biography new releases 2023

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The best memoirs and biographies of 2023

The rise of Madonna, Barbra Streisand in her own words, plus the stormy relationship of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are among this year’s highlights

F or most writers, a memoir is a once in a lifetime event, but not for the poet and novelist Blake Morrison. Having already written memoirs about his late mother and father, he has turned his attention to his siblings in Two Sisters (Borough). The book details the life of Gill, his younger sister who died in 2019 from heart failure caused by alcohol abuse, alongside his half-sister Josie, the product of his father’s affair with a married neighbour, whose real parentage went unacknowledged for years. Morrison’s account of their struggles is tender, vivid and achingly sad.

O Brother (Canongate) is another brutal and brilliant sibling memoir in which the Kill Your Friends author John Niven recalls the life and death of his charismatic, troubled brother, Gary, who took his own life in 2010. It’s with both humour and pathos that he recalls his and Gary’s early life growing up in Irvine, Ayrshire, their diverging adult trajectories and the “Chernobyl of the soul” felt by Niven and his family after his brother’s suicide.

From siblings to parents and grandparents: Before the Light Fades (Virago) by Natasha Walter reveals how the author’s mother, Ruth, took her life at the age of 75, leaving a note that read: “Please be happy for me. It is a logical, positive decision.” Her death inspires Walter to investigate her family’s history of activism, tracing a fascinating path from her German grandfather Georg, who protested against the rise of the Nazis in the early 1930s, via her mother’s campaigning – Ruth was a member of the anti-war group Committee of 100, founded by Bertrand Russell – through to her own direct action with Extinction Rebellion.

Having detailed the trauma endured by her Jewish grandparents and their siblings during the second world war in her 2020 memoir House of Glass, Hadley Freeman turns the microscope on herself in Good Girls (4th Estate), detailing an adolescence blown apart by anorexia. The book is both a fearless account of her hospitalisation and eventual recovery and an important study of this most slippery and misunderstood disorder.

The Pulitzer-winning Stay True (Picador) , by New Yorker writer Hua Hsu, is a powerful and beautifully written meditation on guilt, memory and male friendship as the author reflects on the death of his “flagrantly handsome” college friend, Ken, who was murdered in 1998 after leaving a house party. A similarly thoughtful portrait of friendship, Jonathan Rosen’s The Best Minds (Penguin) tells of Michael Laudor, Rosen’s childhood friend with whom he shared a dream of being a writer. In adulthood, Laudor developed schizophrenia, for which he spent time in a psychiatric institution, and, in 1998, committed a shocking murder. In telling Laudor’s story, Rosen paints a bleak picture of how initially hopeful new attitudes towards mental illness fed into a system where those in desperate need of help slipped through the cracks.

In the clear-eyed and courageous How to Say Babylon (4th Estate), the poet Safiya Sinclair documents her traumatic childhood as the daughter of a militant Rastafarian who struck fear into his wife and children and made it clear to Safiya that she should grow into “the humbled wife of a Rastaman. Ordinary and unselfed. Her voice and vices not her own.” In her teens, Sinclair took refuge in poetry and, in defiance of her father, forged her own path. A domineering father also features in Noreen Masud’s lyrical, melancholy A Flat Place (Hamish Hamilton), in which the author travels to some of Britain’s starkest landscapes, including Morecambe Bay, Orford Ness and Orkney, while reflecting on themes of exile, heritage and her troubled childhood in Lahore, Pakistan.

Subtitled “an anti-memoir”, Wish I Was Here (Serpent’s Tail) sees the Viriconium author M John Harrison sifting through old notebooks and observing how his character and writing have evolved in a career spanning half a century, all the while rejecting the concept of memoir as another form of fiction. Along with providing snapshots from his life, this delightfully oddball and original book functions as a writing manual in which Harrison reveals his own battles on the page. “The problem of writing,” he says, “is always the problem of who you were, the problem of who to be next.”

A beguiling blend of memoir and biography, the Observer art critic Laura Cumming’s Thunderclap (Chatto & Windus) recalls the life of her father, the Scottish artist James Cumming, and that of Carel Fabritius, the 17th-century Dutch artist who was killed aged 32 in the Delft “thunderclap”, an explosion at a municipal gunpowder magazine that caused the roof of his home to collapse. Wrapped around their stories is the author’s own artistic journey, from her early days in London visiting and revisiting Fabritius’s A View of Delft in the National Gallery. Cumming’s luminous descriptions of individual paintings are worth the price of the book alone.

Wifedom (Penguin), by the former human rights lawyer Anna Funder, similarly weaves together memoir and biography to tell the story of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, the first wife of George Orwell who died at the age of 39. Having spent a summer reading Orwell, Funder noticed how little he mentioned Eileen, even though she had joined him on research trips and collaborated with him on works including Nineteen Eighty-Four. And so Funder shifted her attention “from the work to the life, and from the man to the wife”, in the process creating a nuanced portrait of a charismatic, pragmatic woman who, for better or worse, sacrificed her talent for the man she loved.

Less a straightforward biography than a series of portraits, Red Memory (Faber), by the Guardian’s former China correspondent Tania Branigan, collates remarkable eyewitness accounts of China’s Cultural Revolution, a decade-long period of upheaval, paranoia and persecution beginning in 1966. Among Branigan’s interviewees is 60-year-old Zhang Hongbing, who, as a teenager, denounced his mother to the Communist party, leading to her arrest and execution. Zhang takes Branigan to her grave where, between sobs, he chastises his mother for failing to teach him about independence of thought.

Jonny Steinberg’s richly detailed Winnie & Nelson (William Collins) documents the relationship of the late anti-apartheid activist and first South African president Nelson Mandela and his second wife, the former social worker Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who died in 2018. Both fought racism at great personal cost, though, as this insightful biography reveals, they also inflicted immeasurable cruelty on one another.

Mary Gabriel’s Madonna: A Rebel Life (Coronet) chronicles, in enthralling detail, Madonna Louise Ciccone’s path from terrifyingly ambitious trainee dancer to pop colossus, all the while placing her in a wider social and cultural context. This is not just the story of massive sales and reinvention but that of a young woman devastated by the loss of her ultra-religious mother and fearlessly battling patriarchal systems, the conservative right and the Catholic church. Another exhaustive portrait of an era-defining star comes courtesy of its subject. Barbra Streisand’s My Name Is Barbra (Century) clocks in at 992 pages, and charts every step of the winding road from Brooklyn to Hollywood.

If both those books reveal the hard graft behind fame, Erotic Vagrancy (Riverrun), by Roger Lewis, tells of the excess. A twin biography of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the actors famed for their on-off relationship and lavish lifestyle, the title is borrowed from a furious Vatican statement drafted during the filming of 1963’s Cleopatra in Italy, which accused the pair of “erotic vagrancy”. Lewis’s magnificently entertaining book – a doorstopper at more than 650 pages – brims with outrageous anecdotes attesting to the couple’s obsession with one another and their chaotic and decadent ways (they once hired a yacht for their dogs). Burton and Taylor are seemingly monstrous – infantile, vulgar, narcissistic – but, as depicted here, they are nothing less than mesmerising.

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The Best New Biographies of 2023

CJ Connor is a cozy mystery and romance writer whose main goal in life is to make their dog proud. They are a Pitch Wars alumnus and an Author Mentor Match R9 mentor. Their debut mystery novel BOARD TO DEATH is forthcoming from Kensington Books. Twitter: @cjconnorwrites | cjconnorwrites.com

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Read on to discover nine of the best biographies published within the last year. Included are life stories of singular people, including celebrated artists and significant historical figures, as well as collective biographies.

The books included in this list have all been released as of writing, but biography lovers still have plenty to look forward to before the year is out. A few to keep your eye out for in the coming months:

• The World According to Joan Didion by Evelyn McDonnell (HarperOne, September 26)
• Einstein in Time and Space by Samuel Graydon (Scribner, November 14)
• Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World by Amisha Padnani (Penguin Random House, November 14).

Without further ado, here are the best biographies of 2023 so far!

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

Ellen and William Craft were a Black married couple who freed themselves from slavery in 1848 by disguising themselves as a traveling white man and an enslaved person. Author Ilyon Woo recounts their thousand-mile journey to seek safety in the North and their escape from the United States in the months following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

Written over a period of 11 years with exclusive journalistic access to the subject, author Michael Finkel explores the motivations, heists, and repercussions faced by the notorious and prolific art thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Of special focus is his relationship with his girlfriend and accomplice, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus.

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

While recently published, King: A Life is already considered to be the most well-researched biography of Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. published in decades. New York Times bestselling journalist Jonathan Eig explores the life and legacy of Dr. King through thousands of historical records, including recently declassified FBI documents.

Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters by Lynnée Denise

This biography is part of the Why Music Matters series from the University of Texas. It reflects on the legendary blues singer’s life through an essay collection in which the author (also an accomplished musician) seeks to recreate the feeling of browsing through a box of records.

Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power by Leah Redmond Chang

Historian Leah Redmond Chang’s latest book release focuses on three aristocratic women in Renaissance Europe: Catherine de’ Medici, Elizabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots. As a specific focus, she examines the juxtaposition between the immense power they wielded and yet the ways they remained vulnerable to the patriarchal, misogynistic societies in which they existed.

Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang

Anna May Wong was a 20th-century actress who found great acclaim while still facing discrimination and typecasting as a Chinese woman. University of California professor Yunte Huang explores her life and impact on the American film industry and challenges racist depictions of her in accounts of Hollywood history in this thought-provoking biography.

Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century by Jasmine Brown

Written by Rhodes Scholar and University of Pennsylvania medical student Jasmine Brown, this collective biography shares the experiences and accomplishments of nine Black women physicians in U.S. history — including Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black American woman to earn a medical degree in the 1860s, and Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders.

Larry McMurtry: A Life by Tracy Daugherty

Two years after the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s death, this biography presents a comprehensive history of Larry McMurtry’s life and legacy as one of the most acclaimed Western writers of all time.

The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by Leta McCollough Seletzky

Journalist Leta McCollough Seletzky examines her father, Marrell “Mac” McCollough’s complicated legacy as a Black undercover cop and later a member of the CIA. In particular, she shares his account as a witness of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel.

Are you a history buff looking for more recommendations? Try these.

• Best History Books by Era
• Books for a More Inclusive Look at American History
• Fascinating Food History Books

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Best Biographies of 2023

MAY 16, 2023

by Jonathan Eig

An extraordinary achievement and an essential life of the iconic warrior for social justice. Full review >

SEPT. 12, 2023

by Tracy Daugherty

A definitive life of the novelist/bookseller/scriptwriter/curmudgeon of interest to any McMurtry fan. Full review >

APRIL 11, 2023

by Robert Greenfield

A masterful look at the wild life of an enigmatic artist that shows how captivating the truth can be. Full review >

AUG. 15, 2023

by Patti Hartigan

An authoritative portrait of a defiant champion of Black theater. Full review >

OCT. 3, 2023

by Will Hermes

An engrossing, fully dimensional portrait of an influential yet elusive performer. Full review >

by Walter Isaacson

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator. Full review >

by Sally H. Jacobs

An essential book about an incomparably authentic American pioneer and the times in which she lived. Full review >

APRIL 4, 2023

by Robert "Mack" McCormick ; edited by John W. Troutman

A worthwhile investigation into a true legend of the blues. Full review >

MAY 2, 2023

by Jonny Steinberg

A magnificent portrait of two people joined in the throes of making South African history. Full review >

DEC. 5, 2023

by Judith Tick

As masterful and wonderful as its subject. Full review >

OCT. 31, 2023

by Ronald C. White

A revealing portrait of an American hero who deserves even wider recognition. Full review >

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Last updated: May 09, 2024

The best new biographies. We scrutinized the bookshelves to bring you the best of the recent biographies. "There’s no rubric for what makes a great biography—they just provide a sense of what it means to be human"—Elizabeth Taylor, author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics' Circle biography committee.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man

By nicholas shakespeare.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, by biographer and novelist Nicholas Shakespeare, is now out in the US. It's the first authorized biography of Fleming since 1966, lengthy (800+ pages) but very readable. If you're curious about the man who created James Bond , this is the biography to read about him. Fleming served in naval intelligence during World War II, lived life to the full on all fronts, and died at age 56 of a heart attack.

Read expert recommendations

Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner

By natalie dykstra.

Anyone who has visited Boston and is at all interested in art and museums will be aware of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, with its Venetian palace inner courtyard and extraordinary art collection, including works by Titian, Mantegna, Rembrandt, Vermeer (some, sadly, stolen in an art heist in 1990), Matisse, Whistler and Sargent. Fewer will have reflected on the life of the woman who created it. Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Natalie Dykstra is not the first biography of Mrs. Jack (as she was mainly known in her lifetime) but it's one that tries to give a sense of her inner life and how that played out vis-à-vis her art collecting. It's an excellent book because you learn a lot: about art and how it was collected, but also what life was like in the 19th and early 20th centuries for a very wealthy American woman/family. The book will also have you in tears at times, at the sheer scale of tragedy people had to live with before the advent of vaccines and antibiotics.

Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative

By jennifer burns.

Milton Friedman by Jennifer Burns is a really interesting biography of the brilliant economist who, more than anyone, is credited with turning the idea that markets are good and governments are bad into a reigning ideology in many countries for the last half-century. (For its specific effects in Chile, The Chile Project , also published in 2023, is well worth reading). Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative is, apparently, the first full-length biography of Friedman based on archival research. It's very readable and a great way into the debates which remain with us, even though Friedman himself died in 2006, at the age of 94.

Books by Milton Friedman , recommended on Five Books

Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan

By ruby lal.

“Gulbadan was the daughter of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, and the aunt of Akbar, sometimes called ‘the Great.’ Gulbadan was born in Kabul, ended up in Akbar’s harem in Agra, and eventually went on a trip to Saudi Arabia, to visit the holy places of Islam. Lal manages to recreate all this beautifully.” Read more...

Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024

Sophie Roell , Journalist

Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair

By maurice samuels.

“One very readable book from Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series is a biography of Alfred Dreyfus, the man at the centre of the Dreyfus Affair. It was a cause célèbre that rocked 19th-century France, but as historian Maurice Samuels points out in the introduction, not much attention has been paid to the life of the man most affected by it. If all you knew about Dreyfus was that he was a Jewish army officer who was wrongfully convicted of treason and imprisoned on Devil’s Island, this is a nice way to find out more (and if you’ve never heard of him at all, start with T he Man on Devil’s Island or the historical thriller An Officer and a Spy).” Read more...

We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience

By lyndsey stonebridge.

We Are Free to Change the World by Lyndsey Stonebridge is an excellent, well-written book that shows why Hannah Arendt is still an important and sometimes controversial thinker today.

Monet: The Restless Vision

By jackie wullschläger.

“As I read it, at first Monet is not an attractive character. You think, ‘This is absolutely why, as a woman, you should not live with an artist.’ It’s full of scrounging letters, and the suffering of these women who are, of course, immortalised in beautiful portraits by him, but following him around or being abandoned by him…She explains quite how it is that he comes to revolutionise art and to create these ravishing works that are just luminous. She writes very beautifully about it. As life goes on, instead of being improvident, he becomes very wealthy. Finally, you see him at Giverny employing six gardeners, one of whom has to dust off the water lilies! There’s great pathos. You’re won over to him, as his life goes on, and see how he, too, has suffered for his art. It’s a rich and moving account.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2024 Duff Cooper Prize

Susan Brigden , Historian

Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor

By donald j. robertson.

“In another Yale series, Ancient Lives, there’s a new biography of the 2nd-century Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, whose book, Meditations , is often recommended for those interested in the ancient philosophy of Stoicism. It’s by Donald Robertson, a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and a firm believer that Stoicism has much to teach us in our daily lives.” Read more...

Who Is Big Brother?: A Reader's Guide to George Orwell

By d j taylor.

“Orwell biographer D.J. Taylor has a new book out… Who is Big Brother? A Reader’s Guide to George Orwell . You’ll learn a lot about Orwell’s life and how it made its way into his books.” Read more...

Maurice and Maralyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story

By sophie elmhirst.

“ Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmshirst is about an ordinary couple from Derby who set out to sail around the world in the early 1970s. The reason we know about them is that theirs turned into a survival story: their boat was sunk by a sperm whale and they were left adrift on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for 118 days. It’s an easy and engaging read: I started it one evening after dinner and stayed up to finish it just after midnight.” Read more...

King: A Life

By jonathan eig.

🏆  Winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Biography

“I was excited to see a new biography of Martin Luther King Jr. by American journalist and biographer Jonathan Eig. Like many foreigners who spend time in the US, I was aware who Martin Luther King Jr. was and his importance, but not the details nor why he shared a name with a 16th-century German monk (whom my history professors at Oxford seemed to think important). This biography is highly readable and, according to the introduction, draws on new information, particularly on Mike’s father.” Read more...

Notable Nonfiction of Early Summer 2023

The Genius of their Age: Ibn Sina, Biruni, and the Lost Enlightenment

By s. frederick starr.

“Also hailing from central Asia are the main protagonists of The Genius of Their Age: Ibn Sina, Biruni and the Lost Enlightenment by S. Frederick Starr. It’s a dual biography of Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna) and Biruni, key figures in the flowering of science and philosophy that took place in the Islamic world in the Middle Ages. Both men were born in the 10th century in modern-day Uzbekistan. This is an important period for anyone interested in the history of science, a missing gap in Western curricula (at least in my day).” Read more...

by Walter Isaacson

“Isaacson sat at the feet of Musk – literally, in the same room as Musk – for two or three years, I think. The whole second half of the book is about the last three years, so it’s very detailed. It’s very much reporting. He doesn’t step back except right at the end, and then to make a rather general point about how you need the good and the bad in order to have a genius…Isaacson doesn’t say, ‘I’m now going to make a judgment on what’s happened.’ It’s very much an account of being with this extraordinary, tempestuous entrepreneur…It’s a long book with very short chapters. It’s quite punchy, in that sense of ‘OK now we’re moving on’ which gives you a bit of an impression of what it must be like to live with or work with Elon Musk. But it doesn’t then step back and say how significant it is.” Read more...

The Best Business Books of 2023: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award

Andrew Hill , Journalist

Vergil: The Poet's Life

By sarah ruden.

“One interesting book for fans of the great epic poem of the Augustus years, the Aeneid, is a literary biography of its author, Vergil. Vergil: The Poet’s Life is by American scholar and translator Sarah Ruden. Other than his poem, we don’t know much about the author, so Ruden has to do a lot of heavy lifting, but why not? Ruden recently translated the Aeneid , and you can also read her Five Books interview about Vergil.” Read more...

Notable Nonfiction of Fall 2023

Schubert: A Musical Wayfarer

By lorraine byrne bodley.

