Best of
Memoir

1996

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio


Peg Kehret - 1996
    The book deeply touched readers of all ages and received many awards and honors. This anniversary edition includes an updated and extended Epilogue, 12 pages of new photos, and a new section about polio.

Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal


Rachel Naomi Remen - 1996
    In the form of a deeply moving and down-to-earth collection of true stories, this prominent physician shows us life in all its power and mystery and reminds us that the things we cannot measure may be the things that ultimately sustain and enrich our lives. Kitchen Table Wisdom addresses spiritual issues: suffering, meaning, love, faith, courage and miracles in the language and absolute authority of our own life experience.

Journal 1935-1944


Mihail Sebastian - 1996
    Because of Romania's opportunistic treatment of Jews, he survived the war and the Holocaust, only to be killed in a road accident early in 1945. His remarkable diary was published only recently in its original language and is here translated into English for the first time.Sebastian's Journal offers not only a chronicle of the darkest years of European anti-Semitism but a lucid and finely shaded analysis of erotic and social life, a reader's notebook, and a music lover's journal. Above all, it is a measured but blistering account of the major Romanian intellectuals, Sebastian's friends, writers and thinkers who were mesmerised by the Nazi-fascist delirium of Europe's 'reactionary revolution'. In poignant and memorable sequences, Sebastian touches on the progression of the machinery of brutalisation and on the historical context that lay behind it.One of the most remarkable literary achievements of the Nazi period, Sebastian's journal vividly captures the now-vanished world of pre-war Bucharest. Under the pressure of hatred and horror in the 'huge anti-Semitic factory' that was Romania in the years of World War II, his writing maintains the grace of its intelligence, standing as one of the most important human and literary documents to survive from a singular era of terror and despair.

Morrie: In His Own Words


Morrie Schwartz - 1996
    Sadly, Morrie died before the book was published. A year later,though, a former student of Morrie's, Mitch Albom, wrote Tuesdays withMorrie, chronicling Morrie's impact on his life. This book is, as the title says, Morrie in his own words, his invaluable legacy to us all.

Love, Lucy


Lucille Ball - 1996
    The legendary star of the classic sitcom I Love Lucy was at the pinnacle of her success when she sat down to record the story of her life. No comedienne had made America laugh so hard, no television actress had made the leap from radio and B movies to become one of the world's best-loved performers. This is her story--in her own words.The story of the ingenue from Jamestown, New York, determined to go to Broadway, destined to make a big splash, bound to marry her Valentino, Desi Arnaz. In her own inimitable style, she tells of their life together--both storybook and turbulent; intimate memories of their children and friends; wonderful backstage anecdotes; the empire they founded; the dissolution of their marriage. And, with a heartfelt happy ending, her enduring marriage to Gary Morton.Here is the lost manuscript that her fans and loved ones will treasure. Here is the laughter. Here is the life. Here's Lucy...

Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa


Peter Godwin - 1996
    He recounts the story of that country's violent transformation into Zimbabwe, as well as his own personal metamorphoses from privileged boy to reluctant soldier to investigative journalist. Godwin's story begins, "I think I first realized something was wrong when our next door neighbor, Oom Piet Oberholzer, was murdered. I must have been about five then. It was still five years before the real war would start." The Godwins enjoyed a typical genteel existence in 1960 rural Rhodesia, their household including a "garden boy," a "cook boy," and a nanny. Peter's father managed a wood- and sugarcane-processing plant. His mother, a rural government doctor, was often called to pronounce deaths or conduct autopsies, for which she brought along her "assistant," five-year-old Peter, who was responsible for shooing away the flies. Godwin's plans for attending college were squashed when he was drafted into the Rhodesian army and assigned to the "Anti-Terrorist Unit," which proved to be an important experience in his life. When he later looked at himself, he saw a man "coursed through with anger and despair. It was the face of someone who would kill an unarmed civilian for withholding information." Disturbed by what he had become, Godwin left Rhodesia after he got out of the army, only to return in 1981 as a journalist. Rhodesia was now Zimbabwe, and the "terrorists" he had reluctantly fought against were now the country's rulers. Godwin reported on theutterbrutalities in Zimbabwe and the fate of Matabeleland, a black minority region in Zimbabwe. He described the army style of interrogation, in which "before they even began to question you, they would break one wrist," and wrote about the old mines where bodies of the dead were buried. When Godwin's writings received worldwide attention, the Zimbabwean government tried to discredit him, and he received numerous death threats, escaping the country just hours before the police came looking for him. Mukiwa is not only a memoir but also a compelling adventure story that tells a personal saga that needs to be heard.

Heaven's Coast: A Memoir


Mark Doty - 1996
    His reputation as a poet of formidable talent is growing, he enjoys his work as a college professor and, perhaps most importantly, he is deeply in love with his partner of many years, Wally Roberts. The harmonious existence these two men share is shattered, however, when they learn that Wally has tested positive for the HIV virus. From diagnosis to the initial signs of deterioration to the heartbreaking hour when Wally is released from his body's ruined vessel, Heaven's Coastis an intimate chronicle of love, its hardships, and its innumerable gifts. We witness Doty's passage through the deepest phase of grief -- letting his lover go while keeping him firmly alive in memory and heart -- and, eventually beyond, to the slow reawakening of the possibilities of pleasure. Part memoir, part journal, part elegy for a life of rare communication and beauty, Heaven's Coast evinces the same stunning honesty, resplendent descriptive power and rapt attention to the physical landscape that has won Doty's poetry such attention and acclaim.

Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood


bell hooks - 1996
    A memoir of ideas and perceptions, Bone Black shows the unfolding of female creativity and one strong-spirited child's journey toward becoming a writer. She learns early on the roles women and men play in society, as well as the emotional vulnerability of children. She sheds new light on a society that beholds the joys of marriage for men and condemns anything more than silence for women. In this world, too, black is a woman's color—worn when earned—daughters and daddies are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are often given something to cry about. hooks finds good company in solitude, good company in books. She also discovers, in the motionless body of misunderstanding, that writing is her most vital breath.

Still Life With Rice: A Young American Woman Discovers the Life and Legacy of Her Korean Grandmother


Helie Lee - 1996
    Petersburg Times) this is a radiant and engaging story about a young American woman’s discovery about the life of her Korean grandmother.Helie Lee’s grandmother, Hongyong Baek, came of age in a unified but socially repressive Korea, where she was taught the roles that had been prescribed for her: obedient daughter, demure wife, efficient household manager. Ripped from her home first during the Japanese occupation and again during the bloody civil war that divided her country, Hongyong fought to save her family by drawing from her own talents and values. Over the years she proved her spirit indomitable, providing for her husband children by running a successful restaurant, building a profitable opium business, and eventually becoming adept at the healing art of ch’iryo. When she was forced to leave her country, she moved her family to California, where she reestablished her ch’iryo practice. Writing in her grandmother’s voice, Helie Lee recreates an individual experience in a unique culture that is both seductively exotic and strangely familiar. With wit and verve, she claims her own Korean identity and illuminates the intricate experiences of Asian-American women in this century.

Angela's Ashes


Frank McCourt - 1996
    This is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic."When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." So begins the Pulitzer Prize winning memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies. Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness. Angela's Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.

Even the Stars Look Lonesome


Maya Angelou - 1996
    In her unique, spellbinding way, she re-creates intimate personal experiences and gives us her wisdom on a wide variety of subjects. She tells us how a house can both hurt its occupants and heal them. She talks about Africa. She gives us a profile of Oprah. She enlightens us about age and sexuality. She confesses to the problems fame brings and shares with us the indelible lessons she has learned about rage and violence. And she sings the praises of sensuality.

Drinking: A Love Story


Caroline Knapp - 1996
    Caroline Knapp describes how the distorted world of her well-to-do parents pushed her toward anorexia and alcoholism. Fittingly, it was literature that saved her: she found inspiration in Pete Hamill's 'A Drinking Life' and sobered up. Her tale is spiced up with the characters she has known along the way. A journalist describes her twenty years as a functioning alcoholic, explaining how she used alcohol to escape personal relationships and the realities of life until a series of personal crises forced her to confront her problem.

The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the Lodz Ghetto


Dawid Sierakowiak - 1996
    In politics there's absolutely nothing new. Again, out of impatience I feel myself beginning to fall into melancholy. There is really no way out of this for us." This is Dawid Sierakowiak's final diary entry. Soon after writing it, the young author died of tuberculosis, exhaustion, and starvation―the Holocaust syndrome known as "ghetto disease." After the liberation of the Lodz Ghetto, his notebooks were found stacked on a cookstove, ready to be burned for heat. Young Sierakowiak was one of more than 60,000 Jews who perished in that notorious urban slave camp, a man-made hell which was the longest surviving concentration of Jews in Nazi Europe. The diary comprises a remarkable legacy left to humanity by its teenage author. It is one of the most fastidiously detailed accounts ever rendered of modern life in human bondage. Off mountain climbing and studying in southern Poland during the summer of 1939, Dawid begins his diary with a heady enthusiasm to experience life, learn languages, and read great literature. He returns home under the quickly gathering clouds of war. Abruptly Lodz is occupied by the Nazis, and the Sierakowiak family is among the city's 200,000 Jews who are soon forced into a sealed ghetto, completely cut off from the outside world. With intimate, undefended prose, the diary's young author begins to describe the relentless horror of their predicament: his daily struggle to obtain food to survive; trying to make reason out of a world gone mad; coping with the plagues of death and deportation. Repeatedly he rallies himself against fear and pessimism, fighting the cold, disease, and exhaustion which finally consume him. Physical pain and emotional woe hold him constantly at the edge of endurance. Hunger tears Dawid's family apart, turning his father into a thief who steals bread from his wife and children. The wonder of the diary is that every bit of hardship yields wisdom from Dawid's remarkable intellect. Reading it, you become a prisoner with him in the ghetto, and with discomfiting intimacy you begin to experience the incredible process by which the vast majority of the Jews of Europe were annihilated in World War II. Significantly, the youth has no doubt about the consequence of deportation out of the ghetto: "Deportation into lard," he calls it. A committed communist and the unit leader of an underground organization, he crusades for more food for the ghetto's school children. But when invited to pledge his life to a suicide resistance squad, he writes that he cannot become a "professional revolutionary." He owes his strength and life to the care of his family.

