Memoir genre books (766)


11.

A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to a new generation of leaders. “A clear and compelling case for compassion . . . an implicit repudiation of the strongman style of leadership that has taken hold around the world.”—The Washington Post What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-tow... continue

12.

A Fort of Nine Towers : An Afghan Family Story by Qais Akbar Omar EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Country: Asia / Afghanistan flag Afghanistan
Description:
A carpet designer in Kabul describes his childhood before the Mujahedin took over, his family's struggle for survival after fleeing their home and how his secret carpet factory provided both employment and education for neighborhood girls.

13.

A Game for Swallows : To Die, to Leave, to Return by Zeina Abirached EN

Rating: 4 (5 votes)
Country: Asia / Lebanon flag Lebanon
Description:
Living in the midst of civil war in Beirut, Lebanon, Zeina and her brother face an evening of apprehension when their parents do not return from a visit to the other side of the city.

14.

A Guest in My Own Country: A Hungarian Life by George Konrad EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Hungary flag Hungary
Description:
Winner of the 2007 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Biography, Autobiography & Memoir A powerful memoir of war, politics, literature, and family life by one of Europe's leading intellectuals. When George Konrad was a child of eleven, he, his sister, and two cousins managed to flee to Budapest from the Hungarian countryside the day before deportations swept through his home town. Ultimately, they were the only Jewish children of the town to survive the Holocaust. A Guest in My Own Country recalls the life of one of Eastern Europe's most accomplished modern writers, beginning with h... continue

15.

A Long Way Gone : Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah EN

Rating: 4 (24 votes)
Description:
My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life. “Why did you leave Sierra Leone?” “Because there is a war.” “You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?” “Yes, all the time.” “Cool.” I smile a little. “You should tell us about it sometime.” “Yes, sometime.” This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them... continue

16.

A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley EN

Rating: 4 (4 votes)
Country: Asia / India flag India
Description:
"When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines. Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata, before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple in Australia. Despite being happy in his new family, Saroo always wondered about his origins. He spent hours staring at the map of India on his bedroom wall. When he was a young man the advent of Google Earth led him to pour over satellite images of the c... continue

17.

A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, A Memorial by Viet Thanh, Nguyen EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024 'A triumphant memoir' Cathy Park Hong, author of MINOR FEELINGS, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize The highly original, blistering, and unconventional memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, which has now sold over one million copies worldwide With insight, humour, formal invention, and lyricism, in A Man of Two Faces Nguyen rewinds the film of his own life. He expands the genre of personal memoir by acknowledging larger stories of refugeehood, colonization, and ideas about Vietnam and America, writing with hi... continue

18.

A MiG-15 to Freedom : Memoir of the Wartime North Korean Defector Who First Delivered the Secret Fighter Jet to the Americans in 1953 by No Kum-Sok, J. Roger Osterholm EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / North Korea flag North Korea
Description:
On September 21, 1953, U.S. airmen at Kimpo Air Base near Seoul, Korea, were startled to see landing a MiG-15, the most advanced Soviet-built fighter plane of the era, piloted by Senior Lieutenant No Kum-Sok, a 21-year-old North Korean Air Force officer. Once he landed, Lieutenant No found that his mother had escaped to the South two years earlier, and they were soon reunited. At his request, No came to the United States and became a U.S. citizen. His story provides a unique insight into how North Korea conducted the Korean War and how he came to the decision to leave his homeland.

19.

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott EN

0 Ratings
Description:
"In her raw, unflinching memoir . . . she tells the impassioned, wrenching story of the mental health crisis within her own family and community . . . A searing cry." —New York Times Book Review The Mohawk phrase for depression can be roughly translated to "a mind spread out on the ground." In this urgent and visceral work, Alicia Elliott explores how apt a description that is for the ongoing effects of personal, intergenerational, and colonial traumas she and so many Native people have experienced. Elliott's deeply personal writing details a life spent between Indigenous and white communities... continue

20.

A Monk Swimming : A Memoir by Malachy McCourt EN

0 Ratings
Description:
The memoirs of Malachy McCourt who left a childhood of poverty in Ireland to live in New York where he carved out a colourful career as a writer and actor - The story of his early life was told in Angela's ashes, by his brother Frank McCourt.