Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion

My favorite nonfiction author is Rick Bragg. I have to have his books hot off the press. If you havent read All Over But The Shoutin' and Ava's Man I think you would like them.

He has also done bios on Jerry Lee Lewis and Jessica Lynch.

hmm not really, although some people do celeb bios for a living but I don't read them because of who the author is.

Have to think about that and get back to you.

Although..Alison Holst always does good cookbooks with recipes that work and are easy. She wrote a memoir of her life as a food presenter and cookbook author. She was made a Dame too. I have one of my cookbooks signed when she was giving a talk at the library.

A few of my favorite non-fiction authors are those who write their travel essays. Peter Mayle, Bill Bryson, and Susan Allen Toth are all authors I've enjoyed.

I enjoy a few religious authors - Sheri Dew, Gordon B. Hinckley and Jeffrey R. Holland are high on my list in that category.

I don't really have a favorite non-fiction writer, although there are a couple whose books i REFUSE to read.

I love Bill Bryson, Richard Fortey, Richard Preston, and Molly Lefebure.

Lady♥Belleza★✰ wrote: "I don't really have a favorite non-fiction writer, although there are a couple whose books i REFUSE to read."

Do you care to share, Bel?

Koren wrote: "Lady♥Belleza★✰ wrote: "I don't really have a favorite non-fiction writer, although there are a couple whose books i REFUSE to read."

Do you care to share, Bel?"

What a good idea Koren. We should all post our favourites and least favourites.

My favourites:
B Bryson
William Dalrymple
Jan Morris
David Sedaris

Least favourites;
Danny Wallace
Frances Mayes
P J O'Rourke

lol, I don't choose to remember my LEAST favourites.

I liked some of Bill Bryson, but not all of them were great, and I haven't read his latest ones. I think I've gone off him, there's no author I would single out that I would read every single thing they wrote.

I haven't read book after book even by authors I really love. There are so many to try. I like but do not love P.J. O'Rourke; he's so uneven and a lot of his best writing seems to go no farther than the magazines where he originally published them. I remember one article he put in Rolling Stone called "Let The Sixties Die" that absolutely slayed me; no book I have read by him measures up to that one article.

Fishface wrote: "I haven't read book after book even by authors I really love. There are so many to try. I like but do not love P.J. O'Rourke; he's so uneven and a lot of his best writing seems to go no farther the..."

That sounds interesting.

I've never read P.J. O'Rourke. I do like Bill Bryson, who I suspect must be rather likeable in person.

If I had to nominate my own favourites, they'd include Laurie Lee and Patrick Leigh Fermor - not original choices, I know. But my top choice would probably be Norman Lewis, a wonderful travel writer who also did two absorbing volumes of autobiography. He's not read as much as he was, which is a pity.

I like and despise Lucy Freeman. She writes a very good nonfiction book, and she focuses on crime and psychological subjects, which naturally attract me because of my job. But I keep finding out that her books are a bunch of lies.

That didn't stop me from racing to Amazon to buy The Two Assassins when I found she had CO-AUTHORED the book with psychiatrist Renatus Hartogs, a man she wrote about later in another TC work, Betrayal: The True Story of the First Woman to Successfully Sue Her Psychiatrist for Using Sex in the Guise of Therapy. It just came in the mail yesterday.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is an amazing history biography author. The amount of research she puts into her books is amazing and all of her books are a gazillion pages.

My favorite non-fiction/biography writers are James Herriot, Bill Bryson, Ruth Reichl,Erik Larson, Candice Millard, David Sedaris and Malcolm Gladwell. I have read most of their books. I like David McCullough but his books are so long I have to think about reading him.

What makes an autobiography or a memoir stand out from the rest? Just curious about what really grabs you and makes you love the book.

Thanks!

Kerry wrote: "What makes an autobiography or a memoir stand out from the rest? Just curious about what really grabs you and makes you love the book.

Thanks!"

