Your Favorite Memoir

Bad Vibes - Britpop and My Part In It's Downfall by Auteurs frontman Luke Haines. It's truly a 'wart's 'n all' book; (seemingly) not glossing over the parts where he's being bang out of order, acting like a cunt or just being plain stupid. It's style was a great inspiration for my WIP.

"Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs

Everything by David Sedaris.

"Stranger than Fiction" Chuck Palahniuk. At times autobiographical.

Read many great memoirs!

Nice topic! I've read many memoirs and autobiographical writing. Below are my favorites.

The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language, by Eva Hoffman (nothing like the movie it inspired, FYI… much, MUCH better)

French Lessons: A Memoir, by Alice Kaplan

Out of Place: A Memoir, by Edward Said (don't agree with his politics, but love the book nonetheless, read just the first page and you'll see why...)

A Darkness Visible, William Styron
(I also love his daughter's book, Reading My Father: A Memoir, by Alexandra Styron)

The Kiss: A Memoir, Kathryn Harrison

Rainer Marie Rilke's letters to his wife in Letters on Cézanne

Short story memoir:
Total Eclipse, Annie Dillard

A wonderful collection of short essays:
Autobiographical Writing Across the Disciplines: A Reader/ Ed. Freedman and Frey
Recommend:
- the Carlos L. Dews essay: Gender Tragedies: East Texas Cockfighting and Hamlet
- Julie Tharp: When the Body is Your Own (horror film critic)
- Merrill Black: The Readings of the Wife of Bath
- Perri Klass: A Textbook Pregnancy

Anne Sexton, autobiographical poetry

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness by Joel ben Izzy.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal