Memoir Addendum: 30 Winter and Spring Titles

By Heather McCormack -- Library Journal, 03/10/2009

Winter and early spring brought more memoirs than we could review in the magazine. This addendum to Lynne Maxwell and Elizabeth Brinkley's third set of Short Takes in the March 1, 2009 print issue presents other autobiographical works worthy of consideration. Familial dysfunction, check. Spiritual crises and medical angst, double check. Also, there seems to be a trend of almost-famous actresses having their say.

Want more memoirs? Check out the first and second Short Takes on memoirs, summing up the fall and winter 2008 lineup.

Abrahams, Kyria. I’m Perfect, You’re Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah’s Witness Upbringing. Touchstone: S. & S. Mar. 2009. c.352p. ISBN 978-1-416-55684-8. $25.
Imagine being raised to believe that everything around you will be consumed by flames. Comedian and web producer Abrahams reveals her coming-of-age as a "pioneer of the Lord," i.e., a Jehovah’s Witness. Billed as funny and poignant in the Augusten Burroughs vein.

Altman, Mara. Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman’s Quest for an Orgasm. HarperPerennial: HarperCollins. Apr. 2009. c.368p. ISBN 978-0-06-157711-6. pap. $13.95.
Representative of the desperately-seeking-X subgenre of memoirs, this time the X being, well, an orgasm. Freelance writer Altman incorporates scenes from therapy, sex conventions, and her bedroom, of course. Feminists will likely be appalled ("It took her that long?"), but just as many of their ilk have probably had the author’s problem.

Balbirer, Nancy. Take Your Shirt Off and Cry: A Memoir of Near-Fame Experiences. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Apr. 2009. c.256p. ISBN 978-1-59691-478-0. pap. $16.
Call these actress Balbirer’s adventures on the brink of the Big Time. Names like David Mamet will be dropped, and yuks are promised. Paging fellow theater strivers and those enraptured by New York City life.

Barron, Sara. People Are Unappealing: True Stories of Our Collective Capacity To Irritate and Annoy. Random. Mar. 2009. c.256p. ISBN 978-0-307-38245-0. pap. $13.95.
Comedian and writer Barron delivers "sometimes downright filthy" tales of life in Jewish suburbia and an attempted acting career in New York, not to mention character sketches of crazy people she met along the way. For the theater crowd with a lewd sensibility.

Beaver, Jim. Life’s That Way: A Memoir. Amy Einhorn Bks: Putnam. Apr. 2009. c.320p. photogs. ISBN 978-0-399-15564-2. $24.95.
Actor Beaver (he played Ellsworth on HBO’s Deadwood) survived his daughter’s autism diagnosis, followed shortly thereafter by his wife’s death from lung cancer. Collected here are the emails he sent to family and friends about both Maddie’s and Cecily’s conditions. Moving, redemptive material. See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/08.

Burana, Lily. I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles. Weinstein. Apr. 2009. c.288p. ISBN 978-1-60286-083-4. $23.95.
Former stripper and East Village punk Burana follows up her hailed Strip City with episodes from her unlikely marriage to a military intelligence officer. The War on Terror, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression all rear their ugly heads in a work that will no doubt attract other military wives and husbands.

Cadillac Man. Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Mar. 2009. c.304p. ISBN 978-1-59691-406-3. $25.
You might recognize Cadillac Man’s name from the pages of Esquire, where excerpts from his journals ran. Edited here into a memoir, they give readers a sense of both the freedoms and the tragedies of homeless life in New York City. A good complement to the documentary Dark Days.

Culkin, Jennifer. A Final Arc of Sky: A Memoir of Critical Care. Beacon, dist. by Houghton. Apr. 2009. c.248p. ISBN 978-0-8070-7285-1. $24.95.
Culkin, a critical care nurse and emergency flight nurse, adds to the ever-growing niche of "literate memoirs" by medical professionals. Like her predecessors (e.g., Patricia Harman in her excellent The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife’s Memoir), she sheds light on balancing a demanding career with a demanding personal life.

Edwards, Caterina. Finding Rosa: A Mother with Alzheimer’s, a Daughter in Search of the Past. Greystone, dist. by Publishers Group West. Mar. 2009. c.304p. maps. ISBN 978-1-55365-389-9. $24.95.
As the parents of baby boomers continue to age, the Alzheimer’s caregiver’s memoir is only going to proliferate (see Lauren Kessler’s excellent Dancing with Rose). Canadian writing professor Edwards tells hers, with the twist of a mystery involving her mother’s Italian heritage.

