I’m a regular audiobook listener. When I have a good story in progress, I’ll find ways to walk extra miles, fold extra laundry, maybe even dust the baseboards.
In the audio format I love to listen to good stories. That means the vast majority of my own audiobooks are novels. But I do love a good memoir—because what is memoir but a story that really happened?
Over the past few years, some of my favorites have been celebrity memoirs. My hunch is this is because they always combine two things I love: behind-the-scenes tales and author narration.
After we shared a predominantly fiction book list featuring 15 audiobooks read by your favorite celebrity narrators, we promised you another list of celebrity memoirs read by their authors. Here you go!
I’ve read and enjoyed thirteen of these author-narrated titles myself, and hope to make it to the remaining seven soon. I’d love to add to my list: feel free to share your favorite celebrity memoirs in comments.
(Update: So many great audiobooks came out since this post was published that we made a new post: 15 MORE celebrity memoirs read by their authors.)
20 celebrity memoirs read by their authors
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person
Yes, My Accent Is Real: And Some Other Things I Haven’t Told You
Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir
A Little Bit Wicked
Just Kids
Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent
Wishful Drinking
Troublemaker
Born to Run
Stories I Only Tell My Friends
Bossypants
Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life
This Is Just My Face
Yes Please
Dream More
Kitchen Confidential
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
What would you add to this list?
P.S. 15 terrific audiobooks you can listen to in 6-ish hours or less, 40 favorite audiobooks for kids, and 10 audiobooks to listen to while you clean, purge, and tidy. Or click here to visit the complete audiobooks archives.
P.P.S. I didn’t expect What Should I Read Next episode 173 to focus so heavily on audiobooks, but it totally did. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
54 comments
I would add Sally Field’s memoir In Pieces
also of course, Michelle Obama’s Becoming
and A Full Life by Jimmy Carter
and I’d go a lot more wild over Trevor Noah.. his reading of his story is my #1 pick of anyone ever reading their own story!!
Yes! Totally agree on Trevor Noah’s book! I’ve been recommending it to whoever will listen.
It just occurred to me that I must like this genre because I’ve read more than half. Great list! I’d add “Not My Father’s Son” by Alan Cumming. Story is great and his accent make it a good listen.
Yes! Alan Cumming’s book is terrific!
agree about Alan Cumming.. that was an excellent listen!
As You Wish by Cary Elwes! He’s the narrator, and sometimes other people chime in to read the parts of the story where they’re quoted.
I was going to mention this one too. A must listen for any Princess Bride fan!
Yes, I loved ‘As You Wish’! And so did my husband!
Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch was a favorite of mine. I just love her voice.
Incidentally, memoirs read by their authors is the only genre that I’ve been able to really listen to. I can also listen to books that I’ve already read and loved (like the Harry Potter series.) Anything else has me getting lost in my own thoughts (or concentrating on the road) and having to listen to the same parts over and over before my brain decides to cooperate. [Thus far, my audiobook listening has only taken place in the car. Perhaps, this will all change when I start listening on walks/while cleaning/etc.]
Try the Louise Penny audiobooks.
Neil Patrick Harris’ Choose Your Own Autobiography is hilarious as an audiobook even if you have to listen to it in a linear fashion and can’t jump around like you could with the print version. You wouldn’t think it would work as an audiobook but he is just such a joy to listen to that it really does.
Becoming!!
Yes! Just listened to this and it was fantastic!
I loved Carly Simon’s, Boys In The Trees. And on the Audio she breaks out in song! Remarkable that she is not bitter. The people who have let her down are the people she should have been able to trust with her life.
Just finished listening to this and couldn’t agree more! Her ability to forgive and focus on the positive is truly inspiring!
Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” was so satisfying. I loved the Chicago of her youth, all so familiar to me. But the best part was that I was positive she was sitting right there by my side, telling her story to me alone.
