In the world of non-fiction, there are few genres as captivating as memoirs and biographies. These personal stories offer a glimpse into the lives of remarkable individuals, providing insight into their struggles, triumphs, and passions.
In the world of non-fiction, there are few genres as captivating as memoirs and biographies. These personal stories offer a glimpse into the lives of remarkable individuals, providing insight into their struggles, triumphs, and passions. As we enter 2025, we’re excited to share our list of the best memoirs and biographies that promise to deliver depth, drama, and revelation.
We begin with two fascinating portraits of nonagenarians: artist Yoko Ono and Golden Age star Vera Miles. ‘The greatest band in history’ is a quote often used to describe The Beatles, but according to David Sheff’s Yoko: A Biography, this image of Ono as a ‘fraud who broke up the greatest band in history’ is not entirely accurate. Meanwhile, Christopher McKittrick’s Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away clears up some of the confusion about the famous blonde from The Wrong Man, stressing that she largely had a harmonious relationship with Alfred Hitchcock.
Yoko Ono is a Japanese artist, musician, and peace activist born in 1933.
She rose to fame in the 1960s as a key figure in the avant-garde art movement.
Married to John Lennon, she was a central figure in the Beatles' later years.
Known for her conceptual and performance art, Ono has created works that explore themes of 'love,' 'peace,' and human rights.
Her music and activism have made a lasting impact on popular culture.
Vera Miles is a renowned American actress, born on August 23, 1929.
With a career spanning over six decades, she has appeared in numerous films and television shows.
Miles rose to fame with her iconic roles in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) and 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' (1956).
She has also had notable performances in 'Soylent Green' (1973), 'The Begotten' (1989), and 'The Twilight Zone'.
Miles is a three-time Emmy Award nominee, recognized for her work on television series such as 'Bonanza', 'Gunsmoke', and 'Murder, She Wrote'.
Sue Prideaux’s Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin sees the artist’s works notably challenging neoclassical ideals of beauty, while his politics championed the rights of Indigenous peoples. This is a deeply restorative biography that underscores how Gauguin was more than just a rebellious libertine.
Paul Gauguin was a French post-Impressionist artist who is renowned for his bold and expressive use of color.
Born in Paris in 1848, Gauguin began his artistic career as a stockbroker before turning to painting full-time.
He was heavily influenced by the Impressionists, but soon developed his own unique style, characterized by flat forms and vivid colors.
Gauguin's most famous works include 'Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?' and 'The Vision After the Sermon'.
He died in 1903 at the age of 54.
David Denby’s Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer tackles the lives of four famous Jews of American arts, politics, and letters. The resulting project is an entertaining homage to these turbulent and brilliant figures who transformed the standards of comedy, music, and reportage.
Ron Chernow’s Mark Twain is a mammoth doorstop of a biography that shines a light on less appreciated parts of Twain’s life. We learn that he wrote countless articles in his career aggressively rebuking America’s treatment of Chinese immigrants.
Molly Jong-Fast’s How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir proves a riveting reckoning on the challenging ties many have to their parents. The memoir is both heartbreaking and humorous in mapping resentment, guilt, and grief as her mother’s mind deteriorates.
Catherine Lacey’s The Möbius Book has no beginning or end but stresses the cycles that punctuate our lives. With a heavy emotional thrust and a singular style, this book might resist easy definitions or categories but asks gnawing universal questions on intimacy, security, and belief systems.
Jan Gradvall’s The Story of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover offers an insider’s take on the beloved Swedish pop band. The journalist has penned a complete history of these enduring music icons, with rare access to long, candid interviews that helped mount one complete history.
Susan Orlean‘s Joyride: A Memoir sees ‘a life of untold pains’ as she turns her attention to her own life and career, one that was infamously fictionalized in the 2001 film Adaptation. It promises to be an intimate account of her loss of her mother, her mortality, a marriage breakdown—alongside career backstories and coups.
Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me is a reflection on the complex relationship she had with her mother, Mary, a famous women’s rights advocate who helped win a landmark Supreme Court ruling in India. The memoir weaves together raw musings on loss, regret, and the bonds that bind us.
Finally, Cher’s Cher: The Memoir, Part 2 promises to bring new shine to her well-trodden arc of life. With bare honesty and trademark humor, she will meet her deadline again, picking up where part one left off in the early 1980s after a lackluster period in the music business following the end of Sonny & Cher.
