Something to Read

I enjoy a good memoir… with caveats.

One, if it’s an animal-centric memoir (one of my favorite sub genres), the animal needs to be alive at the end of the book. I don’t do MARLEY AND ME books.

Two, if it’s a human-centric memoir, it needs to have a good bit of humor. Yes, I realize that 90% of published memoirs deal with the writer overcoming some sort of trauma, abuse, addiction, etc. Apparently there’s a pervasive thought in publishing that happy people aren’t interesting. But that said, I need to do something other than cringe and cry while I read.

As a result, I’m having a pretty hard time finding “grown up” books to read lately. I’ve gotten about halfway through a memoir about a Boston area dog park… it’s not bad… and have the writing guide BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott on the TBR pile. I’ve got SAVE THE CAT WRITES A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL on both audio and hard copy, though my target audience when I write is picture book or middle grade chapter book.

And I’ve neglected all of them for PENNY DRAWS A BEST FRIEND and ANNIE’S LIFE IN LISTS, two middle grade titles I’d picked up for my classroom last year as possible read alouds.

But you know what? They’re good books. And they don’t make me cringe or cry!