100 memoirs project
This post appeared in July at my blog another writing mom, and is my own original work.
I was looking at this big stack of books in my home office, books I’m dying to read, and rhetorically asking myself how to make time for them. I thought, I need someone to hold me accountable.
Book club? Omg if I schedule one more thing to have to go to…
Some kind of email book club? Still probably a deadline, and I want this to be fun and loose so I actually do it.
Goodreads? No more social media.
So I’m gonna use this space to hold myself accountable. I’m going to read memoirs and blog about them. Not really reviews, just informal responses, maybe with a little real life splashed in. No rules. Some of the memoirs I read will be second or third reads. Sometimes I will link to posts I’ve done on these books elsewhere. Sometimes I will write a lot, sometimes only a little. I might read three in a month and then none for three months.
But I’m going to read 100 of them.
I might be losing it. Or it’s the best idea I’ve ever had.
Read a memoir, blog about a memoir, repeat. Preparation for my own, because I AM writing one, don’t want it to be shitty or derivative, and am good with the process taking a long time.
As I’m relying on chunks of free time heretofore unknown to me to read these books, this project might actually outlive me, you see.
Now accepting recommendations in the comments, please. Stay tuned for posts on my bedside table books in residence: Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water, Roxane Gay’s Hunger, and Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir.
If you're looking for a good memoir to read, check out "a moveable feast" by Ernest Hemingway. Although there has been some debate to wether it's truly non-fiction or just fiction with a few truths thrown in, it's still a great read!
Nice, thanks for the rec!
I second this recommendation!
Second this as well! Great book with vivid characters (Fitzerald and Stein) that roamed the streets of Paris together with Hemingway.
I have Yuknavitch's "The Chronology of Water" on my short list. It's always sold out at my local shop! And no wonder, based on the few pages I've read. I love Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton because she is no nonsense. I very much want to read more writers of color. My son and I read Malala's book last year. I think we will do more along those lines with his homeschool read-alouds so we can both benefit.
I can't wait to read Malala's book. And you know how I feel about the Yuknavitch. <3 Thanks for another good rec, too!
I love that you are doing this. I have always loved memoirs and have not read nearly enough of them. Here are some of the ones that I have read recently that I enjoyed very much. First, I recently read an old and dusty copy of Agatha Christie: An Autobiography. She, of course, is known as the Queen of murder mysteries and is one of the bestselling authors of all time. However, she also had quite an interesting life, including a mysterious disappearance following the breakup of her first marriage (which she totally fails to mention but you have to read between the lines about why she “checked out” for a while), she married a younger man and traveled around the world with her husband who was an archeologist, and she had a lot to say about living one’s life to the fullest. You don’t have to be a fan of her books but it helps if you are fascinated by history as her life spanned 85 years and many societal changes from the Victorian era to the 1970’s. I also really liked the book A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle which was written in 1989 and is a very amusing account of his first year trying to make the transition from city living in America to roughing it in rural France. If you like that sort of travel memoir Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes is similar and also very good.
Thanks so much for these great recommendations!
Memoirs can be a tough read sometimes. Typically if the Author is famous there will be interest versus those obscure Authors who hide behind silly nom de plumes ;)
I see you're posting a novel bit by bit here--following!