Ask Dr. Mueller: The Writings of Cookie Mueller


Cookie Mueller - 1996
    Mueller captures the glamour and grittiness of Cookie Mueller?s life and times. Here are previously unpublished stories - wacky as they are enlightening - along with favorites from Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black and other publications. Also the best of Cookie?s art columns from Details magazine, and the funniest of her advice columns from the East Village Eye, on everything from homeopathic medicine to how to cut your cocaine with a healthy substance. This collection is as much an autobiography as it is a map of downtown New York in the early ?80s - that moment before Bright Lights, Big City, before the art world exploded, before New York changed into a yuppie metropolis, while it still had a glimmer of bohemian life.

The Angela's Ashes/'Tis Boxed Set


Frank McCourt - 1996
    From the heartwrenching times young Frank spent in the slums of Ireland to his struggle for the American dream as an impoverished immigrant, readers can now have both of McCourt's remarkable memoirs conveniently combined in one elegant package.

My Sergei: A Love Story


Ekaterina Gordeeva - 1996
    The Olympic gold medalist offers an account of her life with her skating partner and husband, Sergei Grinkov, from their first introduction and successive skating championships, to their marriage, to the fatal heart attack that took Sergei's life.

Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now


Jan Wong - 1996
    A true believer--and one of only two Westerners permitted to enroll at Beijing University--her education included wielding a pneumatic drill at the Number One Machine Tool Factory. In the name of the Revolution, she renounced rock & roll, hauled pig manure in the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting to the United States. She also met and married the only American draft dodger from the Vietnam War to seek asylum in China.Red China Blues is Wong's startling--and ironic--memoir of her rocky six-year romance with Maoism (which crumbled as she became aware of the harsh realities of Chinese communism); her dramatic firsthand account of the devastating Tiananmen Square uprising; and her engaging portrait of the individuals and events she covered as a correspondent in China during the tumultuous era of capitalist reform under Deng Xiaoping. In a frank, captivating, deeply personal narrative she relates the horrors that led to her disillusionment with the "worker's paradise." And through the stories of the people--an unhappy young woman who was sold into marriage, China's most famous dissident, a doctor who lengthens penises--Wong reveals long-hidden dimensions of the world's most populous nation.In setting out to show readers in the Western world what life is like in China, and why we should care, she reacquaints herself with the old friends--and enemies of her radical past, and comes to terms with the legacy of her ancestral homeland.

The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child


Francisco Jiménez - 1996
    As it moves from one labor camp to the next, the little family of four grows into ten. Impermanence and poverty define their lives. But with faith, hope, and back-breaking work, the family endures.

The Waterfront Journals


David Wojnarowicz - 1996
    Written as short monologues, each of these powerful, early works of autobiographical fiction is spoken in the voice of a character he stumbles upon during travels throughout America.

Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You


Sue William Silverman - 1996
    From age four to eighteen, Sue William Silverman was repeatedly sexually abused by her father, an influential government official and successful banker. Through her eyes, we see an outwardly normal family built on a foundation of horrifying secrets that long went unreported, undetected, and unconfessed.

Rewrites


Neil Simon - 1996
    Today he is recognized not only as the most successful American playwright of all time, but also as one of the greatest. More than the humor, however, it is the humanity of Neil Simon's vision that has made him America's most beloved playwright and earned him such enduring success. Now, in Rewrites, he has written a funny, deeply touching memoir, filled with details and anecdotes of the writing life and rich with the personal experiences that underlie his work.Since Come Blow Your Horn first opened on Broadway in 1960, few seasons have passed without the appearance of another of his laughter-filled plays, and indeed on numerous occasions two or more of his works have been running simultaneously. But his success was something Neil Simon never took for granted, nor was the talent to create laughter something that he ever treated carelessly: it took too long for him to achieve the kind of acceptance -- both popular and critical -- that he craved, and the path he followed frequently was pitted with hard decisions.All of Neil Simon's plays are to some extent a reflection of his life, sometimes autobiographical, other times based on the experiences of those close to him. What the reader of this warm, nostalgic memoir discovers, however, is that the plays, although grounded in Neil Simon's own experience, provide only a glimpse into the mind and soul of this very private man.In Rewrites, he tells of the painful discord he endured at home as a child, of his struggles to develop his talent as a writer, and of his insecurities when dealing with what proved to be his first great success -- falling in love. Supporting players in the anecdote-filled memoir include Sid Caesar, Jerry Lewis, Walter Matthau, Robert Redford, Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, Maureen Stapleton, George C. Scott, Peter Sellers, and Mike Nichols. But always at center stage is his first love, his wife Joan, whose death in the early seventies devastated him, and whose love and inspiration illuminate this remarkable and revealing self-portrait. Rewrites is rich in laughter and emotion, and filled with the memories of a sometimes sweet, sometimes bittersweet life.

Geography of the Heart: A Memoir


Fenton Johnson - 1996
    With grace and affectionate humor, he follows their relationship from their first meeting through Larry's death. "I'm so lucky, " his lover told him repeatedly, even as he was confronting HIV. "Denial, pure and simple, " Johnson told himself, "until our third and final trip to Paris, where on our last night in the city we sat together in the courtyard of the Picasso Museum. There I turned to him and said 'I'm so lucky, ' and it was as if the time allotted to him to teach me this lesson, the time allotted to me to learn it had been consumed, and there was nothing left but the facts of things to play out."

Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk


Marc Parent - 1996
    Why does an infant die of malnutrition? Why does an eight-year-old hold a knife to his brother's throat? Or a mother push her cherished daughter twenty-three floors to her death? Marc Parent, a city caseworker, searched the streets--and his heart--for the answers, and shares them in this powerful, vivid, beautifully written book.WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR

Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey


David Horowitz - 1996
    Originally a radical socialist, the current driving force behind the rise of the Hollywood right recounts how he moved from one set of political convictions to another over the course of thirty years, and challenges readers to consider how they came by their own convictions.

The Cloister Walk


Kathleen Norris - 1996
    John's Abbey in Minnesota. Part record of her time among the Benedictines, part meditation on various aspects of monastic life, The Cloister Walk demonstrates, from the rare perspective of someone who is both an insider and outsider, how immersion in the cloistered world -- its liturgy, its ritual, its sense of community -- can impart meaning to everyday events and deepen our secular lives. In this stirring and lyrical work, the monastery, often considered archaic or otherworldly, becomes immediate, accessible, and relevant to us, no matter what our faith may be.* A New York Times bestseller for 23 weeks* A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Never in a Hurry: Essays on People and Places


Naomi Shihab Nye - 1996
    Instead she travels the world at an observant pace, talking to strangers and introducing readers to an endearing assemblage of eccentric neighbors, Filipina faith healers, dry-cleaning proprietors, and other quirky characters.A Palestinian-American who lives in a Mexican-American neighborhood, Nye speaks for the mix of people and places that can be called the American Experience. From St. Louis, the symbolic Gateway to the West, she embarks on a westward migration to examine America, past and present, and to glimpse into the lives of its latest outsiders--illegal immigrants from Mexico and troubled inner-city children.In other essays Nye ventures beyond North America's bounds, telling of a year in her childhood spent in Palestine and of an adulthood filled with cross-cultural quests. Whether recounting the purchase of a car on the island of Oahu or a camel-back ride through India's Thar Desert, Nye writes in wry, refreshing tones about themes that transcend borders and about the journey that remains the greatest of all--the journey from outside to in as the world enters each one of us, as we learn to see.

Between the Dreaming and the Coming True: The Road Home to God


Robert Benson - 1996
    For those who have questioned their Christian faith, Robert Benson offers an account of his sojourn in a season of trouble and his journey back to God. In this spiritual self-portrait, Benson's experiences--battling depression and re-examining the deep Christian faith in which he has been immersed since childhood--become poignant testament of one believer's struggle with the mysteries of faith's road.

First Comes Love


Marion Winik - 1996
    A New York Times Notable Book of the Year   When Marion Winik fell in love with Tony Heubach during a wild Mardi Gras in New Orleans, her friends shook their heads.  For starters, she was straight and he was gay.  But Marion and Tony's impossible love turned out to be true enough to produce a marriage and two beautiful sons, true enough to weather drug addiction, sexual betrayal, and the AIDS that would kill Tony at the age of thirty-seven, twelve years after they met.    In a memoir heartbreaking and hilarious by turns, Marion Winik tells a story that is all more powerful for the way in which it defies easy judgments.  As it charts the trajectory of a marriage so impossible that it became inevitable, First Comes Love reminds us—poignantly indelibly—that every story is a special case.

7 Miles a Second


David Wojnarowicz - 1996
    The graphic novel depicts Wojnarowicz’s childhood of prostitution and drugs on the streets of Manhattan, through his adulthood living with AIDS, and his anger at the indifference of government and health agencies. Originally published as a comic book in 1996 by DC’s Vertigo Comics, an imprint best-known for horror and fantasy material such as The Sandman, 7 Miles a Second was an instant critical success, but struggled to find an audience amongst the typical Vertigo readership. It has become a cult classic amongst fans of literary and art comics, just as Wojnarowicz’s influence and reputation have widened in the larger art world. Romberger and Van Cook’s visuals give stunning life to Wojnarowicz’s words, blending the gritty naturalism of Lower East Side street life with a hallucinatory, psychedelic imagination that takes perfect advantage of the comics medium. This new edition will finally present the artwork as it was intended: oversized, and with Van Cook’s elegant watercolors restored. It also includes several new pages created for this edition.

Don't Leave Me This Way: Or When I Get Back on My Feet You'll Be Sorry


Julia Fox Garrison - 1996
    . .You get up, fix breakfast for your three-year-old son, drive yourself to work -- a day like any other. You're running late for a meeting, and as you hurry down the hall, the light is getting brighter and brighter, and suddenly your vision explodes and . . . you're gone.When you wake up, you're in a hospital bed. You can't talk, move your left side, or get out of bed. You can't comb your own hair, much less walk to the bathroom. You've had a massive brain hemorrhage. Your doctors tell you you're lucky to be alive. Even though they don't know the cause of your hemorrhage, they tell you whatever it is, it's incurable and you'll most likely die. But then they tell you the good news: If you do live and manage to get into a wheelchair, at least you can always find parking.Julia Fox Garrison refused to listen to the professionals she called Dr. Jerk, Dr. Panic, and Nurse Doom. She clung to the advice of the kind and gifted Dr. Neuro, who told her "I have to treat your mind as well as your body." After many months in the hospital and then rehab, after coping with the shock of learning what had caused her stroke, and with the help of family and friends and her own indomitable spirit, Julia not only got into a wheelchair, she got back out and learned to walk again.Funny, touching, and profoundly moving, Don't Leave Me This Way is the true story of a woman's fight for her life -- and for her dignity -- as she struggles to overcome the debilitating effects of her stroke. She battles an entrenched medical community with wit and grit, challenging her doctors to always remember that she's a human being and to think beyond the pages of their textbooks and show her the encouragement and optimism that she knows is going to make the difference between life and death.

