Announcing the tag for July

[Anita]

Wow, this was one of the closest votes we have ever had! It was neck and neck between Canadian and memoir, but at the very end of the day, the winner is:

memoir

So sorry Canadian fans . . .it really was a squeaker.

Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.

Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as "memoir" on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.

One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.

Happy Reading!!!

[Jenni Elyse]

Woot woot! I’m glad my 10 points were worth it! I’m thinking of reading:

As You Wish by Cary Elwes
Taste by Stanley Tucci
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz
Failure is an Option by H. Jon Benjamin
OR
Let’s Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

I recommend the following:

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Night by Elie Wiesel
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Broken by Jenny Lawson
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Educated by Tara Westover
The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne

[John]

I allotted this ten points, too! I plan to read a couple:

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor
The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard

[Amy]

I have two books. Both owned. Smile: The Story of a Face by Sarah Ruhl. And Inheritance by Dani Shapiro.

[NancyJ]

Amy wrote: "I have two books. Both owned. Smile: The Story of a Face by Sarah Ruhl. And Inheritance by Dani Shapiro."

I really enjoyed Inheritance by Dani Shapiro. The biology angle linked to another book I was reading (and a comedy movie).
==========

I also recommend Born a Crime. I read it last month with a bookclub and I loved it.

[~*Kim*~]

A few recommendations:

Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark
Sharon Osbourne Survivor: My Story: The Next Chapter
My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman's Story
Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

For what I might read, not too sure what all is on my Amazon wish list, but this is a possibility:

The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx

[NancyJ]

Does anyone else ever wish you could tag a book to 'subtract' a tag? Into the Wild has hundreds of memoir and autobiography tags, but it is neither. It was written by an established author who did not even know the subject of the biography.

If anyone noticed any other obvious mistakes, can you let us know?

Or am I the one making the mistake? Aren't memoirs and autobiographies written about the author's own life?

[DianeMP]

All Right, All Right, All Right! I've always thought I didn't like memoirs. But in retrospect I've read and enjoyed more memoirs than I ever thought possible.
There are several that I recommend:

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Night by Elie Wiesel

There are many potential books I'd like to read:

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemmingway
A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

Really looking forward to reading this month!

[Jen K]

As soon as I didn't vote for this one, I realized that I have a ton of memoirs in the wings to read.

A couple of recent reads that I recommend:
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
Know My Name
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Reads I'm considering:
Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory (also Canada)
Wow, No Thank You.: Essays (my trim)
Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk
Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop

[Booknblues]

I have read so many memoirs and have many on my reading list so not sure what to recommend or what I will be reading.

I have a particular love for traveling memoirs.

I will be back with more.

I would have been just as happy with Canadian and was sure it would be Fantasy this time. I do have one on my list, but not dozens like the other two.

[Patricia]

I am not a fan of memoir books but I have I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban and Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.

[Robin P]

I have Obama's newest book on audio read by him, but it is so long!

[NancyJ]

DianeMP wrote: "All Right, All Right, All Right! I've always thought I didn't like memoirs. But in retrospect I've read and enjoyed more memoirs than I ever thought possible.
There are several that I recommend:

B..."

Diane, I think you might have combined too different lines - Julie and Julia wasn't written by Jeanette Winterson, though she does have a holiday book with recipes. I've had Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson on my TBR for a very long time.

[Becky]

Jenni Elyse wrote: "Woot woot! I’m glad my 10 points were worth it! I’m thinking of reading:

As You Wish by Cary Elwes
Taste by Stanley Tucci
Becoming by Michelle Ob..."

I had NO IDEA Cary Elwes had written a memoir! I had this movie memorized by the time I was 10. Definitely adding this to my soon-to-read TBR pile. 😊

I know I have The Glass Castle on my physical tbr shelf, so I'll be reading that for sure.

[SouthWestZippy]

Here is just a few Memoirs I have read and recommend.
Finding Me
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated
Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir
Three Little Words
The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science
Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work
You Will Not Have My Hate
Educated


I have a lot on my TBR mountain so here is my want to read ASAP.
Where I Come From: Life Lessons from a Latino Chef
Woodswoman I: Living Alone in the Adirondack Wilderness

[Joy D]

I recommend (both were 5 star reads for me):

Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane

Walking the Nile by Levison Wood

[LibraryCin]

Whew! Sounds like Canadian was the runner-up, so that's too bad. But, I have about 1000 memoirs (LOL! Obviously an exaggeration!) on my tbr, so this will be easy...