“Other biographies published recently include one about the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828). It’s called Schubert: A Musical Wayfarer by Lorraine Byrne Bodley, a professor of musicology at Maynooth University. Schubert famously died aged just 31, but striking early in the book is how old that was compared to some of his siblings. This book is written so it’s accessible to non-musicians, but this is a serious work of scholarship.” Read more...

Spinoza: Life and Legacy

By jonathan israel.

Spinoza: Life and Legacy is a new biography of the 17th-century Dutch-Jewish philosopher, Baruch Spinoza , by historian Jonathan Israel. Israel is a leading historian of early modern Europe, and an expert on the Dutch Republic, the tolerant—by 17th-century standards—world in which Spinoza grew up. His parents had fled Portugal because of the Inquisition and, as Israel points out, that "dark Iberian context was a crucial factor in Spinoza's background, early life, and formation and likewise an essential dimension for understanding his thought generally." The book builds on Steven Nadler's biography of Spinoza , and at more than 1,200 pages is absolutely not for beginners. Rather, it's for those seeking to think deeply—and disagree with Israel at times, no doubt—about Spinoza and his life and thought.

(If you're looking for a more introductory approach to Spinoza, our interview about him is with Steven Nadler )

G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

By beverly gage.

🏆  Winner of the 2023 NBCC Biography Award

“Hoover answered to no voters. The quintessential ‘Government Man,’ a counselor and advisor to eight U.S. presidents, of both political parties, he was one of the most powerful, unelected government officials in history. He reigned over the Federal Bureau of Investigations from 1924 to 1972. Hoover began as a young reformer and—as he accrued power—was simultaneously loathed and admired. Through Hoover, Gage skilfully guides readers through the full arc of 20th-century America, and contends: ‘We cannot know our own story without understanding his.'” Read more...

The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist

Elizabeth Taylor , Biographer

Ramesses the Great: Egypt's King of Kings

By toby wilkinson.

“Other biographies out these past three months include Ramesses the Great by Toby Wilkinson, the Cambridge Egyptologist…Both rulers spent a lot of time and energy building their reputations, which may be why we’re reading about them three millennia…later” Read more...

Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times

By aaron sachs.

“A biography about writing biography! Very meta, and very much in the interdisciplinary tradition of American Studies. In his gorgeous braid of cultural history, Cornell University professor Sachs entwines the lives and work of poet and fiction writer Herman Melville (1819-1891) and the philosopher and literary critic Lewis Mumford (1895-1990), illuminating their coextending concerns about their worlds in crisis. Sachs brilliantly provides the connective tissue between Melville and his biographer Mumford so that these writers seem to be in conversation with one another, both deeply affected by their dark times.” Read more...

Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century

By jennifer homans.

“It’s a biography of a man who almost walks with the 20th century, so you get all that history. Balanchine was of Georgian heritage and grew up in Tsarist Russia. Early on, he was selected to go into the Imperial Ballet School, so he’s on that track. Then, the Russian Revolution happens and everything falls into turmoil on all fronts. There’s a lot of hunger, violence, and chaos…Balanchine eventually winds up in America, where he meets well-connected benefactors and cultural managers. They feel that American ballet hadn’t yet achieved the same level of institutional high standing as Europe. They have the ambition to rectify that and are keen to use people like Balanchine and others who had come over to the US. Eventually, Balanchine sets up the New York City Ballet Company, which, in effect, becomes the country’s national ballet.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

Frederick Studemann , Journalist

Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan

By felipe fernández-armesto.

Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan is historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's takedown of the Portuguese explorer whose disastrous expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe.

Rebels Against the Raj

By ramachandra guha.

🏆 Winner of the 2023 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography

The foreigners who fought against Franco in Spain are much feted in literature and the popular imagination, those who helped India fight for its independence from the British Empire not so much. In this book, Indian historian Ramachandra Guha tells the story of seven of them (five Brits and two Americans), rescuing them from obscurity.

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

By jonathan freedland.

“This book is extraordinary because Rudolf Vrba and a fellow inmate, Alfred Wetzler, were the first Jews ever to break out of Auschwitz. Jonathan Freedland is a fiction writer too—he writes thrillers under the name Sam Bourne—so there is an element of thriller in the way that he describes this escape and the build-up to it. It is incredibly heart-in-your-mouth compelling. But it’s a bigger story than just one man’s breakout. Vrba goes on to try and put the word out about what’s going on in Auschwitz and saves many lives in the process. The book is memorializing one man’s heroism.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

Caroline Sanderson , Journalist

The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science

By john tresch.

✩ Finalist for the  Los Angeles Times  Book Award for biography

✩ Nominated for the Edgar Award for best work of criticism or biography

John Tresch, a professor of history of art and science at the Warburg Institute, situates the iconic American author in an era "when the lines separating entertainment, speculation and scientific inquiry were blurred." The troubled horror writer embraced contradiction, exposing the hoaxes of contemporary scientific fraudsters even as he perpetuated his own.

Peerless among Princes: The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman

By kaya şahin.

A new biography of Süleyman (often called 'the Magnificent' in the West, but not in this book), the Ottoman sultan who ruled from 1520 to 1566.  He was one of the most powerful men in the world but to the modern reader, his life seems utterly tragic. The book is by Kaya Şahin, a historian at Indiana University, who is able to bring his knowledge of Turkish sources to the story. Another aim of the book is "to restore Süleyman's place among the major figures of the sixteenth century"—which also included Henry VIII, Charles V and Francis I (Europe), Ivan IV (Russia), Babur and Akbar (India), Shah Ismail and Shah Tahmasb (Iran).

Kennan: A Life between Worlds

By frank costigliola.

Kennan: A Life between World s is an excellent biography of George Kennan, the American diplomat and Russophile who first raised alarm bells about Stalin after World War II, authoring an anonymous article in Foreign Affairs and "The Long Telegram". His biographer Frank Costigliola brings to life a man who loved Tolstoy and Chekhov, was devastated at never knowing his mother, and spent most of his life opposing the policy of containment towards the Soviet Union that he's best known for.

The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville

By olivier zunz.

🏆  Winner of the Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique 2022

An excellent biography of Alexis de Tocqueville , the 19th-century French politician and author of Democracy in America and The Ancien Regime and the Revolution .

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler

By rebecca donner.

🏆  Winner of the 2021 National Book Critics Circle award for biography

🏆  Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld award for biography

The highly acclaimed biography of Mildred Harnack, an American doctoral student living in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich, who became an important anti-Nazi activist and later a spy for Allied forces during the Second World War. Arrested by the Gestapo in Sweden, she was tried by a Nazi military court and finally executed on the orders of Adolf Hitler. In All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days , Harnack's great-great-niece reconstructs her story in an astonishing work of nonfiction that draws together letters, intelligence documents and the testimony of survivors to create this remarkable story of moral courage.

Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

By katherine rundell.

🏆  Winner of the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

🏆  Winner of the 2023 British Book Award for Non-Fiction: Narrative

“Rundell is a children’s author who also specializes in Renaissance literature and makes the case that Donne should be as widely feted as William Shakespeare, his contemporary. She writes, ‘Donne is the greatest writer of desire in the English language. He wrote about sex in a way that nobody ever has, before or since: he wrote sex as the great insistence on life, the salute, the bodily semaphore for the human living infinite. The word most used across his poetry, part from ‘and’ and ‘the’, is ‘love”.” Read more...

Award Winning Biographies of 2022

The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine

By janice p. nimura.

✩ Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for biography

A dual biography of Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, the United States' first female physicians and the founders of the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, a hospital staffed entirely by women in antebellum America. Through the story of their lives, says the Wall Street Journal , we encounter "a rough-hewn, gaudy, carnival-barking America, with only the thinnest veneer of gentility overlaying cruelty and a simmering violence."

Pessoa: A Biography

By richard zenith.

The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote prolifically throughout his life, but often under a series of assumed names and identities, which he called 'heteronyms.' Relatively unknown during his lifetime, he left a cache of more than 25,000 papers which are still being studied, translated and published almost a century after his death. Here, the renowned translator and Pessoa scholar offers an insight into Pessoa's teeming imagination and polyphonous genius by tracing the back stories of his alter egos, recasting them as projections of Pessoa's inner tensions—social, sexual, and political.

Mike Nichols: A Life

By mark harris.

✩ Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle award for biography

A  New York Times- bestselling biography of the Hollywood director Mike Nichols, one of America's most prolific and versatile creative figures, by the author of Pictures at a Revolution  and  Five Came Back . Born Igor Peschkowsky to a Jewish family in 1930s Berlin, Nichols immigrated to the United States as a child, where his incredible drive saw him rise through the social ranks; by 35 he lived in a New York City penthouse overlooking Central Park, with a Rolls Royce, a string of Arabian horses, and a circle of friends that included Richard Burton and Jackie Kennedy. Mark Harris draws on interviews with more than 250 of Nichols' contemporaries to tells this story of a complicated man and his tumultuous career.

Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America

By keisha n. blain.

✩ Nominated for the NAACP Image Award for an outstanding biography or autobiography

The historian and best-selling author Keisha N. Blain examines the life and work of the Black activist Fannie Lou Hamer, positioning her as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks.

Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser

By susan bernofsky.

The first English-language biography of Robert Walser, one of the great literary talents of the twentieth century. In Clairvoyant of the Small, Susan Bernofsky—his award-winning translator—offers a diligently researched and delicately written account of his life and work, setting him in the context of 20th century European history and modernist literature.

Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II

By robert hardman.

The Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, has been on the throne for 70 years, making her the world's longest-reigning monarch other than Louis XIV of France (1643-1715: he came to the throne aged 4). Lots of events are taking place in the UK to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, including a number of new books about her life. We have an interview with royal biographer Robert Lacey on the best books about the Queen but it dates from a few years ago. Robert Hardman's Queen of Our Times came out this year and offers a detailed look at her life from birth. The book is readable, chatty almost, and a good corrective to anyone who has watched the Netflix drama The Crown , whose "questionable accuracy" Hardman points out.

Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life

Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life by Alex Christofi tells the story of the great Russian novelist's life by brilliantly intertwining it with his own words, taken from where Dostoevsky's fiction is drawn from his own lived experience. And it was quite some life: amongst other ups and downs, Dostoevsky was nearly executed and spent four years in a Siberian labour camp. You can read more in our interview with Alex Christofi on the best Fyodor Dostoevsky books .

Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said

By timothy brennan.

Places of Mind is a biography of Edward Said , the Palestinian intellectual who shot to prominence with his damning critique of how Westerners write about the East, Orientalism , in 1978. The biography is written by his student and friend Timothy Brennan.

The Van Gogh Sisters

By willem-jan verlinden.

We've heard much about the crucial role that Theo van Gogh played in the life of his brother, Vincent. But Vincent also had three sisters who were a big influence on him. In fact, it was an argument with his eldest sister, Anna, that was the reason he left the Netherlands. This is their story.

Critical Lives: Hannah Arendt

By samantha rose hill.

***🏆 A Five Books Book of the Year ***

“This book is brilliant. It’s written by Samantha Rose Hill, who must know as much as anyone about Hannah Arendt. She’s dived into Arendt’s surviving papers, notebooks, and even poetry, spending many hours in the archive. And what’s so great about this as a biography is that Hill has done something that biographers rarely do—she’s been highly selective in what she’s included. As a result, we don’t get the feeling of being overwhelmed by details of an individual life but rather get to understand what really mattered.” Read more...

The Best Philosophy Books of 2021

Nigel Warburton , Philosopher

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

© Five Books 2024

Most Anticipated Memoirs of 2023

The magic of memoirs lies in the way they encourage the author to delve deeply in to personal experiences, excavating truths they may not have discovered otherwise, as well as allowing to reader to experience the author’s truth alongside the author. If you love exploring true stories directly from the people who experienced them, don’t miss these truly exceptional memoirs coming to booksellers in 2023.

Spare by Prince Harry (1/10)

In this honest and powerful memoir, Prince Harry shares the story of his life after the death of his mother, the beloved Princess Diana. Only 12 years old at the time, millions mourned alongside Harry and wondered how he and his brother would cope with this loss—and what it would mean for their futures. Insightful, compelling, and unflinchingly truthful, Harry’s story is a poignant depiction of love, grief and resilience.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman (1/10)

Renowned collegiate athlete and national champion Lauren Fleshman is taking a stand for young women in the sporting world. Fleshman’s experiences coaching young female runners and representing brands like Nike and Oiselle have exposed her to all of the ways in which our sports systems work against women. She discusses injuries, eating disorders, and mental health struggles that many female athletes experience as they attempt to push through natural dips in performance after a certain age. She also shares her own stories of how she fell in love with running, pushed her limits, and sustained multiple catastrophic injuries. Both a memoir and a call to action to rebuild the world of competitive sports, Good for a Girl is uplifting, inspiring, and revelatory.

Call Me Anne by Anne Heche (1/24)

In this personal, vulnerable and post-humous memoir, Emmy-award winning actress Anne Heche opens up about her rise to fame. She includes details about her time working with Harrison Ford, her relationship with Ellen Degeneres, her experience with Harvey Weinstein, her childhood history of sexual abuse, her relationship with God, and her journey of self-love. Also included are poems and exercises that helped Anne through hard times. Along with personal anecdotes, Anne encourages readers to embark on their own journey of self-love and acceptance.

Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir by Iliana Regan (1/24)

Iliana Regan’s successful debut  Burn the Place  helped Iliana and her new wife, Anna, create a culinary destination located in Michigan, the Milkweed Inn. Here, Regan forages a lot of the food, and has been given the chance to return to their rural roots. The youngest of three older sisters, Regan’s childhood relationships were shaped by her childhood identification as a boy. Treating her like the son he never had, Regan’s father would take her foraging and fishing, sharing stories of his own parents as she got older. Regan learns to navigate Michigan’s boreal forest, trying to conceive a child, and keeping a new business afloat during the peak of the pandemic, all while loggers decimate surrounding areas.

Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson (1/31)

This unforgettable memoir by actress/model Pamela Anderson reveals personal truths about her life before superstardom, her rise to fame, and her time in the spotlight. Growing up in Vancouver, Pamela was initially a shy girl with a deep love of nature and a powerful imagination—which is what eventually led to her glamorous life in Hollywood. But along with the glamour came the struggles of maintaining her image during a time when paparazzi was determined to destroy it. Resolute and resilient, Pamela continued to push through the dark side of fame, seeking comfort in art and literature. Now a devoted mother, activist, and Broadway performer, Pamela is sharing her journey of growth and self-discovery.

Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Toshio Meronek and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (1/31)

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has lived a legendary life seeking justice, survival and freedom. A lifetime of struggle as a transgender and activist, having participated in the Stonewall Riots, living through the HIV/AIDS crisis, and helping found one of America’s first needle exchange programs from the back of her van, this book showcases a woman in search of trans liberation, as well as collective liberation. Miss Major Speaks is a documentation of these struggles, a roadmap for the challenges that Black, brown, queer, and trans youth will face, told through intimacy and offering a vision of hope.

Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H (2/7)

Born in South Asia, Lamya H has always felt out of place in the Middle East. When she realizes she has a crush on her female teacher at age fourteen, she does everything she can to hide her feelings. Lamya learns the story of Maryam in Quran class, and how she insisted she had never been touched by a man, and yet was pregnant. From that moment, Lamya wondered if they were similar. She soon uses other famous stories from the Quran, making sense of her life and her choices by owning her queerness, and figuring out what it means for her to be a devout Muslim immigrant.

My What If Year: A Memoir by Alisha Fernandez Miranda (2/7)

CEO of her own consulting firm, Alisha Fernandez Miranda is almost forty, at the peak of her personal and professional success. Exhausted, Miranda decides to take a break, pausing her career. When her family, husband and eight-year-old twins, hesitantly give their blessing for her to explore her dream jobs for a year, she leaves her home in London in search of the answers to “What If?” What ensues is a hilarious journey that involves yoga, million-dollar artwork, and Broadway as we experience what it means to always have a beginner’s mind, and never say no to second chances.

The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival by Bozoma Saint John (2/21)

Live life urgently: Even in her brokenness, that is Bozoma Saint John’s main goal when she loses her husband, Peter, to cancer. Knowing his cancer was terminal, Peter gave Bozoma a list of two things: cancel their divorce and fix the wrongs immediately. But Bozoma is no stranger to adversity, having lost her college boyfriend to suicide, an interracial marriage, a premature child, and a separation from Peter. Through outstanding courage, she navigates multiple griefs, while holding strong to her desire for a remarkable life.

A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung (4/4)

After fleeing from her overwhelmingly white Oregon hometown to an East Coast university, Nicole Chung finally found a sense of community she’d always wanted as an Asian American adoptee. But as her life progresses, the middle-class world she begins to raise a family in—large homes and disposable income—is much different from what she thought was her middle-class childhood, where people often live paycheck to paycheck and safety nets hard to come by. When a family death and cancer diagnosis brings up deep feelings of rage at the lack of accessibility to health care and financial instability, Chung explores class, inequality and grief in this searing memoir.  

The Big Reveal by Sasha Velour (4/4)

Crafting together real life stories with rich queer history, The Big Reveal is a celebration of an expressive art form and the ways it has revolutionized over time. As Sasha Velour uncovers her life and journey as a drag queen, she weaves herself into the history of it, revealing how she learned the craft while bringing substance to our understanding of queer liberation.

Chita: A Memoir by Chita Rivera (4/25)

Born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero but renamed by the entertainment world, Chita takes us behind the curtain to show how Dolores inspired some of her most famous Broadway roles, and the highs and lows through it all. A front row seat to Chita’s career that gives gratitude to her loyal and longstanding fans, we are invited into rehearsals, on stage, and to work next to some of the greatest talents of their time. Documenting her childhood and heritage as well as her work and career life, Chita shows how she managed to inspire so many people to forge their own unique paths.

Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto by Zachary Zane (5/9)

In this series of essays, a sex and relationship columnist tells their personal coming out and coming-of-age stories, while also exploring the idea of sex without shame. Even as a young boy, Zachary Zane felt ashamed by the thoughts that popped into his head. Through the lens of self-proclaimed sluttiness and bisexuality, Zane highlights the ways shame negatively impacts our relationships. With essays of personal experience, Boyslut shows how we can begin to detach from the harmful messages that society sends us, and begin to embrace our sexuality to live healthier, happier lives.

Pageboy by Elliot Page (6/6)

Elliot Page was on the brink of discovering himself as a queer person when the massively successful movie,  Juno , came out. Forced to play the role of glossy, young starlet both on and off the screen, Elliot found himself suffocating. Where acting once had been an outlet for his imagination, it soon became a bitter reality, and Elliot felt those dreams of finding himself as a trans person become further out of reach, until enough was enough. With Hollywood behind the scenes and personal insights, Pageboy is a winding journey of what it means to be ourselves when society is trying to create a different version of us.

