I asked for memoir recommendations yesterday on Facebook and Twitter and here’s what happened. The recs were all so good that I had to pull them into a list. So glad that I’ll be able to come back to this list when I’m next choosing a memoir. I think I will read the Mary Karr books first. How about you?
Facebook Friends:
Fiona Phillips:
All 3 (memoirs) by Alec Guinness
Susan Ito:
This Lovely Life by Vicki Forman
The Language of Blood by Jane Jeong Trenka
The Country Under My Skin by Giaconda Belli
The Language of Blood by Jane Jeong Trenka
The Country Under My Skin by Giaconda Belli
Diana Cruz:
When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
Hilda Brucker:
The Liar’s Club by Mary Carr
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray
Deb Kincaid:
COOP: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry
Judy Schwartz:
Julia Child’s My Life in France
Tracey Ceurvels
Lies My Mother Never Told Me by Kaylie Jones
Sarah Joyce Bryant
Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You by Sue William Silverman
Lit, Cherry, & The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
Kathleen Kaufman
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Mariam Kobras
Consuming Passions by Michael Lee West
Michele Mariner Dawson
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
Jordan Rosenfeld
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jacki Lyden
Cara Holman
Backing into Forward by Jules Feiffer
Kristin Antaram Costa
Angela’s Ashes
Stephanie DiCerbo Baffone
Seeking Peace by Mary Pipher
Bet Doar LaRue
Under a Wing by Reeve Lindburgh
First Light by Jeffrey Wellum
My Life in France by Julia Child
To the Is-land by Janet Frame
Unpacking the Boxes by Donald Hall
Resistance by Agnes Humbert
A Genius in the Family by Hilary DuPree
Rebecca Einstein Schorr
Read the chapter on writing memoirs in Zinsser’s On Writing Well
Kerry Grier
Giving by Bill Clinton
Nathalie Hardy
Girlbomb by Janice Erlbaum
Auburn McCanta
Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasote
The Motion of the Ocean by Janna Cawrse Esarey
Cindy Hudson
When I Married My Mother by Jo Maeder
Jennifer Lauck
Safe Keeping by Abigail Thomas
Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje
Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
Night Lights by Phyllis Theroux
Jen Karuza Schile
Expecting Adam
House of Happy Endings
Mommies Who Drink
Chosen By a Horse
Rachael Petek Bender
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
Jenny Kales
My Life in Paris by Julia Child
Linda Austin
Three Dog Night by Abigail Thomas
Tamara Kaye Sellman
Living Among Headstones by Oregon author Shannon Applegate
Mary Toomey
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Cherry by Mary Carr
Abigail Green
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Pierrette Mimi Poinsett
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
Migrations of the Heart by Marita Golden
Jill Earl
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Come to the Table by Louise Luiggi
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
Christa Melnyk Hines
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Expecting Adam by Martha Beck
Marley and Me by John Grogan
Beth Davis
On Writing by Stephen King
Twitter Friends:
KGWrites
Broken Music by Sting
EEdwardsen
Another Name For Madness by Marion Roach
AnnaBroadway
Kathleen Norris’ The Virgin of Bennington
TheMuffinMom
Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken by Laura Schenone
My Father’s Paradise by Ariel Sabar
Unforgiving Minute by Mullaney
Chrindaj
First they killed my Father Luong Ung
House at Sugar Beach Helene Cooper
ErikaRobuck
Devotion by Dani Shapiro
CatsEyeWriter
Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club
Bridgidlee
Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life
EVictoriaFlynn
The Possibility of Everything Hope Edelman
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman
MriduKhullar
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
StacyWrites
The Girl in the Orange Dress: Searching for a Father who does not fail by Margot Starbuck
LuannSchindler
The Break-Up Diet by Annette Fix
VivGroskop
In My Father’s House by Miranda Seymour
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
An Exact Replica by Elizabeth McCracken
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I'm surprised nobody recommended Ruth Reichl. I really enjoyed “Garlic and Sapphire”, though I think she's written others.