Eule, Brian. Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors. St. Martin’s. Mar. 2009. c.288p. ISBN 978-0-312-37784-7. $24.95.
Not a memoir technically; journalist Eule chronicles the trying paths of three female med students from the months before their crucial internship assignments (the titular "match day") through the completion of those internships. Intended as the One L for med students and doctors.

Hopgood, Mei-Ling. Lucky Girl. Algonquin. Apr. 2009. c.256p. ISBN 978-1-56512-600-8. $23.95.
Journalist Hopgood’s terrain is well trodden—until her adopted-into-America story gets to the part about her Chinese birth family’s request to reunite. For those who courageously embrace the past.

Huston, Allegra. Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found. Apr. 2009. c.304p. photogs. ISBN 978-1-4165-5157-7. $26.95.
Until she was 12, Huston knew her father to be legendary film director John Huston. Her memoir recounts the disorientation of her nomadic childhood and the shock of discovering her true parentage, all without her mother, dancer Ricki Soma, who died in a car crash when the author was four. Celebrity sickos wanting a glimpse into a rarified world, this is for you.

Isaacs, Susan E. Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir. FaithWords. Mar. 2009. c.256p. illus. ISBN 978-1-59995-062-4. $19.99.
Based on her solo show of the same name, this memoir plays out actress and comedian Isaacs’s falling out with God and their eventual reconciliation in therapy-like sessions. Heavy on the snark, but redemption as well.

Johns, Nicole. Purge: Rehab Diaries. Seal, dist. by Publishers Group West. Apr. 2009. c.250p. ISBN 978-1-58005-274-0. $16.95.
In her twenties, Ph.D. candidate Johns had an eating disorder not otherwise specified, both purging and restricting food. Readers go inside the treatment center that saved her life, experiencing therapy and the field trips with the author. If you could handle Girl, Interrupted, you can handle this unflinching work rooted in feminist self-reflection.

Knight, Michael M. Impossible Man. Soft Skull: Counterpoint. Apr. 2009. c.336p. ISBN 978-1-59376-226-1. pap. $14.95.
Knight gained notoriety when his novel, The Taqwacores, sparked a Muslim punk movement in America; this is his story of growing up with a paranoid schizophrenic white supremacist father and converting to Islam as a teenager after reading Malcolm X. A potentially massive cult book.

Lac, Juliet. Blossoms on the Wind. Citadel: Kensington. Apr. 2009. c.224p. photogs. ISBN 978-0-8065-3114-4. pap. $13.95.
Vietnamese-born Lac was one of the "boat people" who survived a horrific sinking to come to America in 1978. Her life story includes contentment found in Paris, where she began the Paris Woman Journal. An obvious choice for fans of immigrant fiction and nonfiction, especially those who appreciate the theme of women overcoming adversity.

Murphy, Terry W. & others. Life in Rewind: The Story of a Young Courageous Man Who Persevered Over OCD and the Harvard Doctor Who Broke All the Rules To Help Him. Morrow: HarperCollins. Apr. 2009. c.256p. ISBN 978-0-06156-153-5. $24.99.
This isn’t a memoir so much as an inspiring doctor/patient success tale. TV correspondent Murphy chronicles how Michael Jenike, M.D., broke through Edward Zine’s seemingly impenetrable obsessive-compulsive disorder by breaking a rule—befriending his patient.

Phelps, Debbie. A Mother for All Seasons. Morrow: HarperCollins. Apr. 2009. c.320p. ISBN 978-0-06178-001-1. $25.99.
Phelps, a single mother, raised Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps. Here, she addresses the subject of her children’s absent father as well as "the real Michael Phelps." For the swimmer’s many fans.

Pierce, David W. Don’t Let Me Go: What My Daughter Taught Me About the Journey Every Parent Must Make. WaterBrook: Random. Mar. 2009. c.224p. photogs. ISBN 978-0-307-44468-4. pap. $13.99.
Pierce, the husband of Christian comedian Chonda Pierce, tells a story of father-daughter bonding achieved via mountain climbing and marathon running. Designed to tug at the heart strings; for a Christian audience in particular.

