I was thrilled that my last post, Must-Read Memoirs, was Freshly Pressed and that so many folks piped up with kind and insightful comments–especially because the post was an easy one for me to write; who doesn’t like to talk about their favorite books? That, of course, is what this blog is all about: bits and pieces about all things literary. If you’re a parent or just like to read ruminations on parenting, you can also check me out at Momming.
The best thing about my last post, though, was the incredible list of memoirs generated by YOU, readers. What a list–cut and pasted into a Word document, it’s four pages long. Suggestions included rock n’ roll memoirs, travel memoirs, memoirs about marriage, love, and commitment, memoirs of childhoods difficult, eccentric, and charmed, memoirs of addiction and recovery, memoirs of political and personal persecution, Holocaust memoirs, spiritual memoirs–even one or two written by readers. So without further ado, here is the list of your memoir suggestions, condensed, at random, into one easy-to-read (and long–92, to be exact) list.
Readers’ Picks:
Just As I Am, Rev. Billy Graham
Please Stop Laughing at Me, Jodee Blanco
Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
Finding Ma?ana, Mirta Ojito
In the Shadow of Freedom, Tchicaya Missamou
Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, Jillian Lauren
A Mighty Long Way, Carlotta Walls LaNier
Don?t Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Alexandra Fuller
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, Peter Godwin
Malled: My Unintentional Career In Retail, Caitlin Kelly (thanks for reading, Caitlin!)
Scar Tissue, Anthony Keidis
On Writing, Stephen King
My Life, Marlene Dietrich
The Importance Of Music To Girls, Lavinia Greenlaw
The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Bronnie Wares
Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
Mao?s Last Dancer, Li Cunxin
Babylon?s Ark, Lawrence Anthony
Postcards from the Edge, Carrie Fisher
Born Standing Up, Steve Martin
Lit, Cherry, and Liar’s Club, Mary Karr
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Nick Flynn
Let?s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, Jeanette Winterson
Signs of Life, Natalie Taylor
Bossypants, Tina Fey
Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness, Dominique Browning
51/50: The Magical Adventures of a Single Life, Kristen McGuiness
Traveling With Pomegranates, Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
A Girl Named Zippy, Haven Kimmel
Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy
Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl
An Autobiography, Agatha Christie
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter and The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Mircea Eliade?s autobiography
Olga: A Daughter?s Tale, Marie Campbell (thanks for reading, Marie!)
Somewhere Toward the End, Diana Athill
?When I Fell From The Sky, Juliane Koepcke
?Geisha, a Life/Geisha of Gion, Mineko Iwasaki
Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela
Piece of Cake, Cupcake Brown
A Thousand Farewells, Nahlah Ayed
‘Tis and Teacher Man, Frank McCourt
A Three Dog Life, Abigail Thomas
The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
My Maasai Life, Robin Wiszowaty
The Boy in the Moon, Ian Brown
The Color of Water, James McBride
Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert
One More Time: A Memoir, Carol Burnett
The White Masai, Corinne Hoffman
My Lobotomy, Howard Dully
Between A Rock and A Hard Place, Aron Ralston
Life, On The Line: A Chef?s Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat, Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas
White Heat, Marco Pierre White
The Rings of Saturn, W.G. Sebald
The Color of Water: A Black Man?s Tribute to his White Mother, James McBride
Let?s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship, Gail Caldwell
Swinging on the Garden Gate, Elizabeth J Andrew
A Stolen Life, Jaycee Lee Dugard
Night, Elie Wiesel
The Sunflower, Simon Weisenthal
A Moveable Feast, Ernest?Hemingway
Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell
The diaries of Ana?s Nin
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Why I?m Like This, Cynthia Kaplan
For Your Eye Alone: The Letters of Robertson Davies
I Am Ozzy, Ozzy Osborne
Chronicles, Bob Dylan
Light My Fire, Ray Manzarek
Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog
Where White Men Fear to Tread, Russell Means
Black Elk: Sacred Ways of a Lakota, Wallace Black Elk
Songs My Mother Taught Me, Marlon Brando
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen
Holy Ghost Girl, Donna Johnson
Letters to Sam: A Grandfather’s Lessons on Love, Loss, and the Gifts of Life, Daniel Gottlieb
Tell Me Never, Janine Shepherd
Don’t Ever Tell: Kathy’s Story: A True Tale of a Childhood Destroyed by Neglect and Fear, Kathy O’Beirne
Shame, Jasvinder Sanghera
Orphan of Islam, Alexander Khan
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
Boy, Roald Dahl
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
Maiden Voyage, Tania Aebi
Other author recommendations: Haven Kimmel, Samantha Bee, Michael Perry.
And my favorite comment came from this reader:
“Not just memoirs, but diaries. I have shelves of ?em, not just Pepys and Evelyn and Anne Frank, but Frances Partridge, the last of the Bloomsberries, Alan Clark, philandering British MP, Klemperer in Nazi Germany, and so many other irresistible windows into real lives as they happen?”
Thanks for reading, everyone!
–Susie
woot woot! what a thrill to get all these great responses. i hardly know where to start…since i totally trust your taste, which from this list will show up on your nightstand?
Oh, An Honest Mom…you always ask the tough questions. : ) I am intrigued by the Mary Karr memoirs for sure, Tuesdays with Morrie, My Maasai Life, James McBride’s book, Autobiography of a Face, and I am thinking of rereading Running with Scissors. That’s my short list. Imagine working through all of them? How long might it take?
Oh, and: The Sunflower…
Ooh, more titles to add to my goodreads queue. Thanks for compiling the list for us. I’m tossing out another one, just finished reading A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain, his first hand telling of searching for the perfect meal. I loved it! Both troubling and eye opening and “ballsy”, which is just the fitting word, not me being coy. ha!
Looking forward to more posts and book recommendations!
I have not read A Cook’s Tour, but his book of essays–what’s it called? Has one or two that are riotously funny!
wow…92 books…that’s quite a bit! Time to buy a new bookshelf!
I know it! Or visit your local library every week or so, depending how fast you read.
Fiction Ruined My Family by Jeanne Darst is a wonderful memoir. It will end up on your favorites list. I first heard her read a story on the NPR This American Life and preordered her book. I was not disappointed. The author describes her unconventional childhood growing up with her off-beat parents and three sisters in bronxville. Parents are from old wealth. Her father aspires to write fiction and not much else.