100 Memoirs

Scroll slowly over this picture. Do you recognize the famous film critic Roger Ebert?
I knew that Ebert had battled cancer, lost weight, and kept on going. What I did not know, until I saw that picture and read the article in Esquire about him, was that he has also lost his physical voice and most of his [...]

For those of you searching the web for “top memoir” reading lists, here is a new resource. Angela  Kelsey, a Twitter friend, is challenging  herself to review 24 memoirs in the next 28 days. She has reached Day 4 already, and the quality of both the books and reviews will reward your reading effort. Check out [...]

If you are looking for the 100 best memoirs,  you are coming to the right place. We are making progress building not only one list but many! Several of the posts in this blog include lists, and here is another blogger’s list with annotations. You surely will find something to your taste in this list [...]

As you know, the goal of this blog is self-education in public.  I am trying to learn about memoir by reading and reviewing great examples of the genre, books about the genre, and offering some mini-memoir on the way. When readers search for good memoir reading lists, I want them to find this blog. What [...]

Let me begin with an apology for slacking off on blogging this past week. I probably will continue a low profile until June 30th, after an important board meeting, and after I have finished a book review to send to Christian Century.
But how lovely it would be if we together could make some progress toward [...]

Embarrassing story:  When I was a newbie grad student at the University of Texas at Austin, I turned in a review of a book that my professor did not recognize.  He asked me why I chose this book to review.  I responded, “Because it was on my shelf.” He looked horrified.
As Paul Newman might say, [...]