A Place for Us by Brandon J. Wolf (6/6)

Brandon Wolf grew up in rural Oregon, grappled by the loss of his mother and the ongoing homophobia and racism within his community. Moving to Orlando, he finally found a community where he felt he belonged, a safe space and a chosen family. When his new normal is shaken up by unimaginable tragedy, the chaos and pain involved gave Brandon a new power, the power of purpose. Turning this purpose into a transformative journey of healing, Wolf showcases the power of community and how there’s hope where there is compassion.

Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen (7/4)

When Beth Nguyen was just eight months old, her family fled Saigon for America, leaving their mother behind. It wasn’t until Beth was nineteen that they would meet again, and over the course of her adult life, they’ve spent less than twenty-four hours together. Framed through a series of visits between mother and daughter, this memoir explores what it means to be a parent and a refugee, and finding belonging amongst the two.

If You Would Have Told Me by John Stamos (Fall 2023)

In this long-anticipated memoir, actor John Stamos shares stories of his life that are both heartbreaking and heartening. He discusses Hollywood, fame, fortune, and the mistakes he made along the way, and honors all of the people that helped him become who he is today. Honest and powerful, Stamos encourages readers to find moments of beauty in their own lives, practice gratitude, and trust in something bigger than themselves.

Recommend These Reads:

About the author: she reads editors.

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The 14 fall 2023 pop culture memoirs and biographies we're most excited to read

From Barbra to Peloton instructors, there's no shortage of great pop culture reads this fall.

Here at EW, we're pop culture junkies.

If there's a behind-the-scenes story or a personal hot take from a celeb, we are here for it. Chances are, if you're reading this you are too. And this fall, there is no shortage of engrossing, juicy new memoirs and biographies shedding light on all corners of the entertainment industry.

From Old Hollywood (Charlie Chaplin, Lena Horne, Greta Grabo) to the music industry (Barbra Streisand, Britney Spears, Geddy Lee) to the virtual gym (Cody Rigsby), pop culture figures across the gamut are telling their stories (or receiving new evaluation) in a slew of new titles hitting shelves this season.

Here are the 14 pop culture memoirs and biographies we're most excited about in fall 2023.

Ideal Beauty: The Life and Times of Greta Garbo by Lois W. Banner

Historian and biographer Lois Banner ( Marilyn: The Passion and The Paradox ) takes one of Hollywood's most enigmatic figures as her latest subject. Drawing on over a decade of research in archives across ​​Sweden, Germany, France, and the United States, Banner examines the shadowy personal life of the woman most famous for stating, "I want to be alone." While Garbo captivated audiences with her beauty and mysterious persona, this book offers an insightful portrait of her private life, interrogating her feminism, sexuality, mental health, and more. Garbo rose to fame on the silent screen, but this new biography gives voice to her life in unparalleled fashion. (Sept. 5) — Maureen Lee Lenker

XOXO, Cody by Cody Rigsby

With XOXO Cody , the beloved Peloton instructor shows he has range. His memoir aims to make readers laugh and tear up in equal measure. He delivers his hot takes and humorous advice about living life right while also diving into the difficult moments in his life that shaped the adult he is. As he delves into growing up gay and his issues with his parents, Rigsby provides an opportunity for folks to get to know him better. XOXO Cody is inspiring and raw, but also a great reminder that laughing our way through something is a solid option. (Sept. 12) — Alamin Yohannes

Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones

Saturday Night Live alum Leslie Jones is known for her disarming frankness, and in her new memoir, Leslie F*cking Jones , the comic invites readers even deeper inside her brutally honest thoughts. Jones' sense of humor is intact even as she opens up about her experiences with childhood sexual abuse, abortion, and family tragedy, as well as the racism and sexism she's fought in stand-up comedy and from online trolls who made her life hell after she was cast in the women-led Ghostbusters . SNL fans will be especially interested in her tales from the show, including who she did and did not get along with, and hilarious details of an unaired sketch about killing Whoopi Goldberg . (Sept. 19) —Jillian Sederholm

Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy by Stephen M. Silverman

Stephen Sondheim may have died in 2021, but his spirit lives on among the Broadway faithful. This month alone marks the premiere of the third Sondheim revival since his passing, as well as the premiere of Here We Are , a posthumous presentation of the Luis Buñuel-inspired musical he was working on until the end. Somewhere between a biography and a coffee-table book, Stephen M. Silverman's new title makes a perfect companion to our current age of Sondheim remembrance. The master of the modern musical is chronicled with textual highlights of his life story (with Sondheim's sardonic wit on display in frequent direct quotes), but also helpfully accompanied by many, many photos of his legendary Broadway career — and the actors, artists, and celebrities he crossed paths with along the way. (Sept. 19) — Christian Holub

Thicker Than Water by Kerry Washington

In her memoir, Kerry Washington bares it all. After a long-kept family secret is revealed, the actress and producer looks back at her life to share what she has overcome and learned over the years. From past traumas to wisdom she's received through her roles, Washington is bringing fans into her world like never before. Through these stories, she tells readers of her fight to redevelop her own understanding of family as she started her own. Thicker Than Water is a poignant and captivating exploration of how she became the woman she is today. (Sept. 26) — A.Y.

Worthy by Jada Pinkett Smith

Though Jada Pinkett Smith has spent the last couple of years peeling back the layers on Red Table Talk , she still feels like people misunderstand her. In Worthy, she attempts to tell her story, her way. From Baltimore to Hollywood, and through suicidal ideation to self-acceptance and healing, Pinkett Smith recounts her journey to reflection and healing. (Oct. 4) — Yolanda Machado

Thank You: Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin by Sly Stone

In the late '60s, Sly Stone was the embodiment of cool, an impossibly stylish funk master and preternatural hitmaker. He was also a man who carted around a violin case filled with cocaine wherever he'd go. If his drug use could conjure magic in the studio, it also destroyed the Sly and the Family Stone frontman's relationships, wiped out his earnings, and made him a recluse. Now 80 years old and sober, the living legend is finally releasing his memoir, a cautionary tale and the story of one of rock's true great visionaries. (Oct. 17) — Jason Lamphier

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Britney Spears is finally ready to tell her story the way she's never been able to before. One of the world's biggest and most misunderstood pop icons is releasing her memoir, The Woman In Me , a little over two years after revealing harrowing details in open court about how her life wasn't her own under the conservatorship of her father for over 13 years. Now that the court-ordered conservatorship has been dissolved, Spears' chronicles her "brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope," allowing her fans to finally see the woman behind the music. (Oct. 24) — Sydney Bucksbaum

Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond by Henry Winkler

The guy who played one of the coolest characters ever on-screen is also known as one of the nicest ever off it. So how exactly did mild mannered Henry Winkler transform himself into the Fonz? The Emmy-winning actor takes us inside his original Happy Days audition as part of a memoir that goes through Winkler's entire career — from The Lords of Flatbush through Barry . And yes, he explains in full detail why in the world he jumped that damn shark. (Oct. 31) —Dalton Ross

Lena Horne: Goddess Reclaimed by Donald Bogle

Donald Bogle, revered historian of Black Hollywood, tackles one of the most iconic Black Golden Age stars — Lena Horne. Using a combination of interviews, press accounts, studio archives, and historical research, Bogle offers up a lush portrait of Horne, from her professional triumphs and bitter disappointments to her activism and role in breaking barriers for Black performers and Black women throughout her career. Bogle tells Horne's story accompanied by stunning photographs in this coffee table-style book that allows for never-before-published images of Horne to shine. (Oct. 31) — M.L.L.

Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman

While Charlie Chaplin's life has been chronicled many times, biographer Scott Eyman ( John Wayne: The Life and Legend; Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise ) drills down on Chaplin's fall from grace and exile from America in the back half of the Little Tramp's career. In the wake of the Red Scare and Chaplin's own sexual scandals, he was denied re-entry into the United States in 1952 following a trip to Europe. Eyman examines the events leading to this exile, the political turmoil at play, and Chaplin's years making his final two films in London. It's both a fascinating historical study and a cautionary tale about the perils of hysteria and extremism pervading government practices. (Oct. 31) — M.L.L.

My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

For years now, Barbra Streisand has spoken of her long-gestating memoir, and it's finally here. In her inimitable way, Streisand tells the story of her life, from her childhood in Brooklyn to her legendary Broadway breakout in Funny Girl to her success in Hollywood as an actress and director. Full of her signature frankness and dry humor, the memoir gives fans an unprecedented look at Streisand's life, from her personal struggles to her professional triumphs, all with a reminder that through the decades, nobody was going to rain on her parade. (Nov. 7) — M.L.L.

My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee

Living in the limelight may be the universal dream for some, but for Rush frontman Geddy Lee, it's simply another chapter in his effin' excellent life. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — who played bass, keyboards, and sang on the progressive rock band's biggest hits — holds nothing back in his highly-anticipated memoir. From being named after his grandfather who was murdered during the Holocaust to sharing intimate tales of life on the road with bandmates Alex Lifeson and the late Neil Peart, Lee puts aside the alienation and gets on with the fascination surrounding his extraordinary life in an honest, hilarious, and heartfelt way all his own. (Nov. 14) — Emlyn Travis

The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story by Sam Wasson

If he had only made The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola would already be remembered as one of the most successful American directors of all time. But his ambitions always went far beyond that, and the filmmaker promises he has one more masterpiece on the way in the form of the mysterious utopian magnum opus Megalopolis . This new book by Sam Wasson (who already proved himself one of the great modern chroniclers of the New Hollywood era with the Chinatown making-of story The Big Goodbye ) chronicles the road to heaven Coppola trod after descending to Hell with Apocalypse Now. The Vietnam War epic is already the subject of much reporting, but Wasson boasts unprecedented access to Coppola's personal archive — as well as a first-hand look at the making of a movie we can't wait to see. (Nov. 28) — C.H.

