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No Time to Read? This is For You!

If you’re really hunkerin’ down and writing your memoirs, you may think you’re too busy to read books. After all, you’re writing one! But I urge you to keep up with your reading during this time, because other authors’ work inspires you to use language well and to continue until you’ve completed your project—so that you’ll have something for other people to read.

To fit reading into your tight schedule, try this idea from DailyLit.com. When you sign up with DailyLit for free, you can choose a book to have emailed to you in regular installments that each take just a few minutes to read. So while you’re reading your email, you’re also reading a book. You tell DailyLit exactly what time and how often to send you the installments—as the name indicates, a daily email is the norm—and you can always order another installment right away if you have time and can’t put the “book” down.

“We created DailyLit because we spent hours each day on email but could not find the time to read a book,” the website says. “Now the books come to us by email. Problem solved.” Although some books do have a fee attached, many are free because the site is supported by advertising. I especially encourage you to read other people’s memoirs, so click on this DailyLit page and you’ll find some of those. And then you can get back to writing your own memoirs!

If you’re really hunkerin’ down and writing your memoirs, you may think you’re too busy to read books. After all, you’re writing one! But I urge you to keep up with your reading during this time, because other authors’ work inspires you to use language well and to continue until you’ve completed your project—so that you’ll have something for other people to read.

March 20th, 2012 by admin

Tags: reading suggestions

Posted in Pertinent internet site, Recommended reading

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The Elements of Style: Still Relevant?

Writers unsure of their grammar often ask me to recommend a reference. After all these years, I still mention The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White. Yes, that’s the same E.B. White who authored the children’s classic, Charlotte’s Web. If you ever took English 101 in college, you may have The Elements of Style sitting on a bookcase somewhere. First published in 1959, it was at one time a standard required text and, while some points are dated, I find that it has mostly stood the test of time.

When you think of a grammar or style book, you probably envision a huge, hardback, doorstop-worthy tome, but Struck and White’s soft-cover, 71-page booklet can fit into a coat pocket. Yet it covers everything from fine points of grammar to broad suggestions on style. Here’s one example of the more general advice, found under the topic, “Avoid fancy words”:

“Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able….If you admire fancy words, if every sky is beauteous, every blonde curvaceous, if you are tickled by discombobulate, you will have a bad time with [this reminder]….There is nothing wrong, really, with any word—all are good, but some are better than others….The line between the fancy and the plain, between the atrocious and the felicitous, is sometimes alarmingly fine.”

Memoir writers unsure of their grammar often ask me to recommend a reference. After all these years, I still mention The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White. Yes, that’s the same E.B. White who authored the children’s classic, Charlotte’s Web. If you ever took English 101 in college, you may have The Elements of Style sitting on a bookcase somewhere. First published in 1959, it was at one time a standard required text and, while some points are dated, I find that it has mostly stood the test of time.

When you think of a grammar or style book, you probably envision a huge, hardback, doorstop-worthy tome, but Strunk and White’s soft-cover, 71-page booklet can fit into a coat pocket. Yet it covers everything from fine points of grammar to broad suggestions on style. Here’s one example of the more general advice, found under the topic, “Avoid fancy words”:

“Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able….If you admire fancy words, if every sky is beauteous, every blonde curvaceous, if you are tickled by discombobulate, you will have a bad time with [this reminder]….There is nothing wrong, really, with any word—all are good, but some are better than others….The line between the fancy and the plain, between the atrocious and the felicitous, is sometimes alarmingly fine.”

November 1st, 2011 by admin

Tags: memoir writing, reading suggestions

Posted in Recommended reading

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10 Fall Reading Suggestions

When you’re not writing your memoir, many of you are avid readers. Our local reviewer, Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune, recommends five fiction and five nonfiction books coming out this fall. Enjoy!

Fiction: 1) The Lost Memory of Skin, by Russell Banks, a “disturbing” portrait of a convicted sex offender. 2) The Cat’s Table, by Michael Ondaatje, a 1950s story of a young boy’s dinners aboard a ship crossing the Indian Ocean. 3) The Stranger’s Child, by Alan Hollinghurst, following a wealthy family in post-World War I Britain. 4) 11/22/63, by Stephen King, exploring what might have happened if someone had stopped Oswald from assassinating JFK. 5) Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life, by Ann Beattie, an imaginative trek through the private thoughts of Pat Nixon during the 1960s-’70s.

