reading memoirs

I'm headed toward a period of time with reading memoirs...anybody recommend their favorites?

I loved Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, but it took a while to get into it. It is a long book. For some reason, reading about his youth was tedious, even though you would think it would be fascinating. Still, it is one of my most favorite memoirs.
I also enjoyed Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Seven Years in Tibet
The Loony Bin Trip

I am sure there are more. I will look at my tags.

k4k

I love memoirs but I hesitate to suggest anything under such a broad category...can you narrow it down? Is there a certain period of history? Do you prefer humor? Scientific topics? Relationship topics? Give me some more info and I'm sure I'll have some suggestions.

How about some memoirs that are very popular reading now? At least you'll be able to discuss them with others who've also read them.

Try:
1. Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert - a woman travels to heal the pain of a divorce (I liked this one less, but others seem to love it)
2. The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls - a woman's parents treat their children very oddly
3. Lucky - Alice Sebold - a woman recalls her rape while a college student
4. Marley & Me - John Grogan - a man describes life with his dog
5. A Million Little Pieces - James Frey - a man describes recovery from addiction

My personal favorite is A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz, but you might need an interest in Israel and/or Israeli literature and politics to fully appreciate it.

SqueakyChu, thank you for your list. I am putting the Amos Oz memoir on my list! k4k

I have read 2-5 on SqueakyChu's list and enjoyed them all.
Several other I might suggest are:

1. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan

If you are interested in learning more about those in the FLDS, several books came out in the last few years:
1. Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer
2. Escape by Carolyn Jessop
3. Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall

Another List:

These are the memoirs I've read so far this year for my 999 challenge here at LT. I'd recommend all but the first book.

1. The Woman Who Can't Forget - Jill Price - 2 stars - a woman has an inability to forget things
2. Loon - Jack McLean - 5 stars - a man describes wartime in Viet Nam
3. Going Gray - Anne Kreamer - 4 stars - a woman decides to stop dying her hair
4. Goat: A Memoir - Brad Land - 4 stars - a boy undergoes physical abuse at the hands of others
5. Electroboy - Andy Behrman - 4 stars - a man describes the manic side of bipolar disorder
6. The Tennis Partner - Abraham Verghese - 5 stars - a man describes a friendship based on tennis
7. The Longest Trip Home - John Grogan - 4 stars - a man describes the effect of his strictly Catholic parents on his life

By the way, I'm offering Electroboy now as a Member Giveaway here on LT.

I strongly recommend Kathleen Norris' The Cloister Walk. My review

Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks who was born and raised in Australia. After moving to the U.S.A. she worked for eleven years on the Wall Street Journal, covering stories from some of the world’s most troubled areas, including Bosnia, Somalia and the Middle East.
“Foreign Correspondenece is not about her work but about her childhood and her teen age years in Australia and the way she enlisted pen pals who offered her a window on the world and on other cultures and different history. Of course in the book there are lots of details of ordinary every day life in Australia.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Foreign...

Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight: An Africa Childhood by Alexandra Fuller who was born in England but was raised in Rhodesia by an “absented mind” mother, an “always on the go and work to do” father and with an “I mind my own business and you all can go to hell” older sister.
The book is about her childhood in Africa. There are witty passages and sad ones and a lot about Africa.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dont-Le...

My third and latest suggestion is: An innocent Abroad by Mark Twain, from which I think everybody can learn how to describe places and people in a really amusing and charming manner

Some that I recommend are:
Cukoo: one woman's true stories of living with multiple personality by Madison Clell -- interesting memoir in graphic form

Moab is my Washpot -- want to know how a funny guy got so funny?

A Circle of Quiet and the others in the series -- moving and varied series of memoirs

Darkroom: A Family Exposure
Miss America By Day
The Magic Daughter -- all three are fascinating, and sometimes uplifting too

The Moon and I: In my own words by Betsy Byars -- interesting for kids and/or adults

Wishful Drinking -- again with the funny

Bone Black

The Know-it-all: One man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world -- actually true: I laughed out loud on many of the pages

Traveling Mercies -- I am not religious but I still liked this a lot

So Many Books, So Little Time and Shelf Life: Romance, mystery, drama, and other page-turning adventures from a year in a bookstore by Suzanne Strempek Shea are both, in different ways, about everybody's favorite topic: Books!

wow, you made me want to add a "memoir" tag, now that I realize how many I have... I didn't keep (or recommend) the truly awful ones.

