Biography and Memoir

“The biographer's problem is that he never knows enough. The autobiographer's problem is that he knows too much.”
― Russell Baker

Biographies and Memoirs are a great way to learn about how other people experience the world. They are as varied as their writers. They range from factual histories of public figures, to reflective accounts of travelling, to very personal stories.

Check out some of our favourites.

(And don't forget you can borrow any titles from the Library)

Book List: Must- Read Essay Collections

3/22/2021

0 Comments

1. Notes to Self by Emelie Pine
“Because what my dad really taught me, despite himself perhaps, is that writing is a way of making sense of the world, a way of processing - of possessing - thought and emotion, a way of making something worthwhile out of pain.”

2. Recollections of My Non-Existence by Rebecca Solnit
“When I read, I ceased to be my-self, and this nonexistence I pursued and devoured like a drug.”

3. Elsewhere by Rosita Boland
"Our lives so often don't turn out the way we think they will. Or mine didn't, anyway."

4. The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
"To become the person someone else had imagined for us is not freedom - it is to mortgage our life to someone else's fear."

5. I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
“I can make a case that I regret nothing. After all, most of my mistakes turned out to be things I survived, or turned into funny stories, or, on occasion, even made money from.”

0 Comments

Review: Notes To Self by Emelie Pine

3/22/2021

0 Comments

"I am afraid of being the disruptive woman. And of not being disruptive enough.
I am afraid. But I am doing it anyway.”
A collection of six personal essays, Notes to Self covers topics like addiction, fertility, discrimination in the workplace, and growing up. Pine tells stories of caring for her alcoholic father in a Greek hospital, of the years trying and failing to get pregnant, of being a child in a broken family. Through her personal experiences, Pine tells the story of being a woman in Ireland.
This is one of those collections that stays with you long after you read it. Pine fearlessly speaks the unspeakable. In one of her most powerful essays, 'Notes on Bleeding & Other Crimes, she touches on women and their relationship with blood and their bodies. She unflinchingly describes periods, the shame and stress associated with them, with brutal honesty: “For three decades I have lived within a silence that declares periods too embarrassing, too unwanted, too female to talk about out loud. I have done this for so long that I almost no longer notice it. Almost."
Her style is vivid, poetic, and incredibly compelling. You will find yourself reading and re-reading her words, and then pressing them into the hands of others. Pine's essays are essential reading for women, and those wishing to better understand their struggles.

This title is available in the Library.

By Rebekah W

0 Comments

You Are What You Write

1/25/2021

0 Comments

“... it's impossible to write the whole, true story of anything. We always leave things out. We quite often put things in. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try not to, we change things. We tell the story in our own way, which might not be the same way someone else would tell it.” Michael Rosen

It has always fascinated me to think how complex and individual the books classified as 'biography' and 'memoir' can be. On the surface, their brief is simple: to tell the truth of a person's life. And yet, the telling of this truth is as unique as the speaker. Memory is imperfect, coloured by experience, evolving and rewriting itself over time. And so to tell the truth of our lives is no simple task. We cannot be objective about ourselves. We are often blind to our own preconceptions, our ideas of the world having been shaped by our environment and experience. Therefore when we pick up biographies and memoirs, we are also meeting with the prejudices, assumptions, and beliefs of the author - whether they know it or not. We learn as much about a person from the way they write - how they structure their story, what the focus on, how they describe people - as we do from what they tell us. It is not only what they include that matters, but often what they do not say. Every choice made by the writer exposes their understanding of themselves and the world. In this way, biographies and memoirs are nuanced reflections of the writer. It is a brave person, therefore, that embarks upon writing one. Or reading it.
Books from this genre range from very straightforward histories (e.g. Bossypants by Tina Fey) to incredibly personal (e.g. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig) to more abstract reflections on life (e.g. A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit). Some biographies are used to discuss wider issues, as seen in Trevor Noah's Born A Crime - a book which explores post-Apartheid South Africa through his childhood memories. Sinead Gleeson's Constellations, similarly, discusses illness and the issues surrounding female illness in particular through the lens of her own experiences. Other writers choose to employ the essay format so that topics can be thematic. The best example of this is Emilie Pine's Notes To Self - here she discusses everything from her father's alcoholism to sexism in colleges to women's relationship with their bodies.
The joy of picking up a biography or memoir, is that you often get more than you expected - and learn more than you could have imagined.

By Rebekah Wade

0 Comments