Blog Posts by Subject: Memoirs and Diaries

When I first requested the book The Rules According to JWoww: Shore-Tested Secrets On Landing A Mint Guy, Staying Fresh To Death, And Kicking The Competition To The Curb (deep breath...), by Jenni Farley, aka JWoww from MTV's Jersey Shore, I must admit that I felt a little bit iffy about it. The mere title and cover image alone of JWoww in a sexy schoolgirl uniform is enough to make one feel as if this book is not really meant to be taken seriously.

Walt Whitman filled the pages of Leaves of Grass with poetry exalting the lives of Americans. While out in the streets, he observed and recorded the beauty of daily life. Whitman's poem "I Hear America Singing" is a delightful example how common activities make up the fabric of America.  Within its lines, a boatman owns a part of America, and a mother's daily activities are considered divine:

Are you a Chelsea Handler fan? If you are you may like some of these books. Recently while helping a patron (at the Parkchester Library) the young woman asked me one simple question: "Do you know of any other fun authors like Chelsea Handler?" She went on to tell me that she liked the topics of her books and loved the way Handler used humor to entertain her readers. I promised the patron that I would create a blog where I would list some of these books so here you go...

I recently moved into a new apartment with a friend of mine from grade school and one of our big splurges was the magical DVR player. For someone who rarely has time to watch TV, I was given a basic lesson by my roommate in how to record shows. As we were scrolling through TV listings, I found myself announcing the shows and movies that were first published as books. And to my roommate's displeasure, I decided to record The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. 

While I may be a beginner at DVR'ing, I'm well experienced at placing holds via The New York Public Library's Catalog. Here are some book recommendations that have inspired some of 

I recently finished the memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. I have been a big fan of his dream-like novels for almost fifteen years now, having first discovered The Wild Sheep Chase at a yard sale in Cambridge, MA. I was with a friend who declared the back cover synopsis to be the worst summary ever.  Something about it intrigued me though and I bought the copy for about 50 cents.  It was worth every penny. I went through his other novels rapidly and a few of them are among my all-time favorite books (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and Wind Up Bird Chronicle). Not only are 

Selected memoirs and practical resources relating to disabilities in commemoration of December 3rd: The International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

The Sullivan family’s Christmas began in the traditional way that year. The six Sullivan siblings opened their gifts. Daddy-o made pancakes for breakfast and Ginger contributed her signature dish to the feast (sliced grapefruit halves sprinkled with Splenda).

Christmas would take an unexpected turn at the Sullivan’s annual holiday dinner with the family matriarch–unaffectionately known by family, friends, enemies, and most of Baltimore as “Almighty Lou.”

One of the Sullivans has deeply offended Almighty.

Subsequently the entire family has been cut out of her will unless the offending person comes forward with a full confession by 

I was sitting at home watching Chelsea Lately on E! one night. Right before commercial, the show cut to a big guy reading her book and saying, "This isn't funny..." as he shook his head. The book was My Horizontal Life written by comedian Chelsea Handler in 2005.

I knew I had seen that book around the library and the title always caught my eye but I never bothered with it. Luckily, something told me to go to work, hunt it down and give it a go.

You may have seen the trailers or heard about a new movie that is out called The American, starring Academy Award winner George Clooney.

However, did you know the film is actually based on a novel, A Very Private Gentleman, written in 2004 by Martin Booth?

How long has it been since you’ve checked out the nonfiction side of the teen section in your library? Here are some standout titles—you can find them with young adult biographies.

The Bite of the Mango

Mariatu Kamara grew up in Sierra Leone, where rebel soldiers and the government were at war. At age 12, Mariatu was caught in a rebel attack. She escaped—but first, the rebels cut off her hands. Wounded and separated from her family, Mariatu had to learn a new set of survival skills. Though there are bleak moments in the book, there is also a happy ending: Mariatu now works for UNICEF, an international organization that helps young people.

The film Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts alongside great actors such as Viola Davis (Doubt) and Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), is causing quite a bit of excitement as it is scheduled to be released in August. But did you know this movie is actually based on a book? It is a memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert called Eat, Pray, Love: A Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

Memoirs are notoriously unreliable when it comes to facts. So a reader needs to read between the lines to get at the truth about a subject. That's part of the fun.

How does that work with a graphic memoir? Do the drawings help you better see inside the author?

Happy New Year! And welcome (or welcome back) to The Reader’s Den, now in its second year.

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron, a former #1 New York Times bestseller, kicks off the list this year. As the years roll by, many over a certain age move into an increasingly-complex maintenance schedule, and several of the 15 essays in the book examine these efforts. If we can’t ultimately win the war against aging—as each of us knows somewhere inside—we might as well laugh at it. As you read this book, you will laugh.

The Tottenville book discussion group has been meeting since this past September. Here is the schedule:

In celebration of the National Day of Listening, the Art and Picture Collections have been collaborating with StoryCorps to produce an all-day drop-in event to consider your art and your life.

In his recent movie review of the documentary film No Impact Man, available in book form from NYPL here and in blog form here, A.O. Scott writes, "The year of doing something crazy to learn a lesson or prove a point is by now less a gimmick than a full-fledged publishing genre. Activities that would, in the course of ordinary life, count as modest or private undertakings acquire a special significance when they become the basis of book proposals. A. J.