Nonfiction: 1) The Other Walk: Essays, by Sven Birkerts, a collection of personal reflections on myriad topics. 2) Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer, edited by Peter F. Neumeyer, a must for any fan of the reclusive Edward Gorey. 3) The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food, by Adam Gopnik, exploring, and contributing to, the nation’s fixation on food. 4) Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie, a textured look at a player in pre-revolutionary Russia who has been regarded narrowly. 5) Freud’s Couch, Scott’s Buttocks, Bronte’s Grave, by Simon Goldhill, which channels Victorian times, when fans traveled to authors’ homes for inspiration.

When you’re not writing your memoir, many of you are avid readers. Our local reviewer, Julia Keller of The Chicago Tribune, recommends five fiction and five nonfiction books coming out this fall. Enjoy!

Fiction: 1) The Lost Memory of Skin, by Russell Banks, a “disturbing” portrait of a convicted sex offender. 2) The Cat’s Table, by Michael Ondaatje, a 1950s story of a young boy’s dinners aboard a ship crossing the Indian Ocean. 3) The Stranger’s Child, by Alan Hollinghurst, following a wealthy family in post-World War I Britain. 4) 11/22/63, by Stephen King, exploring what might have happened if someone had stopped Oswald from assassinating JFK. 5) Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life, by Ann Beattie, an imaginative trek through the private thoughts of Pat Nixon during the 1960s-’70s.

Nonfiction: 1) The Other Walk: Essays, by Sven Birkerts, a collection of personal reflections on myriad topics. 2) Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer, edited by Peter F. Neumeyer, a must for any fan of the reclusive Edward Gorey. 3) The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food, by Adam Gopnik, exploring, and contributing to, the nation’s fixation on food. 4) Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie, a textured look at a player in pre-revolutionary Russia who has been regarded narrowly. 5) Freud’s Couch, Scott’s Buttocks, Bronte’s Grave, by Simon Goldhill, which channels Victorian times, when fans traveled to authors’ homes for inspiration.

September 27th, 2011 by admin

Tags: memoir, reading suggestions

Posted in Recommended reading

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“One Book” Concept Sweeps the Country’s Libraries

“One Book??? Concept Sweeps the Country’s Libraries

If you’re writing your memoir, you probably enjoy reading. Many communities have encouraged their residents’ love of reading with a simple initiative, “One Book.??? The idea is for everyone in the community to read a selected book and then gather to discuss it, perhaps inviting the author to town to participate and scheduling ancillary events. Typically, the library assumes the focus and administration of the activities.

Detroit book enthusiasts are spending the year exploring The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. In Richardson, TX, they’re reading Jamie Ford’s best-selling first novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Chicago, which selects a book twice each year, chose Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman for spring 2011, while just north in Wilmette, IL, this year’s single selection is Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. For its fourth annual “One Book??? event, the North Plains, OR, Public Library opted to commemorate the city’s centennial by selecting Ivan Doig’s The Whistling Season, set in 1911. In Louden County, VA, Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni supports the library’s year-long theme, “Try Poetry.???

If you would like to launch a “one book??? program in your community, start with the American Libraries Association’s page of resources, where you’ll find this link to a guide that covers everything from budgeting to marketing to book selection. For children, growing up in a community that values reading is a nice advantage. For adults, it can become a social connection to meet literary-minded neighbors.

If you’re writing your memoir, you probably enjoy reading. Many communities encourage their residents’ love of reading through a simple initiative, “One Book.” The idea is for everyone in the community to read a selected book and then gather to discuss it, perhaps inviting the author to town to participate and scheduling ancillary events. Typically, the library assumes the focus and administration of the activities.

Detroit book enthusiasts are spending the year exploring The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. In Richardson, TX, they’re reading Jamie Ford’s best-selling first novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Chicago, which selects a book twice each year, chose Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman for spring 2011, while just north in Wilmette, IL, this year’s single selection is Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. For its fourth annual “One Book??? event, the North Plains, OR, Public Library opted to commemorate the city’s centennial by selecting Ivan Doig’s The Whistling Season, set in 1911. In Louden County, VA, Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni supports the library’s year-long theme, “Try Poetry.”

If you would like to launch a “one book” program in your community, start with the American Libraries Association’s page of resources, where you’ll find this link to a guide that covers everything from budgeting to marketing to book selection. For children, growing up in a community that values reading is a nice advantage. For adults, it can become a social connection to meet literary-minded neighbors.

June 21st, 2011 by admin

Tags: memoir writing

Posted in Pertinent internet site, Recommended reading

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A Summer Reading List Includes Tasty Memoirs

My hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, devoted a full page of its Sunday books section of recommended summer reading to biographies and memoirs. If you like retrospecs on American icons, this is your summer.