I Am Not Your Victim: Anatomy of Domestic Violence


Beth Sipe - 1996
    Her story is followed by seven commentaries by experts in the field. They discuss the causes and process of spousal abuse, reasons why battered women stay, and the dynamic consequences of domestic violence.

Prospect


Anne Truitt - 1996
    In Prospect, Truitt looks at the far end of her life

Second Sight


Judith Orloff - 1996
    As Dr Orloff tells you her own story, she will teach you how to recognise psychic experiences in everyday life, awaken your own clairvoyance with mind-empowering exercises, & use meditation, dream interpretation & prayer to broaden your possibilities.

A Croft in the Hills


Katharine Stewart - 1996
    A couple and their young daughter, fresh from life in the town, struggle to get the work done and make ends meet in an environment that is, at times, hard and unforgiving.

Patient: The True Story of a Rare Illness


Ben Watt - 1996
    He didn’t leave for two and a half months. Watt had developed a rare life-threatening disease that initially baffled doctors. By the time he was allowed home, his ravaged body was forty-six pounds lighter and he was missing most of his small intestine. Watt injects pathos and humor into his medical nightmare, writing about his childhood, reflecting on his family and on his shared life with band member and partner Tracey Thorn. The result is a provocative and affecting memoir about life, illness, and survival.

The Defiant: A True Story of Escape, Survival & Resistance


Shalom Yoran - 1996
     The Defiant , his memoir, is the account of a young man who refused to yield to the German onslaught and chose instead to become a Jewish resistance fighter. Chronicling the bravery of a small group of men and women who carried on a forest war, this extraordinary book sheds light on events that few know of in this country.

Writing the Memoir


Judith Barrington - 1996
    It covers everything from questions of truth and ethics to questions of craft and the crucial retrospective voice. An appendix provides information on legal issues.Judith Barrington, an award-winning memoir writer and acclaimed writing teacher, is attuned to the forces, both external and internal, that work to stop a writer; her tone is respectful of the difficulties and encouraging of taking risks. Her nimble prose, her deep belief in the importance of this genre, and her delight in the rich array of memoirists writing today make this book more than the typical "how-to" creative writing book. In this second edition the author has added new material and reflects on issues raised since Writing the Memoir was written, early in the memoir boom."No student of memoir writing could fail to learn from this wise, pragmatic, and confiding book. One hears on every page the voice of an intelligent and responsive teacher, with years of thinking about memoir behind her."--Vivian GornickJudith Barrington is the author of Lifesaving: A Memoir and numerous individual memoirs which have been published in literary magazines and anthologies. She is the author of three volumes of poetry: Trying to Be an Honest Woman, History and Geography, and Horses and the Human Soul (forthcoming in 2002). She has taught creative writing for the past twenty years.

Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story


Mark Matousek - 1996
    A brave, beautiful and brilliantly observed work.--Publishers Weekly, starred review.

The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa


Neil Peart - 1996
    12 photos.

The Real Police: Stories from the Crescent City


James S. Prine - 1996
    America's most exotic and romantic city. Offbeat stories and comments from patrolmen, narcs, detectives, deputy sheriffs and state troopers are mixed with little known facts, forming a spicy Creole gumbo. As one NOPD old-timer remarked, "Some of these stories will make you laugh out loud. Others will bring tears to your eyes. Written by veteran cop, James Prine, The Real Police is not for the squeamish, and it cheerfully thumbs its nose at 'political correctness.' These true stories are the part of police work cops usually keep to themselves. If you're a street cop, or if you've ever wanted to be one... this book is for you.

On a Street Called Easy, in a Cottage Called Joye


Gregory White Smith - 1996
    They'd just finished their Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Jackson Pollack, and were fed up with apartment life in New York City. What better means of escape could there be than the Xanadu-like pleasure palace built by robber baron William C. Whitney a century before? The asking price was a bit steep, of course, and the leaks, the falling plaster, the non-existent heating and air conditioning, and the nineteenth-century plumbing were a bit daunting. But Smith and Naifeh were hooked - and nothing would stop them.In writing of their three-year struggle to transform their "handyman special from hell" into a home while at the same time adjusting to the small-town rhythms of Aiken, South Carolina, they bring to life an unforgettable cast of characters - the neighbors, craftsmen, merchants, and friends who helped turn a town into a hometown. . . and a dream into a reality.

Drops of This Story


Suheir Hammad - 1996
    Drops of This Story is her young soul in words. Readers will feel the growing pains of this young woman as she tries to write herself into existence.

Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life


Joan Tollifson - 1996
    She embraces Zen Buddhism and then a very bare-bones spirituality that has no form. Bare-Bones Meditation reveals the inner process of the mind in a new way, and Tollifson's account is beautifully written--intense and from the heart.

Coming of Age With Elephants: A Memoir


Joyce Poole - 1996
    The educational and inspirational biography of Joyce Poole describes the life of a courageous woman who struggled with loneliness, sexism, and the threat of bandit-poachers to make her contribution to the conservation of the endangered African elephant.

