Favorite memoirs

[Anonymous]

Todd Fisher's memoir of himself, his sister Carrie Fisher, and his mother Debbie Reynolds is both hilarious and poignant.

[Anonymous]

Mention of the Mitfords made me remember this one:

The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me: An Aristocratic Family, a High-Society Scandal and an Extraordinary Legacy -- Sofka Zinovieff

Lord Berners is thinly disguised in Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love -- this is a great read if you love eccentric English nobility and grand country house tales.

Along the eccentric, rich, and literary lines -- Ivana Lowell's "Why Not Say What Happened" is very well done and memorable (with a central mystery) -- I discovered it when going down a rabbit hole of obsession with her beautiful, brilliant, batty mother, Caroline Blackwood (a great author in her own right)

[Anonymous]

Both Carly Simon (Boys in Trees) and Elton John (Me: Elton John Official Autobiography) are good reads. I'd guess that most if not all celebrity memoirs are ghost written and can range the spectrum in poorly written to very good reads. These 2 fall on the good side.

[Anonymous]

Leah Remini, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know I'm being a snob, but I honestly can't imagine wanting to read an memoir by Jennifer Grey or Demi Moore or some of the other lame celenbrities people have mentioned. Just get a subscription to People magazine for god's sake.

Some of the "lame celebrities" have interesting lives or lessons to share.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know I'm being a snob, but I honestly can't imagine wanting to read an memoir by Jennifer Grey or Demi Moore or some of the other lame celenbrities people have mentioned. Just get a subscription to People magazine for god's sake.

Some of the "lame celebrities" have interesting lives or lessons to share.

Yeah! But also it is trashy! It's fun though. I thought I'd never get into the stupid celeb memoirs either and instead I do like them.

[Anonymous]

Some favorites:
The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson
Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom
Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron
A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy
Open by Andre Aghassi
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Happens Every Day and the follow up, A Year and Six Seconds -- Isabel Gilles. Actress moves to Oberlin with her professor husband who has an affair with a colleague -- they have small children and she is devastated. Sequel is a happy ending.

All of the memoirs by Alexandra Fuller but I think Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness are my favorites -- growing up in Rhodesia with semi-insane British parents.

I also enjoyed Isabel Gillies’s books. Did you know the woman her husband left her for, they are now divorced and he is onto another professor at Oberlin lol.

To his credit, both the woman he left his wife for and now the third woman are all age appropriate. He is 55, Isabella is 54, the affair partner turned wife turned ex wife is I believe 49, and the latest woman is 48.

Yes, I have some connections to oberlin so I know all this crap. But you can verify it all on the Internet. I feel kind of bad for the affair partner turned ex wife because Oberlin is a pretty small college and it would be weird to have your ex and a new girlfriend both working there with you. I hope they are even in the same department. Awkward.

Isabel found a new husband within a year of the husband leaving her which I thought was quick , he is a writer for the New York Times, and they have been married now for like 15 years. At least their kids have one stable parent!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know I'm being a snob, but I honestly can't imagine wanting to read an memoir by Jennifer Grey or Demi Moore or some of the other lame celenbrities people have mentioned. Just get a subscription to People magazine for god's sake.

It’s definitely not great literature, but it is certainly a different experience than reading people magazine.

Memoirs are one of my favorites genres so the person doesn’t have to be that fascinating for me to dig in. I find most people have interesting lives and I’m interested in reading about people who lead very different lives than me (being an actress, having a difficult childhood, overcoming addiction, Going through a divorce) as well as finding the similarities (navigating parenthood, aging, etc.).

[Anonymous]

American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Trevor Noah's is on my list, but the library doesn't have the audiobook except in CD form so I keep not getting it...