This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you join our journey. For November, our theme is self-empathy, particularly telling your own story.
2023 has been the year of best-selling celebrity memoirs, so you may think writing a memoir is only for celebrities. But that’s hardly true. Everyone has a story, and you don’t need to be a world-famous personality or have lived the life of the rich and famous to tell yours.
Elizabeth Owens’s My (Not So) Storybook Life: A Tale of Friendship and Faith specifically mines the everyday and ordinary for its absurdities. An Arkansas writer, Owens premises her book on the idea that her favorite literary characters, such as Anne Shirley, lied to her because she never thought adulthood would involve complicated plumbing disasters or her husband’s sketchy man cave. Along the way, though, she starts to better appreciate her not-so storybook life.
Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is arguably the most famous memoir written by an Arkansan. In it, she writes movingly about how the power of literature helped her through a difficult childhood in which she endured abuse, poverty, and racism.
Tara Westover’s Educated also profiles a troubled childhood and the power of education. In it, Westover records what it was like to grow up in an isolated survivalist family in Idaho before going on to attend Harvard and Cambridge. She is also very open about how memories of the same event can differ so widely between multiple witnesses.
Dan Santat’s A First Time for Everything: A True Story is a coming-of-age story that is tailored toward children. In this engaging, fun graphic novel, children’s author and illustrator Santat recalls the transformative trip to Europe he took as a middle schooler. He initially did not want to go due to the bullying he experienced at school, but once there, he got to experience his first Fanta, his first love, and more.
In Alex Witchel’s All Gone: A Memoir of my Mother’s Dementia: With Refreshments, the focus is not so much childhood as the difficulties that come with aging. Witchel chronicles coming to terms with her beloved mother’s dementia. It’s a heartfelt memoir that is also surprisingly funny and packed with her mother’s recipes since cooking was one means Witchel employed to bridge the growing gap between them.
If you’re a food lover, Lucy Knisley’s Relish: My Life in the Kitchen is a fun, unique celebration of the power of food. Knisley documents her life through the food she’s experienced. And as the daughter of two foodies who grew up to be a cartoonist, she does so in the style of a vivid graphic novel that includes recipes for the tasty delicacies she’s writing about.
If you’re not really into food-based memoirs and want a funny read, Are Kalvø’s The Hiking Book From Hell might be exactly what you’re looking for. Kalvø, a Norwegian comedian, feels left out when all of his friends take up hiking, so he tries his hand at the great outdoors. Hilarious complications ensue, and you get to walk in Kalvø’s shoes without, you know, having to walk in his hiking boots.
PS If you’re interested in writing, you need to attend our Come Write In sessions every Saturday afternoon from 1 to 3 pm at the library. It’s specifically for NaNoWriMo, but any writer will benefit from the sense of community, writing time, writing challenges, and free snacks!
What’s your favorite memoir? Do you enjoy writing? What have you read lately that helped you walk in someone else’s shoes? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of these items or to place them on hold.
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