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Best Memoir / Biography / Autobiography
NOTE: This list is for non-fiction only.
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 5694 |
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The Mannings: The Fall and Rise of a Football Family
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4.03 avg rating — 319 ratings
score: 7,
and
1 person voted
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| 5694 |
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Over The Limit: My Secret Diaries, 1993-98
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 19 ratings
score: 7,
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1 person voted
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| 5694 |
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Where Stands a Winged Sentry (Handheld World War 2 Classics Book 4)
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4.30 avg rating — 82 ratings
score: 7,
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1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Bonnie Raitt: Just in the Nick of Time
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3.35 avg rating — 55 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Where's My Wand?: One Boy's Magical Triumph over Alienation and Shag Carpeting
by
Eric Poole (Goodreads Author)
3.56 avg rating — 695 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
The Best Medicine
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3.14 avg rating — 21 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish
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3.82 avg rating — 801 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War
by
3.92 avg rating — 7,724 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Autobiografia
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3.51 avg rating — 69 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Prisoner of Tehran: The End of Childhood in Iran
by
Marina Nemat (Goodreads Author)
4.21 avg rating — 14,388 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
William Penn: Founder and Friend
by
3.20 avg rating — 5 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Good Dog. Stay.
by
3.94 avg rating — 4,521 ratings
score: 6,
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1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Jefferson's Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America
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3.59 avg rating — 3,040 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko: Truth versus Totalitarianism
by
4.34 avg rating — 44 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Crying with Laughter: An Autobiography
by
4.08 avg rating — 274 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5704 |
|
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
by
4.49 avg rating — 29,195 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 5717 |
|
Samuel: The Inspiring Story of How an Amish Boy's Tragedy Brought Two Worlds Together
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4.27 avg rating — 15 ratings
score: 5,
and
1 person voted
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| 5717 |
|
Maximum Insecurity: A Doctor in the Supermax
by
William Wright (Goodreads Author)
3.67 avg rating — 1,009 ratings
score: 5,
and
1 person voted
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| 5717 |
|
Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of My Hypochondria
by
3.40 avg rating — 472 ratings
score: 5,
and
1 person voted
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| 5717 |
|
John Muir, Friend of Nature. (Discovery Book)
by
liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings
score: 5,
and
1 person voted
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| 5717 |
|
Women In Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win
by
4.31 avg rating — 917 ratings
score: 5,
and
1 person voted
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| 5717 |
|
Dancing on My Grave
by
3.88 avg rating — 2,471 ratings
score: 5,
and
1 person voted
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| 5717 |
|
Intoxicated by My Illness and Other Writings on Life and Death
by
3.94 avg rating — 480 ratings
score: 5,
and
1 person voted
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| 5717 |
|
Chasing Proof, Finding Faith: A Young Scientist’s Search for Truth in a World of Uncertainty
by
4.16 avg rating — 85 ratings
score: 5,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
A Mother's Ordeal: One Woman's Fight Against China's One-Child Policy
by
4.34 avg rating — 395 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
Spanish Journals - The Posthumous Diary of an Expat: Part One - Integration
by
3.77 avg rating — 117 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
Two Old Fools in Spain Again (Old Fools, #4)
by
Victoria Twead (Goodreads Author)
4.36 avg rating — 785 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
Perishable: A Memoir
by
3.16 avg rating — 88 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
Florence Nightingale
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3.92 avg rating — 368 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe
by
Robert Matzen (Goodreads Author)
4.35 avg rating — 1,084 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody: Great Figures of History Hilariously Humbled
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3.92 avg rating — 2,627 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
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Das Boot: The Boat
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4.25 avg rating — 5,873 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
Killing the Black Dog
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3.50 avg rating — 218 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw
by
4.06 avg rating — 1,036 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5725 |
|
Solitary Confinement
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4.18 avg rating — 45 ratings
score: 4,
and
1 person voted
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| 5736 |
|
Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity and My Journey to Freedom in America
by
4.11 avg rating — 693 ratings
score: 3,
and
1 person voted
