<p>I just read “Three Dog Life” by Abigail Thomas and found it very interesting. (It’s about her life after her husband suffers a traumatic brain injury.) I am wondering what other good memoirs have been written by ordinary people (not celebrities or politicians). Any recommendations?</p>
<p>Not that you necessarily want to read another book about traumatic brain injury, but your post reminded me of this one. I thought Jill Taylor’s book was an excellent read and very thought provoking. Here is the TED video:</p>
<p>[Jill</a> Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight | Video on TED.com](<a href=“http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html]Jill”>http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html)</p>
<p>And Three Dog Life also reminds me of The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Year-Magical-Thinking-Joan-Didion/dp/1400078431/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316824927&sr=1-3[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Year-Magical-Thinking-Joan-Didion/dp/1400078431/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316824927&sr=1-3</a></p>
<p>Not a celebrity or politician, but famous physicist, Richard Feynman. Was and still is an entertaining read. LOVE this character:</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) (9780393316049): Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton, Edward Hutchings, Albert R. Hibbs: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041)</p>
<p>This one intrigued me: </p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Autobiography of a Face (9780060569662): Lucy Grealy, Ann Patchett: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Face-Lucy-Grealy/dp/0060569662/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316824676&sr=1-3]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Face-Lucy-Grealy/dp/0060569662/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316824676&sr=1-3)</p>
<p>Not a memoir per se, but the true story of someone’s living experiment (or rather, someone’s story of trying to do a living experiment):</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (9780805088380): Barbara Ehrenreich: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805088385/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316824767&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805088385/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316824767&sr=1-1)</p>
<p>The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks, a brilliant scholar and lawyer who suffers from schizophrenia. She’s hardly ordinary but isn’t a celebrity or politician.</p>
<p>Haywire by Brooke Hayward - a beautifully written memoir by the daughter of two legendary figures from Hollywood’s Golden Age (Margaret Sullavan and Leland Hayward). It was a bestseller 30 years ago and has recently been reissued.</p>
<p>I also liked Haywire – thought it was very well written.</p>
<p>Here are a couple suggestions.</p>
<p>West with the Night, Beryl Markham
[Amazon.com:</a> West with the Night (9780865471184): Beryl Markham: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/West-Night-Beryl-Markham/dp/0865471185]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/West-Night-Beryl-Markham/dp/0865471185)
A classic written in 1942 by one of the first (only?) female bush pilots in Africa. </p>
<p>Them: A Memoir of Parents
[Amazon.com:</a> Them: A Memoir of Parents (9781594200496): Francine du Plessix Gray: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Them-Francine-du-Plessix-Gray/dp/1594200491]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Them-Francine-du-Plessix-Gray/dp/1594200491)
This writer’s parents were pretty amazing themselves. </p>
<p>Annie Dillard: An American Childhood
[Amazon.com:</a> An American Childhood (9780060915186): Annie Dillard: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/American-Childhood-Annie-Dillard/dp/0060915188]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/American-Childhood-Annie-Dillard/dp/0060915188)
How a precocious child grew up to be a respected, much loved writer</p>
<p>Just finished “The Tender Bar” based on a recommendation for a book with humor on an earlier thread. The author is a writer, raised by a single mother, and the story is highly engaging.</p>
<p>Here are three of my favorites:</p>
<p>My Lobotomy by Howard Dully</p>
<p>Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks </p>
<p>The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls</p>
<p>An Unquiet Mind</p>
<p>I realize these are famous people but they seem ordinary:</p>
<p>I AM JACKIE CHAN and SURELY YOU’RE JOKING MR. FEYNMAN</p>
<p>oops- starbright already mentioned feynman’s- then i second it</p>
<p>West with the Night is beautifully written, having grown up in East Africa, I thought it was wonderfully evocative. Another memoir about an African childhood that I really enjoyed was Let’s Not Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller - I have her new book, but haven’t read it yet. I third the recommendation for Surely you’re Joking Mr. Feynman, even if he is famous. :)</p>
<p>An older classic I just love is Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, about coming of age during WW1.</p>
<p>Ruth Reichl is moderately famous (was a NY Times food critic and editor in chief of Gourmet Magazine), but her books are fascinating. I’ve enjoyed all the ones I’ve read so far.</p>
<p>I love these kind of books! I’m so glad the OP started this thread! Lovely list to start going through!!</p>
<p>I always liked Studs Terkel. Not necessarily a memoir, but he took oral histories of ordinary people. He had a way of getting them to reveal amazing things about themselves and the times they lived in.</p>
<p>“The Color Of Water” by David McBride. About a biracial man growing up in the projects of New York with 11 siblings and a Jewish mother. Talks about how he searched for his identity ethnically and personally. It’s really good and uplifting.</p>
<p>The Road from Coorain, by Jill Ker Conway. The story of growing up on an Australian Sheep farm. But so much more…and beautifully written.</p>
<p>I agree that Jill Ker Conway’s memoirs, The Road from Coorain and True North, are wonderful.</p>
<p>The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a great classic.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed “Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter” by Adeline Yen Mah. It’s a story of a woman whose 1st half of life was very difficult, and the historical context is very interesting.</p>
<p>From Publishers Weekly:</p>
<p>"Although the focus of this memoir is the author’s struggle to be loved by a family that treated her cruelly, it is more notable for its portrait of the domestic affairs of an immensely wealthy, Westernized Chinese family in Shanghai as the city evolved under the harsh strictures of Mao and Deng. Yen Mah’s father knew how to make money and survive, regardless of the regime in power. In addition to an assortment of profitable enterprises, he stashed away two tons of gold in a Swiss bank, and eventually the family fled to Hong Kong. But he was indifferent to his seven children and in the thrall of a second wife who makes Cinderella’s stepmother seem angelic. His first wife, Yen Mah’s mother, died at her birth, and the child, considered an ill omen, was treated with crushing severity. But she was encouraged by the love of an aunt and eventually made her way to the U.S., where she became a doctor, married happily and, ironically, was the one her father and stepmother turned to in their old age. In recounting this painful tale, Yen Mah’s unadorned prose is powerful, her insights keen and her portrait of her family devastating. "</p>
<p>I second psychmomma’s recommendation of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls! In addition, and perhaps even more fascinating, is her later book: Half Broke Horses. If anyone picks these up, read Half Broke Horses first, as it provides the backstory to The Glass Castle. I’m an avid reader and these remain my favorite books for the last year or two! Great thread!</p>
<p>I loved The Glass Castle and Half Broke Horses, too.</p>
<p>I also love Rick Bragg’s writing: All Over but the Shoutin’, Ava’s Man, The Prince of Frogtown, The Most they Ever Had.</p>
<p>“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” a memoir by Dave Eggers released in 2000
launched a stellar literary career</p>
<p>hanaviolet - I just finished reading “Falling Leaves” and recommend it highly.</p>
<p>I also second (or third) " Glass Castle". Very well written. I will have to check out “Half Broke Horses”.</p>