Top 10 Memoirs/Biographies (Alphabetical order)

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1. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt: McCourt’s eloquent, compassionate memoir about his impoverished childhood in the slums of Limerick, Ireland.
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2. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride: A powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother.
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3. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert: Gilbert recounts the end of her marriage and her year abroad in search of happiness, perspective, spirituality and love.
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4. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls: Walls chronicles her harrowing, nomadic childhood as the daughter of eccentric parents struggling with substance abuse.
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5. The Immortal Lives of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: The examination of how a cancer victim’s cells forever changed the world of medicine.
   
   
6. John Adams by David McCullough: An immersive study of one of America’s Founding Fathers, diplomats and second president.
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7. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow: A professor’s last lecture about life, love and family, and the wisdom he hopes to impart upon his children.
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8. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand: Hillenbrand examines the meteoric rise of the horse racing legend, and the unlikely team guiding the steed’s way to the top.
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9. The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer: Although Moehringer had no relationship with his absentee father; he was proudly raised by a committee of men at his town’s local pub.
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10. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin: Mortenson founded one of the most extraordinary humanitarian efforts, pledging to build schools in remote, oppressed areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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