Memoir Suggestions?

[jmvan74]

I'm interested in reading some memoirs. I'm not really a biography/autobiography reader, but the memoir perspective intrigues me. Anyone have any good suggestions?

[Ummm]

yes! :) (you can read the descriptions on amazon to see if they are something you'd be interested in).

i wasn't a biography/autobiography/memoir person either, until i read augusten burrough's 'running with scissors' late last year. then i got totally hooked and read all his other books (except the first book he wrote which was a fiction). he had a very bizarre childhood.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Totally heartbreaking to read. (war related)

The Emergency Teacher: The Inspirational Story of a New Teacher in an Inner City School by Christina Asquith (education/teacher related)

Out of the Frying Pan: A Chef's Memoir of Hot Kitchens, Single Motherhood, and the Family Meal by Gillian Clark (chef/food related)

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza (war)

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls (dysfunctional childhood)

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain (chef/food)

Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter (foster care)
-----

i read a few others this year (you can see my 50 book challenge list) but these are the ones that left the most impression.

if i have to pick one or two to start off - running with scissors or the glass castle. both are about dysfunctional childhood, but they really got me hooked to read more. i wasn't interested in the glass castle at first (i bought that as a gift to my SIL like 1.5 years ago and didn't even read the first page, then picked it up earlier this year when i heard she's coming to town, and i wish i'd read it sooner!).

hope this helps :) as you can see i'm interested in memoirs that deal with dysfunction families, food/chef, education, war (and travel too but haven't really read a good one this year yet, i can dig up my older list on some travel memoir if you are interested in that area).

[karlatta]

A friend of mine was just telling me that she was enjoying Manic: A Memoir by Terri Cheney.

I also liked The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls, listed above.

[diam124]

I really enjoyed Lucky Man, which is Michael J. Fox's autobiography. I was always a fan but I found his story to be very inspiring.

[Myra]

The Color of Water by James McBride

[Dizzy]

Sick Girl by Amy Silverstein

Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrup

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmeal Beah

[jmvan74]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions. I've added Running with Scissors to my library list, so I think I'll start there. :D

[Rosebud]

Some of my favorites. These absolutely blew me away.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir (http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir-Jeannette-Walls/dp/074324754X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9117189-7180809?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180767138&sr=1-1) by Jeannette Walls

Angela's Ashes (http://www.amazon.com/Angelas-Ashes-Frank-McCourt/dp/0007205236/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9117189-7180809?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180767171&sr=1-1) by Frank McCourt

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Lets-Dogs-Tonight-Childhood/dp/0375758992/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9117189-7180809?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180767210&sr=1-1) by Alexandra Fuller

The Lost: A Search For Six of Six Million (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Search-Six-Million/dp/0060542993/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211408384&sr=8-1) by Daniel Mendelsohn

[Ummm]

i hope you enjoy it!

[jmvan74]

i hope you enjoy it!

I'm having a hard time with it. It is potentially one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. I have had to put it down several times. I'm half way through now, but it's a rough one. I honestly gagged reading it and had to stop. I hope I can finish it. I'm assuming it only gets worse.

[Ummm]

oh no! i honestly can't tell you if the 2nd half gets worse or not since i tend to remember the book as a whole, not in parts...

i'm sorry this is not your type of book. don't try to finish it if you don't enjoy it. it IS a disturbing book but that's what sets it apart (plus i'm a psych major...)

try the glass castle instead... tho it's about another dysfunctional family it's not quite as disturbing.

[jmvan74]

oh no! i honestly can't tell you if the 2nd half gets worse or not since i tend to remember the book as a whole, not in parts...

i'm sorry this is not your type of book. don't try to finish it if you don't enjoy it. it IS a disturbing book but that's what sets it apart (plus i'm a psych major...)

try the glass castle instead... tho it's about another dysfunctional family it's not quite as disturbing.

I decided to let it go. I was really struggling with what was going on. I have a psych degree, but I ended up in education...I think I'm too emotional for this kind of book. Plus, I have 2 little boys and thinking about anything like that happening to them is just too much. :o

[Rosebud]

This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly has a 3 or 4 page spread on memoirs. If you're looking for recommendations, this is a great place to find them! Here's a link to the article online:

List of Memoirs (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20203167,00.html)

(just a tiny bit of the list below)


What follows is a selective list — believe it or not, we actually left some stuff out — of memoirs that have been written since 1995. (Sorry, Ms. Walters, one of the things we've omitted is celebrity autobiographies.) So take a look and see if your life, or something resembling it, has already been spoken for. Maybe there's still a niche you can fill. For instance, there's still room for an intergalactic chocoholic who was saved from zombies by wild alpacas — at least for now.