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The 25 Best New Celebrity Memoirs of 2023

From Prince Harry to Kerry Washington to Barbra Streisand, it's been quite the year for famous stars telling their stories.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Prince Harry's Spare was full of jaw-dropping revelations , weird tales , and a peek behind the curtain of what life is like in the British royal family . Ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer , Spare was Harry's side of his life story, and how he dealt with grief and healing. "I don’t think my father or brother will read the book. I really hope they do. But I don’t think they will," Prince Harry said in an interview around publication. While the British royal family may not have read it, one thing's for sure: The world certainly did.

Thicker than Water: A Memoir

Kerry Washington's Thicker than Water recounts her upbringing and career as an actress and activist. "Writing a memoir is, by far, the most deeply personal project I have ever taken on," she said . "I hope that readers will receive it with open hearts and I pray that it offers new insights and perspectives, and invites people into deeper compassion — for themselves and others."

My Name Is Barbra

Barbra Streisand's long-anticipated memoir finally hit the shelves this November, featuring a revealing look into her life and career, and charming anecdotes about everything from Yentl to Princess Diana .

A Pocketful of Happiness: A Memoir

Richard E. Grant arrived in London from Swaziland in 1982 to pursue his dreams as an actor. Along the way, he fell in love with the renowned dialect coach, Joan Washington. For forty years, the two embarked on life together–highs and lows of Hollywood, parenting, and all. When Washington passed away in 2021, she left him with a challenge: find a "pocketful of happiness in every day.” Written like diary entries, this memoir is written in honor of that challenge. Grant shares the details of his life's experiences from the pain of losing his beloved wife, to their memories spent together, from his roles in Withnail and I to his thrilling Oscar Award nomination thirty years later for Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Paris: The Memoir

"I just feel for so long I've been misunderstood and underestimated," Paris Hilton told NPR about writing Paris: The Memoir . "And I feel that the past over two decades in this industry, my story has been told by other people. And I was just ready to get real and tell my truth." In a wide-ranging book, the biggest truths lay in Hilton's teenage years, and the her experiences with the so-called troubled teen industry.

Pageboy: A Memoir

Elliot Page shot to fame as a pregnant teen in Juno , but his public experience as a young starlet did not line up who he truly was: A queer, trans person. "I didn’t think I could write a book. Books, particularly memoirs, have really shifted my life, offered me inspiration, comfort, been humbling, all of those things," Page said . "And I think this period of not just hate, about our healthcare, it felt like the right time. Trans and queer stories are so often picked apart, or worse, universalized." What resulted was an intimate, resonant look at Page's journey from child star to today.

The Woman in Me

Britney Spears gets honest in her memoir, a moving and brave tale of "freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope."

Making It So: A Memoir

Sir Patrick Stewart's memoir, Making It So , like many of the other revealing celebrity books on this list, details his childhood through his journey to acclaim on stage and screen. "I never had the time to do it. But then my agent, early in 2020, said, 'Look, Patrick, there is no work. It’s going to be a shut down everywhere, and it could last for months. This is the only window, so why not give it a go? If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just return the advance, and you can go back to doing jigsaw puzzles,'" he recounted .

Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir

American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, now 70, reflects on her childhood in the Deep South, and the experiences that shaped her unforgettable music. "I’ve held back from talking about my childhood over the decades of my life," Williams writes. "I’ve written songs about it instead." Now, she finally takes pen to paper to share her stories.

Chita: A Memoir

Chita Rivera, born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero, turned 90 earlier this year—and wow has the legendary actress lived a full life. In this wide-ranging, entertaining memoir written with journalist Patrick Pacheco, the three-time Tony Award winner reflects on her nine decades, and writes about her life on stage and screen. "It was the next stage for me to write it down. And it was God’s way of reminding me this is the life I had or have. I got so busy that I didn’t remember that I had a wonderful, wonderful life," she tells the AP . And yes, Chita is as wonderful as she is.

Jada Pinkett Smith dives deep into her life—from her childhood in Baltimore to her marriage with Will Smith. As her husband (or are they even married) wrote in the blurb, "I went through so many emotions reading this book. Reconnecting to one's ancestors and truly feeling, not only hearing, their stories are fertile ground for true ecstatic embodiment of the self. We have to know where we've been to see where we're going."

Tell Me Everything: A Memoir

Minka Kelly shot to fame as Lyla on Friday Night Lights , but never shared her personal story. Now, as the title promises, she's telling her readers everything—including her childhood traumas. "I decided to tell my story because the media has written a narrative of me, based on the men they have seen me with, whether I’ve dated them or not," she told The Cut . An unflinching, no-holds-barred look at her life and career.

Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond

Henry Winkler is more than "The Fonz," his character from Happy Days . His memoir covers his big break and career, but also his mental health journey and therapy.

Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth

Pamela Anderson sets the record straight in Love, Pamela , aptly subtitled "a memoir of prose, poetry, and truth." In the pages of her memoir, she recounts everything from her childhood in Vancouver to the abuse she faced throughout her career . The book came out around the same time as Pamela, a Love Story dropped on Netflix —making 2023 Anderson's year to reclaim her narrative.

Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding)

Not quite a memoir, but a book written by two celebrities that we felt was worthy of inclusion: Laura Dern and her mom, Diane Ladd, co-wrote Honey, Baby, Mine. The book stemmed from conversations about love, death, marriage, art, and legacy the two had on long walks following a scary health diagnosis for Ladd. As the publisher notes, "The result is a celebration of the power of leaving nothing unsaid that will make you want to call the people you love the most and start talking."

Wildflower: A Memoir

Aurora James—activist, fashion designer, and founder of the Fifteen Percent Pledge —tells her story of how she got to where she is today in Wildflower . As T&C noted in our favorite books of spring 2023 , "James recounts a peripatetic childhood, brushes with the law, and disenchantment with the fashion industry, but also her inspiring ability to find a path that combined her creative genius and desire to give back. Wildflower is true to its name, sharing a story of someone who bloomed despite obstacles and dedicated herself to beauty inside and out even when doing so wasn't so simple."

Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs

To mark his 90th birthday, Willie Nelson goes behind the lyrics of 160 of his favorite songs. Energy Follows Throughout is not just a classic memoir—it's full of never-before-seen photos and various ephemera of Nelson's. As the publisher notes, "Willie is disarmingly honest—what do you have to lose when you’re about to turn 90? —meditating on the nature of songwriting and finding his voice, and the themes he’s explored his whole life."

Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain

Andrew McCarthy, member of the Brat Pack, is now a dad. In this follow up to his memoir Brat: An '80s Story (and in his second career as a travel writer) , he sets out on the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile walk across Spain, with his son Sam (also an actor now). In this funny, moving memoir, McCarthy writes about his first time walking the Camino de Santiago, and the second time with his son. Part father-son bonding, part travelogue, all very emotional.

Leslie F*cking Jones

In Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones's new memoir, aptly titled Leslie F*cking Jones , the comedian doesn't hold back in recounting her experiences with racism and misogyny in the comedy world. "It’s not easy being a woman in comedy, especially when you’re a tall-ass Black woman with a trumpet voice. I have to fight so that no one takes me for granted, and no one takes advantage. These are the stories that explain why," she explains.

My Effin' Life

Geddy Lee, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Rush bassist, opens up in his memoir My Effin' Life . In the pages, he lets readers in on his childhood—he was born Gershon Eliezer Weinrib, named for his grandfather who was murdered in the Holocaust—and on the rise of Rush.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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42 standout books from 2023, from romances to wrenching historical novels

2023 came and went, and we read all year long. We’re looking back on a few of our favorite books from this year.

The year kicked off with Prince Harry’s anticipated memoir “Spare ,” the first of many headline-making memoirs. From there came romances by the likes of Emily Henry and Carley Fortune; memoirs from memoirs from Latinx authors ; uplifting literary novels and ones that were unforgettably daring. Plus, there were all of those Read With Jenna picks. 

Here are a few of the standout books from 2023.

'We Must Not Think of Ourselves' by Lauren Grodstein

'We Must Not Think of Ourselves'

The wrenching final Read With Jenna pick of the year is set in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII, and follows the real-life efforts of residents to archive their lives there.

'The Sun Sets in Singapore' by Kehinde Fadipe

'The Sun Sets in Singapore'

Think of it as “Sex and the City” but in Singapore. Actor and novelist Kehinde Fadipe’s debut centers on three Nigerian expats who help each other through career crossroads and dating challenges, all in a different country.

'How to Say Babylon' by Safiya Sinclair

'How to Say Babylon'

Raised by an authoritarian Rastafari father, Safiya Sinclair details her unique coming-of-age story, and how she learned to find her own voice.

'The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store' by James McBride

"The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store"

'amazing grace adams' by fran littlewood.

'Amazing Grace Adams'

Grace Adams doesn’t feel all that amazing. Her daughter won’t speak to her and her marriage has fallen apart. This voicey, hilarious book is her attempt at a redemption. She looks back at her past and tries to find the key to fixing the future.

'Banyan Moon' by Thao Thai

'Banyan Moon'

A mom. A daughter. A ghost grandmother, watching them both. “Banyan Moon” isn’t a ghost story so much as it is a story about how decisions ripple through generations, as does trauma — in this case, the trauma of the Vietnam War.