The Longing for Home: Reflections at Midlife


Frederick Buechner - 1996
    As a word, it not only recalls the place that we grew up in and that had much to do with the people we eventually became, but also points ahead to the home that, in faith, we believe awaits us at life's end. Writing at the approach of his seventieth birthday, he describes, both in prose and in a group of poems, the one particular house that was most precious to him as a child, the books he read there, and the people he loved there. He speaks also of the lifelong search we are all engaged in to make a new home for ourselves and for our families, which is at the same time a search to find something like the wholeness and comfort of home with ourselves. As he turns his attention to our dreams of the heavenly home still to come, he sees it as both hallowing and fulfilling the charity and the peach of our original home.Writing with warmth, wisdom, and compelling eloquence, Frederick Buechner once again enables us to see more deeply into the secret places of our hearts. The Longing for Home will help to bring clarity and guidance to anyone who searches for meaning in a world that all too often seems meaningless.

Scent of Dried Roses


Tim Lott - 1996
    In this extraordinarily moving exploration of his parents' lives, his mother's inexplicable suicide in her late fifties and his own bouts of depression, Tim Lott conjures up the pebble-dashed home of his childhood and the rapidly changing landscape of postwar suburban England. It is a story of grief, loss and dislocation, yet also of the power of memory and the bonds of family love.

Stay Here with Me: A Memoir


Robert Olmstead - 1996
    Authentic, intimate, and intense, Stay Here with Me is about growing up and leaving home and about the acts of rebellion that free the body even as they bind the soul to a place forever.

Living History: A Memoir


Chaim Herzog - 1996
    Now he gives readers a candid and acutely observant account of that life in all its historic and personal richness. Uniquely qualified to put a human face on history, Herzog provides insights into the people with whom he has played a part in the creation of that history. b&w photos.

White on White: Selections from the Works of E.B. White


E.B. White - 1996
    (see p. S2, S5, S6) E.B. White and his way with words has become legendary.Read and personally introduced by E.B. White's son, Joel White (1931-1997), this unique recording includes Letter to the IRS, Once More to the Lake, The Ring of Time, The Sea and the Wind, excerpts from best-loved essays in One Man's Meat, and more. 2 hours.

Muriel Foster's Fishing Diary


Muriel Foster - 1996
    Her fascinating illustrated log, continued for 35 years and first published long before today's resurgence of enthusiasm for fly-fishing, is a unique addition to the literature. More than 400 sketches and watercolors of fish, lures, birds, and other wildlife, complement Foster's insights and poetry.

Alive and Kicking!


Rolf Benirschke - 1996
    Drafted by the LA Raiders in 1977, the 334th player out of 335, Rolf was a twenty-two-year-old rookie from UC Davis - a Division II school. Soon traded to his home team, the San Diego Chargers, Rolf was in the unenviable position of being a rookie on the last-placed team in the NFL. That first season with the Chargers, Rolf broke the team record kicking twelve consecutive field goals.. September 1978, at a Monday Night Football cookout at the home of the Chargers' equipment manager, Rolf experienced his first pangs of the ulcerative colitis which would bring him near death. Assailed by severe cramps and a fever, believing he just had the flu, Rolf took the field the following Sunday against the Raiders. But when his symptoms persisted and tests were conducted, it was concluded that the young kicker was suffering from Crohn's disease. As Rolf's fame as a kicker grew to the point where he had converted 34 of his last 38 kicks, his condition worsened. But with support from his coaching staff and the public, he continued to play. Finally, during a return flight to San Diego fresh from a loss to the New England Patriots, Rolf collapsed. Rushed from the plane to the hospital, Rolf began the series of tests and treatments that led to the correct diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and to the four surgeries which saved his life. October 18, 1979. Two surgeries later, at 124 pounds, Rolf returned to Charger Stadium to the cheers of his teammates and a standing ovation by 52,000 Charger fans, to co-captain a game with Louie Kelcher. Uncertain of whether or not he could make it to mid-field for the coin toss, Rolf was reassured by Kelcher, "...if you can't make it, I'll carry you!" Kelcher didn't have to carry him, but he did hold Rolf's hand. September 7, 1980, less than a year after Rolf almost died from inflammatory bowel disease, the Chargers opened a new season in Seattle. Wearing two ostomy devices, Rolf joined them, returning to professional football. He went public with his disorder thus bringing about a greater understanding and acceptance of the disease with which he was afflicted. And he set the example for other ostomy patients, playing seven more seasons in the NFL and becoming one of the best and most respected kickers in NFL history. Well known for his generosity of spirit, Rolf began the Kicks for Critters program to support the San Diego Zoo's Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species, he has worked tirelessly for the United Way, and he is a great supporter of the annual San Diego Chargers Blood Drive begun originally in support of him. Marriage, the birth of his daughter, adoption of two brothers from Russia, and a successful business career followed Rolf's years with the NFL. He created the Great Comebacks program which each year honors a person who has faced down inflamatory bowel disease and gone on to make a difference. And finally, he has written this book. Alive & Kicking is a story of faith, courage, family, friends, determination, and survival. Originally written by Rolf to encourage others with inflamatory bowel disease, it is also an inspirational story for anyone who has ever faced or who is facing the vissicitudes of life. In plain yet eloquent language, Mike Yorkey and Rolf Benirschke use Rolf's story to inspire each of us to perservere, to overcome, to succeed. And to take the lessons we learn during the process to make the most of the life with which we are gifted.

