Honestly, if you only know Diane Keaton for the hats, the gloves, or the way she said "la-di-da" in Annie Hall, you’re missing out on the best part of her. She’s a writer. A real one. Not the kind of celebrity who hires a ghostwriter to turn a few surface-level anecdotes into a glossy hardcover that ends up in a bargain bin six months later. No, the books written by Diane Keaton are weird, haunting, deeply visual, and occasionally gut-wrenching.
She’s been publishing for decades. Long before the memoirs hit the New York Times Bestseller list, she was curating strange photography books about things like hotel rooms and clown paintings. It’s a whole vibe. It’s quirky, sure, but there’s a sharp, intellectual edge to her work that most people don't expect.
The Big Three: Memoirs That Don't Play Nice
When people go looking for books written by Diane Keaton, they usually start with the memoirs. And they should. But don't expect a chronological "then I did this movie" list.
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Then Again (2011)
This isn't just her story. It’s her mother’s story. Dorothy Hall kept eighty-five journals over her life. Eighty-five! Diane weaves her own fame and struggles—including a really raw look at her years-long battle with bulimia—against her mother’s private writings. It’s a book about the "vortex" of the parent-child relationship. You get the Woody Allen and Warren Beatty stories, but they feel secondary to the way she looks at her mother's unfulfilled creative energy.
Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty (2014)
This one is funnier, but it’s still biting. It’s basically a series of essays on beauty, aging, and why she refuses to get plastic surgery. She talks about her hair. She talks about her "tomboyish" wardrobe. It’s about the pressure of being a woman in the public eye while also being an eccentric who just wants to wear a bowl hat and ten layers of flannel.
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Brother & Sister (2020)
This is the heavy one. If you have a complicated relationship with a sibling, this will wreck you. It’s about her younger brother, Randy Hall. While Diane became a global icon, Randy struggled with mental illness, lived a reclusive life, and eventually faced a slow decline. She doesn't sugarcoat her own guilt or the fact that they were "strangers" for a long time. It’s a slim book, but it’s dense with regret and love.
The Obsessive World of Keaton's Visual Books
Okay, here’s where it gets really "Diane." She is obsessed with the way things look. I mean, truly obsessed. She’s a house flipper, a preservationist, and a collector of the odd.
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- California Romantica (2007): This is a love letter to Spanish Colonial architecture. She didn't just write it; she basically campaigned for these houses to be saved.
- The House That Pinterest Built (2017): This sounds like a gimmick, but it’s actually a legitimate design manual. She built a massive, industrial-style "dream house" in Sullivan Canyon and used Pinterest for every single detail. The book tracks that process from digital pins to actual brick and mortar.
- Clown Paintings (2002): Yes, a book of amateur clown paintings she collected from flea markets. It’s exactly as unsettling and fascinating as it sounds.
- Saved: My Picture World (2022): This is her "visual autobiography." It’s a scrapbook of found photos, personal snapshots, and things she’s saved over the years. It’s a peek inside her brain.
Why the Books Written by Diane Keaton Still Matter
Most celebrity books are ephemeral. Keaton’s books feel like art objects. There is a specific "Keaton Aesthetic"—stark blacks and whites, heavy textures, and a lot of self-deprecating humor. She writes like she talks: breathless, a little scattered, but incredibly observant.
In a world where 2026 is seeing more AI-generated "autobiographies" and soulless celebrity branding, her voice is painfully human. She’s vulnerable about the stuff that actually hurts. She talks about the "ugly" parts of her family history and the "ugly" parts of her own face with the same level of honesty.
Actionable Insights for the Keaton Curious
If you want to actually dive into the books written by Diane Keaton, don't just buy the first thing you see on Amazon.
- Start with Then Again if you want the emotional core of who she is. It’s the definitive work.
- Pick up The House That Pinterest Built if you’re currently renovating or just love interior design that isn't boring "millennial gray."
- Hunt down a copy of Reservations (1980) if you want to see her early photography work. It's out of print and pricey, but it’s a collector's dream.
- Watch for the 2026 reprints. Many of her Rizzoli titles, like Fashion First, are seeing renewed interest and occasional backorders, so keep an eye on specialty bookstores rather than just big-box retailers.
Diane Keaton didn't just write these books to stay relevant. She wrote them because she has a "thinking" problem—just like her mother. She’s a documentarian of her own life and the world around her. Whether it’s a memoir about a lost brother or a $75 coffee table book about Spanish architecture, it’s all part of the same restless, creative spirit. Go read her. You've seen the movies; now see the mind.