Memoir Armoire

I’d been looking forward to reading My Fair Lazy since Jen Lancaster first announced it about 18 months ago. Her attempt to become more cultured and less reality TV-obsessed, it involves her “eating the world”, learning about wine, trying smelly cheese (and liking it!), falling in love with Edith Wharton and in hate with Eudora Welty, and learning to make polite conversation rather than getting drunk and talking about The Real Housewives of Wherever.

I have to admit to being a little disappointed that so much of Lancaster’s “Jenaissance” is reported to us after the fact, in conversations with her friends rather than a play-by-play of events themselves, and I would have loved it if she’d taken etiquette classes rather than just had lunch with a posh blogger, but she moved house, had pet problems, and was on a book tour during much of her research time, which all clearly put a crimp in her style.

Still, any book of Lancaster’s is always full of her trademark humour, and having read most of her previous memoirs, a glimpse into her world is like a visit from a very funny old friend (the Twitter transcript — the result of an Ambien + wine induced intoxication — is worth the cover price alone). Plus, it totally made me want to try some weird new food. What more do you want from a memoir?

*Thank you to Penguin/NAL for the review copy.

I first heard of Julie Klam in Jancee Dunn’s book. Any writer friend of Jancee’s is someone I want to read, I thought, and Klam’s own memoir, Please Excuse My Daughter, didn’t disappoint. A memoir-in-essays which explores her childhood as a pampered only daughter (her mom would get her out of school to go shopping, hence the title) and her reluctance to grow up and take charge of her life, Klam is funny, self-deprecating and easy to relate to. Although the true story of her Mafia-linked ex-boyfriend is a little less so… (But still completely compelling.) Her next book, You Had Me At Woof, is out on October 28, and I can’t wait.

Here it is on Amazon.

I could hate Jancee Dunn for being lucky enough to shoot the breeze with Dolly Parton (not to mention many other legends of music) but I can’t, because I loved her diary of a music journalist so damn much (and because she seems like such a nice person) Just gossipy enough and really entertaining, her memoir provides an insight into what it’s like writing for Rolling Stone, as well as a personal look at Jancee’s life. Curtis Sittenfeld has called it “smart, poignant and incredibly funny”, and I think that about covers it. Read it or be sad.

Pick up a copy of your own here (and lament that awful new cover…).

As the title would suggest, Ayun Holliday’s Job Hopper is about her inability to hold down employment for long, a history of her time flitting from one low-paid job to another in the time before she became a writer and mother. I always enjoy Ayun’s books. She comes across as fun, likeable and quirky and her love of life is obvious. The fact that she finds joy in, and even misses, this low-paid work is testament to her ability to make the most of every experience. Which isn’t to say I understand why anyone would miss waitressing… My one criticism is that the stories here were clearly written separately and then made into a book later, making it a little disconnected, with no real narrative tension. Still, it’s a good read, and I’d especially recommend it to anyone in low-paid work in need of tips to make life more interesting.

It looks like it’s out out print but there are still secondhand copies to be found.

The material of this book could have been made for a “misery memoir”: Walls’ parents were neglectful bordering on abusive and she grew up in extreme poverty, eventually triumphing as a journalist and author despite her background. But when she writes about all of this, she never succumbs to self pity (even though she’d have every right to do so). In fact, her bravely-written, life-affirming story is a joy to read, even during the rough bits. 

Get it, if you know what’s good for you.

She’s famous for saying “Does my bum look big in this?” (and writing a chick lit book of the same name) and it turns out she wasn’t joking about the body image paranoia: Arabella Weir’s latest book is a memoir, and it has a title I think a lot of people will relate to, The Real Me is Thin. From the blurb:

Written with startling frankness, Arabella unravels her own eating history in this humorous appraisal of our attitudes towards eating disorders and obesity. Not easy for someone who still can’t be alone unsupervised in a room with a packet of chocolate biscuits.

It’s out now.

Via.