6 Top biography books like Just Kids by Patti Smith

Cover of Just Kids by Patti Smith

Just Kids

By: Patti Smith

4.21

Format: 262 pages, Hardcover

In Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-befor…

"There's always new stuff, that's for sure."

-Patti Smith, Just Kids

"There's always new stuff, that's for sure."

-Patti Smith, Just Kids

"Who can know the heart of youth but youth itself?"

-Patti Smith, Just Kids

"Who can know the heart of youth but youth itself?"

-Patti Smith, Just Kids

If you liked the biography plot in Just Kids by Patti Smith , here is a list of 6 books like this:

Cover of Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion, David  Thomson

1. Play It As It Lays

By: Joan Didion , David Thomson

3.92

Format: 231 pages, Paperback

A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It as It Lays captures the mood of a… read more

Similar categories in Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

"The letter is still in my makeup box but I am careful not to read it unless I am drunk"

-Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays

"Carter and Helene still believe in cause-effect. Carter and Helene also believe that people are either sane or insane."

-Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays

"Carter and Helene still ask questions. I used to ask questions, and I got the answer: nothing. The answer is “nothing."

-Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays

"She could remember it all but none of it seemed to come to anything. She had a sense the dream had ended and she had slept on."

-Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays

Cover of The White Album by Joan Didion

2. The White Album

By: Joan Didion

4.05

Format: 224 pages, Paperback

First published in 1979, Joan Didion's The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermat… read more

Similar categories in Joan Didion's The White Album book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • nonfiction
  • biography
  • memoir
"Somewhere between the Yolo Causeway and Vallejo it occurred to me that during the course of any given week I met too many people who spoke favorably about bombing power stations."

-Joan Didion, The White Album

"I have trouble maintaining the basic notion that keeping promises matters in a world where everything I was taught seems beside the point. The point itself is increasingly obscure."

-Joan Didion, The White Album

"A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image..."

-Joan Didion, The White Album

"Making judgments on films is in many ways so peculiarly vaporous an occupation that the only question is why, beyond the obvious opportunities for a few lectures fees and a little careerism at a disp…"

-Joan Didion, The White Album

Cover of Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

3. Slouching Towards Bethlehem

By: Joan Didion

4.19

Format: 238 pages, Paperback

The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's S… read more

Similar categories in Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • nonfiction
  • biography
  • memoir
"Happiness is,' after all, a consumption ethic."

-Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

"There is a common superstition that “self-respect"

-Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

"The ability to think for one's self depends upon one's mastery of the language."

-Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

"The future always looks good in the golden land, because no one remembers the past."

-Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Cover of The Stranger by Albert Camus, 
Matthew    Ward
, Stuart Gilbert, None

4. The Stranger

By: Albert Camus , Matthew Ward , Stuart Gilbert , None

4.02

Format: 123 pages, Paperback

Published in 1942 by French author Albert Camus, The Stranger has long been considered a classic of… read more

Similar categories in Albert Camus's The Stranger book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

"It is better to burn than to disappear."

-Albert Camus, The Stranger

"Everything is true, and nothing is true!"

-Albert Camus, The Stranger

"After awhile you could get used to anything."

-Albert Camus, The Stranger

"To stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing."

-Albert Camus, The Stranger

Cover of The Idiot by Elif Batuman

5. The Idiot

By: Elif Batuman

3.66

Format: 423 pages, Hardcover

A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself… read more

Similar categories in Elif Batuman's The Idiot book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • audiobook
"For a while now, I have been conscious of a tension in my relationship with you,"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"Lighting a match felt exciting and a little bit dangerous, and when the flame came into contact with the paper, it made a sound like the needle coming down on a record player—like the music was about…"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"For the first time in my life, I couldn't think of anything I particularly wanted to study or to do. I still had the old idea of being a writer, but that was being, not doing. It didn't say what you …"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"Suddenly it occurred to me that maybe the point of writing wasn't just to record something past but also to prolong the present, like in One Thousand and One Nights, to stretch out the time until the…"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

Cover of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin

6. Norwegian Wood

By: Haruki Murakami , Jay Rubin

4.01

Format: 296 pages, Paperback

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a be… read more

Similar categories in Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

"I wonder what ants do on rainy days?"

-Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

"We're all kind of weird and twisted and drowning."

-Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

"I’ve never once thought about how I was going to die,"

-Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

"Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that."

-Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Cover of The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

7. The Virgin Suicides

By: Jeffrey Eugenides

3.79

Format: 250 pages, Paperback

The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out… read more

Similar categories in Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

"She was the still point in the turning world."

-Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides

"In the end, it wasn't death that surprised her but the stubbornness of life."

-Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides

"During a warm winter rain ... the basins of her collarbones collected water."

-Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides

"Aloft, he looked frail, diseased, and temperamental, as we expected a European to look."

-Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides

Cover of Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz

8. Sex and Rage

By: Eve Babitz

3.87

Format: 260 pages,

The popular rediscovery of Eve Babitz continues with this very special reissue of her novel, origin… read more

Similar categories in Eve Babitz's Sex and Rage book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

9. Black Swans

By: Eve Babitz

3.66

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

In nine stories that look back on a decade of dreams, drink, and stoned youth turning Republican, B… read more

Similar categories in Eve Babitz's Black Swans book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

Cover of The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir, Patrick O'Brian

10. The Woman Destroyed

By: Simone de Beauvoir , Patrick O'Brian

3.75

Format: None pages,

Una crisi coniugale o familiare costringe tre donne a mettere in discussione la propria vita e il p… read more

Similar categories in Simone de Beauvoir's The Woman Destroyed book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

11. Conversations with Friends

By: Sally Rooney

3.56

Format: None pages, Kindle Edition

A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they … read more

Similar categories in Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

Cover of Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

12. Giovanni’s Room

By: James Baldwin

4.33

Format: 224 pages, Paperback

Set in the contemporary Paris of American  expatraites, liasons, and violence, a young man finds  h… read more

Similar categories in James Baldwin's Giovanni’s Room book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

"Nobody can stay in the Garden of Eden."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"...for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"I loved her as much as ever and I still did not know how much that was."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

13. My Brilliant Friend (L'amica geniale #1)

By: Elena Ferrante

3.00

Format: 108 pages, Paperback

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, int… read more

Similar categories in Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend (L'amica geniale #1) book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

Cover of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

14. The Bell Jar

By: Sylvia Plath

4.06

Format: 294 pages, Paperback

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented… read more

Similar categories in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • poetry
"I woke to the sound of rain."

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"I wanted to be where nobody I knew could ever come."

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"When they asked me what I wanted to be I said I didn't know."

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed."

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Cover of The Secret History by Donna Tartt

15. The Secret History

By: Donna Tartt

4.17

Format: 559 pages, Paperback

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits a… read more

Similar categories in Donna Tartt's The Secret History book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

"It's a terrible thing, what we did,"

-Donna Tartt, The Secret History

"How quickly he fell; how soon it was over."

-Donna Tartt, The Secret History

"Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones I did not."

-Donna Tartt, The Secret History

"I suppose the shock of recognition is one of the nastiest shocks of all."

-Donna Tartt, The Secret History

16. A Little Life

By: Hanya Yanagihara

4.58

Format: None pages, Hardcover

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're… read more

Similar categories in Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

Cover of Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon

17. Girl in a Band

By: Kim Gordon

3.67

Format: 273 pages, Hardcover

In Girl in a Band, Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth and role model for a generation of wo… read more

Similar categories in Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • music
  • art
  • biography
  • memoir
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"All that young-girl idealism is someone else's now."

-Kim Gordon, Girl in a Band

"I like being in a weak position, and making it strong."

-Kim Gordon, Girl in a Band

"For me performing has a lot to do with being fearless."

-Kim Gordon, Girl in a Band

"I give Iggy credit for deconstructing the very idea of entertainment."

