When Isabel Gillies’s husband got a job she packed up her two toddlers, and belongings and moved from New York City to Ohio.  After only a few months of doing so her husband informed her that he was leaving her and their two boys.  A friend told her it “happens every day.”  The story doens’t even have the slightest hint of self pity, Isabel writes candidly as if speaking with a close friend.  With divorce rates close to 60% this memoir hits close to home for many of us.

Filed in: Featured, Literature
Comments: No Comments »
Tags: book, divorce, happens every day, isabel gillies, Literature, memoir, New York City, nonfiction, ohio, read

The Memoir is quickly becoming the trendy term for autobiography.  Imagine if you had to sum up your life, in just six words.  Sound impossible?  

The book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure does just that.  Smith Magazine has compiled hundreds of six word sentences to create a New York Times Bestseller.  It is incredible how powerful just six words can be when you have to sit down and decide which six words get to represent you.  The book offers a laugh, causes you to think, and is intriguing from first page to last.  

Comment on this post and share your six word memoirs with us!  

My six word memoir:  You said don’t, so I did.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBnP0DoGjRI]

Filed in: Literature
Comments: No Comments »
Tags: 6 words, autobiography, Literature, memoir, New York Times Bestseller, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs From Writers Famous and Obscure, Smith Magazine

Malachy McCourt was born in Brooklyn, raised in Limerick, Ireland and returned to NYC in his early twenties (and who can blame him?).  The memoir, A Monk Swimming, is full of amusing accounts of McCourt’s life.  After a few years back in the great metropolis, Malachy McCourt had begun to make a name for himself with both appearances on common soap operas and gigs telling stories on late night TV.  An Irish pub opened on 3rd avenue named purposely after Malachy.  It was there that he became a celebrated bartender. He recalls the women who, in the 1950′s, had only recently been permitted to sit at the bar and how they consistently called him “cute”, this being a lingual adjustment, as “cute” means sly and cunning in Ireland.

It is said by the Irish that, “to eat is an accomplishment, to get drunk is a victory.” Malachy’s anecdotes reveal that he took this earthen proverb seriously and through his attachment to the mug a broken relationship between father and son is exposed.

I loved it.  Malachy tells a story like none other.  He is captivating in narrative, which makes it almost torturous to put down.

Filed in: Literature
Comments: No Comments »
Tags: 1950's, A Monk Swimming, alcohol, book, brooklyn, earthen proverb, Ireland, irish, Irish Pub, Limerick, Literature, Malachy McCourt, memoir, nyc, reading

Mention Eat, Pray, Love and everyone nods their head in recognition.  Introspectively, the journey of a woman is told who, after a divorce at age thirty-one, sojourns first to Rome for pleasure, then Mumbai for spirituality, and last to Bali in hopes to acquire a balance of both. The odyssey is honest and interacts with the reader in a meaningful, relating fashion.  I was left inspired with an urgent need to find a guru of my own.

Aside from Elizabeth Gilbert’s spiritually prompting memoir, she has produced a handful of noteworthy pieces. Published in GQ magazine, her 1997 article “The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon” speaks of a dive bar in Manhattan’s East Village where she worked as a bartender.  It is also the basis for the movie Coyote Ugly.  Gilbert’s collection of short stories, under the title Pilgrims, received the Pushcart Prize in 1997, followed by the novel Stern Men, chosen as a “notable book” by The New York Times. 

Two years have past since the Eat, Pray, Love sensation hit the shelves and it continues to stir up attention. Paramount pictures is now on board, casting Julia Roberts to play Elizabeth Gilbert’s role.

Filed in: Literature
Comments: No Comments »
Tags: bali, books, Coyote Ugly, divorce, east village, Eat, Elizabeth Gilbert, GQ, Julia Roberts, Literature, love, memoir, mumbai, notable book, odyssey, Paramount Pictures, Pray, pushcart prize, reading, rome, spiritual, The New York Times

The collapse of the Zimbawean government, an indepth look at the regime of Robert Mugabe, a fathers death, and a country struggling to survive are all depicted in vivid details throughout this memoir.  It is a gripping tail of persistance, survival, and a nations turmoil.  This true story truly left me breathless and was, in my opinion, a terrific book.

Filed in: Literature
Comments: No Comments »
Tags: Africa, books, memoir, nonfiction, Peter Godwin, reading