Soul In America | R. Eric Thomas | NPR |
| 76 | His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life | Jonathan Alter | NPR |
| 77 | House of Glass | Hadley Freeman | Waterstones |
| 78 | House of Music | Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason | Waterstones |
| 79 | Hungry | The Guardian | |
| 80 | I Am An Island | Tamsin Calidas | Waterstones |
| 81 | I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice, and Living between Worlds | Sunny Hostin | Barnes & Noble |
| 82 | I Don’t Want To Die Poor: Essays | Michael Arceneaux | NPR |
| 83 | I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir | Esther Safran Foer | NPR |
| 84 | Is Rape a Crime? | Michelle Bowdler | Bookpage |
| 85 | Just Ignore Him | Alan Davies | Waterstones |
| 86 | Just Us: An American Conversation | Claudia Rankine | Amazon |
| 87 | Later: My Life At The Edge Of The World | Paul Lisicky | NPR |
| 88 | Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle For The Ballot Box | Evette Dionne | NPR |
| 89 | Look Again | David Bailey | Waterstones |
| 90 | Looking To Get Lost: Adventures In Music And Writing | Peter Guralnick | NPR |
| 91 | Lot Six | David Adjmi | Bookpage |
| 92 | Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck | William Souder | Barnes & Noble |
| 93 | Magnetized: Conversations With A Serial Killer | Carlos Busqued | NPR |
| 94 | More Than a Woman | Caitlin Moran | The Guardian |
| 95 | Mozart | Jan Swafford | Waterstones |
| 96 | Mutations: The Many Strange Faces Of Hardcore Punk | Sam McPheeters | NPR |
| 97 | My Wild and Sleepless Nights | Clover Stroud | Waterstones |
| 98 | Neon Girls: A Stripper’s Education In Protest And Power | Jennifer Worley | NPR |
| 99 | Nobody Will Tell You This but Me | Bess Kalb | Bookpage |
| 100 | Notes From An Apocalypse: A Personal Journey To The End Of The World And Back | Mark O’Connell | NPR |
| 101 | Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest | Ian Zack | Booklist |
| 102 | One Life | Megan Rapinoe and Emma Brockes | NPR |
| 103 | One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time | Craig Brown | Waterstones |
| 104 | Pelosi | Molly Ball | Booklist |
| 105 | Places I’ve Taken My Body | Molly McCully Brown | Bookpage |
| 106 | Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens The Unsolved Murder Cases Of The Civil Rights Era | Jerry Mitchell | NPR |
| 107 | Rebel Chef: In Search of What Matters | Dominique Crenn and Emma Brockes | Amazon |
| 108 | Russian Roulette | Richard Greene | Waterstones |
| 109 | Rust Belt Femme | Raechel Anne Jolie | NPR |
| 110 | Rust: A Memoir Of Steel And Grit | Eliese Goldbach | NPR |
| 111 | She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman | Erica Armstrong Dunbar | Booklist |
| 112 | Sisters In Hate: American Women On The Front Lines Of White Nationalism | Seyward Darby | NPR |
| 113 | Solutions And Other Problems | Allie Brosh | NPR |
| 114 | Something That May Shock And Discredit You | Daniel M. Lavery | NPR |
| 115 | Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon through North America’s Stolen Land | Noé Álvarez | Booklist 2 |
| 116 | Square Haunting | Francesca Wade | Waterstones |
| 117 | Stray | Stephanie Danler | Bookpage |
| 118 | The Age Of Phillis | Honorée Fanonne Jeffers | NPR |
| 119 | The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas Illustrated | Gertrude Stein | NPR |
| 120 | The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win | Maria Konnikova | NY Times |
| 121 | The Book Of Atlantis Black: The Search For A Sister Gone Missing | Betsy Bonner | NPR |
| 122 | The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination With the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World | Patrik Svensson | NY Times |
| 123 | The Bookseller’s Tale | Martin Latham | Waterstones |
| 124 | The Cancer Journals | Audre Lorde | Barnes & Noble |
