Most memorable memoir you have read?

Headbanginghunny · Post by **Headbanginghunny** » 14 May 2014, 14:11

I am a fan of memoirs and getting to know people and how they overcome problems in life. A few I like are Running With Scissors, Gone Girl, A Piece of Cake, Color Blind and Hungry. I also occasionally like some funny, light reading like the Chelsea Handler books. What is your favorite and most memorable memoir?

Aussie-reader · Post by **Aussie-reader** » 16 May 2014, 20:16

I like memoirs, have read many.
Although none of the ones you mention.

I don't go for memoirs of rock stars or famous people - more those who have gone through hardship or those who have come from different cultures.

Some examples of ones I have enjoyed:
Angela's Ashes,(irish childhood in 1930's)
Call the Midwife series,(a midwife in London's east end in 1950's)
Wild Swans (chinese family living through revolution)
Across many mountains,( refugees from Tibet),
The color of water (growing up in mixed race family in USA)
Paper daughter (Chinese immigrant growing up in USA)
Twenty chickens for a saddle (white family living in Africa)
Stay Alive , my son (living through Pol Pot regime in Cambodia),
Night Song of the Last Tram (childhood in Scotland post WW2)
One fourteenth of an elephant (POW in Burma WW2)
The Seamstress (Jewish survivors of WW2)

many many more, too many to list here.

Headbanginghunny · Post by **Headbanginghunny** » 16 May 2014, 20:21

Wow, those are some good examples! I love Call the Midwife and have gotten my mom into reading those. I also like Angela's Ashes. I have heard of some of the rest but have not read them, so I will definitely have to do that. I agree that some of the more interesting memoirs can be from people writing about hardships. It just seems so real.

samuyama · Post by **samuyama** » 17 May 2014, 09:36

has to be Memoir of a Geisha. might have something to do with the title....

Aussie-reader · Post by **Aussie-reader** » 17 May 2014, 09:55

Yes I have also read Memoirs of a Geisha and really enjoyed it.

However I did not include it on my list as it is not really a memoir, it is actually fiction.

shayna · Post by **shayna** » 17 May 2014, 11:57

Memoirs of a Geisha resonated with me. I'm intrigued by that time period as it is.

samuyama · Post by **samuyama** » 17 May 2014, 13:37

haha, that's true it's a fiction.... But it's the first thing that popped into my mind.

Winter · Post by **Winter** » 17 May 2014, 15:15

The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller. It was one of the first books I read as a kid, and I never forgot it.

Sarah1 · Post by **Sarah1** » 18 May 2014, 14:19

The Story of My Life was good. Read that as a kid.

klucey · Post by **klucey** » 18 May 2014, 15:22

I know why the caged bird sings is near the top of my list. I think anything Maya Angelou writes is pure gold. I also loved The Color of Water and I have taught it in high school.

WinterCandyMints · Post by **WinterCandyMints** » 19 Oct 2014, 20:26

From the Bamboo Grove. I remember reading it in Middle School and was absolutely taken by it.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » 19 Oct 2014, 21:11

The Interesting Narrative by Olaudah Equiano. It's an African slave narrative of a man who was captured as a boy and bought his freedom as a man. One of the first of its kind: much sooner than Solomon Northup's narrative.

dickens 100 · Post by **dickens 100** » 11 May 2015, 17:17

Wild Swans is a true masterpiece. It is a gripping read of a family generation living through China's turbulent times, from 1900 right up to The Japanese invasion through to the horrors of Chairman Mao's cultural revolution, a classic of epic proportions

anthonykolesky · Post by **anthonykolesky** » 11 May 2015, 19:49

A few years ago I read a memoir about the original Mickey Mouse Club called "Why? Because We Still Like You." It gave intriguing anecdotes and hilarious experiences of all the cast and crew members of the classic show. If you're interested in anything Disney, I would definitely recommend this memoir. It offered a great insight into the beginnings of what is now one of the most magical industries in the world.