Books like

Books like Autobiography of a Face

12 books with a reading profile close to Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy. Inward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.

1

Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

by William Styron

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, psychology

In this memoir, William Styron documents his descent into a paralyzing clinical depression that began during a trip to Paris in 1985.
2

Le Consentement

by Vanessa Springora

Also inward-looking · memoir, psychology

In this memoir, Vanessa Springora details her relationship as a thirteen-year-old girl with the celebrated writer Gabriel Matzneff, who was then fifty.
3

Heart Berries

by Terese Marie Mailhot

Also inward-looking · memoir, psychology

Terese Marie Mailhot writes a series of essays documenting her time in a mental health facility following a post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II diagnosis.
4

The Liars' Club

by Mary Karr

Also inward-looking · memoir, psychology

Published in 1995, Mary Karr’s memoir recreates her volatile childhood in the 1960s within a gritty East Texas oil town.
5

The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

by Olivia Laing

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, psychology

After moving to New York City and experiencing a period of intense isolation, Olivia Laing investigates the social and psychological mechanics of loneliness through the lens of twentieth-century American art.
6

How to Say Babylon

by Safiya Sinclair

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, literary

Safiya Sinclair recounts her childhood in Jamaica under the rigid authority of her father, a strict Rastafarian musician who enforced a sequestered life to protect his daughters from "Babylon," his term for the corrupti…
7

Girl, Interrupted

by Susanna Kaysen

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, psychology

Susanna Kaysen recounts her eighteen-month stay at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric facility, after a suicide attempt and a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder in 1967.
8

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

by Kay Redfield Jamison

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, psychology

Kay Redfield Jamison provides a clinical and personal account of living with manic-depressive illness while maintaining a career as a professor of psychiatry.
9

The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, psychology

Joan Didion documents the first twelve moon cycles following the sudden death of her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne.
10

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

by Alison Bechdel

Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, psychology

Alison Bechdel reconstructs her childhood lived inside a meticulously restored Victorian mansion that doubled as the family-run funeral home.
11

Mother Mary Comes to Me

by Arundhati Roy

Also inward-looking · memoir, literary

Arundhati Roy's 'Mother Mary Comes To Me' is a collection of essays and non-fiction pieces rather than a novel, despite the evocative title.
12

Every Note Played

by Lisa Genova

Also inward-looking and contemplative · psychology, literary

Richard Seligman is a world-class concert pianist whose career ends abruptly when he is diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

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