Differently from my parents who devours them, never been much into biographies, I don't know why. Maybe this year I'll give them a try. On female non-white or non-Global North authors in my 2023 TBR list I have Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, woman, other), Juhea Kim (Beasts of a Little land) and Patricia Engel (Infinite country).
Biographies (or autobiographies) are a complete chronological record of someone's life, from birth to death. Sounds kinda dry to me, so I've never read one either ;)
On the other hand, a memoir are a slice of a writer's life, bound by a specific time period, experience, or theme, written according to the narrative conventions of fiction. Cheryl Strayed's Wild is a recent example of a commercially successful memoir, which was about grief and hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail, adapted into a film starring Reese Witherspoon.
The most successful memoirists can squeeze multiple books out of one life. For example, Mary Karr has written memoirs about her dysfunctional childhood, sexual coming-of-age, alcoholism and religious awakening—all separate books.
I challenge you to pick a memoir this year and try it! ;)
Differently from my parents who devours them, never been much into biographies, I don't know why. Maybe this year I'll give them a try. On female non-white or non-Global North authors in my 2023 TBR list I have Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, woman, other), Juhea Kim (Beasts of a Little land) and Patricia Engel (Infinite country).
Biographies (or autobiographies) are a complete chronological record of someone's life, from birth to death. Sounds kinda dry to me, so I've never read one either ;)
On the other hand, a memoir are a slice of a writer's life, bound by a specific time period, experience, or theme, written according to the narrative conventions of fiction. Cheryl Strayed's Wild is a recent example of a commercially successful memoir, which was about grief and hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail, adapted into a film starring Reese Witherspoon.
The most successful memoirists can squeeze multiple books out of one life. For example, Mary Karr has written memoirs about her dysfunctional childhood, sexual coming-of-age, alcoholism and religious awakening—all separate books.
I challenge you to pick a memoir this year and try it! ;)