Memoir Archive |
Nothing Like Sunshine: A Story in the Aftermath of the MLK Assassination - I saw a Sears commercial last night that announced an “MLK Day Sale.” Well it has been 43 years since Dr. King was assassinated --- time blurs things. And now,
On My Way To Someplace Else - “Charm kills,” Evelyn Waugh said. And he ought to know. His characters swan and dazzle, they’re everywhere you want to be, but when the party ends, they are alone with
On Pluto, Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s - Guest Blogger Gerald Secor Couzens,the author of more than two dozen health books, is the managing editor of The Scientific American Memory Disorders Bulletin, a 45-page print quarterly for people
One of These Things First: A Memoir - I’ve known Steven Gaines for so long it seems like we were college roommates. Along the way, I’ve read and admired his journalism and his books, which cover turf as
Patti Smith: Just Kids - Patti Smith, in her seniority, is ubiquitous, and now, in New York, she'll really be everywhere --- local readers have voted “Just Kids” the 2019 winner of the "One Book,
Patti Smith: M Train - Patti Smith has just published her second memoir, “M Train.” I was an early fan of her first memoir, Just Kids, which went on to win the National Book Award and
PEN PALS: A 15-year-old fan writes to film director John Hughes. He replies. And… - Letters of Note is my guilty pleasure. Its creator, Shaun Usher, says he "lives for letters, lists, and beautiful books," and he doesn't fib. In 2009, his love of
Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal - January 8, 2003. A pleasant house with a river view in a charming town not far from New York City. Julie Metz, a freelance graphic designer, is working
Perfection: A Q&A with the Author: “The irony is I’m quiet and shy” - Some books --- mostly really vivid memoirs and novels --- don’t end when you finish reading them. Perfection was like that: Soon after her 44-year-old husband dies, Julie Metz discovers
Peter Mayle: My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections on Then and Now - Peter Mayle toiled for decades in advertising, beginning as a copywriter and finishing thirteen years later as a creative director ("I think I was also a vice president, but I
Peter Reich: A Book of Dreams - This is a cult favorite: a memoir by the son of Wilhelm Reich, the groundbreaking psychoanalyst whose theories brought him to the government’s attention and led to the destruction of
Pimp - Consider Yourself Warned: Many readers will find 'Pimp' shocking, even disgusting. Men will likely find it sexist; women almost certainly will. So why feature it? Because I couldn't put it down. Because
Please Excuse My Daughter - “A woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all." That was Samuel
Prince Harry: Spare - “Spare” is the fastest-selling nonfiction book ever, with 1.43 million copies sold on its launch day. I wasn’t among those avid first day buyers. I wasn’t one of the 17 million
Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff - Dying is easy, they say. Comedy is hard. And here are 340 pages of comic writing, all by one guy. To pull off 340 pages of funny --- gee, going in,
Rainer Maria Rilke: The Dark Interval: Letters on Loss, Grief, and Transformation - He wrote letters. Many, many letters. When he died, aged 51, in 1926, Rainer Maria Rilke had written more than 14,000 letters. They've been collected. There’s the 270 page Letters
Reading My Father - Fathers who are writers and their daughters --- as a writer with a little girl in the house, I find that a fascinating topic. I should think any man who
Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago - How many rotten novels and memoirs begin like this: Mom had died, just five years after Dad’s death in 1989. Readying our former home for sale, my two brothers and I
REWRITING ILLNESS: A VIEW OF MY OWN - Why do people say “full disclosure?” Isn’t “disclosure” sufficient? Here’s mine: I know Elizabeth Benedict slightly. Every Mother’s Day, I recommend her book, “What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women
Robert Caro: Working - I admire Robert Caro. I’m an evangelist for “The Power Broker,” his biography of Robert Moses, who singlehandedly shaped the infrastructure of New York City, brutalizing the powerless along the
