Ask a Bookseller: Inspiring Memoirs
by McNally Robinson - Thursday Apr 10 2008 10:00 am

Margaret writes:

I have read Hotel Rwanda (excellent), I Am Hutterite (very good), and The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier (excellent). What would you suggest?

We checked in with Kerry Harris, who looks after our Biography section, and here's what she suggests:

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller's account of her childhood in Africa. Though she grows up in a place that is at times inhospitable, she manages to find much to celebrate.

Corinne Hofmann's The White Masai is a page-turning account of her love affair with a Masai warrior she meets in a tiny, isolated village out in the bush.

Eat, Pray, Love tells the story of Elizabeth Gilbert's decision to walk away from a successful life in the States in order to understand herself better as a person. Her journey takes her to Italy, India and Indonesia, where she learns the art of pleasure, the art of devotion, and how to find a balance between the two.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby is Bauby's memoir of what happened after he suffered a massive stroke in 1995. Although his mind remained as alert as it had always been, the only muscle he could move was a tiny one in his left eyelid. He spent most of the following year writing this memoir, blinking his eye as each letter of the alphabet was read out to him.

Finally, Kerry recommends Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama. The story begins on the day when Obama, as a young boy, learns that his father has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires Obama to begin an emotional journey from Kansas to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.

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