A memoir is an account from the author’s life. Usually a memoir focuses on a particular time or experience the author went through; it tells about a part of their life. It does not cover their entire life like an autobiography would. There is often a thick thread of reflection and emotion throughout , as the author often writes his memoir to make sense of his life. It includes their personal perspective the truth as they see it.

I like memoirs because reading one is probably the closest you can get to being in someone else’s head. Choosing a memoir with a topic that you can relate to makes it feel like someone else understands. Reading one with a topic you know nothing about can make you more understanding of others. Reading memoirs has the potential to make us more tolerant and kind to ourselves and others.

There are also cons to memoirs. It may be the most narcissistic genre. The author of a memoir is always the subject of the memoir. It is also the genre where authors ‘tell all’ and air their family’s dirty laundry. And you need to remember it is one person’s perspective; there are others in the family whom these events may have effected quite differently. Our memories are faulty and filtered through our life’s experiences so it’s never the whole story. While major events are accurate, authors have liberty to use fictionalized dialogue or slightly altered timelines to improve the story’s flow.

Memoir/ mem war/ n. a narrative written from the perspective of the author about an important part of their life.

Tell me, do you like memoirs? I like some and some I don’t! Following is a few I would recommend.

Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller (2013) This memoir is about Ms. Miller’s complicated relationship with her parents and their hoarding tendencies and conversely, her own compulsive tidiness. It is respectful in it’s honesty. Read the full review here.

Indian Creek Chronicles by Pete Fromm (2017) The author’s account of seven winter months alone in a tent in Idaho guarding salmon eggs and the reality of being a modern mountain man. Pete was in college in Missoula, MT when he took on this adventure.

My Stroke of Insight A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor Ph. D. (2009) A neuroscientist account of observing herself having a stroke and deteriorating in 24 hours until she could not walk, talk or recall any of her life. This is the story of how it happened and how she recovered in the next eight years. “I may not be in total control of what happens to my life, but I certainly am in charge of how I choose to perceive my experience.“

Will the Circle be Unbroken? by Sean Dietrich (2020) Sean tells of his Southern Baptist childhood and surviving his father’s suicide. If you decide to read this, the last half is better than the first, in my humble opinion. He is good with words, and connecting the parts of his history to find meaning. He does use religion for humor and emotion, but given his experience I let him off the hook for some of it. Eva’s review is here.

Nickeled and Dimed On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (2021) In 1998, Ms. Ehrenreich gives up her high salary lifestyle to become a minimum wage worker and report first hand what it is like. It is not a serious study, only an attempt to tell one reporter’s experience. One reviewer says the overwhelming feeling she got from the book was how rich she was. “In poverty, as in certain propositions in physics, starting conditions are everything.”

A Broom of One’s Own: Words on Writing, Housecleaning and Life by Nancy Peacock (2008) In this memoir (with a clever title), Ms. Peacock explores with warmth and wit what it means to be a writer while offering humorous anecdotes about the houses she cleans as her day job.

Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin (2010) The stories in this book weave together memories, laugh-out-loud tales and recipes from Ms. Colwin’s life. If you are an amateur cook, professional chef or food lover, you will enjoy this book.

Bringing Up Bebe One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman (2014) Ms. Druckerman, a journalist, had a baby in Paris. After noticing that French children slept through the night after two or three months old, she set about to investigate how they did it. It is written in a warm, funny voice. I read this after my children were grown and was surprised how many “American” parenting traits I had.

Evidence Not Seen A Woman’s Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II by Darlene Deibler Rose (1990) This book tells how newlywed American missionary, Darlene Deibler Rose, survived four years in a Japanese prison camp in the jungle of New Guinea. She gives God all the credit for her miraculous release.

Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey (2023) A young boy’s growing up years in the 50’s and 60’s in the southern United States. Read the full review here.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (2018) The author conducts a year-long experiment with herself to find what makes happiness. Ms. Rubin claims to be agnostic, which makes her miss some vital points in happiness, yet I enjoyed sharing her experiences in New York City with her young family.

Melania by Melania Trump (2024) In this memoir, Melania reflects on her childhood, meeting and marrying Donald Trump and her time as the First Lady. I was looking for a book with a main character my age for a reading challenge and this was the first one I found. I’m only half through it but plan to finish. Melania’s story is interesting, yet I find it a bit unrelatable. Definitely out of my usual realm.

---

I have hopes to add to this list in the future. Check back here for more memoir recommendations. If you have titles for me to try, list them in the comments. Thanks!

–Liz

More memoirs from our blog:

Educated

Spare

Tell Me Everything

A Year in Provence