Pipher, Mary. Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2009. c.272p. ISBN 978-1-59448-861-0. $25.95.
Readers know Pipher for her seminal psychosociological study of girls, Reviving Ophelia. Literary fame brought on a spiritual crisis that she candidly describes here in the hopes of helping others who have pondered the Big Questions. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/08.

Pressly, Jaime. It’s Not Necessarily Not the Truth: Dreaming Bigger Than the Town You’re From...Life So Far. Morrow: HarperCollins. Mar. 2009. c.256p. ISBN 978-0-06-156638-7. $24.95.
Emmy Award–winning actress Pressly (My Name Is Earl) tells a small-town-girl-made-good story, with insights into the South and her North Carolina family. Call us crazy, but we think Pressly could tap the Sweet Potato Queen market.

Rooney, Kathleen. Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object. Univ. of Arkansas Pr. 2009. c.190p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-1-55728-891-2. pap. $22.50.
Rooney (Reading with Oprah: The Book Club That Changed America) has worked as an artist’s model; this memoir/sociological investigation looks at the history of women who have posed nude in paintings, photos, and more. Pop culture and women's studies wrapped into one.

Rumberg, Hester. Ten Degrees of Reckoning: A True Story of a Family’s Love and the Will To Survive. Amy Einhorn Bks: Putnam. 2009. c.272p. illus. ISBN 978-0-399-15535-2. $24.95.
Sailor Rumberg recounts what her good friend Judith Sleavin can’t bear to tell herself—that of the horrendous 1995 sailing accident that killed Sleavin's husband and children and left her for dead. Somehow, she survived, washing up on the New Zealand coastline. A serious survivor tale not for the faint of heart.

Spelling, Candy. Stories from Candyland. St. Martin’s. Mar. 2009. c.320p. photogs. ISBN 978-0-312-57070-5. $25.95.
Candy Spelling, widow of TV magnate Aaron and mother to actress Tori, opens the gates to her lavish Hollywood mansion and life. Get the dope on being a celebrity by marriage and running a 70,000-foot estate. For the morbidly (vapidly?) curious.

Taylor, Jonathan. Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself. Granta Bks. Mar. 2009. c.288p. photogs. ISBN 978-1-86207-955-7. $29.95.
English professor Taylor captures the havoc that Parkinson’s wreaked on his late father and their relationship. Originally published in the UK; for caregivers and families dealing with degenerative disease.

Vandenburgh, Jane. A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century. Counterpoint. Mar. 2009. c.320p. ISBN 978-1-58243-459-9. $25.
Novelist Vandenburgh survived an excruciatingly dysfunctional 1950s childhood. After her closeted father committed suicide, her mother suffered a nervous breakdown. Enter the sexual revolution. For armchair social scientists and reflective female boomers.

Watts, David, M.D. The Orange Wire Problem and Other Tales from the Doctor’s Office. Univ. of Iowa. Apr. 2009. c.206p. ISBN 978-1-58729-800-4. $25.
Watts’s literate essays offer a window into the nature of the patient-doctor relationship. Followers of Atul Gawande and Robert Butler will appreciate Watts’s prose and sensitivity as a doctor and a human being.

Wisenberg, S. L. The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. Univ. of Iowa. Mar. 2009. c.160p. ISBN 978-1-587-29802-8. $25.
"Cancer bitch," blogger, and poet Wisenberg brings her serious writing chops to bear in unflinching observations on breast cancer, cancer research, and teaching. Intense stuff for tough-minded survivors and patients.

Woodruff, Lee. Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress. Random. Apr. 2009. c.256p. photogs. ISBN 978-1-4000-6731-2. $25.
Good Morning America contributor Woodruff (coauthor, with her ABC anchor husband, Bob, of the best seller In an Instant) returns with scenes from her life as a working mother of teens and a caregiver to her aging parents. Sure to appeal to career women in the 40–60 age bracket. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/08.

Worth, Jennifer. The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times. Penguin Pr.: Penguin Group (USA). Apr. 2009. c.352p. ed. by Terri Coates. ISBN 978-0-143-11623-3. pap. $15.
This memoir by retired midwife Worth is notable for its setting, the East End slums of London in the 1950s. Nuns, prostitutes, children, and dockworkers populate a story that’s billed as "a little bit of Angela’s Ashes." See Patricia Harman’s The Blue Cotton Gown and Cara Muhlhahn’s Labor of Love for other midwives’ tales.