New Memoir: Love ‘Ems and Leave ‘Ems
I’M TOO NICE about all this, aren’t I? A great defender of memoir, I neglect to tell you just which books make me want to hurl just as much as they might make you want to hurl. No more. Something about a recent birthday changed all that. So let’s have at it, shall we?
Among the Love ‘Ems this month are:
- Anna Quindlen. So glad she is back with Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake
- Hector Abad’s long-awaited translation of his bestselling Oblivion: a Memoir
- Madeleine Albright’s Prague Winter. This place claims to have signed first editions
- Alison Bechdel’s new graphic memoir, Are You My Mother? The incomparable, provocative, deeply intelligent book that I simply cannot put down. For a really super good time, read this New Yorker profile by the fine Judith Thurman, then read the book
- Marian’s Partington’s If You Sit Very Still explores the territory of traumatic loss, brutality and the restoration of the human spirit
Now to my new addition to this post category, the inclusion each month of at least one new book that I would not read if you sent it to me, brought me dinner and slipped me a Bulgari bracelet between the covers.
The Leave ‘Em for this month is:
- Ryan O’Neal’s new memoir. I’ll let you find it yourself. And no, to all of you out there who claim to want all things to be fair, I do not have to read it to know it’s a bad book.
And you? What’s on your nightstand, and what books are making you back away from the display case?
Hi Marion,
First, thanks for the calendar and reminder about hooks — something I have known about (through TV work) but needed this welcome reminder.
Thumbs up memoirs I’ve been reading, none new: The Middle Place- While Kelly Corrigan battles breast cancer while trying to raise two little girls, he adored Dad, George, aka “Greeney” is also diagnosed with cancer. A funny, ebullient, hopeful book that will make readers adore Kelly and her dad and embrace life every day.
The Horizontal World-Growing up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquart. The opening chapter will leave you zipping ahead. Luminescent writing about growing up on a farm in North Dakota, desperate to leave, but irresistibly drawn back. If you ever thought your childhood–or your job was tough–this memoir will give new perspective to “hard work.”
Very funny Marion! Glad you’re not holding back like you usually do . . . I’ve added several of your suggestions to my Library request list. Thanks for keeping connected. – E
Am enjoying “Growing Pains” and autobiography by Emily Carr, (I was inspired to read this after reading The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland, a novel about the artist Emily Carr. Definitely “love em” category.
In the “leave em” side, Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons, just awful, listened to the audio version, would not have made it through the regular book.