Magical Memoir Moments
Jonathan Franzen's Genre-Bending FREEDOM: Part I
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, August 2010. Available in hardcover, CD, digital audio, and ebook formats. Reviewed by Lanie Tankard Author Jonathan Franzen, an avid birder, has trained his binoculars here on a different species: Homo sapiens. While he does deal extensively with our fine feathered friends in his new…
Toy Story 3: A Memoir Stimulus Package
When Stuart and I saw Toy Story 3, I remembered one of our more delightful experiences while in Prague last year–a trip to the Toy Museum at the base of the huge castle in Prague, Czech Republic. At the time we visited, the museum displayed an amazing collection of Barbie dolls in honor of her…
Review of Ander Monson's Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir
Lanie Tankard is back! This time she has read and reviewed a memoir that challenges the boundaries of the genre–and in the process tells a life story (indirectly). I think you will find her review fascinating. I know she would love your comment, no matter what you think. Anyone teaching the genre, and brave…
Kay Redfield Jamison's Nothing Was the Same: A Review from WomensMemoirs.com
Lanie Tankard has honored me with several guest blogs, and womensmemoirs.com has hosted guest reviews from both Lanie and me. So it is only fitting that when Lanie reviews a new memoir–Kay Redfield Jamison’s Nothing Was the Same— for Matilda Butler on womensmemoirs.com, I want to share it with my readers also. Here is a…
If You Loved The Glass Castle–Will You Love Half Broke Horses?
My friend and occasional guest blogger Lanie Tankard has written a stellar review of Jeannette Walls’ new book. One of the interesting things she ponders in the review is Walls’ choice of the label true-life novel. Those of you who have weighed in on the issue of memoir versus novel when the author is using…
Uncle Joe from Brooklyn: A Mini-Memoir
Below find a delightful story with a great twist ending. Guest blogger Lanie Tankard, freelance writer and editor from Austin, TX, is back again! Lanie took a Writing with Heart class from Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, who presented an excellent workshop in Austin, Texas, on February 5, 2010, preceding the Story Circle Network national lifewriting conference….
The Help: A Bestselling Novel with a Memoir Message
The Help spent 379 days in the Amazon Top 100 list. It has 1,751 reviews on Amazon.com and rates 4.5 stars. It is a novel, but, as Lanie Tankard argues, it deserves consideration from a memoir perspective. The Help by Kathryn Stockett New York: Amy Einhorn Books (Putnam), 2009. Available in hardcover, paperback, audiobook, CD,…
Announcing the Winner(s) of the Six-Word Memoir Contest
The six-word memoir contest ended at 5 p.m. today. There were 28 entries, three of which were posted on Facebook and added into the comments section of the original post by me. Click here if you want to see all 28. I have selected the entry of Chin Pheng Oh “Watching her grow, I see…
Nostalgia: How Important to the Memoir Writer? Reader?
One of my colleagues, Deb Higgins, sent around an email that has evidently gone viral. It depicts lots of items remembered only by Baby Boomers and their elders. I used the skate key picture from that email as an illustration for Lanie Tankard’s guest blog on Touchstones. But I thought you might like to see…
Touchstones: Keys to a Great Memoir
Guest blogger Lanie Tankard returns today to talk about memories of her childhood using “luminous particulars”-a phrase borrowed from Jane Kenyon and Ezra Pound via my former colleague at Goshen College Ann Hostetler. Lanie’s word for those wonderfully evocative objects is “touchstones.” If you enjoy this beautiful essay, you may want to read her first…
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