My favorite book this year (and it was read by the author) was Becoming, by Michelle Obama. What a funny, smart, beautiful woman, parent, mentor, HUMAN!
Great listen!!!
I loved Sissy Spacek’s memoir, “My Extraordinary Ordinary Life.” So good.
My mother and I so enjoyed “The Olive Farm” by Carol Drinkwater. Carol played the original Helen in the “All Creatures Great and Small” series on PBS and so, has that lovely voice and accent. She bought an olive farm in the south of France with her new husband, and so it’s part memoir, part olive tutorial, part love story, and part “lets buy a place in France” story.
I’m currently listening to Michelle Obama’s Becoming and like everyone else here, it’s wonderful to listen to.
So Close to Being the Sh*t Y’all Don’t Even Know by Retta is also a great listen. She’s smart, outspoken, hilarious, and down to earth in the most outlandish ways.
It’s not really a memoir, but it includes a lot of personal stories so I’d like to offer The View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman, because, well, Neil Gaiman! He’s an incredibly talented writer and this collection of essays includes some of his best non-fiction work. Bonus: His voice.
I love Anne Lamott’s Travelling Mercies. It’s one of my favorite books in print. Her sort of drawly voice really adds something that made me love the book even more.
I really enjoyed Carol Burnett “This Time Together”. I grew up watching her variety show and loved hearing all her stories.
I highly recommend Along the Way by father/son duo, Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez, a dual autobiography told within the framework of their making the movie, The Way. A portrait of a father and son who have lived fascinating lives both jointly and separately and whose love and respect for one another is touching.
Busy Phillips audiobook is awesome! I also enjoyed Bryan Cranston’s audiobook.
I absolutely must echo the recommendations for “Not My Father’s Son” by Alan Cumming. His lovely Scottish accent is just icing on the cake of a truly fascinating story.
Martin Short’s memoir is also a great listen.
I echo the recommendation for Carol Burnett’s book above, and I also loved Home by Julie Andrews. 🙂 I was surprised to realize I’d read at least a third of the books on your list!
Gene Wilder’s Kiss Me Like a Stranger is a beautiful journey through the man’s life, I seriously recommend it.
I like the idea of being able to listen to audiobooks in the car or while knitting, but I haven’t really enjoyed them. I think of the ones I have listened to, I prefer the non-fiction ones. Based on all of the great recommendations here, I just borrowed “Not My Father’s Son” from Libby.
Not really sure what the hype is all about over Michelle Obama and her book. I found it tedious, preposterous, disingenuous, and at times hypocritical. Watching paint dry would be more entertaining, moving, and genuinely truthful in what is happening/happened. I’ve enjoyed many other celebrity bio’s far more. Joan Rivers’ audiobooks are always brilliant and funny. Demi Moore’s book was engaging, honest, and beautifully read. Sally Fields book was wonderful as well. So many FAR better choices other than Obama but eh I didn’t make the list.
Colin Jost’s A Very Punchable Face was very good. The head writer for Saturday Night Live writes about his upbringing in Staten Island, his time at Harvard, his mother’s experience as the chief medical officer for the NYFD during 9/11 and his early days at SNL.
Yes, enjoyed this book too. It made me laugh out loud.
I really need some audiobook recommendations! For some reason when I listen to most fiction on audio, I can’t focus. I mostly prefer to listen to memoirs because it feels more like a podcast or a conversation. The exception has been Daisy Jones and the Six, because it’s written as an oral history in interview format and has a full cast, so it was perfect. I’m looking for either more good memoirs, good fiction written in the first person, or a full cast audiobook like Daisy Jones. I’m trying to find something a bit lighter that’s not too sad.
The audiobooks I’ve listened to so far are:
-Becoming by Michelle Obama
-Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
-Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness
I’ve also recently gotten:
-Me by Elton John
-Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
-As You Wish by Cary Elwes
-Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Let me know if you have suggestions!
