Algonquin Books 2010 When my brother died, I was six years old. I had come down the stairs that morning to watch a television program on Nickelodeon, Today’s Special. My mother informed me that my twenty-one-year-old brother had died the night before. I am sure I gave my mother a hug. The death of my...

Free Press, 2010 No one much cared that Uncle Eugene veered from the truth when he told his stories, particularly after a few knee slaps, window-rattling howls, and tears brought on by laugher. At eleven years old, though, I didn’t fully grasp this. During a sleepover with my cousin, my uncle launched into a bedtime...

University of Nebraska Press, 2010 Just about as soon as I began Sonya Huber’s compelling book Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir I felt a friendly kinship. I’ve been the frazzled mama hoping a mega-shot of vitamin C will stave off impending illness, and I’ve also worked as a political organizer with noble intentions—a pile...

University of Nebraska Press, 2010 What is there to think about when you are boy and the world is large and you feel limitless with energy, and life thus far is like a wild unexplored marsh of cypress knees, and every day an unscripted adventure? What is there to think about when you are a...

University of Georgia, 2009 In her book about memoir writing, Sue William Silverman begins by showing us what not to do. She takes us to the beginning of her career, as she’s sitting in writing class, facing an instructor holding up a magnolia blossom and saying, “Describe this.” Silverman complies by writing, “The flower is...

Vintage Books, 2009 Some books should be read sitting up; others are best read supine. Some are daytime books; others bedtime reading. Books addressing such topics as paleontology and comparative anatomy are almost always upright, daylight books. But I’ve been reading Your Inner Fish in bed at night. While its subject warrants the brain-thrust-forward pose...

Sourcebooks, 2010 The myth: getting a book published is easy. All one has to do is write a book. Then the book signal (think Batman) flashes in the sky and the eyes of the book publishing executives turn towards the heavens. Agents and publishing house executives respond with near hysteria, grabbing their iPhones, wanting to...

The University of Chicago Press, 2009 Anyone fortunate enough to have spent time living within an unfamiliar culture knows the exhilaration that comes with hearing a new language, encountering remarkable landscapes and architecture, discovering new foods and flavors, and visiting sidewalk stands adorned with unfamiliar fruits and vegetables. That was my experience, certainly, spending one...

Graywolf Press, 2010 At seventeen, I had a job scraping paint for $5.25 an hour. I’d jab through layers of beige, back to original blue, through the strata of decades that had accrued on the colonial houses of the town where I grew up. This was utterly satisfying, tangible work. Most days—happy to earn the...

Harper, 2009 Recently, I met Poonam Ahluwalia, founder of the Youth Employment Summit (YES), an organization that believes young people can help eradicate poverty. I asked her, “How does this work?” Ahluwalia responded, “Why don’t you see for yourself?” I headed to the Library of Alexandria, in Egypt, to meet youth leaders who partner with...

Little, Brown and Company, December 2009 A Nice, Simple Way to Make Short Ribs 1 4 pounds short ribs Salt and pepper to taste 2 teaspoons crumbled dried rosemary 3 tablespoons bacon fat 2 3 cloves garlic, lightly crushed 1 small onion, cut into half rings 3 1 cup dry red wine 1 cup beef...

University of Nebraska, 2010 Recalling the first time he heard the song “Tom Sawyer,” essayist Patrick Madden writes, “Rush became my sounding board, my tolling net, my filter for apprehending the world.” Confession: While Madden says he loves Rush for “their awareness of self, the world,” this is exactly why I never cared for them....

Hyperion, 2009 At age eleven, Kerry Cohen learned the power she held over men. As Cohen walked down a street in her hometown, a man in a truck hung out his window and whistled at her. She saw how much power a person could have over another and how she could use that power to...

W.W. Norton & Co., May 2008 After losing her five-year-old daughter, Grace, to a virulent form of strep throat, Ann Hood writes, “In the days and weeks and months that followed, I told these details over and over to anyone who would listen. Repeating them made the story, which seemed unbelievable still, real.” Comfort: A...