Comments on: Top 100 Memoirs: Which Ones are Essential?

By: iman

iman — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:07:27 +0000

I love reading memoirs.. the best memoir ive read is In Search of Fatima By Ghada Karmi it's AMAZING!! and i also love Jean Sasson Books ; Love in a torn land and Mayada Daughter of Iraq.. Tears of The Desert By Halima Bashir and Damien Lewis .. it's touching and soo sad!

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:08:48 +0000

Since this post is one of the most frequently opened ones on this site, and since many people are actually looking for lists when they search on 100 memoirs, please go to the category section of the page above on the right and find “lists” as a category. If you click on that, you will find many posts that include lists of best memoirs. Ben Yagoda's Memoir: A History is great for lists also.

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:36:29 +0000

Becki, thanks so much for these suggestions. I have only read Anne Lamott from your list, so I am especially grateful to have your four books. I hope to get back to building a list soon. Such hard work with memoirs spilling off the presses every day! That's why I need friends like you. Hope you come back soon.

By: Becki

Becki — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:28:15 +0000

Four awesome memoirs:
1. The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, and a Woman's Search
for the Meaning of Wife by Janna Cawrse Esarey
2. Travelling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
3. I Loved I Lost I Made Spahgetti by Giulia Melucci
4. I'm Down: A Memoir by Mishna Wolff

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:36:29 +0000

By: Becki

Becki — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:28:15 +0000

By: 100Memoirs.com Reaches 100 Posts: A Mini-Memoir | 100 Memoirs

100Memoirs.com Reaches 100 Posts: A Mini-Memoir | 100 Memoirs — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:00:11 +0000

[...] Top 100 Memoirs: Which Ones are Essential? [...]

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:15:32 +0000

I guess the travel memoir is becoming a specialized subgenre of its own. I have not read the Melinda Blanchard memoir–but I would love if you would write a guest blog post and focus on voice and place. Would you be able to do that?

By: Gutsywriter

Gutsywriter — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:25:49 +0000

To me, it's all about an authentic voice with a splash of humor and travel. I don't know if you read, “A trip to the Beach,” by Melinda Blanchard, but that memoir made me fall in love with the Caribbean.
J. Marteen Troost's books, on Fiji, Vanuatu and Kiribati, are alss memoirs where his voice speaks to me directly.

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:30:36 +0000

Marilyn, thanks for the vote on the list. And thanks for voting for voice and adding a new criterion–insight, especially insight that takes us to another world.

“There is no frigate like a book”–Emily Dickinson.