Books like The Diary of a Young Girl
12 books with a reading profile close to The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Deep, inward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.
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1
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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2
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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3
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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4
The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45
Also deep and inward-looking · 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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5
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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6
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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7
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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8
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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9
Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo
Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, narrative
Christiane Felscherinow narrates her descent into heroin addiction in 1970s West Berlin, beginning with her experimentation with hashish and pills at age twelve.
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10
Solito
Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, narrative
Nine-year-old Javier Zamora departs his small town in El Salvador to reunite with his parents in the United States, traveling three thousand miles without his family.
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11
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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12
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
Also inward-looking · history, memoir
Deborah Feldman details her youth within the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a world defined by strict gender roles and the trauma of the Holocaust.
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