The autobiographies the Trib recommends are:

All In: From Refugee Camp to Poker Champ, by poker’s Jerry Yang with Mark Tabb

If You Ask Me: (And of Course You Won’t), by everyone’s favorite senior Betty White

Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank Sinatra, by fourth wife Barbara Sinatra

Stories My Father Told Me: Notes from “The Lyons Den,??? by film critic Jeffrey Lyons

Witnesses to an extreme Century, by phistorian and psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, a memoir sequel by Alexandra Fuller

This is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx, another memoir sequel, this time by the Motley Crue bass player

The recommended biographies are:

Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast, by Andrew E. Kersten

David Bowie: Starman, by Paul Trynka

Ethan Allen: His Life and Times, by Willard Sterne Randall

Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman, by Patricia Bosworth

Reagan’s Journey: Lessons From a Remarkable Career, by Margot Morrell

Stan Musial: An American Life, by George Vecsey

Thoughts Without Cigarettes: A Memoir, by novelist Oscare Hijuelos

The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH, by one-time Dodgers player Shawn Green with Gordon McAlpine

What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years, by Ricky Riccardi

Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, by Don Van Natta, Jr.

Happy reading!

My hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, devoted a full page of its Sunday books section of recommended summer reading to biographies and memoirs. If you like retrospecs on American icons, this is your summer.

The autobiographies the Trib recommends are:

All In: From Refugee Camp to Poker Champ, by poker’s Jerry Yang with Mark Tabb
If You Ask Me: (And of Course You Won’t), by everyone’s favorite senior Betty White
Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank Sinatra, by fourth wife Barbara Sinatra
Stories My Father Told Me: Notes from “The Lyons Den,??? by film critic Jeffrey Lyons
Witnesses to an extreme Century, by historian and psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, a memoir sequel by Alexandra Fuller
This is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx, another memoir sequel, this time by the Motley Crue bass player

The recommended biographies are:

Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast, by Andrew E. Kersten
David Bowie: Starman, by Paul Trynka
Ethan Allen: His Life and Times, by Willard Sterne Randall
Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman, by Patricia Bosworth
Reagan’s Journey: Lessons From a Remarkable Career, by Margot Morrell
Stan Musial: An American Life, by George Vecsey
Thoughts Without Cigarettes: A Memoir, by novelist Oscare Hijuelos
The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH, by one-time Dodgers player Shawn Green with Gordon McAlpine
What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years, by Ricky Riccardi
Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, by Don Van Natta, Jr.

Happy reading!

May 24th, 2011 by admin

Tags: autobiography, memoirs

Posted in Recommended reading

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Six-Word Memoirs: A Fun Fad

If you like “putting things in a nutshell,??? you’ll enjoy a trend now into its fifth year: the six-word memoir. Can you boil your life down to six words?

You can add your mini-mini-tome to the growing list at the website of the publication that launched this idea, Smith Magazine, or go to AARP Magazine, which also collects people’s six-word memoirs. Or leave it here in a comment below, and we’ll start our own collection! The concept was inspired by the master of brief writing, Ernest Hemingway who, according to legend, answered a challenged to craft a short story of only six words by writing, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.??? Several books have come out of this project, starting with Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.

Want some examples? From the Smith Magazine site: “Pregnancy: nine months of unsolicited advice.??? “Patience. Memory storage. Both maxed out.??? “We’ve considered murder but never divorce.??? “Searched for happiness, but found contentment.??? “Memoirs editable. Wish life was, too.??? Now try it yourself, WriteMyMemoirs members, right here! Then when you return to your real memoir, you’ll appreciate the freedom of rambling on as long as you choose!

If you like “putting things in a nutshell,??? you’ll enjoy a trend now into its fifth year: the six-word memoir. Can you boil your life story down to six words?

You can add your mini-mini-tome to the growing list at the website of the publication that launched this idea, Smith Magazine, or go to AARP Magazine, which also collects people’s six-word memoirs. Or leave it here in a comment below, and we’ll start our own collection! The concept was inspired by the master of brief writing, Ernest Hemingway who, according to legend, answered a challenged to craft a short story of only six words by writing, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.??? Several books have come out of this project, starting with Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.

Want some examples? From the Smith Magazine site: “Pregnancy: nine months of unsolicited advice.??? “Patience. Memory storage. Both maxed out.??? “We’ve considered murder but never divorce.??? “Searched for happiness, but found contentment.??? “Memoirs editable. Wish life was, too.??? Now try it yourself, WriteMyMemoirs members, right here! Then when you return to your real memoir, you’ll appreciate the freedom of rambling on as long as you choose!