Mothers And Sons: In Their Own Words


Isabel Allende - 1996
    Captures the compelling connections between mothers & sons & translates those subtle emotions into deceptively simple photos. The sharp focus squarely on the telling facial expression or body language makes the seemingly ordinary wholly original. The famous -- among them Bill Clinton, Mary Higgins Clark, Steven Spielberg, & Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- & the obscure get the same attentive treatment. In the accompanying texts, mothers & sons reveal their most trying & their most exalted moments with candor & humor. "This is a powerful tribute in both words & images to the unique yet universal relationship between mothers & sons."

Walking to La Milpa: Living in Guatemala with Armies, Demons, Abrazos, and Death


Marcos McPeek Villatoro - 1996
    

The Lonely Other: A Woman Watching America


Diana Hume George - 1996
    It is related to two kinds of lively American writing: the revisionist mythmaking feminists are engaged in, especially but not exclusively in poetry.

Gilda's Disease


M. Steven Piver - 1996
    When the New York Times published "Research Links Diet and Infertility Factors to Ovarian Cancer," by medical writer Larry Altman, on July 25, 1989, Gilda's husband, Gene Wilder, wrote the author to ask some pointed questions. Altman urged him to contact Dr. M. Steven Piver at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.Wilder and Piver met via telephone and immediately recognized their shared common desire. From that time, they have worked together to communicate to the general public what is known about ovarian cancer. When Dr. Piver decided to write Gilda's Disease, he asked Wilder to help him by sharing what he had learned during Gilda's struggle so that others might benefit from their ordeal. Wilder and Piver have worked diligently to ensure that the material provided here is accessible and informative without being too scary. The result is a book that offers both medical and personal insights into ovarian cancer.All royalties will benefit two organizations honoring Gilda's memory: "Gilda's Club," a free, nonresidential support community located in New York City for people with cancer, their families, and friends; and "The Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry" in Buffalo, New York, which tracks women with a family history of ovarian cancer and advises them of their risk for developing the disease and methods of prevention.

Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo


Nirodbaran - 1996
    

The Ghetto-Swinger: A Berlin Jazz Legend Remembers


Coco Schumann - 1996
    From his early enthusiasm for American jazz in Berlin cabarets to his membership of Terezin's celebrated Ghetto Swngers, to surviving Auschwitz through his music, to post-war appearances with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, jazz remains a constant in a remarkable life story.

Light Years


Le Anne Schreiber - 1996
    Deeply moving, graced with subtle intelligence and humor, Light Years looks mortality in the eye and stares it down. In the background are three deaths occurring over five years--those of the author's mother, father, and brother. In the foreground are stories of certain simple elements of her life during this period--of a barn cat, impaled by a hunter's arrow, that she patiently nurses back to health; of a trout stream, whose raging waters thwart her attempt to release her father's ashes; of an overgrown acre that stubbornly refuses to be tamed.Gradually, she traces the impact of these deaths on her understanding of such basic concepts as home, time, and territory, and her own textured past. Searching throughout this remarkable book for this-worldly sources of consolation, she finds them in unexpected places: long swims, a dream, an ancient oak, a book on Einstein, the view from a nearby hilltop.Light Years bears witness to the shock of death, but even more to a vital and questing inner life, a rare triumph of understanding, and the discovery of vast open horizons, only light years away. This unforgettable memoir is filled with light.

Family Life


Elisabeth Luard - 1996
    The book recounts the Luard family's life in a cork-oak forest in southern Spain, a snow-bound farmhouse in Languedoc or a sheep-farm in Northamptonshire. Containing anecdote, humour and curious food-lore, this book is written by the author of European Festival Food and The Barricaded Larder. Elizabeth Luard features in a TV series based upon her book European Peasant Cookery.

The Agony of the Leaves: The Ecstasy of My Life with Tea


Helen Gustafson - 1996
    Gustafson's approach to the minutiae of the tea experience is a magically macroscopic one--she makes the subject of tea come alive as a nexus of biographical detail, stories, recipes and reminiscences. Full-color illustrations.

Flying with Condors


Judy Leden - 1996
    In Patagonia, she realized her dream of flying wing-tip to wing-tip with Andean condors. This is her autobiography.

The Hotel: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Hotel


Jeffrey Robinson - 1996
    Indeed, Claridge's has come to embody the whole concept of grand luxe: the champagne chilled to the right temperature, the truffles impeccably prepared, the linen sheets crisp but soft, the silver buffed to a shine. For those who love hotels, it is the ne plus ultra of what a hotel should be. Author Jeffrey Robinson spent months at Claridge's, finding out what goes into perfection: the hours of preparation for every guest, whose needs and whims are catered to down to the tiniest detail. Hotels are natural arenas for human drama. The greater the hotel, the greater the drama. From protecting a president to feeding the Queen (one royal occasion cost $250,000), top-flight suites to backroom scenes, Robinson gives us a view few have ever seen: the workings of luxury.

Bogtrotter: Notes from a North Country Cabin


Richard A. Coffey - 1996
    

From Onions to Pearls


Satyam Nadeen - 1996
    While confined, he searched for spiritual enlightenment, finally he stopped seeking and surrendered. In surrendering, he was overwhelmed with relief and bliss.

Fake Fish: The Theater Of Kobo Abe


Nancy Shields - 1996
    Abe was also active as a playwright and a director, and from 1969 to 1980 he headed his own theatre company, the Abe Studio. In those years he produced and directed many plays, including such seminal works as Fake Fish, The Ghost is Here and The Little Elephant is Dead. In addition to performing in Tokyo, Abe's troupe toured the United States and Europe, and his plays have been produced by companies around the world.

