Magical Memoir Moments
A Walker in the City: Inspiring and Daunting
November 20, 2011. Brooklyn, New York It’s nearly midnight. I’ve just closed the book A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin. Outside Flatbush Ave. pulses with movement and light in the rain. The wet streets glisten and double the images of white headlights approaching, red taillights receding, and green traffic light swaying above. The…
Chinaberry Sidewalks: Another Excellent Crazy Childhood Memoir by Rodney Crowell
Welcome new guest blogger, Richard Potter. Below you can learn more about him and more about an excellent memoir from singer/song writer Rodney Crowell. If you love memoirists Mary Karr, Rosanne Cash, and Jeanette Walls, you will love this one also. By Richard Potter Chinaberry Sidewalks is my first direct exposure to a great American…
Dialogue and Memoir: A Challenge, A Method, and Two Mentors
Like 497, 651 other people, I have “liked” David Sedaris on Facebook. You can too, if you click on his name. You can help his PR people to say he has half a million FB fans. Wow! Recently an interview with Sedaris appeared on his page that reminded me of something I am struggling with…
John Lithgow's New Memoir — Drama: An Actor's Education
Sometimes a memoir knocks you over even before you read all of it. Such is the case with John Lithgow’s Drama: An Actor’s Education. I’ve read about it, listened to the author, and read a chapter of it at the Diane Rehm Show website. Lithgow, who lives in New York, has made the rounds of the…
I Am Hutterite: A Lovely Memoir from the Canadian Prairie
I probably wouldn’t have found this book if it hadn’t been on sale at the Green Valley Book Fair, a huge book warehouse located close to Harrisonburg, VA. The hardcover price is 19.99, but at the Book Fair it was $5.00. Ach yommer, a bargain! I’m sure the author, who grew up Hutterite, would approve…
Leon Fleisher's Memoir My Nine Lives: Reviewed by Beverly K. Lapp
Introducing Beverly K. Lapp, Associate Professor of Music at Goshen College. Bev came into my life first as a student at Goshen College, then as a faculty colleague. She writes as well as she plays piano and teaches–which is saying a lot. Enjoy her review below. Fleisher, L. & Midgette, A. (2010). My nine lives: A…
The Sound of Rain on a Corrugated Iron Roof: Another Lanie Tankard Review
Our popular guest blogger Lanie Tankard has reviewed a pre-publication copy of One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir by Binyavanga Wainaina Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press (July 19, 2011) Reviewed by Lanie Tankard Binyavanga Wainaina busts clichés about Africa in his memoir, One Day I Will Write About This Place, due…
Emma: A Widow Among the Amish–A Son's Perspective
Since my own memoir focuses on growing up Mennonite, I have read a number of Mennonite and Amish memoirs and reviewed them here, here, and here. Ervin Stutzman, the current executive director of the Mennonite Church USA, gave himself an interesting memoir challenge: “How can I write the story that includes my own life (described…
Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein: A Year-of-Memorizing Memoir
Meet Joshua Foer, a 28-year-old whose first book, Moonwalking with Einstein, reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell’s books–quirky, researched subjects with personal and other anecdotes sprinkled generously through out. Moonwalking actually fits another memoir subcategory: the year-of-memoir. In these memoirs the author sets aside a year to do something and then details the results. Examples abound–The…