The Memoir Book

The Memoir Book
Author: Patti Miller
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2008-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781741149067

A clear, engaging and practical 'how-to' guide to writing a memoir, by Australia's foremost teacher and practitioner of memoir and life writing, Patti Miller.

Life From Scratch

Life From Scratch
Author: Sasha Martin
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2015-03-03
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1426213751

Witty, warm, and poignant, food blogger Sasha Martin's memoir about cooking her way to happiness and self-acceptance is a culinary journey like no other. Over the course of 195 weeks, food writer and blogger Sasha Martin set out to cook—and eat—a meal from every country in the world. As cooking unlocked the memories of her rough-and-tumble childhood and the loss and heartbreak that came with it, Martin became more determined than ever to find peace and elevate her life through the prism of food and world cultures. From the tiny, makeshift kitchen of her eccentric, creative mother, to a string of foster homes, to the house from which she launched her own cooking adventure, Martin's heartfelt, brutally honest memoir reveals the power of cooking to bond, to empower, and to heal—and celebrates the simple truth that happiness is created from within. "This beautifully written book is both poignant and uplifting. Not to mention delicious. It's an amazing family tale that reminds me of The Glass Castle, but with more food. And not just any food: We're talking cinnamon raisin pizza." —A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically "Life From Scratch is an unconventional love story. This beautiful book begins with the quest of cooking a meal from every country—a noble feat of it's own!—but then turns it into something far beyond a kitchen adventure. Be prepared to be changed as you experience Sasha's journey for yourself." —Chris Guillebeau, author of The Happiness Pursuit

Your Life Is a Book - And It's Time to Write It!

Your Life Is a Book - And It's Time to Write It!
Author: Kevin Quirk
Publisher: Hillcrest Publishing Group
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2011-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1936780216

Do you have a story that you just have to tell? Do you seek to preserve your life history as a gift for loved ones, or to pay tribute to those who have meant the most to you? Do you yearn to write about one major life experience to inspire others? You're not alone. The desire to write our life story is a timeless, universal urge. Somewhere inside us we know that writing a book about our life will touch those we love, while enriching our lives in today's cell phone-laptop lifestyle. Life is a book, and women and men from 19 to 99 are hearing the call to write it. Someone is waiting to hear you tell your life story: who you are, how you've lived, what you've learned. They want to hear all the stories that have shaped your life. Your Life Is a Book - And It's Time to Write It! An A-to-Z Guide to Help Anyone Write Their Life Story will take you on the journey of creating your memoir, autobiography, or life story. It doesn't matter how old or how young you are, or whether you've written a lot, a little, or not at all. Through practical tools, lively writing exercises, engaging questions, and helpful illustrations, you'll receive the guidance and encouragement you need from an expert life-writing teacher. Start writing your life story today! Kevin Quirk, M.A., has been helping ordinary people of all ages and backgrounds write their life stories as ghostwriter, personal historian, and Writing Your Life Story teacher since 1998. A former journalist and founder of Life Is a Book, he is coauthor of Brace for Impact: Miracle on the Hudson Survivors Share Their Stories of Near Death and Hope for New Life.

Trust Me

Trust Me
Author: George Kennedy
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2011-10-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1557839166

(Applause Books). "These are memoirs of a kid born in New York City in 1925. His dad, George Senior, was a pianist, composer, and orchestra leader at Proctor's Vaudeville Theatre, and his mother, Helen, played in a classic dance troupe. Hanky-panky ensued. They married, and I soon was the result... I write like I talk. A long time ago I tried making 'talking and telling the truth' one and the same. That isn't just difficult; it means painfully reviewing things you've been led to believe since you were a child. That's very hard to do. Like many, I have marched along adhering to conventions (sex, color, church, party, gang) without examination. There's a wonderful, protective 'togetherness' in that anonymity. You obey or are damned, less joined together than stuck together. You become an echo rather than a voice. This book is about what happens when you stop fearing and think. I like writing, but warmed-over BS is not on the menu. You are the most important thing in life. Every phrase in the book awkward or not is how I think and question everything. I wrote every word as if we were sitting together. I want you to think, too..." George Kennedy, from the preface

Shimmering Images

Shimmering Images
Author: Lisa Dale Norton
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2008-08-05
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1429953071

Rich, funny, and moving personal narratives depend on a few key moments in time to anchor the story and give it impact. Shimmering Images teaches the aspiring memoirist how to locate key memories using Lisa's technique for finding, linking, and fleshing out those vibrant recollections of important moments and situations. Shimmering Images will address: *the difference between memoir and autobiography *how to claim your voice *the art of storytelling *honesty, truth, and compassion in writing *authentic dialogue and the need for specificity Readers will learn how to craft a short piece of narrative nonfiction grounded in their core memories and master a technique they can use over and over again for writing other narratives. A must-have book for anyone who has treasured Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott or Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.

The Art of Memoir

The Art of Memoir
Author: Mary Karr
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2015-09-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0062223089

Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well. For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse. (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate. Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.

The Book Keeper

The Book Keeper
Author: Julia McKenzie Munemo
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2020-01-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0804041067

In a memoir that’s equal parts love story, investigation, and racial reckoning, Munemo unravels and interrogates her whiteness, a shocking secret, and her family’s history. When interracial romance novels written by her long-dead father landed on Julia McKenzie Munemo’s kitchen table, she—a white woman—had been married to a black man for six years and their first son was a toddler. Out of shame about her father’s secret career as a writer of “slavery porn,” she hid the books from herself, and from her growing mixed-race family, for more than a decade. But then, with police shootings of African American men more and more in the public eye, she realized that understanding her own legacy was the only way to begin to understand her country.

The Memoir Project

The Memoir Project
Author: Marion Roach Smith
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2011-06-09
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1455501824

An extraordinary "practical resource for beginners" looking to write their own memoir—​now new and revised (Kirkus Reviews)! The greatest story you could write is one you've experienced yourself. Knowing where to start is the hardest part, but it just got a little easier with this essential guidebook for anyone wanting to write a memoir. Did you know that the #1 thing that baby boomers want to do in retirement is write a book—about themselves? It's not that every person has lived such a unique or dramatic life, but we inherently understand that writing a memoir—whether it's a book, blog, or just a letter to a child—is the single greatest path to self-examination. Through the use of disarmingly frank, but wildly fun tactics that offer you simple and effective guidelines that work, you can stop treading water in writing exercises or hiding behind writer's block. Previously self-published under the title, Writing What You Know: Raelia, this book has found an enthusiastic audience that now writes with intent.

The Roots of Desire

The Roots of Desire
Author: Marion Roach
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2008-12-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1596918942

The Roots of Desire is a witty and entertaining investigation into the power, myth and meaning of red hair. Redheads have been worshiped, idealized, fetishized, feared, and condemned, leaving their mark on us and our culture. Such is the power of what is actually a genetic mutation, and in The Roots of Desire, Marion Roach takes a fascinating look at the science behind hair color and the roles redheads have played over time. A redhead herself, Roach brings candor and brilliant insight to the complicated and revealing history of redheads, making this a stand-out narrative and an essential tool in understanding the mechanics and phenomenon of red hair. A must-have for every redhead.