I was curious if anyone else was into reading memoirs. I just finished a really good one, "Change me into Zeus' Daughter," by Barbara Robinette Moss.

It isn't about trans issues but there are some great parallels, I think some of the women here would definitely find some things in it they could relate to personally (at least on an emotional level). There is a lot of emphasis on beauty and looks. The author grew up in a very poor family and suffered from being malnourished as a child, this caused her not to develop normally and she spent most of her life considering the idea of looking "normal" or "beautiful" and wishing that someone would see her for who she was inside.

Anyhow, I just wanted to pass along the word about a good book and see if anyone else has a common interest in these types of novels. Also I would be more than happy to pass the book along to someone else if you are interested. I personally use an online service where people give away books and can request to receive other used books from members so it's pretty common for me to recycle them this way. Not to put in a big ol' spam plug but if you are interested in the site just message me and I will let you know where to go online to check it out. The only thing you ever do is pay postage for books you mail out to other people, so it's really great for book lovers like myself... especially if you love trees as well 🙂

I would think that anyone who was a book lover would know that a memoir is not a novel.  Pretty much the exact opposite.

And my favorite memoir of all time is still Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody.  Of all the books I ever forced students to read I received more comments about that one book then all the others combined.  It's great for all the people who are always saying "Oh my life is so hard" or "help, help I'm being oppressed" to find out what a hard life is really like, and what real oppression feels like.

Quote from: tekla on January 03, 2010, 11:24:20 PM
I would think that anyone who was a book lover would know that a memoir is not a novel.  Pretty much the exact opposite.

And my favorite memoir of all time is still Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody.  Of all the books I ever forced students to read I received more comments about that one book then all the others combined.  It's great for all the people who are always saying "Oh my life is so hard" or "help, help I'm being oppressed" to find out what a hard life is really like, and what real oppression feels like.

Oddly enough I actually realized right after I posted that I used the term novel, I was just too lazy to care at the time. I also thought the chance of someone rudely pointing it out was pretty slim. Obviously I shouldn't have assumed that people were still in the habit of abiding by even the basic decorum of etiquette.

I just did a quick search for the book you mentioned. "Coming of Age in Mississippi" sounds very good and it has some good reviews as well.

I am definitely going to have to put it on my list of books to buy and read, although there are already a couple hundred on that list so it may take awhile, lol. I also stupidly made a promise to my fiancee that I would start reading through the books I already own. That should take me a good year or two. This memoir sounds great though, I may have to make an emergency exception... what she doesn't know won't hurt her. And this is a good time to do so, I think I will finish "Beloved" in the next day or two and we just got student loans. I'll let you know what I think when I get it 🙂

Quote from: tekla on January 03, 2010, 11:24:20 PM
I would think that anyone who was a book lover would know that a memoir is not a novel.

I dunno. A Million Little Pieces 🔗 [Link: amazon.com/dp/0307276902/] is a memoir that is a novel.

i truly adore memoirs, and am going to look for those. i've read quite a few- mostly about cutting or eating disorders - my favorite was Wasted, i think. Running With Scissors was good. is that a memoir? i'm not sure. but i really enjoyed it - the movie is decent, as well.

A Million Little Pieces, however definitely shouldn't be labeled that >:l that was a horrible let down!

And pretty much a total lie, as people who lived in Minneapolis told them when they read it.  There is a HUGE mistake in there.  He was a petty criminal, never the kind of major crime dude, anyone how has been even near real addiction knows what that guy wrote was total BS.  Which of course is the difference between fiction and reality.  Fiction has to be believable, truth rarely is.

I've been reading Deidre McCloskey's Crossing lately which has been a tremendous help in understanding myself. The first 30 or so pages sounded like they were taken from my life.

I just started reading Dress Codes of Three Girlhoods - My Mother's, My Father's, and Mine. From just the prologue I'm hooked and convinced it will be a great book. The author definitely has talent to begin with, but her point of view on the coming out of transsexuals is both humorous and true. She states that coming out as trans has "become virtually a national spectator sport," which both made me laugh and pause at the comparison. So true on so many levels, she obviously explains it more before and after that statement but why ruin a good line for anyone else who is interested in reading it by going to far in lol.