Updated 9-20-17, 4-3-15.
Whether you are working on a life story or having an argument with friends about an experience you shared years ago, consider what Oliver Sachs, Frank Bruni, Daniel Kahneman, Scott Fraser, Elizabeth Loftus, Maria Popova, Israel Rosenfield, Virginia Woolf, Suzanne Corkin, Joan Didion, Sally Mann, Sarah Manguso and Jane Austen (in the voice of Fanny Bryce) have to say about the nature, malleability, and unreliability of memory, as well as its role in constructing our identity, in
Writers and Editors (RSS feed)
How reliable are our memories (how close to the truth)?
January 17, 2015
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Memoirs of coping with chronic, rare, or invisible diseases, including mental health problems
July 15, 2011
Because I have a website providing resources about illness, recovery, dying, and grief, I am often asked to recommend books that will help people cope with a medical or mental health problem. I find that memoirs are often most helpful because they provide the narrative account of an illness that someone coping with a crisis is most likely to be able to concentrate on and get something out of (including understanding of their own emotional turmoil. These are some of the titles
Read MoreWhose Truth? The ethics of memoir writing
April 14, 2011
Darn: These essays all seem to be offline now. Authors: If you want them posted again, let me know. Maybe I can post them here. Talking Writing: Why aren't they up anymore? Your back issues don't seem to reach back to April 2011.
How much is too much truth? And whose truth is it to reveal? Those are two of many questions addressed in a fascinating issue about the ethics of memoir writing in a wonderful online magazine, Talking Writing. Can we trust ourselves to tell our stories truthfully? asks the editor. How far can we carry the fine art of Read More
How much is too much truth? And whose truth is it to reveal? Those are two of many questions addressed in a fascinating issue about the ethics of memoir writing in a wonderful online magazine, Talking Writing. Can we trust ourselves to tell our stories truthfully? asks the editor. How far can we carry the fine art of Read More
Memoirs, food, great storytelling -- ideal gift books
December 20, 2010
Books are ideal gifts for those who read, and the titles on these recommended-reading lists will make someone happy:
• Food Memoirs and Biographies
• Style guides and other books on editing (these are the ones aspiring writers and editors often can't afford)
• Books to help you write your own (or someone else's) life story
• Memoirs and personal accounts of vocation, avocation, occupation, profession, "calling" (a reading list)
• Books for aspiring fiction writers and editors
• Outstanding narrative nonfiction Read More
• Food Memoirs and Biographies
• Style guides and other books on editing (these are the ones aspiring writers and editors often can't afford)
• Books to help you write your own (or someone else's) life story
• Memoirs and personal accounts of vocation, avocation, occupation, profession, "calling" (a reading list)
• Books for aspiring fiction writers and editors
• Outstanding narrative nonfiction Read More
Coming-of-age memoirs make great gifts
December 17, 2010
For those thinking about writing their memoirs, or for book lovers generally, these coming-of-age novels make ideal gifts:
• Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina (semi-fictionalized)
• Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Baker, Russell. Growing Up Read More
• Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina (semi-fictionalized)
• Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Baker, Russell. Growing Up Read More
Food memoirs and biographies (a reading list)
November 1, 2009
Writing about food and meals is a good way of getting at family dynamics and core memories, because so many of our interactions with family, good or bad, are associated with shared meals. For foodies, a good food memoir or biography offers delight on several levels and often sends us into the kitchen to recreate a scene! I've departed from listing only memoirs Read More
Questions we should all ask Mom
May 11, 2009
"When did you realize you were no longer a child?" is the last of ten Questions We Should All Ask Mom, from Lisa Belkin's NY Times blog. For more ideas on how to trigger Read More