Memoirs and more ...

Teachers have been asking us for ideas about memoirs recently.  Here are some comments about several life adventures that are newly published.

A DREAM CALLED HOME by Reyna Grande is a fascinating look at the life experience of a young girl who was left with her grandmothers in Mexico when her parents came to the United States in an effort to find a better life. Eventually, she was able to join them, but circumstances had dramatically changed for her and her siblings. The parents were no longer together and once again she struggled with abandonment issues while also trying to build a life for herself.  Hard work led Grande to college and she writes movingly about that experience and her subsequent jobs and life as a single mother. Though simply written, the book is sprinkled with photos and Grande is so honest that reading it feels like talking with a close friend. While it is sometimes difficult to reflect on the narrow choices she faced, it is certainly inspirational to share in the resilience which Grande exhibits. Highly relevant to events today, A DREAM CALLED HOME received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and praise from established writers like Sandra Cisneros and Luis Alberto Urrea. Grande is a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for her earlier work, The Distance Between Us; both titles will prompt much discussion.

THE WHITE DARKNESS is by David Grann who also wrote Killers of the Flower Moon, a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award. In this new book, Grann provides background on the Antarctic adventures of Ernest Shackleton and his early twentieth-century team while focusing on a descendant of one of those original explorers, Frank A. Worsley who was the captain of the H.M.S. Endurance. Henry Worsley was so invested in his ancestor and the events related to the search for the South Pole that he led subsequent treks in 2008 and 2015, successfully following Shackleton's routes across Antarctica. Grann’s non-fiction narrative is a relatively short (160 pages), but powerful account filled with dozens of images from both Shackleton’s and Worsley’s trips. For more on this topic, see also Alfred Lansing’s Endurance or Caroline Alexander’s The Endurance. And for more real life adventure happening right now, see this New York Times' article about how two men are each trying to cross Antarctica alone.

ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW by Nicole Chung is another memoir worth exploring.  It is on my “to be read pile” and tells the story of a transracial adoptee who was born in the Pacific Northwest, placed for adoption by her newly arrived Korean parents, and raised by a white family in Oregon. Like Reyna Grande, Nicole Chung struggles with discrimination and questions about her identity and belonging. ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW received starred reviews from School Library Journal (“Purchase this must-have title”), Library Journal (“highly recommended”) and Publishers Weekly (“stunning”).  

All three titles will be on our shelves soon. Have another memoir or adventure story to recommend? Please let us know.

Indian Summer by Marcia Willett

INDIAN SUMMER by Marcia Willett is a relatively gentle read which uses multiple story lines to explore a theme about the imperfections in what it means to be human.  Archie and Camilla inherited a sprawling property in Devon, the West Country of England.  Also living nearby is Sir Mungo Kerslake, a famous director and Archie’s brother.  The farm area has been worked for a long time by two other brothers Philip and Billy, now aided by their grandson, Andy.  A renovated cottage has recently been let to Emma who has two very young children and a husband serving as a doctor in Afghanistan. It all seems very peaceful and perhaps even dull to James, an aspiring author looking for a setting for his next novel.

In some ways, the valley, filled with friends, happy memories and good food and wine is indeed restful, but there is more than a hint of violence.  Many of those characters are dealing with secrets and betrayals; others with painful recollections of love affairs and deaths.  I originally picked up INDIAN SUMMER because of the beautiful, colorful cover and the author’s reputation. I will look for more by Marcia Willett whose writing has been compared to works by Maeve Binchy or Rosamunde Pilcher, two other personal favorites.    


Escape to a totally different climate is involved in SOUTH POLE STATION by Ashley Shelby.  Set around 2004, this novel involves a community of eccentric characters (another review labels them as “brilliant misfits” or “nerds and oddballs”) who are literally forced to spend time with each other at a scientific outpost at the South Pole. There is plenty of debate about climate change and the value of science vs. art since a main character, Cooper Gosling, is at the station due to a National Science Foundation grant for Artists and Writers. Thirty year-old Cooper is mourning her brother and trying to re-ignite her painting.  Varied motivations exist for the other community members but debut author Shelby aptly (and often humorously) describes the claustrophobic, insulated atmosphere and the many rituals involved in surviving in such an isolated place. This work made me think of another debut novel, Bleaker House (although that is set in the Falkland Islands, it also involves an artist/writer finding herself), and about a young adult novel, Up to This Pointe (a coming of age story which is set at the South Pole).  SOUTH POLE STATION received a starred review from Library Journal and seems particularly timely given all of the recent news about icebergs breaking away from Antarctica.