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Mia Freedman's reading it. Amelia Lester's reading it. It's on all of the cool people (including Clare Stephens') TBR piles.

If there's one book dominating book chats at the moment. It's this one: Strangers by Belle Burden.

It's a divorce memoir, by a woman whose husband was cheating on her. And it's a big buzzy American book, and a whole lot of people are busy getting mad about it, because they say it's one-sided and inconsistent. People's accounts of long relationships and break-ups are often both those things, but here we are.

We talked about memoirs and truth and whether the latter is absolutely non-negotiable in the former, on Out Loud this week.

You can listen, here:

Then we got talking about other memoirs that pissed people off. And how bloody brilliant they can be. And so, here's a list for you, if you feel like jumping into some books stuffed with unreliable narrators, messy recollections, a little light point-scoring and some straight-out shade.

Spare by Prince Harry

You've heard of this one. It's the fastest-selling memoir of all time, it was ghost-written by the best in the business (J.R Moehringer, of Agassi's Open fame) and it pissed off Harry's (royal) family SO much, no-one has spoken to anyone since. Holly bloody loved it, and recommends listening on audiobook for the full Harry experience.

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

The most controversial memoir of recent times. Until last year, this was just the much-beloved, million-selling tale of a midlife English couple who are cheated out of their home and their life savings and set off on a big old walk, sleeping rough along the way. And then an investigative piece in The Observer (and accompanying podcast) blew the whole thing up.

Was there a financial fraud? Was there a walk? Was there a person called Raynor Winn? Yes and no, on all fronts.

The Woman In Me by Britney Spears

Look, there's some good stuff here, unless you're Justin Timberlake. There are a lot of question marks about just how of-sound-mind Spears was to participate in the making of this memoir, which has lots of stories about the various stages of being Britney, but scarce reflection. However, the part about Timberlake, their split and his treatment of her is pure burn-the-house down gold.

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Just the title upset plenty of people but this memoir, by former child star McCurdy about her abusive mother became an enormous seller. Known as Sam Puckett on Nickelodeon's iCarly, McCurdy used the book to dismantle the "perfect child star" image and replace it with a harrowing story of survival. It's about to be a TV 10-parter, with Jen Aniston as Jennette's mum.

American Canto by Olivia Nuzzi

Well, yes. If you're a chronically-online American politics aficionado, you know all about this book already. If you're just a regular person, you might have heard whispers about a young star journalist who started reporting on Trump's inner circle and then started an alleged affair with RFK Junior, blowing up her own engagement in the process. That was Nuzzi.

This book pissed some people off so much, entire substacks were invented to refute and challenge it. Specifically, by Nuzzi's ex.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

A book scandal so big it almost brought down Oprah's book club, A Million Little Pieces is the book cover you see if you google "memoir" + "scandal". Published back in 2003, this addiction memoir was a big deal, hand-picked by Oprah and generally applauded for its unflinching truth-telling. And then it came out that most of it was nonsense. Like how Frey said he was in prison for 87 days for a violent crime, when it was really 5 hours for a traffic violation. Ooops. Still stands as a good work of… fiction.

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Feature Image: Goodreads.