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Memoirs for Discussion
Return to Fiction_L Booklists Menu
August 2002
Compiled by Janice Burwash,
of Burlington (WA) Public Library, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.
(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)
- Kitchen Confidential... by Anthony Bourdain
- Bad boy cook tells what they REALLY do in kitchens.
- Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonnaby China Galland
- Catholicism, Buddism, Parenthood...
- Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady... by Florence King
- Funny and outrageous, but no good for those uncomfortable with frankness about sexuality.
- Operating Instructions...by Anne Lamott
- About her first year as a single mother & recovering alcoholic. Honest, funny and engaging
- Traveling Mercies... by Anne Lamott
- About family, faith self-acceptance, but funny and frank not sentimental or preachy a pleasure to read.
- Iron and Silk... by Mark Salzman
- Time he spent in China teaching English and studying Martial Arts.
- Lucky... by Alice Seabold
- In her memoir, she discusses the experience of being raped as a college freshman at Syracuse University and the
impact on her life. The title originated from the fact that a similar crime and resulting death of a girl happened in the same place of her rape. She was told by the police that she was "Lucky". I will warn you there is a very graphic scene in the book detailing the assault.
- West With the Night... by Beryl Markham
- The Woman Warrior... by Maxine Hong Kingston
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings... by Maya Angelou
- It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life... by Lance Armstrong
- All Over But the Shoutin'... by Rick Bragg
- An American Childhood... by Annie Dillard
- The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany... by Martin Goldsmith
- Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China... by Chang Jung
- Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter... by Adeline Yen Mah
- The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother... by James McBride
- Angela's Ashes: A Memoir ...by Frank McCourt
- Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam... by Andrew X. Pham
- Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table... by Ruth Reichl
- Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez ...by Richard Rodriquez
- Hiding Places: A Father and His Sons Retrace Their Family's Escape from the Holocaust... by Daniel Asa Rose
- Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia... by Mark Salzman
- Black Boy... by Richard Wright
- Patrimony... by Philip Roth.
- Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child... by Elva Travino Hart.
- The Water is Wide... by Pat Conroy
- Rocket Boys... by Homer Hickam
- Made into the movie October Sky
- Motherland: Beyond the Holocaust: A Daughter's Journey to Reclaim the Past... by Fern Schumer Chapman.
- A Penguin-Putnam discussion guide is at http://www.penguinputnam.com/static/rguides/us/motherland.html
- Castaway... by Lucy Irvine
- Having Our Say: the Delany Sisters' First 100 Years... by Sarah and Elizabeth Delany
- Growing Up... by Russell Baker
- The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less... by Terry Ryan
- My American Journey... by Colin Powell
- Fifty acres and a poodle: a story of love, livestock and finding myself on a farm... by Jeanne Marie Laskas
- Roommates: my grandfather's story... by Max Apple
- Nobody Nowhere: the extraordinary autobiography of an autistic... by Donna Williams
- Under the eye of the clock... by Christopher Nolan
- Learning how the heart beats: the making of a pediatrician... by Claire McCarthy
- Tuesdays with Morrie... by Mitch Albom
- Where is the mango princess?... by C.E. Crimmins
- A Little More About Me... by Pam Houston.
- Authentic and engaging.
- Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found... by Don J. Snyder.
- The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America... by Michael Ruhlman.
- Hole in My Life... by Jack Gantos.
- This author of books for children describes the time in his late teens (early 1970s) whe he got arrested for smuggling hashish into New York City from St. Croix. While marketed as a Young Adult book, I think that anyone who came of age during this time period will find this a fascinating look at one person's mistake that cost him dearly. Spare prose with lots of humor despite the scariness of the story.
- A Snowflake in my hand... by Samantha Mooney
- The author worked in the oncology unit of the Animal Medical Center in New York.
- Drinking the Rain... by Alix Kates Shulman
- Are you Somebody?... by Nuala O'Faolain
- Refuge... by Terry Tempest Williams
- The Road from Coorain... by Jill Ker Conway
- An Australian girl growing up in the back country must deal with her mentally ill mother before she can succeed.
- Any of May Sarton's published journals
- Under A Wing... by Reeve Lindbergh
- Stop-Time... by Frank Conroy
- The Delany sisters' book of everyday wisdom... by Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany , with Amy Hill Hearth.
- I just saw the made for tv movie about this last night. It was FANTASTIC, with Ruby Dee and Diahann Carroll as the sisters.
- Road Song... by Natalie Kusz.
- Transplanted Californians try to make a go of it as Alaska pioneers.
- My own country: a doctor's story of a town and its people in the age of AIDS... by Abraham Verghese.
- (East) Indian doctor practicing in rural Tennessee. Lots of interesting stuff about the community of educated Indian
expatriates.
- The sweeter the juice: a family memoir in black and white... by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip.
- African-American woman researches family tree of mixed relatives.
- Blue Highways... by William Least Heat Moon
- A wonderful book and if you look at it great parallels with Growing Up.
- Wait 'Til Next Year... by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- It is memior about the author's childhood in suburban New York in the 1950s. It's a terrific read, even for people who aren't baseball fans. We found a lot to discuss: professional sports, community, neighborhoods, race relations, and more. And it's available in paperback.
- Tender at the Bone... by Ruth Reichl
- December holiday potluck, food/cookery theme, everyone brought recipes.
- Personal History... by Katherine Graham.
- When Heaven and Earth Changed Places... by Le Ly Hayslip
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- I think it was also made into a movie.
- An Autobiography... by Agatha Christie
- Christie lets us glance at an age that's long gone where upper-class girls are home schooled and a poor young eighteen-year-old must move to Cairo to celebrate her debut because there's not enough money to have a party in London.
- Opposite the Cross... by S. T. Haymon
- When a young girl is in the way of her parents' plans, she is sent to the British countryside tospend the summer with her nursemaid living like a gypsy.
- This Boy's Life... by Tobias Wolff
- A boy growing up in the fifties faces a flighty mother, an abusive stepfather and school pressures that turn him into hoodlum.
- Autobiography of a Face... by Lucy Grealy.
- The Education of Little Tree... by Forrest Carter
- What makes it a good discussion book is that it was originally written as a memoir, but then the author was discovered as not having told the truth at all. Lots to discuss! Not only that, but his real name was Asa (not Forrest) and he was a member of the KKK!
- La Hacienda... by Lisa St Aubin de Teran
- Foreign Correspondence...by Geraldine Brooks
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius... by Dave Eggars
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- Most of my group is composed of women over 50 - they didn't like the language.
- Proof Through the Night... by Ernest Pickett
- During a raid over Japan in August 1944, Ernest Pickett's B-29 was shot down. The captured pilot and crew were subjected to a long nightmare of torture and neglect. In this riveting memoir, Pickett with the editorial assistance of his daughter, recounts the ordeal, and the courageous way he and his compatriots endured it. An unforgettable story of true heroism, told with moving simplicity and honesty.
- Seabiscuit: an American Legend... by Laura Hillenbrand.
- The Ballantine trade paperback edition comes complete with an interview with the author and questions for reading group discussion. Convenient for librarians and a good way to encourage the use of the book by discussion groups.
- Life is so good... by George Dawson.
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- His book is certainly inspirational-he was the grandson of slaves and a sharecropper's son who learned to read at age 98. He overcame many obstacles and still maintained his dignity and gentleness. I personally think everyone in the country should have to read it. His comment about "too many people are growing children and not raising them" is worth the price of the book!
- Drinking: A Love Story... by Caroline Knapp
- Slackjaw... by Jim Knipfel
- Life and Death in Shanghai... by Nien Cheng.
- An excellent memoir of the days of the Cultural Revolution in China.
- Plain and Simple: a Woman's Journey to the Amish and Everyday Sacred: A Woman's Journey Home... both by Sue Bender
- Sue Bender, is a west coast artist. In Plain and Simple she writes about living with an Amish family in the Midwest. Everyday Sacred is about finding meaning in the simplest things in daily life.
- Saving Milly... by Morton Kondracke
- Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution... by Ji-Li Jiang
- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character... by Richard P. Feynman
- The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA... by James D. Watson
- The last two are from scientists and should be a little different from many of the titles already mentioned.
- Pilgrimage on a steelride: a memoir about men and motorcycles by Gary Paulsen
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