There Are Only 3 Celebrity Memoirs Worth Reading

And I'm gonna tell you what they are. But first, I'm gonna tell you what most of them are lacking.

The celebrity memoir is a small subset of a genre that has an outsized impact on the cultural conversation. The publication of celebrity memoirs has been growing in recent years. In 2023, 396 new memoirs were published by celebrities and public figures, up by around 100 books from 2022. These stats are according to Goodreads, and, admittedly, are not exact, as the definition of “celebrity” in some cases may be up for debate. But the trend stands – celebrities are jumping on the memoir bandwagon in droves.

Image from Audible

And why not? It makes sense monetarily, with stars fetching anywhere from $2M – $20M advances (ok, to be fair, Prince Harry was the one with the $20M advance, but still) on book deals, not to mention the royalties from book sales themselves, for not a whole lot of work. And they get to control the narrative for once. Their “story” is shaped by them and, I’m assuming, their publicist, to be a carefully crafted work of branding. And this piece of branding, if they play their cards right, will increase their reach, serve as a vehicle for more publicity, as book tours for celebs often take form in podcast appearances, network TV segments, and the like. For some, it may serve as an opportunity to, “set the record straight,” a farce of a term that I have several thoughts about. But in all cases, of course, they stand to make beaucoup bucks. That’s capitalism, baby!

If it sounds like I’m being cynical, it’s because I sort of am. I find it extremely hard to believe that celebrity memoirs aren’t just the most recently profitable arm of the celebrity industrial complex; a low lift and high reward (the top sellers of these memoirs, like Britney Spears and Prince Harry, have sold millions of copies) method of driving attention and dollars. When I say low lift, I’m referring to the actual pen-to-paper required for writing a book. These people have ghostwriters, they’re not writers themselves. And the quality of the ghostwriting is, let’s be honest, not uniformly excellent.

But of course, quality does not beget enjoyment. People read these books for the juicy inside scoop, a peek behind the curtain in the lives of their favorite stars; for FUN, damnit! That’s as good a reason as any for reading something. And although I just spent 3 paragraphs waxing academic about celebrity memoirs being a cog in the bone-crushing, soul-sucking machine of capitalism, I, too, have read a bunch of them! I’ve read memoirs by Julia Fox, Tan France, Jessica Simpson, Amy Poehler, Ali Wong, Matthew McConaughey (lol), Mindy Kaling, Anna Kendrick, and Amy Schumer, and that’s not an exhaustive list!

I mean it’s truly neverending

But to return to my cynicism, the catch is that while I have read a lot of celebrity memoirs, I find myself consistently disappointed by them. Too many times I’ve fallen for picking up a celeb memoir that is, “actually really good!!” according to whoever, my curiosity getting the best of me, only to wind up halfway through the book, fuming, hate-reading it, mentally tallying a list of everything shitty about it. And maybe that’s on me! Maybe my expectations are too high, given my skepticism about the American obsession with celebrity and fame, etc.

Despite my consistent disappointment, however, I have found that a few simple criteria seem to be a tough bar to clear for most celebrity memoirs. These are what the few celebrity memoirs that I stand by do possess.

1. A Believable Reflection of Childhood. I’ve read several celebrity memoirs where they reflect on their childhood and describe their kid-selves as being precocious to the point of absurd prescience; essentially, they write themselves as children with the same possession of self and self-awareness that they have as adults. I’m looking at you, Julia Fox. Maybe this is a personal hang-up, but I simply cannot get on board when you’re telling me as a child of five you understood innately that the catalyst for your parents’ divorce was illicit substance use and the geopolitical economic forecast of the times, or whatever the fuck. It immediately sows distrust in the writer’s account of the events they are chronicling and makes me wonder what else they’re putting a clever, self-congratulatory spin on in this book.
   

2. Goes Beyond “Setting the Record Straight.” After falling for reading the Jessica Simpson memoir, which was not good, I read a Goodreads review that said, “I personally believe that a successful autobiography must be about things larger than one's desire to set facts straight, and not many celebrities are capable of seeing beyond their self-interest.” That’s exactly right. Sure, the “setting the record straight” stuff can be fun to read about – especially if it’s tied to well-known tabloid fodder. Who doesn’t want to know a celeb’s take on their messy breakup? But this really only works as cheap entertainment and does little, if anything, to make the writer an endearing figure. Candor is gutsy, sure, but it is not a reliable surrogate for substance. To succeed, celebrity memoirs must go beyond “their side of the story” and interrogate the self; they must not be afraid to be fallible and human. Describing a life that happens to them, as many do, excuses the writer of any responsibility for their actions. This approach is surface-level and pseudo-reflective. It does not work as a dynamic, relatable narrative.

3. Command of Voice. Sounds obvious, sure. But with ghostwriters factoring in heavily here, I’ve found that lack of a clear, distinct voice is a problem with a lot of celeb memoirs that detracts from my ability to buy into their whole shtick. Of course, you might argue that I don’t know these people, how do I know if their voice is “real” or not? I get that sentiment, but it’s not about knowing the person intimately so much as it is this: does the writer's voice come across as authentic to the reader? The relationship with the reader is the most important one in this case, after all. In the same way that the voice of a character in a novel has to feel authentic to the story at large for the book to have any meaning or impact on the reader, so too does the voice of the celebrity writer of their memoir. A voice that is consistent and unique to the author throughout the book, such that we believe and relate to their story is hard to achieve. Most celebrity memoirs cannot nail this.

On the other hand, there are a rare few books that made me believe that the celebrity memoir is not always hot air and an utter waste of resources. Out of the countless celebrity memoirs I’ve read and been let down by, I’ve concluded that there are only 3 celebrity memoirs that are actually worth reading. These are the chosen few that check all the boxes of the above criteria and as such, have something meaningful to offer beyond the shiny veneer of fame.