'Tom Lake' by Ann Patchett

'Tom Lake'

Ann Patchett’s latest is a love song to mothers and daughters; to the way the past can remain present; and to summers by a lake (or a cherry orchard). In it, a mother tells the defining story of her youth to her daughters: Her love story with a man who would go on to become very, very famous.

'Absolution' by Alice McDermott

'Absolution'

Alice McDermott’s new book focuses on a part of history not often covered: The women of the Vietnam War. Absolution is about four wives who were in Saigon in the ‘70s.

'Sam' by Allegra Goodman

Sam by Allegra Goodman

The first Read With Jenna pick of the year , "Sam" is a coming-of-age story with language that reflects its protagonist's growing up, evolving as Sam does. Describing the book to TODAY.com, Jenna Bush Hager says, "It explores what happens when one girl loses the wonder of childhood — the innocence of her early years only to reclaim her power and hope."

'Age of Vice' by Deepti Kapoor

Age of Vice

An epic in every sense of the world, "Age of Vice" will take you on a years-long whirlwind in a character's life ... and then back again, to show the same events from a different character's perspective. As the picture comes into focus, and all the elements of greed, loss, pleasure and love fueling the New Delhi-set story, you'll feel heartbreak for the characters and thrill at the capacity of Kapoor's mind.

'The Survivalists' by Kashana Cauley

The Survivalists

Aretha knows she can't prepare for every tragedy, especially in the wake of her mother's death. But there are some she can plan for "The Survivalists" follows one lawyer's detour into an underground world of people who believe the apocalypse is coming and are trying to get ahead of it.

'Spare' by Prince Harry

Prince Harry's anticipated memoir is billed as being an "honest and captivated personal portrait " of a person the public has seen grown up, but is only recently getting to know on an intimate level. Poised to tell his story "at last," the memoir is expected to cover the death of his mother, Diana, and why he left royal life behind with his wife Meghan Markle.

'Hell Bent' by Leigh Bardugo

The second installment in her Alex Stern series, "Hell Bent" returns to a magic-infused Yale University campus, where secret societies cast magic and unleash monsters. Alex Stern was brought from California to the cloistered Ivy League school to keep a watchful eye on them. And in book two, she has to venture to hell to rescue her partner. Read a preview here .

The Faraway World' by Patricia Engel

The Faraway World: Stories

In 2021, "Infinite Country," Engel’s latest novel, hit the New York Times bestseller list and took a strong hold over book clubs everywhere. Any fan of Engel’s work will tell you to prepare yourself for unique and intimate layered storytelling. You'll find that and so much more in this new short story collection exploring themes of community, regret and migration.

— Lupita Aquino

'Central Places' by Delia Cai

Central Places: A Novel

It's "Meet the Parents" for a new generation. Since moving away from the central Illinois town she grew up in, Audrey Zhou has gotten a high-powered job and found the perfect man. Now, she's bringing her fiancé back to meet her Chinese immigrant parents. There, her past and present collide, as do her parents' expectations for her and her hopes for herself.

'Love, Pamela' by Pamela Anderson

Love, Pamela

After a life in the headlines, you might think you know Pamela Anderson. In this revealing memoir, Anderson describes what it was like to be in her shoes during her ascent to fame and scrutiny, and how she found herself.

'Maame' by Jessica George

"Maame" is a coming-of-adulthood with an unforgettable narrative voice. By page one, you'll be invested in Maame's journey as she navigates caring for her ailing father and living at home in her mid 20s; her mother's nosy phone calls from Ghana that can't make up for her absence; her friendships; disappointing work interactions; and more.

'The People Who Report More Stress' by Alejandro Valero

The People Who Report More Stress: Stories

Valero's debut novel "The Town of Babylon" came out in 2022, and this forthcoming short story collection, full of memorable personalities, explores similar themes: community, relationships, modern queer life, racism and parenthood.

'I Have Some Questions for You' by Rebecca Makkai

I Have Some Questions for You

Imagine if your life was the stuff of a true crime documentary. Bodie Kane has tried to move on past the 1995 murder of her boarding school roommate. When she returns to the boarding school as an adult, Bodie realizes there are still lingering mysteries about how the case was wrapped up and justice was served.

'Black Candle Women' by Diana Marie Brown

Black Candle Women (Original)

If you watched "True Blood" or "Practical Magic," you're sure to enjoy this family saga about a group of women with magic in their blood and secrets in their past. Augusta, the family matriarch, can't speak due to aphasia, but her daughter, grand-daughters and great-granddaughter are living with the ramifications of a decision she made and the powers she passed onto them.

'What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez' by Claire Jimenez

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

The Ramirez sisters were a tight-knit trio until the sudden disappearance of Ruthy, the middle child, shattered the family. Years after her disappearance, Ruthy seems to reappear in a reality TV show using the name Ruby. This debut novel is a funny and heartbreaking examination of sisterhood, generational trauma and the bonds that hold families together.

'The Mimicking of Known Successes' by Malka Older

The Mimicking of Known Successes

Exploring communities in conflict and the loss of ecosystems, this science fiction novella — part sapphic romance, part murder mystery — imagines what life would be like in a human colony on Jupiter.

'Hello Beautiful' by Ann Napolitano

Hello Beautiful

Read With Jenna author Ann Napolitano's follow-up to "Dear Edward " is centered on a lonely basketball player and the warm family of four sisters (think "Little Women") that he marries into. Read a preview of the redemptive novel here .

'Take What You Need' by Idra Novey

Take What You Need: A Novel

Leah returns to her home in the Allegheny Mountains to clean house after her estranged stepmother's death. Upon arriving, Leah learns that her stepmother had a secret: an inner artist who left behind large, mysterious sculptures out of scrap material. Idra Novey created the portrait of an artist, seen through the eyes of someone who only knew her as a flawed stepmother.

'The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts' by Soraya Palmer

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts

This debut coming-of-age story weaves in folktales and spirits through the lens of two Jamaican-Trinidad sisters who struggle to understand each other, exploring the power of storytelling and complexities of sisterhood.

' White Cat, Black Dog' by Kelly Link

White Cat, Black Dog: Stories

Kelly Link is the master of the modern fairy tale. This collection of short stories is deceptively easy to read – you'll be turning the pages of strange events quickly, but the stories and their strange events are liable to linger in your mind.

'Above Ground: Poems' by Clint Smith

Above Ground

In this new collection of poems, Smith examines the ways in which parenthood has altered his view on life. He now tries to see the world through his children's eyes. Expressive and intimate, this collection flawlessly captures the vulnerability of the human experience on the page.

'Camp Zero' by Michelle Min Sterling

The climate apocalypse happens — and people keep going. This inventive novel follows the people after the world as we know it has been changed irrevocably, living in the far north.

'Carmen and Grace' by Melissa Coss Aquino

Carmen and Grace

Cousins Carmen and Grace share a traumatic childhood that has bonded them together tightly. That is, until they meet a sisterhood of women known as the D.O.D, who are guided by a leader of an underground drug empire, Doña Durka. This plot-driven novel explores the bonds of found family and the ways into which power and ambition can sever relationships.

'Homecoming' by Kate Morton

The author of "The Clockmaker's Daughter" returns with her first book in four years. Another epic, "Homecoming" follows the decades-long reverberations of a crime in South Australia for one family.

'Chain Gang All Stars' by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

"Chain-Gang All Stars"

Jenna Bush Hager says her May 2023 book club pick is "not like anything I’ve read before."

Two women prisoners become gladiators, battling each other for their lives and their freedom, in this dystopian novel.

'A Living Remedy' by Nicole Chung

A Living Remedy: A Memoir

This riveting and tender memoir is a stunning meditation on grief and guilt, driven by the ways in which the U.S. healthcare system, one of the highest costs of healthcare in the world, fails those that cannot afford it. Detailing her father's inability to access healthcare and his premature death, Chung illuminates the hardships many Americans face caring for aging parents and loved ones in a broken system.

— L.A.— L.A.

'Meet Me at the Lake' by Carley Fortune

Meet Me at the Lake

Like Carley Fortune's hit debut novel "Every Summer After", "Meet Me at the Lake" is a lake-set romance. After an intense, 24-hour meeting a decade ago, Fern and Will meet up again in the lakeside town where she inherited her mother's inn. Read a preview here .

'In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation' by Isabel Zapata

In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation

In this essay-like collection, Zapata examines in vitro fertilization and the narratives that drive societal expectations and pressures in conception and pregnancy. Unveiling a nuanced view of motherhood and fertility treatment, "In Vitro" will illuminate aspects of pregnancy not often discussed.

'Quietly Hostile: Essays' by Samantha Irby

Quietly Hostile: Essays

Blogger-turned-bestselling author Samantha Irby is back with a new and hilariously relatable essay collection. The essays depict what it's like to balance writing for hit shows like HBO’s reboot of "Sex and City" with the reality of living in a human body. Irby will have you crying and laughing as she writes about exploring therapy, reiki and much more.

'Yellowface' by R. F. Kuang

R. F. Kuang is the creator of intricate fantasy novels like "Babel" and the Poppy War series. In "Yellowface," she tells the story of two competitive authors, Athena Liu and June Hayward, whose careers take off at the same time — but only one's star rises. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June takes her chance to steal her manuscript about Chinese laborers during WWII and pass it off as her own.

'The Late Americans' by Brandon Taylor

The Late Americans

Previously listed as a nominee for the Booker Prize longlist with his debut novel, "Real Life", Taylor’s sophomore novel "The Late Americans" follows a group of friends as they challenge each other to find themselves.

'The Celebrants' by Steven Rowley

The Celebrants

The author of "The Guncle" is back with a big-hearted saga about friendship and what makes a life worth living. A group of college friends decide to throw funerals for each other.