Celebrity narrator favorite—-Linda Lavin reads Anita Diamante’s BOSTON GIRL beautifully
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off by Michael Caine was wonderful
I just listened to Brandi Carlile Broken Horses read by Brandi and with bonus music at the end of each chapter and 90 minutes of music at the end! Fabulous
I loved that book on audio!
Highly recommend Sharon Gless’s Apparently There Were some Complaints, especially for those who “grew up” with Cagney and Lacey – one of the female pioneers of women in lead rolls in TV series – I love her before this book, love her more now ! Her signature voice is icing on the cake!!
I picked out Alan Cumming’s memoir, Not My Father’s Son, on Libby on a whim one slow afternoon and was immediately captivated. I listened straight to the end because I could not put it down. I am sure I felt every emotion that exists!
And oh……that beguiling Scottish accent…!
Have to add Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. Did not expect to like the book as much as I did, and the audio book is a great performance! Everyone I have recommended it to has loved it. I have a new respect for the man also.
I recommend this too. There are many ways he and I do not see eye to eye, but he’s a *great* storyteller, and I appreciate seeing the world from a different perspective.
I would add Penny Marshall’s memoir. It’s like walking through a history of tv and pop culture in the 1960’s – 80’s.
I agree! I loved “My Mother Was Nuts” by Penny Marshall….she captures the poignancy and fun with her narration. It’s a great tribute to her life, friends and family as well as herself.
Add
Will Smith’s Will
Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights
Betty White’s Here We Go Again: My Life in Television
Mel Brooks’ All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business
Al Michaels’ You Can’t Make This Up: Miracles, Memories… (He narrates some of it)
Alex Trebek’s The Answer Is… Reflections on My Life (He narrates some of it)
I’ve listened to and enjoyed all of these, as well as many you listed above (Rob Lowe’s was a favorite!).
Billy Porter’s recent memoir Unprotected left me with a huge “book hangover”.
I may now be his biggest admirer
Still Foolin EM by Billy Crystal!!
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
I really enjoyed “A Very Punchable Face” by Colin Jost; “A Life In Parts” by Bryan Cranston; “Taste” by Stanley Tucci and “Break Shot: My First 21 Years” by James Taylor.
I am not sure if anyone mentioned Jessica Simpson’s book, it was surprisingly a good listen, I now no longer judge her the way the media has made us perceive her. She is a smart, likable business woman.
I highly recommend “Spare” by Prince Harry and “Greenlight’s” by Matthew McConaughey so good …
I listened to Shonda Rhimes book last year. It was so good!!
Celebrity memoirs are my comfort food! I’ve read and loved most of the ones Anne listed above (Tina Fey/Amy Poehler/ Mindy Kaling especially). Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond’s Black Heels and Tractor Wheels is an unexpected delight of a love story. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher never fails to make me laugh. I also highly recommend Leslie Jordan’s How Y’All Doing? , and Molly Shannon’s Hello Molly! My SECOND favorite book podcast, Chelsea Devantez’s Celebrity Book Club, is delightfully dishy and surprisingly deep. Highly recommend for people like me who love the genre.
Not usually a fan of celebrity memoirs, I really enjoyed Bono’s recent “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.” Who knew that Bono was so good at impressions?
My favorites so far:
—-all read by the author except for the one by Loretta Lynn. Her daughter reads that one. I enjoyed all of these.
Forever and Ever Amen by Randy Travis (Loved this one a lot!!)
Me and Patsy Kickin Up Dust by Loretta Lynn
The Boys By Ron and Clint Howard (read by both)
Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley
Luck or Something Like It by Kenny Rogers
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurty
Some of these books surprised me, but I enjoyed them all.
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Mathew Perry, A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost, Girl Walks Into A Bar by Rachel Dratch, Taste by Stanley Tucci, A Life In Parts by Bryan Cranston and Break Shot:My First 21 Years by James Taylor.