Find your next listen
- New to Biography & Memoir? Start here → Becoming
- Shortest on this list → Night (4h 17m)
- For a long haul → The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (66h 7m)
- Most popular of all time → Educated
- Hidden gem → Stripped Down
- Prefer something shorter? →
- 1
Becoming
by Michelle Obama
Narrated by Michelle Obama
★ 4.93 ABR Score (1.4M ratings)★ 4.43 Goodreads (1.2M) ★ 4.89 Audible (183.2K)19h 3m listening time • Released 2018Michelle Obama reading her own story is the rare case where the narrator's voice becomes inseparable from the intimacy of the memoir—you're getting her reflections in her own cadence, which hits different over 19 hours.
- 2
Finding Me
by Viola Davis
Narrated by Viola Davis
★ 4.91 ABR Score (228.8K ratings)★ 4.53 Goodreads (184.9K) ★ 4.94 Audible (43.9K)9h 15m listening time • Released 2022 - 3
Educated
by Tara Westover
Narrated by Julia Whelan
★ 4.84 ABR Score (2.0M ratings)★ 4.46 Goodreads (1.9M) ★ 4.78 Audible (128.2K)12h 10m listening time • Released 2018Julia Whelan's narration transforms this memoir into something almost unbearable to pause—her voice carries you through Westover's harrowing escape with such intimacy that you feel the weight of every decision she made to survive and think for herself.
- 4
Shoe Dog
by Phil Knight
Narrated by Norbert Leo Butz
★ 4.83 ABR Score (428.2K ratings)★ 4.46 Goodreads (374.7K) ★ 4.86 Audible (53.5K)13h 21m listening time • Released 2016 - 5
Know My Name
by Chanel Miller
Narrated by Chanel Miller
★ 4.81 ABR Score (271.9K ratings)★ 4.68 Goodreads (262.6K) ★ 4.82 Audible (9.3K)15h 24m listening time • Released 2019 - 6
The Choice: Embrace the Possible
by Edith Eger, Edith Eva Eger
Narrated by Tovah Feldshuh
★ 4.79 ABR Score (138.9K ratings)★ 4.57 Goodreads (132.9K) ★ 4.91 Audible (6.0K)12h 26m listening time • Released 2017 - 7
A Promised Land
The Presidential Memoirs • Book 1
by Barack Obama
Narrated by Barack Obama
★ 4.76 ABR Score (335.1K ratings)★ 4.31 Goodreads (279.1K) ★ 4.86 Audible (56.0K)29h 10m listening time • Released 2020 - 8
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X, Alex Haley
Narrated by Laurence Fishburne
★ 4.76 ABR Score (307.2K ratings)★ 4.37 Goodreads (293.7K) ★ 4.9 Audible (13.5K)16h 52m listening time • Released 2020 - 9
Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand
Narrated by Edward Herrmann
★ 4.75 ABR Score (1.1M ratings)★ 4.39 Goodreads (1.0M) ★ 4.78 Audible (51.5K)13h 56m listening time • Released 2010 - 10
Grant
by Ron Chernow
Narrated by Mark Bramhall
★ 4.74 ABR Score (58.4K ratings)★ 4.5 Goodreads (44.7K) ★ 4.87 Audible (13.8K)48h 2m listening time • Released 2017 - 11
Greenlights
by Matthew McConaughey
Narrated by Matthew McConaughey
★ 4.74 ABR Score (653.6K ratings)★ 4.2 Goodreads (468.7K) ★ 4.82 Audible (184.9K)6h 51m listening time • Released 2020McConaughey narrating his own life philosophy is the audio equivalent of sitting down with him over a beer—conversational, genuine, and way more thoughtful than you'd expect.
- 12
Nobody's Girl
by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
Narrated by Thérèse Plummer, Gabra Zackman
★ 4.73 ABR Score (78.2K ratings)★ 4.55 Goodreads (70.8K) ★ 4.85 Audible (7.4K)13h 39m listening time • Released 2025The dual narration cuts between Giuffre's voice and Plummer's, creating an intimate testament that demands to be heard rather than read—a survivor's reckoning told with devastating clarity.
- 13
Stripped Down
by Bunnie Xo
Narrated by Bunnie Xo
★ 4.71 ABR Score (12.2K ratings)★ 4.59 Goodreads (7.6K) ★ 4.92 Audible (4.6K)8h 25m listening time • Released 2026Bunnie narrating her own story gives you the unfiltered voice of someone who's genuinely earned the right to talk about survival and redemption—her raw honesty hits different when you hear it straight from her.