The Autobiography of Gucci Mane

Gucci Mane once said, “If I wasn’t rappin' then I’d be robbin'” and this memoir is proof that he means it. Gucci Mane (real name Radric Davis) for the uninitiated, is an Atlanta rapper and one of the foremost artists of trap music in the South. In his straightforward, no-nonsense approach, Davis discusses his childhood in rural Alabama, where he began dealing and using drugs at a young age. From his father, he learned a pursuit of the finer things in life, and how to read people, and work them over if necessary. As an adult in Atlanta, he became a well-known gang-banger and hitmaker, churning out mixtapes that shaped the sound of Atlanta’s underground trap scene.

With journalist Neil Martinez-Belkin, Davis tells a story that makes no pretenses about his past as a felon, drug user, lyricist, gangster, and music tycoon. There are no pleas to the reader to like him, just a lived experience presented for inspection, and you are left to form your own conclusions. He knows who he is and who he has been, which comes through in every calm, casual sentence of the book. It feels like listening to Davis tell a story; the effect is spellbinding.

This memoir succeeds not only as a personal history but as a rich text for music history. In charting his own rise through Atlanta’s trap scene, eventually starting his own label, Davis chronicles meetings with young rappers getting their start that, today, have become household names.

This is such a fun book to read. I came away from it telling everyone how good it was, and I was often met with disbelief. But don’t just take my word for it—Lit Hub also wrote a compelling piece about how The Autobiography of Gucci Mane sets the bar for celebrity memoirs and hasn’t received the recognition it deserves. Grab a copy here. 

Required listening to accompany this read:

• Lemonade

• Wasted ft. Plies

• Freaky Girl

  

  Gucci & his book

Lifeform by Jenny Slate

I have long admired Jenny Slate’s acting and comedy, and when she came out with her first book in 2019, the genre-defying Little Weirds, I was interested, but not expecting much. I was very incorrect in my preconceived notions. Little Weirds is excellent; delightfully silly and heart-wrenching. Essays, stories, and personal anecdotes, Little Weirds cemented Slate as a multi-talent and, perhaps more importantly in this context, a legitimate Writer with a capital W.

Her second book, Lifeform, which came out end of 2024, is even better than her first and falls more firmly in the memoir territory. Slate’s writing is introspective and raw, revealing her innermost feelings of anxiety, insecurity, and self-doubt that are relatable to the everyperson. Her commentary on life around her– her devotion to the dishwasher as a form of procrastination, her worry over the raccoons rummaging in her backyard at night, her early relationship with her future husband, her imagining of her lineage of ancestors all in one house on the day her first child is born– all of it is refreshing and surprising, a testament to the sparkling and distinct mind of Jenny Slate. She is an expert at leading you down the path of a simple story, only to reveal that the story was not about that thing at all, and in fact contained a much deeper meaning at its core. She connects the mundane and the profound effortlessly, showing the reader that there is meaning and beauty in every moment, big or small.

Jenny Slate’s mind is a fascinating one, and reading her writing is a treat that will make you think differently, too. While Lifeform feels like more of a memoir than Little Weirds, this portion of the post is sort of a two-for-one special, since both of them hold up as celebrity memoirs that stand on their own and outshine the cookie-cutter variety of many others.

Required watching to accompany this read:

• Marcel The Shell With Shoes On

• Stage Fright

• Liz G’s New Look from “Publizity” on The Kroll Show

  

  Jenny & her book

Acid for the Children by Flea

OK, I understand that this recommendation is where I start to lose credibility, but just stay with me!!! Flea is the bassist for The Red Hot Chili Peppers. There has been many members over the band’s four-decade career, but the two mainstays have been frontman Anthony Kiedis, and Flea, real name Michael Balzary, who started the band in 1982 with guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons.

But those looking for a story of a rockstar’s ascension, complete with groupies, world tours, and drugs should look elsewhere. Well, there’s drugs, but none of the rest of that stuff. Flea’s memoir describes everything that happened to him before the band’s first night on stage in 1983 in Hollywood. A standard suburban childhood knocked out of orbit by divorce gave way to a chaotic, bohemian lifestyle that leads Flea to music, drugs, the punk scene, basketball, and mischief. His mother’s remarriage to a musician– a jazz bassist, funnily enough– introduced young Michael to jazz, be-bop, and funk, essentially cementing music into his lifeblood; he was all but destined to become a musician.

Like the other books mentioned, this memoir is sharp due to its unmistakable voice—these are Flea’s own words, and like Gucci Mane’s book, they sound like him talking. He has an eclectic manner of speech and uses Cali-soaked turns of phrase that are at once charming and captivating. His ghostwriter admits that his input was more editorial than anything else, mainly helping Flea cut his initial 1,200-page draft down to the 400-odd pages that comprise the final book (this detail gets me every time).

Even if you’re not a die-hard RHCP fan, this memoir will leave a mark. Written in his 50s, Acid for the children is perhaps most compelling for Flea’s adult interjections and reflections on his childhood. You can see how the events of his younger years shaped his adulthood and the poignancy, humor, and candor with which he regards them today. As David Ritz, his aforementioned ghostwriter says in the New York Times, “Sometimes [celebrities] do these books to get back at people,” he says, describing agendas like making an argument for one’s own greatness, or getting revenge on a spouse. “With Flea, I think his drive is to enlighten himself by figuring out who he is and what he did. And so there is a lightness to this book, even though it’s a heavy book.”

Required listening/watching to accompany this read:

• Can’t Stop [Official Music Video]

• By The Way, 2002

• Flea on Hot Ones

Flea & his book

So what do you think? Love or hate celeb memoirs? Any that I missed that you think are fantastic? I wanna hear it! Tell me in the comments.

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