| 125 | The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir | André Leon Talley | NPR |
| 126 | The Consequences of Love | The Guardian | |
| 127 | The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir | Wayétu Moore | NY Times |
| 128 | The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s | Maggie Doherty | Booklist |
| 129 | The Erratics | Vicki Laveau-Harvie | Bookpage |
| 130 | The Escape Artist | Helen Fremont | Bookpage |
| 131 | The Haunting of Alma Fielding | Kate Summerscale | Waterstones |
| 132 | The Hungover Games | Sophie Heawood | The Guardian |
| 133 | The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness | Sarah Ramey | Bookpage |
| 134 | The Lives of Lucian Freud | William Feaver | Waterstones |
| 135 | The Louder I Will Sing | Lee Lawrence | Waterstones |
| 136 | The Most Beautiful Thing | Kao Kalia Yang | NPR |
| 137 | The Mystery of Charles Dickens | A. N. Wilson | Waterstones |
| 138 | The Planter of Modern Life: Louis Bromfield and the Seeds of a Food Revolution | Stephen Heyman | Booklist |
| 139 | The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes | Zachary D. Carter | Booklist |
| 140 | The Sediments of Time | Meave Leakey | Bookpage |
| 141 | The Socrates Express: In Search Of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers | Eric Weiner | NPR |
| 142 | The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz | Erik Larson | Amazon |
| 143 | The Windsor Diaries | Alathea Fitzalan Howard | Waterstones |
| 144 | The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom | H. W. Brands | Amazon |
| 145 | Thin Places: Essays From In Between | Jordan Kisner | NPR |
| 146 | This Is One Way To Dance: Essays | Sejal Shah | NPR |
| 147 | To the End of the World | Rupert Everett | Waterstones |
| 148 | Tom Stoppard | Hermione Lee | Waterstones |
| 149 | Tomboyland: Essays | Melissa Faliveno | NPR |
| 150 | Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day | Captain Tom Moore | Waterstones |
| 151 | Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man | Mary L. Trump | Goodreads |
| 152 | Vesper Flights | Helen Macdonald | Amazon |
| 153 | What Is the Grass | Mark Doty | Bookpage |
| 154 | When Time Stopped | Ariana Neumann | Bookpage |
| 155 | Whistleblower: My Journey To Silicon Valley And Fight For Justice At Uber | Susan Fowler | NPR |
| 156 | Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story Of Loss, Love, And The Hidden Order Of Life | Lulu Miller | NPR |
| 157 | Why We Swim | Bonnie Tsui | NPR |
| 158 | Wintering: The Power Of Rest And Retreat In Difficult Times | Katherine May | NPR |
| 159 | Year Of The Rabbit | Tian Veasna | NPR |
| 160 | You Never Forget Your First: A Biography Of George Washington | Alexis Coe | NPR |
| Source | Article |
| Amazon | Best biographies and memoirs of 2020 |
| Barnes & Noble | Barnes & Noble’s Best Biographies of 2020 |
| Booklist | Top 10 Biographies: 2020 |
| Booklist 2 | Top 10 Memoirs: 2020 |
| Bookpage | Best Books of 2020: Memoirs |
| Goodreads | Best Memoir & Autobiography |
| NPR | NPR’s Book Concierge |
| NY Times | 100 Notable Books of 2020 |
| NYPL | Best Books for Adults 2020 |
| Popsugar | Popsugar Entertainment Books POPSUGAR Book Club Awards Nominees 2020 |
| The Guardian | Memoir |
| Waterstones | The Best Books of 2020: Biography |
| Worldly Gentleman | The Best Books of 2020 |
"What are the best Science Fiction And Fantasy books released in 2023?" We looked at…
"What are the best Graphic Novels And Comics books released in 2023?" We looked at…
"What are the best Science And Nature books released in 2023?" We looked at 278…
"What are the best Mystery, Horror, and Thriller books released in 2023?" We looked at…
"What are the best Nonfiction books released in 2023?" We looked at 428 of the…
"What are the best Fiction & Literature books released in 2023?" We looked at 448…