- 14
Will
by Will Smith, Mark Manson
Narrated by Will Smith
★ 4.70 ABR Score (134.8K ratings)★ 4.24 Goodreads (75.6K) ★ 4.87 Audible (59.1K)16h 16m listening time • Released 2021 - 15
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing
Narrated by Simon Prebble
★ 4.70 ABR Score (196.7K ratings)★ 4.46 Goodreads (169.7K) ★ 4.77 Audible (27.1K)10h 21m listening time • Released 2008Simon Prebble's measured, unflinching narration transforms this into survival storytelling that feels like you're huddled in the ice with them. The tension never breaks for 10+ hours.
- 16
Night
The Night Trilogy • Book 1
by Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel, François Mauriac
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 4.64 ABR Score (1.4M ratings)★ 4.38 Goodreads (1.4M) ★ 4.73 Audible (11.1K)4h 17m listening time • Released 2006George Guidall's measured, unflinching narration transforms Wiesel's testimony into something unbearable and essential—his voice never flinches from the darkness, forcing you to witness rather than look away.
- 17
A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II
by Adam Makos, Larry Alexander
Narrated by Robertson Dean
★ 4.64 ABR Score (37.9K ratings)★ 4.38 Goodreads (28.1K) ★ 4.85 Audible (9.8K)13h 22m listening time • Released 2013Robertson Dean's narration transforms this true WWII encounter into pure cinematic tension—two enemy pilots' humanity cuts through the chaos in ways that feel both intimate and epic.
- 18
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Narrated by Robertson Dean
★ 4.63 ABR Score (34.6K ratings)★ 4.53 Goodreads (29.7K) ★ 4.8 Audible (4.9K)66h 7m listening time • Released 2011Robertson Dean's measured, authoritative narration transforms this 1,300-page biography into a gripping political thriller—his pacing makes even dense urban planning decisions feel like calculated power moves. If you want to understand how cities actually get built (and broken), this is essential listening.
- 19
God's Smuggler
Narrated by Simon Vance
★ 4.63 ABR Score (50.5K ratings)★ 4.38 Goodreads (47.8K) ★ 4.9 Audible (2.6K)8h 48m listening time • Released 2009Simon Vance's measured, trustworthy delivery transforms this true account of Bible smuggling into a page-turner that feels both intimate and urgent. A modern classic that still grips because the stakes, and the faith, feel devastatingly real.
- 20
Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow
Narrated by Scott Brick
★ 4.61 ABR Score (226.7K ratings)★ 4.22 Goodreads (201.6K) ★ 4.79 Audible (25.0K)35h 58m listening time • Released 2004Scott Brick's narration turns this sprawling biography into an addictive listen—his voice captures Hamilton's relentless ambition and the revolutionary chaos surrounding him with equal intensity.
- 21
The Elephant Whisperer: Learning About Life, Loyalty and Freedom from a Remarkable Herd of Elephants
Elephant Whisperer • Book 1
by Lawrence Anthony, Graham Spence
Narrated by Simon Vance
★ 4.61 ABR Score (41.2K ratings)★ 4.5 Goodreads (33.3K) ★ 4.76 Audible (7.9K)10h 55m listening time • Released 2012Simon Vance's narration transforms this true story into an intimate portrait of grief and redemption, letting you hear the quiet breakthroughs between a man and a traumatized herd he refuses to abandon.
- 22
Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan
by Sean Parnell, John R. Bruning
Narrated by Ray Porter
★ 4.60 ABR Score (20.7K ratings)★ 4.4 Goodreads (13.3K) ★ 4.84 Audible (7.4K)10h 18m listening time • Released 2012Ray Porter's gravelly delivery cuts through the chaos of combat and the raw intimacy of brotherhood—he makes you feel the weight of command decisions that haunt you long after the final mission ends.
- 23
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
by William L. Shirer
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.60 ABR Score (168.1K ratings)★ 4.23 Goodreads (149.4K) ★ 4.8 Audible (18.7K)57h 11m listening time • Released 2010Grover Gardner's measured, authoritative narration transforms Shirer's monumental scholarship into something gripping—57 hours that feel essential, not exhausting, when you're learning how a civilization collapses into barbarism.
- 24
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon
by Robert Kurson
Narrated by Ray Porter, Robert Kurson
★ 4.60 ABR Score (14.7K ratings)★ 4.53 Goodreads (12.0K) ★ 4.84 Audible (2.7K)12h 20m listening time • Released 2018Ray Porter's narration transforms this into a nail-biting thriller about three men gambling their lives on an insane four-month sprint to the Moon, capturing both the engineering desperation and the human courage that makes Apollo 8 feel impossibly dramatic.
- 25
Churchill: Walking with Destiny
by Andrew Roberts
Narrated by Stephen Thorne
★ 4.60 ABR Score (16.2K ratings)★ 4.39 Goodreads (11.4K) ★ 4.87 Audible (4.8K)50h 28m listening time • Released 2018
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