141 different books were found in the 17 “Best Biography & Memoir” book lists we consulted. Of the 141 books, 34 titles appeared on multiple lists. The top book should come as no surprise, in fact, several of the top books should come as no surprise since they also dominated our list of the top non-fiction books of the year as well.
We added pictures and links for the top 34 biography & memoir books that appear on multiple lists, To see our aggregated year-end lists for other categories, follow the links below.
The Best Non-Fiction Books of 2015
The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2015
The Best Cook Books of 2015
The Best Art & Photography Books of 2015
The Best Graphic Novels of 2015
The Best Poetry Books of 2015
The Best Science Books of 2015
The Best History Books of 2015
The Top 34 Biography & Memoir Books of 2015
Appears On: 6 Lists
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The 107 Additional Title Appearing on a Single List
- 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear
- A GUEST AT THE SHOOTERS’ BANQUET: MY GRANDFATHER’S SS PAST, MY JEWISH FAMILY, A SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH
- A Tour Of Bones: Facing Fear And Looking For Life by Denise Inge
- A Work in Progress
- Accidental Saints: Finding God In All The Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber
- Alex Ferguson – Leading
- Alive, Alive Oh!
- All I Know Now: Wonderings and Reflections on Growing Up Gracefully
- ALL THE WRONG PLACES: A LIFE LOST AND FOUND
- American Wife: Love, War, Faith, and Renewal
- AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN, VOLUME 3: THE COMPLETE AND AUTHORITATIVE EDITION
- Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American FamilyOct 20, 2015 by Amy Ellis Nutt
- Binge
- Born with Teeth
- Buy Me the Sky
- Charlotte Brontë: A Life
- Dear Mr. You
- Destiny And Power: The American Odyssey Of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham
- Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt by Kristin Hersh
- Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, And The Quest For A Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
- Every Day I Fight
- Everything She Wants
- Fatherland: A Family History by Nina Bunjevac
- Find a WayOct 20, 2015 by Diana Nyad
- First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill
- Going into the City by Robert Christgau
- Guantánamo Diary
- Henry IV Parts I and II
- I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda
- If You Feel Too Much: Thoughts on Things Found and Lost and Hoped For
- In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World
- In Search of Mary: the Mother of All Journeys
- In Search of Sir Thomas Browne—Hugh Aldersey-Williams
- Intimacy Idiot by Isaac Oliver
- It Was Me All Along: A MemoirJan 6, 2015 by Andie Mitchell
- James Merrill by Langdon Hammer
- Joan Of Arc: A History by Helen Castor
- John Aubrey: My Own Life
- Josephine Tey by Jennifer Morag Henderson
- Judas: The Troubling History of the Renegade Apostle
- Kid Gloves
- Killing a King—Dan Ephron
- Kissinger: The Idealist, 1923-1968. By Niall Ferguson
- Lafayette In The Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
- Leaving Before the Rains ComeJan 22, 2015 by Alexandra Fuller
- Live Like Line, Love Like Ellyn: One Community’s Journey from Tragedy to Triumph by Bill Hoeft
- Living on Paper
- LORD FEAR: A MEMOIR
- Maggie Smith
- March: Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell
- Mr & Mrs Disraeli
- My Fight / Your Fight
- My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers her Family’s Nazi Past,” by Jennifer Teege
- My History, by Antonia Fraser
- My Journey,” by Donna Karan
- My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl
- No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money
- Open the Cage, Murphy
- Ordinary Light: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith
- Orson Welles: One-Man Band
- Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World’s Superpowers
- Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin
- Reckless: My Life as a PretenderSep 8, 2015 by Chrissie Hynde
- Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice
- Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy
- Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church
- Showa: A History of Japan 1953-1989 by Shigeru Mizuki, translated by Zack Davisson
- Showdown: Thurgood Marshall And The Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America by Wil Haygood
- Sisters In Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor And Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went To The Supreme Court And Changed The World by Linda Hirshman
- Slice Harvester: A Memoir In Pizza by Colin Atrophy Hagendorf
- Spectacle: The Astonishing Life Of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk
- Spectacles by Sue Perkins
- Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own
- Steve Jobs – The Man Who Thought Different
- Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg SlimAug 4, 2015 by Justin Gifford
- Sue Perkins – Spectacles
- The Arab Of The Future: A Childhood In The Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf
- The Billion Dollar Spy—David E. Hoffman
- THE DOGS ARE EATING THEM NOW: OUR WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
- THE FOLDED CLOCK: A DIARY
- THE GIRL FROM HUMAN STREET: GHOSTS OF MEMORY IN A JEWISH FAMILY
- The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
- The Light Of The World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander
- The New Tsar: The Rise And Reign Of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers
- THE OREGON TRAIL: AN AMERICAN JOURNEY
- The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin
- The Speechwriter: A Brief Education In Politics by Barton Swaim
- The Strategist by Bartholomew Sparrow
- The Sweden File: Memoir of an American Expatriate, Letters and Comments,” by Bruce Stevens Proctor
- THE WHITE ROAD: JOURNEY INTO AN OBSESSION
- THE WORLD’S LARGEST MAN: A MEMOIR
- Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA,” by Robert Kaplan
- Threads
- Troublemaker
- Ty Cobb by Charles Leerhsen
- Virginia Woolf by Vivane Forrester
- Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku” by David Davis
- We Were Brothers by Barry Moser
- Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
- Widow Basquiat: A Love Story by Jennifer Clement
- Wildflower by Drew Barrymore
- Winner: A Racing Life
- WORLDS APART: A MEMOIR
- Year of the Fat Knight
- You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir by Felicia Day
- Young Ovid by Diane Middlebrook
The 17 “Best Biography & Memoir Book” Year-End Lists Consulted