[LibraryCin]

NancyJ wrote: "Does anyone else ever wish you could tag a book to 'subtract' a tag? Into the Wild has hundreds of memoir and autobiography tags, but it is neither. It was written by an established author who did ..."

LOL! And you are correct, memoirs and autobiographies are written by the person whom the book is about.

[LibraryCin]

I have 171 read books tagged "memoir" (on LT, which is more complete than here). I could recommend LOTS, as I have three I've rated 5 stars and six rated 4.5 stars!

Many of the ones rated 4.5 are animal stories (written by the owners, of course, about their lives with their pets), but I think the 5 star book I recently read that will most appeal to everyone here is:

Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider / Charles Person

[Joy D]

Perhaps the people that tagged Into the Wild as a memoir were getting it confused with:
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
which actually is a memoir and an excellent one!

I will say Into the Wild contains an account of Krakauer's ascent of the Devil's Thumb and he pieces together what he thinks happened to Chris McCandless, so even though the entire book is not a memoir, there are segments of memoir in it.

[LibraryCin]

A few options (and looks like one is Canadian, too!):

- Prairie Tale: A Memoir / Melissa Gilbert
- All My Patients are Under the Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor / Louis J. Camuti
- Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology / Leah Remini
- They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus Life, and Growing Up / Eternity Martis

[Jenni Elyse]

Becky Lynn wrote: "Jenni Elyse wrote: "Woot woot! I’m glad my 10 points were worth it! I’m thinking of reading:

As You Wish by Cary Elwes
Taste by Stanley Tucci
[book: Becoming|3874..."

I'm glad I put it on your purview. :D I hope both of us like it if that's what we read.

[Theresa]

Not where my mind or heart are right now. But I certainly have a couple in my TBR to read.

[Jen]

Patricia wrote: "I am not a fan of memoir books but I have I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban and [book:Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacifi..."

Careful on I am Malala....the ghost writer made her sound really stilted so while what she has survived is inspirational it is heavy going.

Wild is hard to get into.....might be better if I can get past the first part.

[Jen]

Joy D wrote: "Perhaps the people that tagged Into the Wild as a memoir were getting it confused with:
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
whi..."

Krakauer is excellent for fast paced memoirs.

[Book Concierge]

Well, one of my F2F book clubs has "any book by Bill Bryson" on the list for July so whatever I read will fit!

Speaking of Bryson, I loved The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and In a Sunburned Country. And I thought A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail was somewhat enjoyable (3 stars).

Some others that I've enjoyed and that haven't already been mentioned:
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing by Jacqueline Winspear
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
ANY of the memoirs by Ruth Reichl - Not Becoming My Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way is particularly good
All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero
This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony
Escape by Carolyn Jessop
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson ***
Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J B Ward
From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s by Jennifer Worth
Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner (read THIS month for my other F2F book club)
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jiménez

*** AMY please note ... this one is written in verse and you would love it.

[Amy]

Ha Ha! To let you guys in on the joke. BC, who knows me extremely well, can usually pinpoint a read (or a song) that I would love. Except for a 2% difference. I can’t stand verse. I really can’t follow it in the least. But there are a few our Tessa is sure I would absolutely adore. This one is one of them. One day I will break down my resistance and give it a try. But… if we ever have a tag choice that is Verse, you will know where it came from (not me) and you know it will not get my vote. But if it should win, or I need Verse for a challenge, Brown Girl Dreaming it is!

[Book Concierge]

Amy wrote: "Ha Ha! To let you guys in on the joke. BC, who knows me extremely well, can usually pinpoint a read (or a song) that I would love. Except for a 2% difference. I can’t stand verse. I really can’t fo..."

Amy ... go to amazon and look up this book. Then click on the "look inside" feature (I think you have to be on the website, not just on the mobile site, but not certain of this). Begin reading to see if it speaks to you.