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| 5736 |
|
No Regrets: How Homeschooling Earned me a Master's Degree at age 16
by
Alexandra Swann (Goodreads Author)
3.70 avg rating — 60 ratings
score: 3,
and
1 person voted
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| 5736 |
|
Orphans: Real and Imaginary
by
3.57 avg rating — 28 ratings
score: 3,
and
1 person voted
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| 5736 |
|
Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs
by
3.98 avg rating — 860 ratings
score: 3,
and
1 person voted
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| 5736 |
|
Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman
by
3.93 avg rating — 3,270 ratings
score: 3,
and
1 person voted
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| 5736 |
|
Moonboots & Dinnersuits
by
3.93 avg rating — 120 ratings
score: 3,
and
1 person voted
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| 5742 |
|
A Starfish at a Time: How Our Family of 19 Grew Through Adoption
by
Dana Wynn Steele (Goodreads Author)
4.72 avg rating — 32 ratings
score: 2,
and
1 person voted
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| 5742 |
|
My Sky Blue Trades: Growing Up Counter in a Contrary Time
by
3.88 avg rating — 49 ratings
score: 2,
and
1 person voted
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| 5742 |
|
The Dog Lived
by
Teresa Rhyne (Goodreads Author)
4.02 avg rating — 2,837 ratings
score: 2,
and
1 person voted
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| 5742 |
|
A Widow's Story
by
3.76 avg rating — 4,195 ratings
score: 2,
and
1 person voted
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| 5742 |
|
Everything All at Once: How to Unleash Your Inner Nerd, Tap Into Radical Curiosity, and Solve Any Problem
by
3.85 avg rating — 2,452 ratings
score: 2,
and
1 person voted
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| 5742 |
|
I Am the Doctor
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4.28 avg rating — 46 ratings
score: 2,
and
1 person voted
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| 5748 |
|
In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family
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3.79 avg rating — 277 ratings
score: 1,
and
1 person voted
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| 5748 |
|
LIVING THE LIFE OF MS
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating
score: 1,
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1 person voted
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| 5748 |
|
Five to Seven: The Story of a 1920s Childhood
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3.80 avg rating — 10 ratings
score: 1,
and
1 person voted
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| 5748 |
|
Shadows in the Sun: Healing from Depression and Finding the Light Within
by
Gayathri Ramprasad (Goodreads Author)
4.13 avg rating — 327 ratings
score: 1,
and
1 person voted
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| 5748 |
|
My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie
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4.27 avg rating — 3,430 ratings
score: 1,
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1 person voted
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| 5748 |
|
Here's the Deal
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4.23 avg rating — 1,403 ratings
score: 1,
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1 person voted
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| 5748 |
|
Finding My Voice
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3.87 avg rating — 1,494 ratings
score: 1,
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1 person voted
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| 5748 |
|
What I Ate in One Year
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3.84 avg rating — 20,546 ratings
score: 1,
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1 person voted
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1026 likes · Like
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.
Heather
928 books
164 friends
164 friends
Kate
5033 books
1530 friends
1530 friends
Nikhil P.
7824 books
198 friends
198 friends
Russellino
506 books
2 friends
2 friends
Chriss
297 books
417 friends
417 friends
Jennifer
10599 books
46 friends
46 friends
Tracy H.
1067 books
40 friends
40 friends
Asli
285 books
23 friends
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More voters…
Comments Showing 1-50 of 76 (76 new)
FYI: "What is the What" is not a memoir. Nor is "Sarah's Key." Both are great books, but they're fiction.
add:Time To Be In Earnest: A Fragment Of Autobiography|3831], P. D. JamesThis is fabulous. six stars
this was a good book..going to read more like this !
The Lovely Bones isn't a memoir or biography.
Hannibal
by Thomas Harris and
Death of a Salesman
by Arthur Miller are both fiction, and I removed them.
Wow, I'm seeing a lot of fiction on this list.
Sue T wrote: "Wow, I'm seeing a lot of fiction on this list."Can we get them removed? One of the reasons I came to look at this list was to find good biographies to add to my TBR list, so I want to be sure I'm not reading a book I think is a biography then discover it was fiction.
Linda wrote: "Sue T wrote: "Wow, I'm seeing a lot of fiction on this list."Can we get them removed? One of the reasons I came to look at this list was to find good biographies to add to my TBR list, so I want ..."
Please don't remove them - even those are fiction-biography books, this list is still gorgeous.
Thank you so much for creating this list Heather! I have been looking for 'Oh the Glory of it all." for years but I couldn't remember the name, thought I knew I would recognize the cover. I found it on your list and now I can read it again! Your awesome!
"The Friday Night Knitting Club" is fiction. Why do people put fiction titles on non-fiction lists??
Here's a real fun wild and crazy memoir about the movie biz and about finding true love...please vote for this cover - Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot :)
Khaled Hosseini's Books (Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns) are Fiction.
Without moving from the first page there are at least three fiction novels on this.
"Eat, Pray, Love" ranks higher up than "First they killed my father"? The world is ending...
