Jeannette Walls recounts her nomadic childhood with nonconformist parents – a charismatic but alcoholic father and an artistic, irresponsible mother – and her journey to overcome family dysfunction.

Tara Westover’s journey from an isolated survivalist upbringing in Idaho to earning a PhD at Cambridge, chronicling her first classroom experience at 17 and her transformative quest for education.

Fans will love to return to this deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine—this time with never-before-published material.

An Oprah’s Book Club selection chronicling Cheryl Strayed’s transformative 1,100-mile solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, facing wilderness challenges while healing from personal loss.

Also Fulfills: Read a book about grief or loss. Read a book with a map

Trevor Noah’s memoir chronicles his life as a biracial child in apartheid South Africa, raised by his fearless mother who defied laws and societal norms to protect and nurture him.

Michelle Zauner’s poignant memoir explores her Korean-American identity and complex relationship with her mother through food, grief, and cultural traditions after her mother’s death from cancer.

Also Fulfills: Read a book about grief or loss

National Book Award-winning memoir by Patti Smith chronicles her artistic journey and profound relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe in 1960s-70s New York, amid cultural revolution and artistic awakening.

Also Fulfills: Read a book about music or art

A psychiatrist’s memoir of life in Nazi death camps, with lessons on spiritual survival and finding meaning in suffering.

Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life, details the remarkable and heroic life of one who overcame great adversity. As a well known American author, disability rights advocate, feminist, socialist, and lecturer, Helen Keller showed the great abilities and power of not only the blind and death but all who suffer from any uncommon struggle.

In 1914, Shackleton and 27 crew members survived seventeen months stranded in Antarctica after their ship was crushed by ice, culminating in an 850-mile lifeboat journey for rescue.

Also Fulfills: Read a book with a map

Two unfit friends attempt to hike the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, encountering quirky characters and wilderness challenges while reflecting on America’s vanishing natural heritage.

Also Fulfills: Read a book with a map

A journalist-mountaineer’s harrowing tale of high-altitude climbing, bad luck, and heroism on Mt. Everest, where a storm claimed five lives and left him in guilt-ridden disarray.

In a fresh spin on the typical celebrity narrative, he lets you, the reader, choose which path you want him to follow. All this plus magic tricks, cocktail recipes, embarrassing pictures from his time as a child actor, and even a closing song!