Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye.
The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos
Why I have it: spotted on the Goodreads Choice Awards memoir and autobiography list.
Summary: Advocate for end-of-life care and hospice nurse, Vlahos shares moving stories of joy, wisdom, and redemption from her patients’ final moments.
I’m thinking: Yes.
Swim Wild by Jack Hudson
Why I have it: heard the authors speak on The Tidal Year podcast.
Summary: Brothers Jack, Calum and Robbie have been swimming together their whole lives, and have never lost the sense of wonder and excitement that getting in open water brings. In this book, they discuss their ‘swimming feats’, from tackling the 145km River Eden to setting the world record for swimming in the Arctic.
I’m thinking: Yes.
The Pulling by Adele Dumont
Why I have it: because of Sheree’s review.
Summary: When Dumont is diagnosed with trichotillomania (compulsive hair-pulling) it makes sense of much of her life to date. The seemingly harmless quirk of her late teens, rapidly developed into almost uncontrollable urges and then into trance-like episodes. How can we distinguish between a nervous habit and a compulsion? And how do we balance the relief of being ‘seen’ by others with our experience of shame?
I’m thinking: Yes.
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I’m currently doing a memoir course (after having been a very anti-memoir kind of reader, thinking it is all narcissistic clap-trap), so am always looking for suggestions regarding memoir format or topics. How do you distinguish between one that is truly good to one that is merely self-indulgent? Is it the quality of the writing? Is it the relatability?
That’s the million-dollar question! I’m as much of a memoir junkie as Kate (women’s life writing of all kinds, really) and I think the trick is to produce something that is universal while also particular to the author’s situation. I’ve rarely come across a memoir I’d dub self-indulgent. I get frustrated if it feels like the writer isn’t letting the reader in at all (being coy or obfuscating) or is more concerned with style than with self-exploration.
As Rebecca said, it is the million dollar question! I usually read approx 20 memoirs a year. As I do with any book, I read the first chapter or so and focus on style. That’s the first hurdle! Secondly, some memoirs are simply a procedural retelling of events – there’s no emotional narrative. I bypass those, particularly if they seem to be pushing a particular point (I don’t need a lecture).
What I look for is the author’s reflections; how they describe their emotions; and sometimes (but it’s not essential), what they learnt. I particularly enjoy memoirs where the author describes something familiar but in a new way – hence why I read a lot of grief memoirs. There are elements of the grief experience that might be considered ‘universal’ but different authors describe it in their own way.
The best memoir I read last year was The Heart That Works by Rob Delaney, and before that, Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood and Found Wanting by Natasha Sholl. Each of these was engrossing – I laughed, I cried and I ached with the author and it makes me think that those words come from a slightly different place in their hearts than fiction would.
Thanks for the recommendations, will look them up. And very interesting to reflect on what draws you in and that you think ‘those words come from a slightly different place in their hearts than fiction would’.
My sister (a newly qualified nurse with ambitions to work in hospice) went to see Vlahos speak the other week and, though she’d enjoyed the book well enough, was disappointed with her in person — it was all too ‘silver linings’ (and she said Vlahos is only 30 and spoke with a strong U.S. Southern accent, which gave her an overall cutesy vibe).
Interesting! We have such an image in our minds of how an author might be and it’s weird when they don’t match it!