Jeannette Walls grew up with brilliant, unreliable parents who kept moving the family from town to town. The book sets the chaos and the love side by side. Rated 4.6 on Audible.

Maya Angelou’s story of growing up in Arkansas and California in the 1930s and 40s, told by the woman who wrote it. Rated 4.7 on Audible.

Kiese Laymon’s memoir of growing up Black in Mississippi, written as a letter to his mother. It is about weight, love and what survival costs. Rated 4.7 on Audible.

At nine, Javier Zamora traveled alone from El Salvador to reunite with his parents in the United States. At more than 17 hours it is the longest memoir here. Rated 4.8 on Audible.

Jacqueline Woodson’s childhood in the 1960s and 70s, written in verse. It runs under four hours. Rated 4.5 on Audible.

Hua Hsu on his college friendship with a classmate who was killed, and how he came to understand what it meant. It won the Pulitzer Prize for memoir. Rated 4.3 on Audible.

Mary Karr’s East Texas childhood with a hard-drinking, storytelling family. It is often credited with kicking off the modern memoir boom.

George M. Johnson’s essays on growing up Black and queer in New Jersey and Virginia. Rated 4.7 on Audible.

Lawyer Bryan Stevenson defends people on death row in Alabama, starting with the case of Walter McMillian. It is the highest rated pick on this list. Rated 4.9 on Audible.

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes to his teenage son about what it means to live in a Black body in America. It runs about three and a half hours. Rated 4.8 on Audible.

Two boys with the same name grew up in the same Baltimore neighborhood. One became a Rhodes Scholar and the other went to prison for life, and Wes Moore tells both stories. Rated 4.6 on Audible.

Chanel Miller on the 2015 Stanford assault case and on finding her voice after years of being known as Emily Doe. Rated 4.8 on Audible.

Lacy Crawford on what happened to her at a New Hampshire boarding school, and how the school responded years later. Rated 4.7 on Audible.

Roxane Gay on food, her body and the assault that shaped her relationship with both. Rated 4.6 on Audible.

Austin Channing Brown on being a Black woman in white institutions, from her childhood to her work in racial reconciliation. It runs under four hours. Rated 4.8 on Audible.

Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with leukemia at 22. After treatment she took a road trip across the country to meet people who had written to her while she was sick. Rated 4.8 on Audible.

Michelle Zauner on losing her mother and finding her way back to her Korean heritage through food. Rated 4.7 on Audible.

Mitch Albom visits his old professor every Tuesday as the professor is dying of ALS. It runs under four hours. Rated 4.8 on Audible.

Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir of an abusive relationship with another woman, told in short chapters that each borrow a different genre. Rated 4.5 on Audible.

Ariel Levy was a successful New Yorker writer when her life fell apart over a matter of months, beginning with a reporting trip to Mongolia. Rated 4.2 on Audible.

David Sedaris on growing up in North Carolina and moving to Paris, the kind of book where hearing him tell it is half the fun. Rated 4.5 on Audible.

Jenny Lawson on living with depression and anxiety and finding the funny side. The book is also known for the taxidermied raccoon on its cover. Rated 4.3 on Audible.

Adam Kay’s diaries from his years as a junior doctor in Britain’s National Health Service, where the funny and the grim arrive in the same shift. Rated 4.6 on Audible.

Poet Patricia Lockwood moves back in with her parents. Her father is a married Catholic priest. Rated 4.1 on Audible.

Lindy West on being a fat woman online and off, and on learning to take up space. Funny and angry, usually in the same sentence. Rated 4.6 on Audible.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s year of travel after her divorce: eating in Italy, praying in India and finding balance in Bali. Rated 4.5 on Audible.

Raynor Winn and her husband lose their home, then set out to walk the South West Coast Path in England with a tent. Rated 4.4 on Audible.

Geobiologist Hope Jahren on building a life in science and on her friendship with her lab partner, Bill. It is also a book about trees. Rated 4.4 on Audible.

Photographer Sally Mann’s memoir of her family and the American South.

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s path from a chaotic childhood to running her New York restaurant, Prune. Rated 4.3 on Audible.

David Goggins on a childhood marked by poverty and abuse, and how he became a Navy SEAL and an ultramarathon runner. It is part memoir and part toughness manual, and he shares the narration with co-writer Adam Skolnick. Rated 4.9 on Audible.

Glennon Doyle on ending her marriage and learning to trust her own instincts over what she was taught to want. Rated 4.7 on Audible.

Ruth Reichl’s years running Gourmet magazine, from the job offer she almost turned down to the magazine’s closure. Rated 4.7 on Audible.