Books like Angela's Ashes
12 books with a reading profile close to Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Inward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.
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1
The Complete Persepolis
Also contemplative · history, memoir
Marjane Satrapi chronicles her upbringing in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution and the subsequent Iran-Iraq War.
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2
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir
Ishmael Beah recounts his transition from a twelve-year-old fleeing rebel attacks in Sierra Leone to a government soldier fueled by cocaine, gunpowder, and trauma.
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3
The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir
Between 1942 and 1944, Anne Frank lived in a hidden attic annex in occupied Amsterdam to escape Nazi persecution.
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4
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
by Trevor Noah
Also contemplative · history, memoir
In this memoir, Trevor Noah recounts his upbringing in South Africa under apartheid and the subsequent transition to democracy.
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5
Half Broke Horses
history, memoir
Jeannette Walls reconstructs the life of her maternal grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, in this oral history styled as a novel.
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6
Black Like Me
history, memoir
In 1959, white journalist John Howard Griffin underwent medical treatments, including skin-darkening medication and ultraviolet light exposure, to pass as a Black man in the segregated American South.
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7
The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust
Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir
In 1942, Edith Hahn, a Jewish law student from Vienna, escaped deportation by assuming the identity of a Christian woman named Grete Denner.
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8
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
history, memoir
Caitlin Doughty documents her visits to several countries to observe how diverse cultures handle their dead.
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9
The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45
Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir
Władysław Szpilman, a Jewish pianist for Polish Radio, provides a first-hand account of the Nazi occupation of Warsaw.
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10
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
by Jon Krakauer
history, memoir
Jon Krakauer chronicles the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, during which eight climbers died in a single storm.
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11
Not My Father's Son
by Alan Cumming
Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, narrative
Alan Cumming recounts a pivotal summer in 2010 when he filmed a genealogy program while preparing for a play.
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12
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, narrative
David Sedaris chronicles the mundane indignities and peculiar fixations of his middle age through a collection of observational essays.
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