Origin:
1560–70; mémoire; memoria; see memory
The Christian Science Monitor's list of the memoirs receiving the highest marks from their reviewers:
ABOUT ALICE, by Calvin TrillinSource: here.
Calvin Trillin's moving tribute to his wife of almost 40 years is a slender, graceful volume that most readers will find hard to read without tears.
STEALING BUDDHA'S DINNER, by Bich Minh Nguyen
This is the touching, funny account of a young Vietnamese immigrant's obsession with American snack foods – symbols to her of assimilation into US life.
ONCE UPON A COUNTRY, by Sari Nusseibeh with Anthony David
Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh lays out his legacy and his ideals as a Middle Easterner who dares to continue to hope for peace in his region.
PEELING THE ONION, by Günter Grass, translated by Michael Henry Heim
Nobel Prize-winner Günter Grass's memoir includes his account of his days in the Nazi Waffen-SS.
LITTLE HEATHENS, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
This generous-hearted account of the author's life on an Iowa farm with her Puritanical grandparents during the Depression is full of unexpected joy.
HERE IF YOU NEED ME: A TRUE STORY, by Kate Braestrup
Kate Braestrup tells how, after her husband's tragic death, she stepped up to fulfill his dreams and became a chaplain serving search-and-rescue workers in Maine.
DOWN THE NILE, by Rosemary Mahoney Little
Rosemary Mahoney serves up an intelligent, touching, and evocative travelogue of her solo, 120-mile journey down the Nile in a rowboat.
BROTHER, I'M DYING, by Edwidge Danticat
Haitian immigrant Edwidge Danticat has written a moving tribute to her father and uncle, the two men who raised her and loved each other and yet spent most of their adult lives on separate shores.
HOW STARBUCKS SAVED MY LIFE, by Michael Gates Gill
After losing his job, home, wife, and health, Michael Gates Gill, a son of privilege, turned to Starbucks for a job and discovered how to put his life back together even as he steamed milk and poured lattes.
THE FLORIST'S DAUGHTER, by Patricia Hampl
Patrica Hampl's tender, thoughtful account of her parents' lives (and her own life by their sides in St. Paul, Minn.) is a journey through two questions: "Who are these people" and "How is it that I never got away?"
SOLDIER'S HEART: READING LITERATURE THROUGHPEACE AND WAR AT WEST POINT, by Elizabeth D. Samet
Elizabeth Samet has penned an intelligent, sensitive meditation on her work: teaching literature to West Point cadets.
1 comment:
I'm kind of an autobiography-memoir fanatic and I've read only one from this list: "About Alice," one of our book club picks. I loved that book.
"Here If You Need Me" is on my TBR list. "Little Heathens" also looks good.
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