When most people think of memoirs, their thoughts are of vacuous celebrities talking about their many conquests or  inept presidents' long winded accounts of their few years in office. For the most part, this is true.

The bookshelves and online stores are filled with these books, and they are usually the only ones that ever make it to the best seller list. Far below the top 100 memoirs are books about real people that have gone through real challenges.

These memoirs are their personal accounts of teen pregnancy, jailhouse Christianity and living with the mob. Their books don't get ads in The New York Times or become part of Oprah's book club. Often, the book is just as much about therapy for the writer as it is about entertaining the reader.

We shouldn't discount the tale of a longtime sea captain or the street corner hooker because they have never made their way onto E! News Daily. That doesn't mean their stories are any less important. They have struggled through loss and come out stronger for it. They have watched loved ones die and nearly died themselves, but never gave up.

They deserve the right to be heard, and it doesn't matter if the books are published through a major distributor or sold on sale as an e-book from Amazon.com. Sure, it's fun to hear a celeb talk about his crazy sex life, but it's the real people with their real stories that are truly important.