[Robin P]

Jen wrote: "Patricia wrote: "I am not a fan of memoir books but I have I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban and [book:Wild: From Lost to Fo..."

I didn't think it was stilted, I found it very readable and enjoyed learning about her normal life as a teenager before the tragedy.

[Robin P]

I have the audio of Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future read by Pete Buttigieg. I think he is great at addressing issues simply and clearly.

[Meli]

I might try to find a good audio memoir for some trips I have coming up. I've heard good things about Open Book and Greenlights. I've also always wanted to read Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood. So many great options!

[Hannah]

Meli wrote: "I might try to find a good audio memoir for some trips I have coming up. I've heard good things about Open Book and Greenlights. I've also always wanted to read”

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood is excellent as an audiobook. I think you’ll really enjoy it.

[Booknblues]

I apparently like to read memoirs. Here are some recommendations, I'll try to add those I haven't seen listed:

The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds
Bitter Lemons of Cyprus: Life on a Mediterranean Island
How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child
Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies
The Chicken Chronicles: Sitting with the Angels Who Have Returned with My Memories: Glorious, Rufus, Gertrude Stein, Splendor, Hortensia, Agnes of God, The Gladyses, & Babe: A Memoir- Alice Walker
True at First Light - Ernest Hemingway
Life - Keith Richards
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before - Tony Horowitz
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly - Anthony Bourdain
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
In the Darkroom - Susan Faludi, her biological father had SRS
It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War
The Cows of Bangalore: Adventures with My Milk Lady
The Tenth Island: Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores
The Girl from Aleppo: Nujeen's Escape from War to Freedom
On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist- Clarissa Ward
The Salt Path


I may read The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest,
Arbitrary Stupid Goal,
Cotswolds Memoir: Discovering a Beautiful Region of Britain on a Quest to Buy a 17th Century Cottage,
Distant Sunflower Fields,
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted,
The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds,
Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration,
or The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West
To a Mountain in Tibet

[Meli]

Hannah wrote: "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood is excellent as an audiobook. I think you’ll really enjoy it."

I've heard that so seems like a good choice!

[Charlotte]

Meli wrote: "Hannah wrote: "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood is excellent as an audiobook. I think you’ll really enjoy it."

I've heard that so seems like a good choice!"

I agree, Born a Crime is a really, really good audio memoir. Definitely one of my favorites!!

[NancyJ]

I have many more books than I realized for this tag!!

Starting with books or audios that I own:
*Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
*Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Three Little Words
Seven Years in Tibet
Eat a Peach
House of Sticks
Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books by Nick Hornby

Other Possibilities - Opinions???
*I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood / Youth / Dependency by Tove Ditlevson
Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss
Brown Girl Dreaming
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land
Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K leGuin
The One You Get: Portrait of a Family Organism
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Perhaps something else by David Sedaris, Betty White, Dani Shapiro, or WPF authors.

Recommendations:
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
Lab Girl
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
Anything by David Sedaris on Audio - Me Talk Pretty One Day is a good place to start, but they're all good.
Educated

[Amy]

Nancy, naturally I’m recommending Wild Swans for you, (I think you’ll love it - and your History Lane will match the tag) and Tessa/BC is putting in a strong vote for Brown Girl Dreaming. But I think I am reading the same Inheritance, if that gives you a push there. I think I have to grab it from the back of my car. It’s one of eight books that’s coming with me on my Israel trip. I own both of my books that match the tag, but I kind of think it’s going to be great to be able to read and unload as I go. But even over there I can manage to read Inheritance with you if you get to it.

[Joy D]

Nancy, from your list requesting opinions, I have read and very much enjoyed:
A House in the Sky
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Anthropocene Reviewed

[NancyJ]

Amy wrote: "Nancy, naturally I’m recommending Wild Swans for you, (I think you’ll love it - and your History Lane will match the tag) and Tessa/BC is putting in a strong vote for Brown Girl Dreaming. But I thi..."

Inheritance was a recommendation. I read it a couple years ago. I think you're going to like it.

When are you leaving for your trip?

