The Best Memoirs You've Never Read | Book Recommendations

What a goldmine this channel is. All the books I’ve been searching for and had not heard of. Thank You!

I am doing my first memoir, these videos are helping enormously, thank you so much for sharing your expertise. I am extremely nervous about the whole thing but with the help I am picking up on here, will make it so much easier and organized.

i want memoirs reviewed on the basis on how trashy they are. i mean rank them with tiny dumpsters or garbage cans.

Your transitions are fantastic

These books all sound like excellent recommendations. Thank you.

You should read beyond the wand by tom felton its a really good m

After watching this video ,I decided to read Saving Jemima; What an awesome read. I loved it!

One of the worset videos I ever sun

I love the way you talk and about these books! ❤

Two great memoirs that I would recommend are Last Summer of the Drive-In Movies by Bob Gunner and Memoirs of a Bread Man by Justin John Scheck. The former is a great nostalgic trip through the 1970s as told in the perspective of a group of teenagers who are coming-of-age in Texas. The latter is a great war story as told through blue collar workers in Madison, WI at the height of the Iraq War. The main character, who was raised by his dad-a Vietnam vet-and his boss-a Marine Corps veteran from the Gulf War-tries to confront his demons and heal the wounds that haunt him. If one loves movies like The Deer Hunter, then this book would be sure to please.

I would like to add Looking for Normal by Steve Slavin to this list. It is a memoir about autism. As someone with autism, I related to a lot of it.

I love memoirs and have read many however I’ve never heard of any of these. I’m so excited to check them all out. Thank you SO much.

I read Liquid Gold this weekend. Oh so wonderful!!! ❤❤❤ Would have never found it if it were not for you. It gave me such a warm fuzzy I want to bask in it for a couple of days before diving into a new book. THANK YOU Olive! ❤

These sound like great reads, thank you.

Not the kind of books I usually read but impressed by her selections & reasoning

Dolly Parton said,"It takes a lot of money to look this cheap." Hahaha

Hi Olive, Corrections and Inc. sounds like my type of Memoir but I also like the ones that have to do with tough mother-daughter relationships. Aloha

Everyone should read Maybe you should talk to someone. Fabulous thought provoking book. I think people think it’s a self help book because of the title. I really loved how Lori told her story🙌🏼

Would you consider reading my memoir, Not My Story to Tell?

Is Saving Jemima appropriate for a 12 year old boy? He loves birds and I think he'd really love this book.

Adding literally all of these to my TBR. My #1 memoir rec is Know My Name by Chanel Miller if you are able to read that subject matter. Also high on the list is Crying In H Mart by Michele Zauner and What Is a Girl Worth by Rachael Denhollander

Wonderful recommendations! There is a memoir I read a while back Invisible thread by Laura Schroff, that touched me very deeply- the relationship of an executive woman in New York and an eleven years old panhandler boy!

What a wonderful list, thank you for these thoughtful recommendations! I loved Liquid Gold as well as Corrections in Ink, and totally agree with your raving reviews. I recently read a fantastic memoir called Proof of Life by Daniel Levin, in which the author shares his experiences looking for a person who had gone missing in Syria in 2014. A gut-wrenching, very moving, and also inspiring book.

760 Days to Freedom: A Memoir of a Love Story
Contemporary Epistolary Romance
What if love letters exchanged between a young Danish woman and an Englishman in the late 1980s, having lain dormant within a trunk for over three decades, are suddenly revived? How might they choose to respond to the realities of a world that has changed so drastically?
Preserving the senders’ distinctive body scents and style of their time, they bring a voice to resonate with brokenhearted souls, young and mature, who had a love that’s now departed. Yet, bringing intrigue, doubt, an implicit threat, drama, loss of control, and a modern pertinence, could they be forgotten forever?
Nicholas Sparks, the author, wrote: ‘Love stories usually end tragically or, at best, on a bittersweet note.’
These letters are the proof….

Very cool! Thank you very much!

Great list! Another fascinating but little known memoir is "Riding with Reindeer: A Bicycle Odyssey through Finland, Lapland and Artic Norway" by Robert M. Goldstein. The author who was a Seattle librarian rides from the most southern part of Finland to the most northern. It's all about his experiences on the journey, the people he meets and the challenges along the way. I loved it. It is one of Nancy Pearl's recommendations.

Thank you very much 😊
Waiting for your review on the book - Kayan Kollyn: the spiral of the ellmott & messenger of the secret
❤❤❤

The Best of Us by Joyce Maynard - an incredible unsentimental, pragmatic yet heartrending story of the author’s love of her life ❤

I'm new to your channel and impressed by your in-depth and comprehensible reviews! I also loved hearing about these not-so-common memoirs. Will definitely give some of those a chance. Thank you for your wonderful content ❤

These all sound amazing! And as many memoirs as I read, I haven't heard of any of these. Thank you.

great recommendations!

I cannot help myself and must recommend two excellent memoirs:
- Relish, by Lucy Knisley (about the joy of food)
- Every Tool's a Hammer, by Adam Savage (about making anything)

I’ve got to say, I really like how beautiful all the book covers are. I’m so used to memoirs being boring portraits or uninspired pictures, so it’s refreshing to see the creativity in these covers.

You're right. I had never heard of any of those ones. Thanks for the recommendations.

First video of yours and I’m adding all but one to my TBR. I love a good memoir. ❤

Saving Jemima sounds like Wesley the Owl, another brilliant book about saving an orphaned bird.

Great recommendations! Wrote down a few

Im surprised The Glass Castle didnt make this list

I suggest "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," memoir by Sherman Alexie, about growing up on the Indian Reservation in southeast Washington state. It moved me greatly. Thanks for introducing us to your list.

Meanwhile, you should patent that makeup look. Its so beautiful and so you!!

Any gangster novels that you would suggest Olive maybe crime

Memoirs are my absolute favorite kind of book to read! Bicycling with Butterflies has such a gorgeous cover and sounds interesting, to boot! :)

Thank you Olive for your videos and your book recommendations. I have read so many from you videos.

Has an avid viewer for several years I recognised them all 😅The Saving Jemima is still one of the most gorgeous covers I've seen.

I picked up Our Last Season after seeing your recommendation, and I was blown away how great it was. Thank you Olive!

I’m from east TN so Dolly & Dollywood was just a part of my childhood. I think reading that memoir would be so fun!

Yes, love this list as memoirs are some of my favorite nonfiction reads. Definitely adding Liquid Gold t my "to read" bee/honey list.🐝

Corrections in Ink is now added to my TBR. I love memoirs.

One of my favorite memoirs is from a very small indie press. It is By the Forces of Gravity by Rebecca Fish Ewan. It is about growing up in Berkeley, CA in the 70s, starting with the author as a 12 year old, essentially living without parental oversight and homeless. Her experiences are shocking, but the main focus of the book isn’t trauma, but the friendship she developed with another young girl. Told on free verse with hand drawn pictures on ever other page, it is unusual in form, but I found it very readable.

Thank you for covering books that aren't on most lists. I definitely want to read Bicycling with Butterflies and The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater.