Memoir Book Club
Join us for a craft chat about successful memoirs in the marketplace
Have you ever wanted to join a book club focused on the craft of writing memoir?
That’s what this is. It’s a book club for writers who want to discuss what makes a memoir work (or not) and why. We’ll nerd out on all the craft elements, such as voice, structure, characterization, themes, dialogue, and plot. We’ll look at the elements of story — drive, conflict, stakes, etc. — and we’ll meet in community to learn from each other.
Each month, we'll discuss a different memoir, pulling from classics, critically acclaimed or otherwise successful books, as well as a diverse group of authors.
OUR GOALS
We’re reading to learn. To study the craft of writing is to learn to become better writers ourselves. For some, this might mean reading the book twice. Once for the story and once for the craft. We commit to reading the book with a critical eye, paying attention to the choices the author made when writing it. What works? What doesn’t work?
We’re discussing to remember. Talking about books with friends helps us better retain the lessons they hold for us.
We’re gathering to create community. This is a safe place to connect, share, and learn.
June 11th at 5:00 p.m. PST
We’ll read and discuss MORE: A Memoir of Open Marriage by Molly Roden Winter.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - An intimate memoir of love, desire, and personal growth that follows a happily married mother as she explores sex and relationships outside her marriage.
"This book about open marriage is going to blow up your group chat"-The Washington Post
“Molly Roden Winter was a mother of small children with a husband, Stewart, who often worked late. One night when Stewart missed the kids' bedtime--again--she stormed out of the house to clear her head. At a bar, she met Matt, a flirtatious younger man. When Molly told her husband that Matt had asked her out, she was surprised that Stewart encouraged her to accept.
So began Molly's unexpected open marriage and, with it, a life-changing journey of self-discovery. Molly signs up for dating sites, enters into passionate flings, and has sex in hotels and public places around New York City. For Molly it's a mystery why she wants what she wants. In therapy sessions, fueled by the discovery that her parents had an open marriage, too, she grapples with her past and what it means to be a mother and a whole person.
Molly and Stewart, who also begins to see other people, set ground rules: Don't date an ex. Don't date someone in the neighborhood. Don't go to anyone's home. And above all, don't fall in love. In the years that follow, they break most of their rules, even the most important one. They grapple with jealousy, insecurity, and doubts, all the while wondering: Can they love others and stay true to their love for each other? Can they make the impossible work?
More is an electric debut that offers both steamy fun and poignant reflections on motherhood, daughterhood, marriage, and self-fulfillment. With warmth, humor, and style, Molly Roden Winter delivers an unputdownable journey of a woman becoming her most authentic self.”
Get the book at your local library, independent bookshop, or support Bookshop.org.
July 30th at 5:00 p.m. PST
We’ll read and discuss GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE by Sloane Crosley.
One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Year: TIME, The Washington Post, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Publishers Weekly, Paste, The Millions, Kirkus Reviews, Lit Hub, Real Simple, Nylon, BookPage, The Story Exchange, Sunset, and Zibby Mag
”Disarmingly witty and poignant, Sloane Crosley's memoir explores multiple kinds of loss following the death of her closest friend.
How do we live without the ones we love? Grief Is for People is a deeply moving and suspenseful portrait of friendship, and a book about loss that is profuse with life. Sloane Crosley is one of our most renowned observers of contemporary behavior, and now the pathos that has been ever present in her trademark wit is on full display. After the pain and confusion of losing her closest friend to suicide, Crosley looks for answers in philosophy and art, hoping for a framework more useful than the unavoidable stages of grief.
For most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, Sloane's apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place.
When Russell dies exactly one month later, his suicide propels Sloane on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the staggering toll of the pandemic.
Sloane Crosley's search for truth is frank, darkly funny, and gilded with resounding empathy. Upending the "grief memoir,"Grief Is for People is a category-defying story of the struggle to hold on to the past without being consumed by it. A modern elegy, it rises precisely to console and challenge our notions of mourning during these grief-stricken times.”
Get the book at your local library, independent bookshop, or support Bookshop.org.
Want to be notified of future book clubs?
Sign up below and I’ll keep you in the loop!