[NancyJ]

Joy D wrote: "Nancy, from your list requesting opinions, I have read and very much enjoyed:
A House in the Sky
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Anthropocene Reviewed"

Thanks Joy. This helps. Now I know that the John Green book won't be too light, and the violence in 'A House in the Sky' won't be too explicit. I started 'I know why the Caged Bird Sings,' and I liked it, but had too much on my plate (or phone) at the time. I'm looking forward to getting back to it.

[LibraryCin]

Book Concierge wrote: "The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony
Escape by Carolyn Jessop..."

I'd like to 2nd both of these!

[LibraryCin]

NancyJ wrote: "A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout ..."

I really liked this one. Almost gave it 4.5 stars (but not quite). I listened to the audio and she narrated it herself.

[Theresa]

Hannah wrote: "Meli wrote: "I might try to find a good audio memoir for some trips I have coming up. I've heard good things about Open Book and Greenlights. I've also always wanted..."

Even I thought it excellent as an audiobook and I tend to have a serious aversion to audiobooks where I have not read them in a print form first. Each chapter is basically a little essay or memoir about his childhood, as if told at different times and only here gathered in one place. That led to a certain amount of repetition from chapter to chapter that would have irritated me in print but was perfect for an audiobook that I listened to on a couple diffrent weekend trips. It was easy to step back into the book each time.

Also Noah's delivery showed his deft hand with comedy.

[Theresa]

Amy wrote: "Nancy, naturally I’m recommending Wild Swans for you, (I think you’ll love it - and your History Lane will match the tag) and Tessa/BC is putting in a strong vote for Brown Girl Dreaming. But I thi..."

@Amy - don't you mean grabbing it from your mobile library? It always sounds to me like your car is your library and thus it is your mobile library!

[NancyJ]

LibraryCin wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout ..."

I really liked this one. Almost gave it 4.5 stars (but not quite). I listened to the audio and she narrated it herself."

Good to hear. It was one of the first books I thought of last week because it has both memoir and Canada tags. I really love the cover, so it often gets my attention when scrolling through my tbr.

[Joy D]

Nancy, The violence in A House in the Sky was not too graphic for me, and you know I am rather sensitive in that way, but it is certainly not for anyone looking for something on the lighter side.

[Robin P]

I don't own a lot in this vein, but some recent books I had tagged as Want to Read are

The Puzzler
Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History]
This Is Not a Book about Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something--Anything--Like Your Life Depends on It
Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School
The Diary of a Bookseller
Monsieur Mediocre: One American Learns the High Art of Being Everyday French

[Book Concierge]

I just finished this one today - audio read by the author - and it was wonderful. Fit the LGBT tag but will obviously fit Memoir as well
Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon

I always loved his skating and now I love HIM even more!

[Amy]

Funny, Theresa. It’s half true! The Newton Free Library and Minuteman Network is my library of choice. Today I dropped off Abigail and the Morning Miracle and Picked up An Unorthodox Match and Meg and Jo. I therefore still have 8 books out from the library, which for me is low, so they sit in a bag in my backseat. One of them is Madame Fourcade and I am almost done with that. Wish You Were Here is also in the house. So the 6… one is a Whose Your Favorite Author Book, one is a Coco Chanel read, for my remarkable person of the year. One is Woman on Fire! The others are some fun options. In the house there is a small pile of owned books for the Israel trip, under a little antique bookshelf. Like 8 of them, including my tag books. So guys, this is a lot less hectic than usual! 8 in a ready pile the house, 6 in the backseat! In two days my kid is off to camp, and I will be reading by the pool as many afternoons as possible. But you are right. It is often a mobile library with quick routine trips!

Nancy - I am gone July 7th - 18th. Anyone want to guess how many of the 8 I will knock off? They each seem quick to me, but there are two 10-12 hour flights, though those might be overnight with movies available…we shall see if I over or underestimated.

[Joanne]

@ Nancy- sorry to be "one of those folks"-Memoirs are just not something I read. But I do have a book that is tagged 4 times, however it is more a memoir of an entire family Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family. I just started it this week but will put it on hold until the 1st. And, most likely, that will be my only book for the month. I have a hard rule I keep to, PBT books must already be on the TBR shelf, and this one is the only one I got.