Best Biographies and Memoirs 2022

Singer, songwriter, poet, painter, award-winning author, and extremely influential figure in the NYC punk movement, Patti Smith is an icon whose voice is a constant source of wisdom and inspiration, a voice which she shares beautifully throughout this book. It’s a stunning visual journey that inspires observation and remembrance.

Known around the world as the big screen embodiment of Harry Potter’s wizarding nemesis, Tom Felton offers his legions of fans a candid and witty account of life in the wizarding world. Recounting the friendships and trials of fame, Tom will #always be a fan favorite.

Multi-award-winning actress Viola Davis has poured herself into the characters she portrays on the big screen and on stage. And now, in her most deeply personal and inspiring role yet, as author, she has released her memoir, Finding Me. Viola Davis is an uncompromising and very talented actress with a compelling story to tell. 

Readers get the chance to learn how “the industry” really works, as Jennette describes what it’s like as a child star, further fueling the narrative, of late, around how victimizing Hollywood can be. Jennette is direct, honest and hilarious, and despite it all, delivers an inspiring story of resilience and recovery.

Alan Rickman gifts us one last project — 25 years in the making. The beloved and dearly missed actor and activist offers readers a revealing look into his most personal musings on acting, politics and life in his thoughtful and beautifully written diaries.

Rock legend, activist, icon. Here, Bono invites readers in for the whole story. From his childhood in Dublin to the origin, rise and success of U2, his ongoing philanthropy, and his activism throughout the world. With original artwork throughout, this candid and lyrical memoir is a must for fans and music lovers alike.

This is an important, harrowing and ultimately hopeful memoir about the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War as told through the diary entries of a young Ukrainian girl.

Sometimes a single book can change a national discussion, and certainly this is one. With diligence, respect, unflinching courage His Name is George Floyd affords tender, trenchant testimony to a man’s life and lessons in the legacies of racism that took it.

Javier Zamora lays his soul bare on the pages of this heartrending memoir. Touching on themes of abandonment, loss, trauma, and forgiveness, Zamora’s lyrical recounting is a story as timeless as it is topical and as universal as it is uniquely his. Solito will fill your heart with sadness, anger, love in turn, but most of all with an enduring sense of irrepressible hope.

Author, polyglot, soldier, spy – John le Carré wrote what he knew, and this collection of previously unpublished letters gives readers a deeper insight into the Cold War espionage that infused his work and inspired such indelible characters as George Smiley and Magnus Pym.