Tag Archives: memoir

Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood by Anne Enright

I didn’t expect to love the book Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, by Anne Enright.  The silly, cutesy title and cover photo inclined me to shrug my shoulders and hide what I was reading in public.  And the first essay … Continue reading

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Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

Deraniyagala, a Sri Lankan by birth and a Londoner for college and beyond, was vacationing with her parents, her husband, and her two small children in Sri Lanka for Christmas in 2004, as was their family tradition. They were staying in … Continue reading

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A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg

With interwoven recipes and memories, Molly Wizenberg divulges her story, a memoir that blossoms from a blog she created in the aftermath of her father’s death.  While the stories are splotchy little essays that capture only fragments of Wizenberg’s life, … Continue reading

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A Private History of Awe by Scott Russell Sanders

In A Private History of Awe, Scott Russell Sanders takes a thunderstorm and illustrates how it can dance across three generations. Sanders not only spotlights the beauty and spectacle a thunderstorm can create, but also its rude and wild fury. … Continue reading

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Why be Happy When You Could be Normal by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson is an acclaimed British author who has written over 20 books, the first of which, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, won the Whitbread Prize, was then made into a television show, and is currently assigned reading for … Continue reading

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Blue Nights by Joan Didion

In her previous memoir, A Year of Magical Thinking, author Joan Didion writes about the death of her husband. More recently in Blue Nights she writes about the death of her daughter, Quintana Roo. The recent memoir differs from the … Continue reading

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Supergods by Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is something of a divisive figure in the world of comics. Some people love him, while others can’t stand him, finding him pretentious and deliberately obtuse. I’m one of the people who think he’s brilliant. I love his … Continue reading

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Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda

Alan Alda’s insightful autobiography Never Have Your Dog Stuffed gives us a peek into the highs, lows, and adventures of an actor’s life.  Growing up among a family of burlesque performers, perhaps Alda was fated for acting, but his journey had … Continue reading

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Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle

On June 16, Burmese opposition leader and newly elected lawmaker Aung San Suu Kyi finally got a chance to deliver her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. Suu Kyi was awarded the prize back in 1991, when she was … Continue reading

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Drama: an Actor’s Education by John Lithgow

Upon picking up Lithgow’s memoir, I was surprised to find him, not only charming, but kind-hearted and caring. In the forward, Lithgow describes the difficulties of moving in with his parents after his father undergoes a difficult surgery, yet refuses … Continue reading

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