Midstream


Le Anne Schreiber - 1996
    She wanted peace, the time to write and fish, and a chance to build into her life a different pace, different values. And then she learned that her mother had pancreatic cancer. This brilliant memoir bears witness, unflinchingly, to the wrenching details of her mother's illness and death and her own new beginnings. She brings to her observations of nature and her mother's death, precision, wonder, tenderness, speculation, and occasional outrage. Midstream is a compelling autobiography - deeply felt and unforgettable. (51/2 X 81/4, 320 pages, b&w photos)

Dancing Queen: The Bawdy Adventures of Lisa Crystal Carver


Lisa Crystal Carver - 1996
    The result? A thoroughly provocative exploration of the pretensions, joys, and absurdities of modern American life - a wildly entertaining book that will leave you dizzy with delight and intoxicated by this striking new voice.

100 Years, 100 Stories


George Burns - 1996
    George Burns's career has spanned the history of modern show business: he has starred in big-time vaudeville; in radio, television, the movies, and the recording industry; and on the nightclub stage. His books have topped bestseller lists for years. Now this beloved show business centenarian serves up a treat for his fans in a book of his favorite and funniest stories, each and every one from his own private stock. From recollections of events in his past to tales about friends and performers who have crossed his path - including Al Jolson, Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Ann-Margret, and Goldie Hawn - George Burns brings his unique, dry humor to each unforgettable story.

Pioneer Family: Life on Florida's Twentieth-Century Frontier


Michel Oesterreicher - 1996
    Northeast Florida was frontier country then, and Hugie and Oleta were pioneers. Although the time and setting of their story are particular, the theme of survival during hard times is universal. Born in a cypress cabin on the edge of the great Durbin Swamp located midway between St. Augustine and Jacksonville, Hugie knew every alligator hole, every bog, every creek; he could dry venison so it lasted without refrigeration for months, could build a potato bank that kept potatoes warm all winter, and put down a well without machinery. He knew how to cope with rattlesnakes and moccasins. Early one morning in 1925, Hugie fell in love with a tall, brown-eyed girl as he passed her place on a cattle drive. He courted this girl, Oleta Brown, with no success at first, but finally they were married in 1927.Their daughter retells their story from vivid accounts they gave of their childhood, courtship, early years of marriage, and struggles during the Great Depression. In an age bereft of heroes, the story of their courage, their faith, and their commitment provides a fascinating empathy with a time that has passed; a place that has disappeared. "One can not read these stories without thinking of Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's Cross Creek. Indeed, these stories are just as compelling. There are even Faulknerian qualities to some of the characters....The University of Alabama Press has produced yet another excellent book on Florida. Gracefully written, it offers one of the most compelling images of rural life in early 20th-century Florida that exists in print. It should enjoy wide readership." --James M. Denham, Florida Southern College, in The Florida Historical Quarterly

Swinging at The Savoy. The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer


Norma Miller - 1996
    Dancer, award-winning choreographer, show producer, stand-up comedienne, TV/film actress and author, Norma Miller shares her memoir of Harlem's legendary Savoy Ballroom and the phenomenal music and dance.

A Mig-15 to Freedom: Memoir of the Wartime North Korean Defector Who First Delivered the Secret Fighter Jet to the Americans in 1953


No Kum-sok - 1996
    airmen at Kimpo Air Base near Seoul, Korea, were startled to see landing a MiG-15, the most advanced Soviet-built fighter plane of the era, piloted by Senior Lieutenant No Kum-Sok, a 21-year-old North Korean Air Force officer. Once he landed, Lieutenant No found that his mother had escaped to the South two years earlier, and they were soon reunited. At his request, No came to the United States and became a U.S. citizen. His story provides a unique insight into how North Korea conducted the Korean War and how he came to the decision to leave his homeland.

Red Diaper Baby: Three Comic Monologues


Josh Kornbluth - 1996
    Performing Arts. RED DIAPER BABY includes three comic autobiographical monologues by performer Josh Kornbluth: The Mathematics of Change, Haiku Tunnel, and the title piece. Together, and with the author's introduction, the monologues compose a bildungsroman that is both comic and poignant. Kornbluth shows a deep affection for the wild, eccentric characters who people his universe. With a few deft strokes he paints unforgettable portraits, as true as they are funny. Together the monologues achieve real literary form and depth, as we witness a young man coming of age in a world that is anything but conventional. These monologues have a performer's personality even on the page. They read the way they play: with a delight in neurosis that turns it into intellectual slapstick--Pauline Kael.

All My Edens


Pat Welsh - 1996
    Fisher and Vita Sackville-West, this beguiling memoir takes readers on a stroll through the many gardens which acclaimed writer Pat Welsh has cultivated and loved. Accompanied by a wonderful array of vintage photos, excerpts from letters, and other memorabilia, All My Edens also includes a wealth of practical advice for gardening enthusiasts. 86 halftone photos & illustrations.

Bertice: The World According to Me


Bertice Berry - 1996
    Award-wining comedian, motivational speaker, writer, singer, TV talk show host, and sitcom star Bertice Berry combines inspiration, folk wisdom, humor, and pathos to share truths of her life and our society.

You Won't Believe This But...: An Autobiography of Sorts


Barry Cryer - 1996
    Comic material and showbiz anecdotes combine in this volume, to tell the story of his life at the forefront of British comedy.