Gosh! Now there's a question. Must give it some thought.......

Kerry wrote: "What makes an autobiography or a memoir stand out from the rest? Just curious about what really grabs you and makes you love the book.

Thanks!"

For me its the feeling that this person is someone I would want to know and when I get to the end of the book I feel like I'm leaving a good friend.

Hello. I love memoirs that resonate with me long after I finish reading them. There are nonfiction books that shorten my life and reduce my IQ and wish to get my money and time back, but the books that I refer too have memorable characters who overcome obstacles and teach me a thing or two about life and history.

Good writing, memorable characters, interesting facts that I did not know, sympathy and compassion for the subject.

As an author of a memoir, I agree with all the above. The story should take you out of your life for awhile, make you laugh and feel inspired. Hopefully, you can learn something valuable from it, to apply in your own life. It is what I strive for in my own writing.

Nancy wrote: "As an author of a memoir, I agree with all the above. The story should take you out of your life for awhile, make you laugh and feel inspired. Hopefully, you can learn something valuable from it, t..."

What a memoir should not be: "first I did this, then I did that, and this is who I know".

What a memoir should not be: "first I did this, then I did that, and this is who I know".

Well said, Koren, I find it hard to enjoy a story written from that perspective.

I have read so many nonfiction authors -- and many of them are so good that they leave blisters. I don't know how I would ever go about choosing a favorite. But in general, the ones who can really draw me into the person's life and situation are the best ones. The truly great ones -- the ones that leave really serious blisters -- are the ones who can make a complex situation understandable without talking down to me, and make me see how hard it is to judge the people I'm reading about. A non-fiction writer who makes real people into cardboard cutouts or cartoon characters is not writing good nonfiction. Nobody's that easy to understand.

Example: Joseph Wambaugh made Jay Smith into a cartoon in Echoes in the Darkness. He was weird and dangerous and was duly convicted of everything notorious liar Bill Bradfield ever said about him. When Smith wrote his own story, Joseph Wambaugh and the Jay Smith Case, I read about a complex, difficult life that I wouldn't wish on anyone. He was a guy going through on lot in his own life, who clearly cracked under the strain and made some horrible decisions that made it easy for a jury to believe he also killed one of his employees and her two children...but that was the only real evidence against him. His fight to clear himself left some serious blisters.

Very interesting points.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to read a memoir which was simply a regurgitation of a person's life events. In Eat, Pray, Love the scene that still stands out to me occurred early in the book---the beginning, actually---it was when she ended up on the floor of her bathroom sobbing. Very powerful.

So for me, (and I'm sure the fact that I'm a psychologist factors in) it's the author's authenticity and vulnerability that captures my interest. I'm not looking to be entertained with good use of humor, I'm looking to be touched by the author's willingness to risk through honesty.

Kerry wrote: "Very interesting points.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to read a memoir which was simply a regurgitation of a person's life events. In Eat, Pray, Love the scene that still stands out to me occurred early..."

In that case, let me direct you -- if you're one of the 6 or 7 people in the USA who haven't read it yet -- to Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster. There's a lot of breast-baring in there and considerable personal transformation.

Kerry, I would not completely dismiss humor in a memoir. It is often included in stories that are quite authentic and honest. I like a good mix of vulnerability and a humorous aspect. It is all a matter of perspective.

I like an inspirational story about strong men and women. I don't like a memoir that has a 'feel sorry for me' story line.

Koren, since you like an inspirational story about strong men and women. Look up my book "Go West, Young Woman!" I think you would enjoy it. If you do decide to read it, I would value your opinion.

Nancy wrote: "Koren, since you like an inspirational story about strong men and women. Look up my book "Go West, Young Woman!" I think you would enjoy it. If you do decide to read it, I would value your opinion."

Thanks Nancy. Looks good. I will look for it.

I like a storyline that answers an unanswered question. Examples would be Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America, Poison: A History and a Family Memoir, and Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation.