The Diary of a Young Girl

Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt

Frank McCourt's childhood in the slums of Limerick, Ireland -- poverty, death, a drunken father, and a fierce determination to get out.

The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls

A journalist looks back on a nomadic childhood with eccentric, brilliant, and deeply neglectful parents and asks what she owes them now.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Lori Gottlieb

A therapist's life falls apart and she goes to see a therapist -- treating us to both sides of the couch simultaneously.

Wild Swans Jung Chang

Three generations of Chinese women -- a warlord's concubine, a Communist official's wife, and the author -- across a century of upheaval.

When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi

A neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal lung cancer asks: what makes a life worth living? One of the most moving memoirs ever written.