Biography/Memoir Recommendations

[mupt02]

Here is the spot for biography/memoir recommendations to be shared.

Please add a summary of each book, so those that are interested can find out a little more.  Also, please just add new recommendations and not posts that just say "I agree" and "I like that one too".  It will make it a lot easier for everyone to sort through the posts.

[Happiness04]

I am currently reading Barbara Walter's Memoir "Audition" and I am enjoying it.

[rees630]

I've read a few really good memoirs in the past few months.  All were funny accounts of growing up in dysfunctional families:  

1 - The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
2 - The Liars Club by Mary Karr
3 - The Tender Bar by JR Moehringer

[aften_gardner]

I recommend anything by Auguston Burroughs!  So far I've read

Running With Scissors
Magical Thinking
Possible Side Effects

I'm currently reading Possible Side Effects and I've like all of them a lot, and I am strictly a Fiction person!  He's definitely one of my favorite authors!!!

[knoxmom96]

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

by Antonia Fraser

[j_l_b]

by Mylovngheart on Aug. 20, 2007 at 7:53 AM

Title:  The Glass Castle

Author:  Jeannette Walls

Genre:  A Memoir

Summary:  True story of  the author as she grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and salvation.

This was an AWESOME book, and one I won't EVER forget!

[j_l_b]

by Katrina001 on Aug. 22, 2007 at 10:59 PM

Although I already have two children, my friend insisted that I read this book. I found it to be a quick read, and I enjoyed several laughs as I related to her discomfort.

Title: Belly Laughs

Author: Jenny McCarthy

Genre: memoir

Summary: Jenny candidly retells the ups and downs of pregnancy. She divulges everything from excruciating pains, to embarrassing bodily functions, the "cruel" disfigurement our bodies suffer and the uncontrollable emotional roller-coaster that is pregnancy. I was relieved to see that even famous people suffer the way I did while pregnant. Her disclosure about granny panties and constipation was a riot!

[isabel21]

Not trying to get political or anything but I like "Dreams from my Father" by Barack Obama....this was right around when he got elected for Senator. Anyways, I read this book way before his presidential campaign and just really thought it was a good read. It is a book about his life...not some political ad.

Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

[Kate1022]

Me Talk Pretty One Day
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Naked

All by David Sedaris. Every  time I read a Sedaris book, I have to be sure I'm alone or the laughter gets really obnoxious. By far, the funniest writer on the face of the Earth.

[j_l_b]

by angelhart322 on Aug. 30, 2007 at 10:56 AM

I just finished

Title:  Lucky

Author:  Alice Sebold. 

Genre:  Memoir

Summary:  It is the true account of her rape and her life following as a college co-ed at Syracuse.  Very, very good and does not read at all like an autobiography.

Also, on of my favorites is

Title:  Running With Scissors

Author:  Augusten Burroughs. 

Genre:  Memoir

Summary:  It is an autobiography of his life through his late teen years.  Very funny.  He has been compared to David Sedaris (whom I love) but a bit edgier.  The book is much better than the movie, for those who have seen it.

[j_l_b]

by babygirl5151999 on Aug. 31, 2007 at 6:16 PM

Title:  Love You, Mean It

Author:  Patricia Carrington

Genre:  Memoir

Summary:    At a time of great loss, nothing heals like the power of friendship

Time heals all wounds, they say. But when your husband dies suddenly, on a glorious sunny day when all he did was go to work, it takes more than the passage of time to get you through. It takes the love and support of women who are exactly where you are -- and when you're lucky enough to find them, you cling to each other until you're strong enough to stand on your own. The truths you discover in the process are universal, compelling, and altogether inspiring.

That was the lesson learned by Pattie Carrington, Julia Collins, Claudia Gerbasi, and Ann Haynes, four thirty-something women whose husbands worked at the World Trade Center. Before September 11, 2001, they didn't know each other, but in the months following that horrible day they came together, drawn as much by their diverse backgrounds as their shared tragedy. At their very first meeting, the foursome realized their bond was too special to ignore, and in no time their Widows' Club had cemented into a source of hope and, soon, love that saw them through their darkest hours, and forward. They took to signing off emails and phone conversations with a lighthearted phrase: Love You, Mean It. "Feeling this love for one another meant our hearts were beginning to open again. It was a risk -- love brought with it the ever-present possibility of loss. But this was a risk worth taking. More than ever, we understood how important it was to put love at the center of our lives."

A celebration of friendship, optimism, and empathy, Love You, Mean It is a shared memoir of rebuilt lives. It will offer hope to anyone who has suffered a loss, and exhilarate readers from coast to coast.

Great book