Memoir Mondays

Memoir Monday!

You know how much I love memoirs! And I've been busy reading some great memoirs lately! But I haven't quite finished writing my reviews (and organizing a great giveaway!) , so I thought I would highlight a few of the memoirs that I'll be reviewing soon...

Lift by Rebecca K. O'Connor... "The culmination of a ten-year career in falconry, Lift is a memoir that illustrates the journey and life lessons of a woman navigating a man’s ancient sport. Captivated by a chance meeting with a falconer’s peregrine as a child, the indelible memory eventually brings the author’s life full circle to flying a peregrine of her own. Exploring themes of predator and prey, finding tribe, forgiveness and femininity, the memoir asks universal questions through a unique backdrop. Lift illustrates the beauty and meaning the sport of falconry can add to a falconer’s life, echoing the challenges and triumphs of being human." Rebecca is a wonderful writer and her story is equally wonderful! This book is fascinating from the start and touching.

The English American by Alison Larkin... "In many ways, Pippa Dunn is very English: she eats Marmite and toast, knows how to make a proper cup of tea, went to a posh English boarding school, finds it entirely familiar to discuss the crossword rather than exchange any cross words over dinner with her proper English family. But Pippa--creative, disheveled, and impulsive to the core--has always felt different from her perfectly poised, smartly coiffed sister and steady, practical parents, whose pastimes include Scottish dancing, gardening, and watching cricket. When Pippa learns at age twenty-eight that her birth parents are from the American South, she feels that lifelong questions have been answered and she finds that “culture clash” has layers of meaning she’d never imagined." Alison Larkin is funny! This book is great! She's even made her "story" into a one woman show too! This tuesday The English American will be released in paperback too!

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel... "This autobiography deals with her childhood with a closeted gay father, who was an English teacher and proprietor of the local funeral parlor. Fun Home refers both to the funeral parlor and the family's meticulously restored gothic revival house, filled with gilt and lace, where he liked to imagine himself a 19th-century aristocrat. Bechdel's talent for intimacy and banter gains gravitas when used to describe a family in which a man's secrets make his wife a tired husk and overshadow his daughter's burgeoning womanhood and homosexuality." This memoir is a graphic novel. (I've been reading a lot of those lately too) The drawings are wonderful! (Alison is a cartoonist after all!) The story may be a bit out of the box for some, but it is a coming of age story that is funny and bittersweet.

Hope I whetted your appetite for some great reading! Stay tuned for the reviews (and the giveaway!)... In the meantime, share what you're reading! Any good memoirs I should be putting on my shelf? What do you think of graphic memoirs? Have you read any yet?

Happy Monday! And happy reading...

Suzanne

Missing Sisters by Gregory Maguire... A Review

In A World Full of Surprises Alice is About to Find One...

In an orphanage in upstate NY, twelve-year-old Alice lives her life among the stern nuns that share her home. She's not like the rest of the little girls, she can't hear very well, and she has a speech impediment that makes it hard for her to talk. Sister Vincent de Paul befriends Alice and becomes her closest friend, patiently listening to her every word, trading secrets in the kitchen. Sister Vincent de Paul is a bit of a misfit herself, having a deformed foot that hinders her walking, but this just solidifies their friendship.

One day though, in a terrible accident, Sister Vincent de Paul is badly burned and whisked away. Feelings of isolation and fear fill Alice as she worries if the Sister has died. No one seems to want to talk to her about it. And in the meantime, Alice discovers that she may have a twin sister! All this confusion in Alice's life makes it so hard for her to figure out her place in the world- something that Sister Vincent de Paul would have made so much easier. Thus starts Alice's adventure to find her place in the grand scheme of things, and to find what may be her twin sister.

The novel is set in the 1960's, written with a certain amount of innocence still present in those times. There's no drugs, sex or rock & roll. Alice deals with the angst of being a teenage girl, jealousy, questions of faith (she does live in an orphanage run by Nuns), and the meaning of friendship. She longs for a family of her own and especially a mother. A sweet story that touched my heart as Alice tries to do the right things - often times going about it in the wrong way. She's sweet, smart and spunky. She doesn't let her handicaps hold her back, and in the end we see just how normal she is.

And speaking of endings... I found the ending to be a bit unsatisfying. I cried, but wanted more from it as the lights dimmed and the credits rolled... You'll see what I mean, because even though I wanted more from the ending I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it! Written as a YA novel, us 'older' girls can enjoy it too!

Happy reading... Suzanne

P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready! AND Available for Your eReader!