What a year it’s been for biographies and memoirs. Our list spans the gamut—from biographies of tech giants and crypto kings to pop stars and Pulitzer Prize winners. And then there are the memoirs from names you may not know—but, rest assured, they too will make you laugh, think deeply, and expand your awareness of the world. But there was one that stood out: Jonathan Eig’s monumental and extraordinary biography of Martin Luther King Jr. I read King on a plane, cover to cover, and when I got off that plane I couldn’t stop talking about it—and I haven’t, six months later. Turns out, my colleagues couldn’t stop talking about it either, which is why we named it our #5 Best Book of the Year and the #1 pick for the Best Biography and Memoir of the Year. Here are some of our favorites on the list, but be sure to check out our full list of the best biographies and memoirs of the month. With the Amazon editors, Al Woodworth lays out list for Amazon Book Review
What a year it’s been for biographies and memoirs. Our list spans the gamut—from biographies of tech giants and crypto kings to pop stars and Pulitzer Prize winners. And then there are the memoirs from names you may not know—but, rest assured, they too will make you laugh, think deeply, and expand your awareness of the world.
But there was one that stood out: Jonathan Eig’s monumental and extraordinary biography of Martin Luther King Jr. I read King on a plane, cover to cover, and when I got off that plane I couldn’t stop talking about it—and I haven’t, six months later. Turns out, my colleagues couldn’t stop talking about it either, which is why we named it our #5 Best Book of the Year and the #1 pick for the Best Biography and Memoir of the Year.
Here are some of our favorites on the list, but be sure to check out our full list of the best biographies and memoirs of the month.
by Jonathan Eig
4.8 out of 5 stars 486
Jonathan Eig’s biography is a monumental and exceptional work of writing and research, revealing the gutting hardships and heroics of a man who changed the world. Incorporating never-before-released FBI documents, interviews, and primary sources, Eig divulges the man behind the legend and the nefarious activities of the FBI that tried to bring the civil rights leader down. Eig’s biography is a triumph—visceral, riveting, and so much more, which is why we named it the #1 Best Biography and Memoir, and why it is the #5 Best Book of 2023. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
by Walter Isaacson
4.7 out of 5 stars 7,410
You probably have strong opinions about Elon Musk, thanks to his pugnacious tweets on the platform currently known as “X.” But those unpredictable outbursts only tell a fraction of the controversial billionaire’s story. Walter Isaacson’s page-turning biography paints a much richer picture of the complex character behind five companies worth more than a trillion dollars. I surprised myself by jotting in page margins, “I feel bad for Elon.” And, yes, I had vastly different feelings when he nearly started—and then averted—a nuclear war, just one of the oh-my-god moments to which readers have a front-row seat. But for every larger-than-life encounter Isaacson unveils, he also does an exceptional job quietly ushering readers into intimate junctures, whether it’s Musk’s anguish over feuding with his transgender child or the violent bullying he faced at the “paramilitary Lord of the Flies” school where he got his start. Musk is maniacal, brilliant, troubled, principled. But is he a villain? This biography explores it all. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, a Memorial
by Viet Than Nguyen
4.4 out of 5 stars 97
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer, which explores the contradictions of one man during the Vietnam War and its aftermath, begins with the line (arguably one of the best openers in the past decade): “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.” In his memoir, A Man of Two Faces, Nguyen trains the spotlight on his own life and his family’s experience moving from Vietnam to California, violence and racism, and the burning question that so many face: who am I? Teeming with broader stories of immigration and cultural clashes, Nguyen once again offers a thrillingly nuanced portrait of the allegiances, complexities, and aims that guide a single life. Told in paragraphs with interstitial interruptions, Nguyen mimics the intimate, interrupting puzzle of racial identity—”because AMERICA TM itself is and will always be a contradiction”—in real time. Nguyen notes that he will “excel in silence,” and yet, these books and his work offers the award-winning opposite…a thrillingly engaging and conversational read. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
You Could Make This Place Beautiful
by Maggie Smith
4.5 out of 5 stars 1,225
A few years ago, Maggie Smith discovered a love letter in her husband’s bag. It wasn’t addressed to her, but to another woman. What does she do? What would you do? In this moving memoir, Smith eloquently wrestles with this question along with how to balance her work as a poet with her work as a mother. Of course, looking back on her relationship with her husband, there were nods to his infidelity, but as Smith regularly reminds herself and the reader: “it’s a mistake to think of one’s life as a plot, to think of the events of one’s life as events in a story. It’s a mistake. And yet, there is foreshadowing everywhere, foreshadowing I would’ve seen myself if I had been watching a play or reading a novel, not living a life.” If you’re dealing with heartbreak, Smith’s memoir offers comfort, understanding, and the beauty of working through the hurt—in other words, this feels like a hug from a literary therapist. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
The Country of the Blind: A Memoir
by Andrew Leland
4.6 out of 5 stars 124
You know how you have some friends that you’ll listen to forever and follow wherever? Well, Andrew Leland is that kind of writer. And his latest, The Country of the Blind, pushes that boundary. Midway through his life, he is diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, which means that his vision will deteriorate and one day—who knows when—he will become blind. Leland decides to address the prognosis head on: researching, attending conferences, and negotiating the language, customs, and politics of the blind. In doing so, his relationship changes, not only with the visual world, but with his family. Leland’s relentless curiosity is infectious and because he leans towards the humorous, he is just the kind of writer that will open your eyes about, quite literally what it is to see—and to what it is not to. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America’s Most Dangerous Spy—and the Sister She Betrayed
by Jim Popkin
4.3 out of 5 stars 845
What a ride this book is. If you’re a fan of reading about spies and double-agents, American foreign relations, and how family members can act radically different from one another, then you are in for a treat with Jim Popkin’s Code Name Blue Wren. In this nail-biting expose of Ana Montes, Popkin details how she became one of the most damaging spies in American history, leading a double life as a CIA agent during the day, and working for Fidel Castro by night. For years she endangered US operatives, divulged state secrets to Cuba, and tricked not only US Presidents but her sister, who spent her career at the FBI. Like we devoured the show Homeland, you’ll devour this true story. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul
by Tracy K. Smith
4.6 out of 5 stars 5
A haunting and exquisite personal history that looks at the past so that we might understand the present. Using the framework of “The Free and the Freed,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tracy K. Smith ignites both meditation and conversation about America, about identity, about the way these intersect. Smith intimately shares her family history—those who fought in the Great War and returned to America, shunned from jobs because of the color of their skin—and weaves in her own work as an educator, a mother, and a Black woman living in America today. As the subtitle says, this is a “plea for the American soul” that is resounding, unforgettable, and necessary. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Congratulations! The Best is Over
by R. Eric Thomas
4.5 out of 5 stars 115
When I heard R. Eric Thomas was releasing a follow-up to his best-selling book of essays, Here For It, I yelped! Literally. And luckily, Congratulations, The Best Is Over! lived up to my sky-high expectations. Thomas is so insightful, hilarious, smart, honest, and real—whether he’s writing about gardening or racism, fishing or religion, the pandemic or shopping, Oprah or his depression, parental death or frogs. And he makes all these topics…funny?! Certainly relatable, prodding you to examine your thoughts on each. Because all of this is being alive, the highs and lows, mixing every day. The through line is Thomas coming to terms with “the vivid and strange expanse” of middle age, “between the best days of life and the worst days of life, between what you thought your life would be and what it is, between two people,” as he grapples with his marriage, unexpectedly moving back to his hometown, and his shifting career. Not a word is wasted on these pages—even the acknowledgements are a joy to read. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
