Magical Memoir Moments
Flying First Class: All the Way from Minneapolis to San Francisco
One of the great pleasures of work involving travel is that sometimes a kindred spirit happens to sit in the seat next to you. I was blessed by such an encounter yesterday. It started when another business traveler, Rose, and I were seated in 8-D and 8-F. She had the aisle. I had the window….
Writing Down the Bones: Slow and Dumb
I remember reading this breakthrough book soon after it was published in the late 1980’s. I don’t remember how I bought the book, and I don’t have the old copy on my shelf, so I may have loaned or given it away, Mostly, I remember how I felt after reading it. High! I had never…
Slumdog Millionaire: A Metaphor for the Power of Memoir
Well, folks, it may be time to create a new category. I saw a lot of good movies this holiday season. Did you? Here’s the list of ones I saw: Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Doubt, Milk,and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I recommend each of these films, and all of them have connections to memoir,…
Helen Alderfer, Poet, Mother, Wise Woman, Role Model
My husband Stuart gave me a book for Christmas I did not know existed–a pleasant surprise indeed. Helen Alderfer, an early woman leader in the Mennonite Church and someone I have long admired, has published a book in her 90th year. I have always loved reading about people who keep achieving their dreams well into…
My Stroke of Insight: A Spiritual Memoir
I will cut to the chase on the last night of the year 2008. I loved this book. I read it nearly in one sitting, fascinated by the straightforward telling of an incredible story. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist working at the Brain Bank at Harvard University, woke up one morning with a headache…
Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory by Maureen Murdock
One of the wise women I am honored to have in my life, Angeles Arrien, recommended this book to me. I found the book thoughtful and provocative, a wonderful distillation of many years of reflection both on the author’s personal story but also on the process of living, reflecting, writing, and transforming. Reading this book,…
Eat, Pray, Love–A Spiritual Memoir for Thanksgiving?
My husband Stuart and I have just worked together to make two pumpkin pies, two apple pies, and broccoli, curry cheese soup. We are waiting for our daughter Kate and her boyfriend Nik to arrive from Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving weekend. It seems fitting–maybe it was all that cooking–that this would be the night to write…
Memoir(and): Should You Subscribe?
I seldom read every article in a magazine that comes to my house. Without time for hours of reading every day, I do a lot of skimming instead of deep reading. I wish it were not so. However, with a long trip ahead and a little determination due to having chosen to make the new…