Magical Memoir Moments

Mary Karr's Lit: A Monumental Achievement

By Shirley Showalter | January 10, 2010

The key to writing a great memoir is seducing the reader to fall in love with you. After reading first The Liars’ Club and now Lit, I am totally smitten. I have Karr’s second memoir Cherry on my shelf and will need to read it also. Lit is the story of a girl from Texas…

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Why I am Loving My Kindle: And a Request for Readers to Report on Their Own E-book Experiences

By Shirley Showalter | December 27, 2009

A few weeks ago I posted a list of 18 books I had blogged about in the last six months. At the end of the list I included two books I have not yet read, pictured here. Today I got out my six-month-old Kindle and spent 20 seconds ordering the two books–Mary Karr’s Lit and Ben Yagoda’s Memoir:…

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The New Publishing Rules: Seth Godin's Fascinating Talk to Publishers

By Shirley Showalter | October 5, 2009

If you are an author or hoping to become one, you are entering a field in great flux. Maybe chaotic is not too strong a word to describe the world of publishing right now. In such a time, a good guide makes all the difference.  Seth Godin, who has written ten bestsellers, using totally new…

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Thank You, Mary Karr!

By Shirley Showalter | September 14, 2008

Yesterday’s New York Times carried an op-ed from Mary Karr about the way opponents of Barack Obama like to diminish him by calling him a memoirist, just as they make fun of his career as a community organizer. Karr, who has written several excellent memoirs herself, including and describes why memoir writing is a good…

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