The best one I've read recently is The Kindness of Strangers by Kate Adie, an intrepid and rather funny BBC foreign correspondent - I was hooting with laughter at several points and overawed by her bravery at others.

Tastes differ, of course, but I find it's best to stick to memoirs by people who are famous for being able to write, rather than for having had something unpleasant happen to them and/or having been on the telly.

My rule of thumb in bookshops is to steer clear of anything that contains any of the following in a subtitle or on the cover:

"true story"
"in my/his/her own words"
"one man's/woman's"
"as told to"
"struggle"
"quest"
"abuse"
"a ... childhood"
"Provence/Ireland/South Africa/Afghanistan/Somalia"

(The usual rules against judging books by their covers apply, but if the publisher needs to press one of these fashionable buttons, the book is probably not one that would sell itself on literary merit.)

Having had my whinge, I'd better list a few I did like:

My father and myself by Joe Ackerley -- this is a great example of the "not to be published until I'm dead" category, a respectable pillar of the London literary world describing in loving detail how he spent his life picking up sailors and guardsmen in pubs, not to mention dishing the dirt on his ostensibly equally respectable father (fittingly, a banana importer).

A little learning -- Evelyn Waugh being wonderfully caustic about his early life

If this is a man; The truce by Primo Levi -- (you normally get the two parts together) a Holocaust memoir that makes you think as well as shudder

Beim Häuten der Zwiebel (Peeling the onion) by Günter Grass -- "Oh, by the way, I didn't mention this before, but I was in the SS." Apart from that rather alarming revelation, this is a very interesting look by a great novelist at how he used his experience in his novels, and how that has influenced the way he looks back on the past now.

Journal of a tour to the Hebrides -- there's no-one like Boswell. Even if you're not really into 18th century literature, it's just such fun reading his very personal and direct account of what it's like going on holiday with a grumpy old man who is also your best friend and the most famous literary figure of the age.

The autobiography of Alice B. Toklas -- not a memoir in the usual sense, but still wonderful.

(edited to try to get touchstones to work...)

I do recommend A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah - it became my most lent-out book last year. It's about a boy who became a child solder and eventually got out (really - how else would we be reading the book?)...depressing and hopeful at the same time.

Catch Me if You Can is actually more entertaining than the movie - I think if they'd included more of the things Frank W. Abagnale had done, people wouldn't have believed it!

Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's story of her time as the New York Time's Restaurant Critic. Great for foodies, interesting to see the politics of food criticism (she got a lot of flack for reviewing smaller, ethnic restaurants), and some entertaining anecdotes.

I've read A long Way Gone also it was a very good book .....but I'd like to ask what was the list of unique experiences Ishmael faced?/

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood by Kate Simon

The Color of Water by James McBride

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence by Matthew Sanford

There are many, many, many most excellent suggestions here:

http://www.librarything.com/groups/biographiesmemoirsa

>14 SylvieBoo: If you want to say that his experiences weren't unique in the way that there are thousands of others that have faced the same exploitation, I suppose there's that fundamental way of looking at things. In the same way, every memoir can be viewed through this same exact lens - a memoir of a gang member, a cheat, a woman growing up in the middle east, going through neurosurgical residency, the child of an abusive alcoholic - none of these experiences are really "unique," but it is the unique voice that gives a face and voice to the experience.

Of course, this cold also be one of those questions that's sort of a "I forgot I was supposed to read this for summer reading and maybe someone on the internet that clearly read the book will give me a list of unique experiences Ishmael had in the book so I don't have to really read it."

Honestly, it's a brilliant book - and you can knock it out in a few days if you really give it a go (it's a little over 200 pages). Or, maybe you're really just being philosophical when it comes to memoirs. In which case, there are really only 5 types of conflict when it comes to building fiction plots and we've been letting that go for thousands of years...I think we can cut people in real life for only being slightly more creative. :)

I'm currently reading Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings and enjoying it quite a bit. Another sort-of memoir that I enjoyed many years ago was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

There are a couple of books already mentioned that I wanted to second.

Angela's Ashes
Infidel
Persepolis This one is a graphic novel, but even if you are not into graphic novels, it is definitely worth trying.

I'll add some suggestions of my own.

Into Thin Air Some climbers (including the author) get hit by a major storm on Mt. Everest.
Kabul Beauty School The author starts a school to teach Afghan women to be beauticians.
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky The story of three Sudanese boys.