No one even mentioned A Playboy Virgin's Manifesto by Atticus Rockefellar. Oh, the humanity!http://www.amazon.com/Playboy-Virgins...
The following are fiction: #113 A Thousand Splendid Suns
#128 Memoirs of a Geisha
Shall I delete? Any others that need to go?
I added a list description: NOTE: This list is for non-fiction only.
Hopefully, this will stop the tide of fiction.
Too bad one can only have 100 books on a list. I've read so many more great ones than are on my list.
Not really sure if I'd classify Torey Hayden's books as memoirs but they all are great.
how can i print out a list of just the title and author
A million little pieces was later proved to be fiction
A number of the books on the list are fiction, for example, Winds of War
Morgan wrote: "a thousand splendid suns is fiction..." Deleted.
Also Brick Lane and Pope Joan are novels as well. Laura Ingallss Wilder's books are generally classified as fiction
one more. A tree grows in Brookly is fiction as well.
How can we search for specific titles on this list?
I call "stupid" or "a--hole" on every single one of the people putting fiction on this list.
Lesley wrote: "Three cups of tea is fiction."It's marketed as a memoir.
Amazon has added: 'From Viking PressIn regards to the 60 Minutes episode that aired April 17, 2011: "Greg Mortenson’s work as a humanitarian in Afghanistan and Pakistan has provided tens of thousands of children with an education. 60 Minutes is a serious news organization and in the wake of their report, Viking plans to carefully review the materials with the author."'
If we start judging memoirs and biographies on their truthfulness, it will open a huge can of worms, and so far as I know, librarians haven't been given any guidance on the issue.
this list could use a minimum number of ratings - like 1000 - to avoid author spam.
Winds of War and the Bell Jar are both fiction
She's Come Undone, Great Expectations and Uncle Tom's Cabin are all fiction.
Removed for being children's fiction: Little House on the Prairiehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
NONE of the "Little House" series is autobiography. When confronted by a journalist about the scene in one of the books in which a family member is chased by ravenous wolves, which of course is not something wolves do to humans, LIW replied with great dignity that she had not intended to write history; she intended to write stories for children.
This author does have an actual memoir, but it doesn't, at least in my opinion, hold the charm and interest level that her children's series commands.
Oh wow...I'm going to find that whole series here, aren't I? Removed from #124, see above, Farmer Boy:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
..and less than 1 minute later, I find the entire series in one boxed set; I wasn't so clairvoyant as to see it coming, but expected to find it one title at a time...and likely I still will. Anyway, gone from #194:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
From #466 On the Banks of Plum Creek:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Also from page 5, The Long Winter:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
P.6 Little Town on the Prairie
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Also from p6 Those Happy Golden Years
and The First Four Years
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
p. 10, By the Shores of Silver Lake:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
#744, removed for being fictional, Great Expectations:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
#221, removed for being fictional, Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indianhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Travel book removed from #209:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Removed:
The Winds of War, fiction:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
and Good Grief, also fiction:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
The ones by McCullough on Truman and John Adams are not memoirs. They are extremely well researched biographies. A memoir is a non -fiction book written from personal experience. Or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people. One could write a memoir of a person to whom one is or was very close as a spouse, or child. I agree - a lot of fiction on this list as well!
Cheryl wrote: "The ones by McCullough on Truman and John Adams are not memoirs. They are extremely well researched biographies. A memoir is a non -fiction book written from personal experience. Or a written accou..."Take another look at the title of the listopia. Memoir, biography, autobiography. McCullough is dull as dirt, imho, but his books are clearly within the parameters of the listmaker.
If you see fiction and want me to pull it, give me titles and tell me what page each is on, and I'll be happy to do it. I have a little time right now and will check the list to see what jumps out at me.
Can someone help me find the name of this memoir I read once? (I was expecting to find it on this list)It was a memoir by an Iranian?-I think- woman who was imprisoned and coerced into marrying her prison guard for a while and now lives in Canada. I wanted to show my mum it, but I can't remember the name of it. I recall it had a picture of a woman looking off a building on the front cover. If anyone can help that'd be awesome. Thanks.
Jean wrote: "please add my book. country life. true story in my own words. full of shocks? & surprises! please share it. click here new on kindle--https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_......"This constitutes spam, and is inappropriate for a Goodreads listopia discussion. I have flagged the comment.
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by MARK MILLHONE
Beautiful, honest memoir that appeals to both men and women which is so rare. It is very funny, but have your kleenex near by and the phone numbers of family members handy to tell them you love them and value them