Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

I don't believe I've ever heard that argument, though I suppose it could be true in some cases. I enjoy reading memoirs, especially those "disguised" as something else. What I mean by that is memoirs that tell a true story and include elements of the authors life and journey in writing the book. Examples of this I can think of in this category include: "On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft"  , "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants"  , "Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love"  , "The Last Lecture"  , "The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir"  , and "Lab Girl"  . To me, the aspect of memoir included in these books makes them so much more personal and emotional for the reader. I know these are REAL people with REAL stories and their books are directly linked to them as people. For me, this makes reading memoirs of this nature so rewarding. I suppose if a memoir was entirely "I did this and that..." and "I won this prestigious award..." etc, that would count as self-indulgent. I haven't read one like this so far .... whoa whoa, hold up ... I must have purged this disaster from my memory, but found it again as I was looking through my product reviews ... I actually HAVE read a memoir where the author is self-indulgent! Here: "True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray"   I'll pull out a snippet of that review for you below because it perfectly captures my thoughts:

"Renner has a serious ego, and it seeped from his poorly written words like grease. This book is a failed attempt to show how deranged his life is because of his obsession with Maura Murray’s case and the murder of another girl, Amy Mihaljevic. Throughout the book, Renner whines about his therapy sessions, psychotic episodes, disobedient son, and “fucked up” life. He claims to be the craziest bastard on planet earth, but I found him to be narcissistic and attention-seeking. His writing is so lifeless and monotonous, when he first throws a swear word in the mix, it is a shock to the reader. His use of “fuck” is so blatantly out of place, it is comical. It’s as if he is only using it to prove just how edgy he is. His use of fuck and other swear words are unnecessary and only make him look desperate to find a way to make his story engaging. After a while, all I could do was laugh at how awkward and dumb his writing was. His life is not as interesting, sensational, or fucked up as he wants to believe. He’s just an average suburban white dude, a bad father, and a childish writer. Try again, Renner."

Probably not. I like to stay in the background of my own life anyway, so I can't imagine wanting to write solely about my own life and share it with the world.... Hmmmm ... this is making me think - I suppose bloggers are writing a memoir of their life in a way. I bet there have been writers who've used their blog entries to piece together a memoir of their lives. For me though, probably not. Unless I experienced something I could write about that would take the focus off of me and me alone but still allow some of my life experiences to be included, then maybe.

Yes, I've read memoirs. I listed my most recent reads in the first question. Of those, my favorites have been: "Lab Girl"   and "The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir"  . Both I highly recommend. I further wrote about Lab Girl here: "Mental Health Nonfiction Memoirs" . As for memoirs on my to read list, I have: "Being a Beast" by Charles Foster, "Educated" by Tara Westover, "Devotion" by Dani Shapiro, "Becoming" by Michelle Obama, "An Appetite for Wonder" by Richard Dawkins, "My Brief History" by Stephen Hawking, "Endurance" by Scott Kelly, "Flat Broke with Two Goats" by Jennifer McGaha, "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed, "Hourglass" by Dani Shapiro, and "I am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai. Haha! Looking through my list and writing all those down tells me something: I read a lot of memoirs!