Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Memoirs I've Read

Last week I read this tweet by Literary Agent Rachelle Gardner "Please don't submit your memoir until you've read 20 good memoirs and 5 books on writing memoir - and learned from them."


Since I'm writing a memoir and want to submit it soon, I started a list of all the memoirs I've read. I didn't think I read 20, but I was surprised. I'm at 30+ and still counting. 
These are in random order and some of these might only loosely fit into the memoir category. 
  1. Picking Dandelions by Sarah Cunningham
  2. Girl Meets God: A Memoir by Lauren F. Winner
  3. O Me of Little Faith: True Confessions of a Spiritual Weakling by Jason Boyett
  4. Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans
  5. In a Single Bound: Losing My Leg, Finding Myself, and Training for Life by Sarah Reinertsen
  6. Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir by Susan E. Isaacs
  7. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
  8. Thin Places: A Memoir by Mary E. DeMuth 
  9. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
  10. Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
  11. The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
  12. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace- One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson 
  13. Left to Tell: One Woman's Story of Surviving the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza
  14. Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
  15. Same Kind of Different as Me by Hall and Moore
  16. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  17. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris
  18. A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman by Joan Anderson
  19. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
  20. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells
  21. A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer
  22. Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet
  23. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama 
  24. Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks
  25. Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  26. The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz
  27. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell 
  28. Gifted Hands by M.D., Ben Carson
  29. Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope by Van Ryn & Cerak
  30. No Such Thing as a Bad Day: A Memoir by Hamilton Jordon
  31. Hear No Evil by Matthew Paul Turner
  32. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert 
  33. Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrup
  34. On Writing by Stephen King
Today Rachelle has an excellent post with Resources for Writing Memoir.

Now she's presented me with a dilemma - do I study about writing memoir today or do I actually write memoir ...

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Book Expo America

Last week I went to Book Expo America in NYC with a friend Janelle Hertzler. Janelle's book has recently been published and she had a book signing and a podcast interview.

It was an exciting week, though at times it was overwhelming - there's so many books out there already, why should I try to publish mine? But by the end of the show, I was inspired and now look forward to finishing and publishing my memoir.

Some celebrities are writers. This show had plenty of them:   
Barbra Striesand will be a first-time published author this fall with a book about designing and decorating houses. She was interviewed by Gayle King. I was impressed with Barbra's energy and creativity. She is constantly using her creativity in something - music/film/houses/gardens and now a book.  

Sarah Ferguson - Duchess of York signing her children's book.
People started standing in line at 1AM for her - I felt no need to do that, so I had a book signed by an unknown author near her that didn't have a line - hence this lousy picture. 

I'm now singing 'Jesse's Girl' after seeing this interview with Rick Springfield. He has a memoir coming out soon - "Late, Late at Night"

This was my most exciting encounter - Sarah Reinertsen!
She is a full-leg amputee that inspired me post-accident. She was the first female leg amputee in complete the Ironman in Hawaii. She was on 'The Amazing Race' in 2006. I followed her various races and triathlons and decided if she could do all that, I could at least run again. So meeting her was sweet! And I look forward to reading her memoir "In a Single Bound" 

Love this guy - Gary Vaynerchuk and his first book "Crush It." 
Somehow I missed his name on the schedule (it was huge) but about 30 minutes before he spoke I was scanning the show's twitter hashtag #bea10 and saw this: 
@grayvee Speaking at downtown stage on the main floor at #bea10 speaking at 3pm be there or ... I'll cry :) 
I went, as did many others, so he didn't cry - he was passionate as usual. I'm looking forward to his new book this fall: "The Thank You Economy." 

World's Most Tattooed Woman - Julia Gnuse, age 55

This is one-tenth of the exhibitors floor - yes, my ADD was in overdrive. There were many authors there that aren't celebrities (yet). I'm just as (or even more) excited to read their books. 
I came home with a 'few' books - for me, for my boys and some for gifts.

Each day I scoured the list for authors of memoirs that were signing and giving away books. These writers were always gracious and offered me good advice in my writing. I will be reading and reviewing these books (mostly memoirs) in the weeks ahead. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And now to introduce ... 
the most important author there!! 



She had people in line the whole half-hour of her signing time. Everyone loved her book, one even called it 
the most beautiful book at the show!

So if you don't have a copy of "Seasons of Solace" - now's a good time to get it :) Either for yourself or a gift for someone that is dealing with a loss. 

So if you would have been at the show - which genre of books would you have picked up? Is there one particular genre or would you have looked for books in different genres that sound/look interesting? 

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Hope is ...

Without hope, it's almost impossible to keep going on this roller-coaster of life. Many days, I’ve lived on the thought that, "Tomorrow will be better than today" - that's hope. Hope in something I don't see, but I believe in.
I recently read these thoughts about hope.
In Erma Bombeck's book called "I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise - Children Surviving Cancer," a group of kids who had cancer were asked to describe 'hope' as if it were an animal. Here are a few of the responses:
  • "Hope is about two and an half feet tall."
  • "He is covered with fur and it's fluffy."
  • "Hope giggles."
  • "When it talks, you're the only one who can hear it."
  • "Hope raises its voice sometimes. It has to talk louder than fear."
  • "Occasionally, Hope is shy and likes to hide."
  • "If you don't take good care of it - it can die."
  • "It will come to you only when you need it."
  • "Hope has offsprings like any other animal. They're called 'Hopelets.' You don't keep them. You share them with other people who need one."

Kids can be profound. I found something in each of them that made me say, “Yes, that’s right!” I think my favorite is “Hope giggles.”
After reading those kid’s descriptions, I wrote my own. My descriptions for hope are -
  • Hope is as comfortable as a soft, fluffy blanket.
  • Hope helps you breathe.
  • Hope can be knowledge - such as: knowing that broken bones heal.
  • Hope is priceless.
How would you describe hope?

Friday, April 17, 2009

One Step/Word at a Time

The muscle behind my knee feels good until I run about a mile, then I feel pain again. So I walk most days and every few days run until the point of pain, then I stop and walk home again. Hopefully doing this will strengthen that muscle to the place where I can run more again.

I've been busy writing/rewriting/editing my book - gosh, what a journey that is! I do hope to be able to send out query letters soon to see if there's any agents that would want to represent me and my book. But gulp, that is scary. So for now, I won't go there, I just keep rewriting and editing for a time :)