From Britney Spears to Al Pacino, Ina Garten to Cher, the celebrity memoir has evolved into one of the most compelling literary genres of the modern era. Far beyond the ghostwritten fluff of decades past, today’s best celebrity memoirs offer unusually candid portraits of the “real person” behind the public persona—and they don’t skimp on the dirty details. Whether you’re seeking vibrant vignettes of iconic periods in Hollywood history or raw accounts of grief, explosive relationships, and the sinister underbelly of show business, these books have given fans plenty to talk about.
The Golden Age of Celebrity Memoirs
The celebrity memoir boom is here to stay. Over the last few years, some of the most anticipated releases have delivered revelatory content that transcends typical Hollywood tell-alls. Al Pacino let readers into his life from his childhood in the South Bronx to his big break in 1970s Hollywood. The long-gestating memoirs of Lisa Marie Presley came through as a posthumous release written with her daughter Riley Keough. And icons like Cher and Barbra Streisand have produced definitive works that span hundreds of pages of intimate storytelling.
Essential Recent Memoirs You Need to Read
So Gay For You: Friendship, Found Family, and the Show That Started It All by Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey (2025)
If you’re a proper The L Word devotee, you likely already know that the actors who portrayed rebellious queer lust object Shane and peppy bisexual blogger Alice are real-life BFFs. Still, reading this account of their young-adult years in New York, their time filming in Canada, and their gradual adjustment to the weirdness of Hollywood will make you feel like you just spent a few hours gossiping with them over wine.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten (2024)
Ina Garten—the Barefoot Contessa, bestselling author of 13 cookbooks, Food Network face, and cultural icon—has written a memoir that traverses expansive terrain. From her difficult childhood to her love story with her husband Jeffrey, selling Dunkin’ Donuts to students in college and a stint in nuclear energy policy at the White House, Garten’s journey is remarkable. And that was all before she started her first business, the hallowed Barefoot Contessa—with no experience in the food industry. From there, she made magic happen. This abundant and absorbing read is full of warming advice, romance, camp, and dishy gossip, including the anecdote where she was offered cocaine as a tip for her catering order.
Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher (2024)
This is a memoir magnum opus. Several chapters in, the singer, actor, gay icon, and soundbite machine Cher has only just reached adolescence. Four hundred and twenty pages in, and Part One wraps in the 1980s. But what a gift it is to meet a young Cheryl Sarkisian and learn of her formation in such vibrant, full-bodied detail. The book is thrilling, stuffed with high-octane stories of hanging out with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, snogging Warren Beatty as a teenager, and how “I Got You Babe” came to be. The flower-power era is also gently unfurled in darker stories, covering the tumult of her marriage and her “faulty emotional thermostat.”
Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!) by Bethany Joy Lenz (2024)
An unnerving and fascinating read for fans of One Tree Hill or otherwise. In the early 2000s, Bethany Joy Lenz was a burgeoning young star on one of the world’s hottest shows. But her upward career trajectory intertwined with her other life—one where she was being groomed and recruited into a cult. This is the story of the web of manipulation and abuse that kept Lenz trapped in the Big House Family cult for years. The tactics and techniques to keep her (and her finances) under their control are deeply disturbing, but the story of Lenz’s escape and the resumption of her identity and autonomy is told with triumph.
From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough (2024)
Lisa Marie Presley picked up and put down the task of writing her memoir for years. Then, in 2022, she asked her daughter, actor Riley Keough, to partner with her to finally finish the book. A month later, Presley had passed away, and Keough was left with just her mother’s tapes discussing her life in short episodes. From Here to the Great Unknown is a delicate intertwining of both Presley and Keough’s voices, with story after story touching upon addiction, grief, healing, motherhood, Elvis, and Graceland.
Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna (2024)
This is the story of the voice behind feminist anthems “Rebel Girl” and “Double Dare Ya,” who buoyed generations of disenfranchised youth with her art and politics. Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna takes us from her childhood in Olympia, Washington, to her frothy college years and chaotic first shows in a punk “girl band” fighting misogyny from every angle. She relays exhilarating, formative friendships and encounters with people like Kim Gordon and Kurt Cobain, her love story with Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock, and her battle with Lyme disease. But it’s in her candid, honest origin story of the Riot Grrrl movement where things really jump off the page.
Sonny Boy by Al Pacino (2024)
Al Pacino’s voice is gruff and charming, chatty and delectably eccentric in a book that preserves all those Al Pacino-isms. He breezes through his key roles and collaborations, chronicling his childhood in the South Bronx and odd jobs to support his dreams with crisp detail. His candid and expansive thoughts on his turns in The Godfather movies are worth reading again and again.
The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop (2024)
Kelly Bishop—a.k.a. Emily Gilmore—narrates six decades, reaching back long before Amy Sherman Palladino’s generationally beloved Gilmore Girls. We meet Bishop as a young ballet dancer and a Broadway mainstay, following her through career highlights like A Chorus Line, Dirty Dancing, All My Children, and, of course, her time in Stars Hollow, which she writes about in rich detail with juicy tidbits from set. Just so you know, she’s Team Logan.
Down the Drain by Julia Fox (2023)
In her book, Julia Fox—a woman who’s lived multiple lives—documents her messy, tumultuous ascension to cult-phenomenon status. She navigates tragedy, the loss of many friends to addiction and crime, and twisted, controlling partners, all with the affronting, matter-of-fact prose she’s known for. We find her at one of her lowest points when filming Uncut Gems—but Fox also hopscotches the glittery, sticky corners of the New York she adores, the realities of motherhood, and the raw friendships with women and queer people she prizes over everything.
My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand (2023)
Ruminative and dishy, funny and smart, Barbra Streisand’s nearly 1,000-page memoir deftly captures the voice that first bewitched American audiences in the early 1960s—plus her weird dynamic with Marlon Brando, the nightmare of making Yentl with Mandy Patinkin, her lifelong fondness for baked potatoes, and other delicious bits.
Pageboy by Elliot Page (2023)
As a trans celebrity who was very much in the public eye prior to his transition, Elliot Page has an extremely unique story. He more than does justice to it in Pageboy, which chronicles everything from his struggles with body image to his relationship to masculinity and his relationships with various Hollywood stars.
Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton (2023)
Paris Hilton’s 336-page book takes an in-depth look at the many labels she’s adorned and shed over the decades. Unpacking her childhood, episodes of teenage rebellion, and experience with verbal and physical abuse, she creates a place for readers to understand the origins of her pink paradise—and the strength it took to withstand years of extraordinary public pressure.
Spare by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (2023)
Even for those who don’t keep up with the Royal Family, the central themes of grief, love, and creating a home apart from everything you’ve known in Prince Harry’s shockingly intimate Spare make it a story very much worth reading.
Thicker Than Water by Kerry Washington (2023)
This New York Times bestseller beautifully traces the outlines of Scandal star Kerry Washington’s life, from her childhood in the Bronx (during which she first experienced life-defining trauma and began to have panic attacks) and the abortion in her 20s that led to her becoming a lifelong advocate for reproductive autonomy to starting her family life with her husband Nnamdi Asomugha.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (2023)
Emerging from the shadows of a past marked by paparazzi harassment and betrayal by the people she trusted, Britney Spears finally speaks her truth in this highly anticipated—and then much celebrated—memoir. With a blend of deep sincerity and good humor, Spears fearlessly asserts her autonomy, leaving no doubt about who is truly in control of her life.
Finding Me by Viola Davis (2022)
Davis relays the topsy-turviness of her life’s circumstances with a compelling mix of emotional honesty and grace, tracing how a Rhode Island childhood marked by trauma and abuse gave way to an adulthood in the spotlight as one of the most recognizable actresses in Hollywood.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir by Matthew Perry (2022)
In his book, the late actor delves into his early life and rise to fame amidst an intense struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is written in such a way that you can imagine Perry speaking it to you—his voice is comforting, heartbreaking, and oh-so-familiar to the many of us who grew up watching him in the 1990s and early 2000s.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (2022)
This bestselling memoir is hardly lighthearted fare, revolving as it does around child star McCurdy’s years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her fame-obsessed mother, but the rush to purchase it was no empty fanfare—it really is that good.
Book cover of I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (2021)
This memoir about Japanese Breakfast musician Zauner’s Korean-American identity and her complex, emotionally resonant relationship with her mother should be taught in every how-to-write-personal-narrative master class. Her description of her grief after her mother’s death from cancer is impossible to forget once you’ve read it.
Rememberings by Sinéad O’Connor (2021)
In many ways, Sinéad O’Connor’s memoir is as you’d expect: all sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. There’s the global outrage that followed when she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live. The wild story behind her recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Episodic and matter-of-fact descriptions of time spent with the era’s biggest icons. Yet in the tales of her childhood (including memories of her time in Ireland’s disgraceful, nun-run Magdalene Laundries), her ever-evolving spiritual journey, and the tumult of being a mother in the music industry, we find her at her most intimate, humored, and clear-eyed.
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl (2021)
Not to stereotype, but all the music fans I know happen to love Dave Grohl, making this memoir—which focuses on the Nirvana and Foo Fighter musician’s years on the road—an absolutely smashing birthday or holiday gift when another coffee mug just won’t do.
Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci (2021)
If your appetites lie squarely in the food-memoir zone, look no further than this sweet, wide-ranging, and all-around heartwarming reflection from actor Stanley Tucci about how food has shaped his life. Come for the endless pasta rhapsodies, stay for the reminiscences from the sets of classic movies like Julie & Julia and Big Night.
Timeless Classics That Defined the Genre
Beyond the recent boom, several memoirs have stood the test of time and helped define what the genre can achieve. Becoming by Michelle Obama remains one of the best books ever written in the category, making readers feel as though they’ve spent time with the former First Lady herself. Just Kids by Patti Smith won the National Book Award and serves as both a portrait of 1970s New York and a love letter to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain transformed a chef into a global icon with its confrontational, extremely funny tone. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah recounts his remarkable upbringing under apartheid in South Africa, where his parents’ interracial union was literally a crime punishable by five years in prison. And Bossypants by Tina Fey remains the gold standard for comedic memoirs, following her journey to stardom with candid, self-deprecating humor.
Why Celebrity Memoirs Matter
At their best, celebrity memoirs provide an unprecedented window into the lives of public figures, revealing the struggles, triumphs, and humanity behind the fame. They offer readers not just gossip and glamour, but genuine insight into resilience, creativity, and the complex journey of becoming oneself. Whether you’re a pop culture fanatic or simply someone who appreciates a well-told life story, this golden age of celebrity memoirs has something extraordinary waiting for you.