TAKING THE FIRST STEP - AN EXERCISE

Read a number of memoirs as a warm-up exercise for your own writing and as research for what style of writing works best for you. Just as an artist tours a museum to look at how the great masters use color, light and shadow and takes those techniques into their own studio, borrow ideas and approaches from published authors whose work resonate with you.

RECOMMENDED MEMOIRS

Angelou, Maya, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Bantam Books, 1993.
Maya Angelou's memoir of growing up between rural Arkansas under the protective eye of her paternal grandmother, and her attempts at living with her remarried mother and philandering father in California will surely make any reader wonder how Maya Angelou survived her childhood and found her voice as one of America's most powerful writers, poets and advocates for women's rights. Told with humor and pathos, this is a book that spans Angelou's early childhood up to the time that she gives birth to her only son just a few weeks after she graduates high school. A must read.
Slice of life.

Carter, Jimmy, An Hour Before Daylight:Memories of a Rural Boyhood, Simon & Schuster, 2001.
President Carter retells stories of his Depression-era boyhood growing up on a peanut farm in rural Georgia among Black laborers who played an important part in shaping his values. He also pays homage to his mother who worked as a nurse for the entire community; and to his father, a no-nonsense farmer and businessman who expected his son to work the fields alongside him.
Slice of life.

Fowler, George, Dance of a Fallen Monk:The Twists and Turns for a Spiritual Life, Addison Wesley, 1995.
From a hardscrabble Montana youth to twenty-one years of celibacy as a Trappist monk, to his ex-communication for marrying a former nun, this memoir describes one man's struggle to throw off the religious tenets that guided him in favor of a spiritual life outside the confines of the Church.
Spiritual quest.

Gopnick, Adam, Paris to the Moon, Random House, 2000.
In 1995, Gopnick, his wife and infant son settled in Paris where Gopnick was assigned by the "New Yorker" Magazine to write commentary about the city of lights. Both an essay on the peculiarities and charm of Parisian life as lived by outsiders, this memoir also captures the wonder of parenting.
Travel and inspiration.

Krakauer, Jon, Into Thin Air, Anchor Books, 1997.
A first-hand account of a disastrous climb to the top of Mount Everest as told by an outdoor adventure writer. In the course of this memoir, the author questions what part he might have played in the loss of lives including two experience mountain guides who were competing to fulfill the dreams of their inexperienced clients.
Adventure.

Luhan, Mabel Dodge, Winter in Taos, Las Palomas de Taos, fourth printing, 1998.
Mabel Dodge Luhan was a sophisticated New Yorker and socialite who divorced her third husband to marry a Pueblo Indian, Tony Luhan, and live with him in the New Mexico village of Taos. This memoir captures the magic of the land, and the unusual bond between two unlikely souls who were devoted to one another throughout their marriage.
The significance of marriage.

Ondaatje, Michael, Running in the Family, Vintage, 1982.
In the late 1970s, Michael Ondaatji, poet and author of The English Patient, returns to his native country of Sri Lanka. Recording his journey he is brought back to the beauty and tragedies of his early childhood where eccentric behavior and impeccable colonial decorum - in equal measure - affected the fate of his complex family and their claim to their adopted homeland. Of particular interest in this memoir is the juxtaposition of past memories and present observation. A luscious memoir filled with exquisite and telling description.
Travel and slice of life.

Rodriguez, Richard, Days of Obligation:An Argument with My Mexican Father, Viking, 1992.
A collection of essays in which the writer grapples with his Mexican heritage and his place in mainstream American society.
Ethnic and social commentary.

Scully, Julia, Outside Passage:A Memoir of an Alaskan Childhood, Random House, 1998.
The daughter of immigrant parents, Julia and her brother are turned over to an orphanage in San Francisco following World War II.The children are intermittently reunited with their mother who is living in the remotest corner of Alaska earning a living running a ramshackle roadhouse for itinerant miners.In her memoir, Julia Scully describes the beauty of the land as well as her struggle to gain an education in the rural setting in which she found herself.
Slice of life.

Welch, Jack with John A Byrne, Jack:Straight From the Gut,  Warner Business Books, 2001.
Spanning a forty-year career with General Electric, this memoir by GE's former chairman, provides the reader with an appreciation for what it takes to rise to the top of one of America's largest and most complex corporations.Welch shares his business philosophy and dogged determination to bring out the best in his team through motivation and intimidation.
Getting ahead in corporate America.

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