Magical Memoir Moments
More Memoir Lists! Take Some of These to the Beach this Summer!
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that we collect lists of top memoirs from people who write or study memoir. Now that summer is breathing down our necks, we are beginning to see summer reading lists popping up like dandelions. The LA Times list was circulating on Twitter, and another…
My Mother's Magic Rainbow Story: A Lifelong Influence
I spent last weekend with my 84-year-old mother, who made her first trip from Pennsylvania to Virginia in many years, thanks to her escorts–my sister Doris, her husband Dave, and their standard poodle Rodney. We celebrated Mother’s Day live and in person, albeit a week late. Yesterday I posted two wonderful Mother’s Day tributes found on other…
Two Mother's Day Memoir Treats–In Case You Missed Them
“What We Nurture” with Sylvia Boorstein from On Being on Vimeo. I love Krista Tippett’s American Public Media show called On Being. The broadcast she did on Mother’s Day, seen in video above and in this online link–an interview with Sylvia Boorstein–allows the listener to experience the power derived from claiming motherhood (and grandmotherhood) as…
Another Top Memoir List! Dinty Moore Picks Top Six to Illustrate Variety
I love when friends send me memoir lists, because they are helping to build a community of readers and writers. This time, my friend Susan Blackwell Ramsey, award-winning poet and literary cheerleader, sent me the link. Others are welcome to do the same! Dinty Moore, the author of many nonfiction books, editor of Brevity, and…
A Free National Tele-Conversation on Place in Memoir–Sign Up!
Friends. Here’s a chance for us to hear each other’s voices, literally. I will be speaking on a roundtable along with the fabulous authors Tracy Seeley and Linda Joy Myers, whom you may have met in previous posts and comments on this blog. Linda Joy will interview Tracy and me on the tantalizing subject of…
Memoir Query Advice from Marla Miller: Subject Matter–Incest and Moms
A number of readers asked to see Marla Miller critique more query letters. So here she is again from her Youtube channel. You can also read her critique of another memoir at The Writer magazine online. If you have never browsed The Writer mag, you may want to do that also. It offers great advice…
Shirley's Top Ten Memoirs
“Which memoirs do you like best?” That’s the most frequently asked question when someone hears about this blog. Having now read at least 100 memoirs, I am ready to offer my own top ten list for your inspection. The ten books fall into three categories: Memoirs written before the current trend–books that first drew me…
A Million Little Pieces of Memoir Genre Trust
Like most of my readers, I am an admirer of Greg Mortenson and think what he has done in Afghanistan and Pakistan–building schools (helping girls, especially) and building relationships of trust–is the best way for Americans to interact with the people of Central Asia. A vast improvement over drone strikes and endless war! Yet the…
Audio Books v. Kindle v. Old Fashioned Book–Which is Better?
One of the best rewards of blogging is discovering a new or old friend in the comments section. Fun! Since I spent 28 years interacting with undergraduates at Goshen College, I love encountering them and hearing about their lives. Several of them commented on the review of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress I wrote back…