-Kim Gordon, Girl in a Band

18. Eileen

By: Ottessa Moshfegh

3.81

Format: None pages, Hardcover

The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman… read more

Similar categories in Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

19. The Year of Magical Thinking

By: Joan Didion

4.44

Format: 212 pages, Paperback

'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her min… read more

Similar categories in Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

Cover of I Who Have Never Known Men by Ros Schwartz, Jacqueline Harpman

20. I Who Have Never Known Men

By: Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Format: 208 pages, Paperback

"As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker." A young woman is kept in a cage underg… read more

Similar categories in Ros Schwartz's I Who Have Never Known Men book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

"Survival is never more than putting off the moment of death."

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"I thought it was unfair, and then I understood that, alone and terrified, anger was my only weapon against the horror"

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"Look at them. They’re pretending, they behave as though they still have some control over their lives and make momentous decisions about which vegetable to cook first."

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"Only now, I tell myself that what I'd felt for her, the trust that slowly built up, the constant preference for her company and the joy each time I was reunited with her after an expedition were prob…"

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

Cover of Just Kids by Patti Smith

21. Just Kids

By: Patti Smith

4.21

Format: 262 pages, Hardcover

In Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-befor… read more

Similar categories in Patti Smith's Just Kids book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • music
  • new york
  • art
  • poetry
  • biography
  • memoir
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"There's always new stuff, that's for sure."

-Patti Smith, Just Kids

"Who can know the heart of youth but youth itself?"

-Patti Smith, Just Kids

"I knew he didn't love me, but I adored him anyway."

-Patti Smith, Just Kids

"Christ was a man worthy to rebel against, for he was rebellion itself."

-Patti Smith, Just Kids

Cover of Bunny by Mona Awad

22. Bunny

By: Mona Awad

3.50

Format: 305 pages, Paperback

We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. … read more

Similar categories in Mona Awad's Bunny book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • audiobook
"The pink pony inside me weeps softly."

-Mona Awad, Bunny

"Oh, Bunny, I love you. I love you, Bunny."

-Mona Awad, Bunny

"We think of it as art meets life, Bunny. We’re putting art into the world."

-Mona Awad, Bunny

"Because life is shorter than we are, she says, so why beat around the bush?"

-Mona Awad, Bunny

Cover of The Rest Is Noise Series: Apparition from the Woods: The Loneliness of Jean Sibelius (Time for a Rhyme) by Alex  Ross

23. The Rest Is Noise Series: Apparition from the Woods: The Loneliness of Jean Sibelius (Time for a Rhyme)

By: Alex Ross

3.81

Format: 24 pages, Kindle Edition

This is a chapter from Alex Ross’s groundbreaking history of twentieth-century classical music, ‘Th… read more

Similar categories in Alex Ross's The Rest Is Noise Series: Apparition from the Woods: The Loneliness of Jean Sibelius (Time for a Rhyme) book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • music
  • nonfiction
Cover of Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A. by Eve Babitz

24. Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.

By: Eve Babitz

4.10

Format: 178 pages, Hardcover

Eve Babitz captured the voluptuous quality of L.A. in the1960s in a wildly original, totally unique… read more

Similar categories in Eve Babitz's Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A. book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

"The only time men fall in love with roses is on douche commercials."

-Eve Babitz, Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.

"...chivalry was just another nefarious masculine scheme to keep women in their place."

-Eve Babitz, Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.

"Well, who is he?' I asked, the first time I saw Mary with his glazed expression. 'Money,' Mary said."

-Eve Babitz, Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.

"It's very easy to stand L.A., which is why it's almost inevitable that all sorts of ideas get entertained."

-Eve Babitz, Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.

Cover of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

25. My Year of Rest and Relaxation

By: Ottessa Moshfegh

3.63

Format: 289 pages, Paperback

From one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman’s efforts… read more

Similar categories in Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • new york
  • audiobook
"What next? I couldn't imagine."

-Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

"I wasn't an insomniac, but I was miserable."

-Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

"Life was repetitive, resonated at a low hum."

-Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

"I just wanted to sleep all the time. I had a plan."

-Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Cover of Normal People by Sally Rooney

26. Normal People

By: Sally Rooney

3.81

Format: 273 pages, Hardcover

At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star… read more

Similar categories in Sally Rooney's Normal People book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • audiobook
"People are a lot more knowable than they think they are."

-Sally Rooney, Normal People

"I'm not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me."

-Sally Rooney, Normal People

"No. I was frustrated sometimes but not lonely. I never feel lonely when I'm with you."

-Sally Rooney, Normal People

"Most people go through their whole lives, without ever really feeling that close with anyone."

-Sally Rooney, Normal People

Cover of Down the Drain by Julia   Fox

27. Down the Drain

By: Julia Fox

4.40

Format: 318 pages, Hardcover

Julia Fox is famous for many her captivating acting, such as her breakout role in the film Uncut G… read more

Similar categories in Julia Fox's Down the Drain book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • new york
  • biography
  • memoir
  • autobiography
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"I want to love him but I often find myself wishing he could just be an asshole all the time. This way I wouldn't have all these inner battles with myself. I learn to navigate my way through shattered…"

-Julia Fox, Down the Drain

Cover of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

28. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

By: Ocean Vuong

4.04

Format: 246 pages, Hardcover

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when th… read more

Similar categories in Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • poetry
  • audiobook
"It was beauty, I learned, that we risked ourselves for."

-Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

"To look at something is to fill your whole life with it, if only briefly."

-Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

"What were you before you met me?" "I think I was drowning" "And what are you now?" "Water"

-Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

"A page, turning, is a wing lifted with no twin, and therefore no flight. And yet we are moved."

-Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Cover of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

29. Big Swiss

By: Jen Beagin

3.68

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is … read more

Similar categories in Jen Beagin's Big Swiss book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • audiobook
"¿Habla más de un idioma?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"You bullied other bullies,"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"she’d always been less of a shit-talker and more of a shit-thinker"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"At least I know where the hell I am and what’s happening. Which way is north?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

Cover of Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

30. Cleopatra and Frankenstein

By: Coco Mellors

3.74

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant d… read more

Similar categories in Coco Mellors's Cleopatra and Frankenstein book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • audiobook
"And you’re in love?"

-Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

"People are like this too, you know,"

-Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

"When the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light."

-Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

"Cleo and Frank could not make each other happy, no matter how hard they’d tried."

-Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Cover of Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

31. Everything I Know About Love

By: Dolly Alderton

4.00

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

The wildly funny, occasionally heartbreaking internationally bestselling memoir about growing up, g… read more

Similar categories in Dolly Alderton's Everything I Know About Love book and Patti Smith's Just Kids

  • nonfiction
  • biography
  • memoir
  • audiobook
"Nearly everything I know about love, I've learnt from my long-term friendships with women."

-Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love

"No matter how uncertain and unpredictable life gets, some people really do walk next to you for ever."

-Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love

"She knows where to find everything in me and I know where all her stuff is too. She is, in short, my best friend."

-Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love

"I don't need any words or looks or comments from a man to believe I'm visible; to believe I'm here. don't need to run away from discomfort and into a male eyeliner. That's not where I come alive."

-Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love

11 best-selling audiobook books like Just Kids by Patti Smith

Transform Your Habits

The Idiot

Elif Batuman

3.66

Transform Your Habits

Girl in a Band

Kim Gordon

3.67

Transform Your Habits

Just Kids

Patti Smith

4.21

Transform Your Habits

Bunny

Mona Awad

3.50

View all the books

16 Top fiction books like The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir, Patrick O'Brian

Transform Your Habits

Play It As It Lays

Joan Didion , David Thomson

3.92

Transform Your Habits

The Idiot

Elif Batuman

3.66

Transform Your Habits

The Virgin Suicides

Jeffrey Eugenides

3.79

Transform Your Habits

Sex and Rage

Eve Babitz

3.87

View all the books

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