Childhood
Grew up...
In Texas: A Strong West Wind, by Gail Caldwell (2006)
In the Midwest: Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships, by John T. Price (2008)
In Pittsburgh: Hoop Roots, by John Edgar Wideman (2001)
In Wisconsin: Falling Through the Earth, by Danielle Trussoni (2006)
In youth shelters: Girlbomb, by Janice Erlbaum (2006)
In foster care: Hope's Boy, by Andrew Bridge (2008)
On a Depression-era Iowa farm: Little Heathens, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish (2007)
In WWII-era Singapore: The Thorn of Lion City, by Lucy Lum (2007)
In rural Appalachia: All Over but the Shoutin', by Rick Bragg (1997)
In Hawaii: Light Years, by Susanna Moore (2008)
In Ireland: Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt (1996)
In Jamaica: From Harvey River, by Lorna Goodison (2008)
In Peru: American Chica, by Marie Arana (2001)
In Japan: Yakuza Moon, by Shoko Tendo (2007)
In Rhodesia: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, by Alexandra Fuller (2001)

[Ummm]

I just finished the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (not sure if you have watched his presentation?) - it's not a strict memoir, but he did talk about his life and such and it's really touching and inspirational. esp since he has 3 little kids and is dying from cancer.

[Ummm]

saw this post and thought of you:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/books/342972-whose-autobiography-touched-you-most.html

[Dizzy]

Rosebud: What a terrific article!! Thanks for the heads-up! I also thought I'd chime in that a couple new memoirs have received a lot of recent buzz. I haven't read these myself, but I've heard good things.

Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found by Marie Brenner
The Film Club: A Memoir by David Gilmour
The Three of Us by Julia Blackburn (this one may not be out yet)
when you are engulfed in flames by David Sedaris (this is technically a collection of essays, but they're based on his own experiences)

[jmvan74]

Lots of great choices! Thanks for all of the input. :D

Now I need to get to the library.

I'm reading something light and fluffy to flush my mind of Augusten Burroughs. *sigh*

[Rose]

Two really goods ones I have read recently are The Glass Castle & Escape. Escape, I just finished and is about Carolyn Jessop's life live in living & then leaving a polygamist family. Both were very good and I couldn't put them down.

[Ummm]

Yep i'd read Escape too (forgot about that one since I read it last year so wasn't on my 2008 50-books list). definitely 'lighter' than running with scissors. easy read and an interesting story.

[Rosebud]

I'm reading a new memoir which is pretty interesting so far.

A Charmed Life: Growing Up in MacBeth's Castle (http://www.amazon.com/Charmed-Life-Growing-Macbeths-Castle/dp/0312374771/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213628211&sr=1-1) by Liza Campbell

From Amazon:

Liza Campbell was the last child to be born at the impressive and renowned Cawdor Castle, the family seat of the Campbells, as featured in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Liza’s father Hugh, the twenty-fifth Thane, inherited dashing good looks, brains, immense wealth, an ancient and revered title, three stately homes, and 100,000 acres of land. A Charmed Life tells the story of Liza’s idyllic childhood with her four siblings in Wales in the 1960s, until Hugh inherited Cawdor Castle and moved his family up to the Scottish Highlands. It was at the historical ancestral home that the fairytale began to resemble a nightmare.

Increasingly overwhelmed by his enormous responsibilities, Hugh tipped into madness fuelled by drink, drugs, and extramarital affairs. Over the years, the castle was transformed into an arena of reckless extravagance and terrifying domestic violence, leading to the abrupt termination of a legacy that had been passed down through the family for six hundred years.

Written with a sharp wit, A Charmed Life is a contemporary fairytale that tells what is like to grow up as a maiden in a castle where ancient curses and grisly events from centuries ago live on between its stone walls. Painstakingly honest and thoroughly entertaining, Liza Campbell offers a compelling look at what it is like to grow up with enormous privilege and yet watch the father she idealizes destroy himself, his family, and his heritage.

[Sin Nombre]

I'm reading "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs. It's a fabulous, dead-on memoir about alcoholism, getting sober and early sobriety (unlike that "Million Little Pieces" debacle, which was highly fictionalized and absolutely ridiculous, not to mention poorly written). I find myself alternately cringing and laughing out loud; being catapulted back into early sobriety, feeling all the feelings I felt almost 17 years ago.

I have all his other books and plan to read them, but I wanted to start with a subject near and dear to my heart - recovery.