Today’s list of “Best Books” was contributed by Rosalind Reisner, and contains her picks for the best memoirs of the year. Enjoy!
Genre: Memoir/Coming of Age/Self-Discovery
Rachel Simon–Building a Home With My Husband: A Journey Through the Renovation of Love.
As Simon and her husband renovate their Baltimore row house, every phase recalls a part of her life and how the important relationships in her life–and ours–need to be nurtured and repaired.
Douglas Rogers–The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe.
Rogers returns to visit Zimbabwe, where his parents still attempt to run their resort, Drifters, despite gangs of thugs roaming the country, rampant inflation and food shortages, and threats to their safety. Through it all, his parents plan and hope, hatching schemes to carry on and survive.
Genre: Coming of Age
Jayanti Tamm–Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult.
Tamm grew up part of Sri Chinmoy’s cult, normal family life forbidden in order to serve the guru’s needs; in her teen years she sought an independent life and consequently suffered the loss of everything she knew and loved.
Genre: Working Life Memoirs
Julie Holland–Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych ER.
Psychiatrist Holland writes about the verbally and physically violent patients she treated and how their pain invaded her own life.
Rosalind Reisner is the author of Read On…Life Stories: Reading Lists for Every Taste and Jewish American Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests. More of her memoir picks can be found at her website, A Reader’s Place.