'Girls and Their Horses' by Eliza Jane Brazier

Girls and Their Horses

The author of "Good Rich People" returns with a novel set in the cloistered world of the wealthy — this time, among competitive show jumpers, where big wallets tend to outweigh talent. After coming into a fortune, Heather Parker wants her daughters to have the chances she didn't to become horse-riding stars. Someone winds up dead in the barn — but who?

'When The Hibiscus Falls' by M. Evelina Galang

When the Hibiscus Falls

Centering the lives of Filipino American women in seventeen stories, Galanga explores the complexities of ancestry, identity, and community, resulting in a collection that honors the deep connections that exist between descendants and ancestors.

'Save What's Left' by Elizabeth Castellano

Save What's Left: A Novel

When her husband Tom leaves her without warning to go on an around-the-world cruise, Kathleen is left with a gaping hole — and a chance to reinvent herself. So she decides to move to a small beachside town across the country and becomes pulled into its ecosystem. Laugh-out-loud funny, "Save What's Left" is a novel about life in a town that makes the perfect escape.

'Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration' by Alejandra Oliva

Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration

Alejandra Oliva, a translator and advocate for Latin American migrants seeking asylum and citizenship, reflects on the different physical spaces migrants encounter as they navigate the immigration system. Illuminating the difficulties and gaps within the system, she poses crucial questions about American citizenship and the need for radical empathy.

'Family Lore: A Novel' by Elizabeth Acevedo

Family lore.

In 2018, Acevedo received the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for her novel-in-verse "The Poet X," which also became a New York Times bestseller. "Family Lore" is Acevedo's first novel for adults and it tells the story of a Dominican-American family exploring their shared history as they approach the wake of one of its members.

Elena Nicolaou is a senior entertainment editor at Today.com, where she covers the latest in TV, pop culture, movies and all things streaming. Previously, she covered culture at Refinery29 and Oprah Daily. Her superpower is matching people up with the perfect book, which she does on her podcast, Blind Date With a Book.

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Spring preview

19 Works of Nonfiction to Read This Spring

New memoirs, a landmark biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., a look at the woman who helped halt the rise of a K.K.K. leader — and more.

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By J. Howard Rosier

Watch for deeply-researched philosophical histories, biographies that bring well-known stories to light and meditations on art and new ways to live. There’s plenty to love among the nonfiction coming to bookshelves this spring.

Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock , by Jenny Odell

Odell’s best seller, “How to Do Nothing,” cautioned readers against an obsession with productivity. Now, she digs into the question of why human beings live on specific schedules. “When you start to think of time in more collective ways, trying to leave behind the individual time banks, it opens up the horizon of what’s possible in your and others’ time — together,” she said in a recent interview . The question of whether true leisure is possible remains open-ended, but the minutes pass by without notice in this well-researched book.

Random House, March 7

The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence , by David Waldstreicher

As a young child, Wheatley was taken from West Africa and sold to a merchant family in Boston, and eventually became the most significant Black poet of the 18th century and a cornerstone of trans-Atlantic literature. Waldstreicher offers a thorough investigation of the world that made her, calling attention to the people, religious politics and feminism that shaped her life and work.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, March 7

The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession, by Alexandra Robbins

The people who teach our children are overworked, underpaid, unsupported and contemplating quitting altogether. Robbins follows three teachers across one school year — a math teacher in the South, a special-education teacher in the West and an elementary school teacher on the East Coast — to weave an infuriating and heartbreaking story. “Teachers” reads like a great liberal arts lesson, with plenty of research to back up the book’s implications.

Dutton, March 14

We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America , by Roxanna Asgarian

In March 2018, Jennifer and Sarah Hart, a white couple who had adopted six Black children, carried out a ghastly murder-suicide, driving an S.U.V. with their family off a cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway. Asgarian, a journalist for The Texas Tribune, set out to discover more about the children and how they came into the Harts’ care. The resulting book is a damning indictment of the American foster care system.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, March 14

Poverty, by America , by Matthew Desmond

Desmond, a sociologist, received a Pulitzer Prize for his book, “Evicted,” about the housing crisis among America’s poor. In his latest, he looks at the causes of poverty in the United States, arguing that some people stay impoverished because it serves the interests of many others.

Crown, March 21

The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, by Jeff Sharlet

What might explain the allure of right-wing, militant thinking for millions of Americans? Sharlet, who has written at length about religious fundamentalism, conducted a yearslong study, talking with religious leaders, fervent advocates of gun ownership, QAnon believers and more. The central tension of this thought-provoking book is not whether the country will descend into chaos, but when.

Norton, March 21

Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope, by Sarah Bakewell

Bakewell illuminates the long tradition of humanism — which explores the moral dimensions of what it really means to be human — using the work of great philosophers, artists and writers. The beauty of her study is the range of her examples: We’re unlikely to see Charles Darwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Frederick Douglass, Matthew Arnold and E.M. Forster, to name a few, together anywhere else outside of an encyclopedia.

Penguin Press, March 28

Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy, by Quinn Slobodian

The world is on high alert to threats against democracy, but Slobodian, a historian of ideas at Wellesley, calls attention to one of its biggest challengers: capitalism itself. “Capitalism works by punching holes in the territory of the nation-state,” he writes, going on to expose the lengths to which many free-market libertarians try to protect wealth “from the grasping hands of the populace seeking a more equitable present and future.”

Metropolitan Books, April 4

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, by Timothy Egan

Egan tells the story of the Klan’s rise to prominence in the 1920s, focusing on D.C. Stephenson, a Grand Dragon who helped spread white terrorist views throughout the country and drove the group’s strategy. Stephenson seemed nearly unstoppable until Madge Oberholtzer, whom he kidnapped and tortured, provided essential testimony on her deathbed that helped bring him to justice.

Viking, April 4

George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy, by Sally Bedell Smith

Smith has written extensively about the British royal family, and now explores the consequences of King Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936. Edward’s younger brother, King George VI (the father of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret), never expected to rule, but his supportive and stable marriage steadied the British public throughout World War II and beyond. Elizabeth II gave Smith access to her parents’ diaries, letters and other effects for this new book.

Random House, April 4

A Living Remedy: A Memoir, by Nicole Chung

In her second memoir, Chung looks at the politics of class, race and home. Chung, who was adopted, grew up in a mostly white community on the West Coast, and didn’t realize until she left home how economically vulnerable her family was. As she established a career, she grappled with guilt about having surpassed her parents, and years later, she sees how economic inequality has profound consequences for the end of life — even though death is called an equalizing force.

Ecco, April 4

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, by David Grann

In 1741, the Wager, a British ship during England’s war with Spain, wrecked off the coast of Patagonia. What happened next depends on whom you ask: The captain and his loyalists left the island and found themselves captive in Chile, while another party splintered off and spent their captivity in Brazil. To free themselves from mutiny charges, each party tells a conflicting story about the voyage. There is plenty of adventure in this new book, giving it the pacing of a thriller.

Doubleday, April 18

Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir, by Lucinda Williams

The prolific songwriter and singer draws on her Southern upbringing — she was raised in a home with a musically talented mother dealing with mental illness and a father struggling to find his way as a writer — and deeply personal catalog in this new autobiography.

Crown, April 25

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, by Claire Dederer

An expansion of her essay “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?”, written in the wake of #MeToo, this book grapples with how to reconcile the legacies of artists whose behavior was reprehensible, from Michael Jackson to Pablo Picasso and beyond. Do geniuses get a free pass? Is female monstrosity different from male monstrosity? How should we balance moral outrage with an appreciation for the work? As Dederer poses these uncomfortable questions, she admits her own complicity, too.

Knopf, April 25

Ordinary Notes, by Christina Sharpe

In meditations that are historically attuned, riddled with moments of tenderness and brimming with righteous anger, Sharpe considers what it means for Black people to live and love in a society that resists change, refuses the responsibility of its previous racism — yet often feels compelled to ask for forgiveness.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, April 25

When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach, by Ashlee Vance

The spectacle of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other technology scions shooting themselves into space may give you the idea that the whole experience is an ego trip, but Vance, the author of a best-selling biography of Musk , encourages readers to think bigger. He follows four companies — Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs and Rocket Lab — in this interplanetary land grab, all with the hope of making Earth’s lower orbit the next site of technological innovation.

Ecco, May 9

King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig

Eig’s monumental work, the first major biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in decades, challenges the image of him as a peaceful advocate of incremental change. There’s plenty of new detail, including from recently declassified F.B.I. files, allowing King to emerge as a complex, humane figure.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, May 16

A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again, by Joanna Biggs

In this trenchant and wide-ranging book, Biggs writes about starting over after divorce while seeking wisdom from a canon of great female authors. In Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, George Eliot, Simone de Beauvoir, Elena Ferrante and others, Biggs finds inspiration, advice and cautionary tales that shade her experience.

Ecco, May 16

Quietly Hostile: Essays, by Samantha Irby

It’s always entertaining to see Irby — a first-rate, self-deprecating mind — riff on the oddities of her own life. Things have been going pretty well for her lately (marriage, high-profile writing gigs, Hollywood calling for story ideas), and what’s most endearing about this new collection is that the voice is always brazenly, unapologetically hers. (The list of her pandemic panic buys alone is enough to send you reeling.)

Vintage, May 16

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Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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Back to Black

The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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• Marisa Abela
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• Trivia Marisa Abela had done most of the singing in this film herself. She trained extensively to mimic Amy Winehouse 's vocals.

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• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes

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