Best celebrity autobiography books

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Best books written by celebrities

We may earn commission from the links on this page. These days almost every celebrity writes or at least has their name on the cover of a memoir. But a great career doesn't always make a great story. For the fans, sure, but not for posterity. These twenty-five are glittering exceptions—real stories that artfully deliver both the hard-won wisdom that comes with being famous and the raw emotions that come with being human.

Read on for books that help us see the humans beneath the headlines and the dark side of the limelight. Tennis player Agassi's incredible memory plus the world's best ghostwriter—JR Moehringer, also hired by Prince Harry—combine to make this possibly the finest sports memoir ever. Alongside the propulsive account of his twenty-one-year career, Agassi shares stories of the women in his life: Barbra Streisand, first wife Brooke Shields, and true love Steffi Graf.

Once she gets her unhappy childhood out of the way, Garten tells a story we rarely hear: a behind-the-scenes, nuts-and-bolts look at entrepreneurial success, woman style. From the retail food shop in the Hamptons she bought on a lark it had the silly name Barefoot Contessa to her reign over our bookshelves and televisions, she steeps, pours, and spills the tea.

Remember the frostbitten royal "todger"? Ghostwriter JR Moehringer totally earned the zillions he got for this. The book that kicked off Bourdain's long run as both the hottest and coolest man in haute cuisine is so full of life, that it's hard to believe he's gone. Remembered for its wild, druggy stories of life in a professional kitchen and its cautionary tales about horrifying restaurant practices, the memoir is also full of gorgeously sensual food writing.

Those oysters!