April 26th, 2011 by admin

Tags: life story, memoir writing

Posted in Memoir writing process, Pertinent internet site, Recommended reading

1 Comment

Controversial “Tiger Mother??? Demonstrates the Potential Impact of a Memoir

By now you would think that every book on parenting has been published and no one could come up with anything new. Then Yale professor Amy Chua pens her memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and suddenly everyone’s talking about how to raise kids as if it were a brand new topic.

Currently perched at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List, Tiger Mother examines, but largely champions, the traditional Chinese method of raising children. High expectations, top grades, gold medals in musical competitions—it’s all in there as you would expect. Chua is happy that she was brought up that way and tried to repeat the process with her two second-generation daughters, insisting that it generates self-esteem, independence and success.

This is Chua’s third book, so she already was an accomplished author. She reportedly received a six-figure advance and had a publishing company behind her to promote the book. Still, Chua says she’s surprised her memoir has touched off this firestorm of controversy. In the first week after The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt, more than 5,000 comments followed it. This demonstrates that when you have a compelling story to tell, you never know—it might just become a literary phenomenon.

By now you would think that every book on parenting has been published and no one could come up with anything new. Then Yale professor Amy Chua pens her memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and suddenly everyone’s talking about how to raise kids as if it were a brand new topic.

Currently perched at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List, Tiger Mother examines, and largely champions, the traditional Chinese method of raising children. High expectations, top grades, gold medals in musical competitions—it’s all in there as you would expect. Chua is grateful that she was brought up that way and tried to repeat the process with her two second-generation daughters, insisting that it generates self-esteem, independence and success.

This is Chua’s third book, so she already was an accomplished author. She reportedly received a six-figure advance and had a publishing company behind her to promote the book. Still, Chua says she’s surprised her memoir has touched off this firestorm of controversy. In the first week after The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt, more than 5,000 comments followed it. This demonstrates that when you have a compelling story to tell, you never know—it might just become a literary phenomenon.

February 15th, 2011 by admin

Tags: memoir writing, memoirs

Posted in Ideas for memoirs content, Recommended reading

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Read This Online Autobiography to Study Memoir Style

Many of you trying to write your memoirs may never have written anything of length before now. While you’ve probably read enough—both fiction and non-fiction—as you try to craft your own autobiography it can be helpful to read passages specifically of others’ life stories. If you can read them online at no charge, that makes it even easier for you.

A classic memoir, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, is a good place to start. Click here for the online version, which lets you pull up one chapter at a time. Certainly language has evolved since Ben Franklin’s time, so you won’t want to imitate the wording. But there’s an elegance to the way he writes that you can aspire to assume for your own work. Also, these chapters give you an idea of how to structure your memoir, which topics are important enough to cover, how to introduce dialogue and how candid to be as you describe your friends and relatives.

According to the website, Franklin’s is considered to be the most acclaimed autobiography to come out of colonial America. It covers his early life, travel, professional training, romantic encounters and all sorts of details of his days from his own perspective. Although Franklin lived to be 84 years old, he ends this account at age 51. This illustrates that you can create a compelling memoir by recording what you’ve accomplished so far before without necessarily waiting until you’re in your senior years.

July 20th, 2010 by admin

Tags: autobiography, memoir writing

Posted in Celebrity memoirs, Ideas for memoirs content, Recommended reading

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New Book Traces the History of Memoir Writing

blog16 The urge to write memoirs has long been part of the human psyche, according to a new book, Memoir: A History, in which author Ben Yagoda connects the dots through 2,000 years of memoirs. In tackling the question of whether an autobiography must be 100 percent true and accurate, Yagoda concludes that telling your story in good faith is more important than getting every fact perfectly straight, according to the New York Times review of the book.

The aspect of memoirs that interests me more, however, is the widespread desire to write one. Why put so much energy into this task? I don’t believe that a hope to get rich from publishing their story is what drives people to write about themselves. The Times reviewer, Judith Shulevitz, theorizes that it’s a universal need to tell our side of things—to explain why we’ve done what we’ve done. Shulevitz quotes philosopher Hilary Putnam: “We are, most of us, interested in justifying at least some features of our own style of life, in the sense of giving a defense of them that would appeal to others.???

This strikes a chord with me; most of us want to be liked or, at least, understood. The latest big-deal autobiography to hit the bookstores, Going Rogue, would not have been written if author Sarah Palin hadn’t felt the need to tell her side of what went on during last year’s presidential campaign. As you write your memoirs, you may experience some of that “justification satisfaction??? yourself.

November 24th, 2009 by admin

Tags: autobiography, memoir writing, memoirs, politics

Posted in Celebrity memoirs, Memoir writing process, Recommended reading

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