Reviews of Memoirs

"Motion perfectly conveys the 'new faster time' of adolescent thinking and subtly conveys us back to his mother's tragedy with a new understanding of its importance to his entire life" - In the Blood: A Memoir of My Childhood (Andrew Motion)

"The stories of these women are wrenching and real, and now they plan to travel and speak publicly together" - Face to Face (Audrey Kishline and Sheryl Maloy)

"Feraca knows the power of a well-chosen word. She grew up attuned to language, with her father defiantly reciting poetry to her mother's cold criticism... Most remarkable, however, is her account of that pivotal moment when she took a creative writing seminar. Ignoring her disastrous marriage, she became Rapunzel, spinning straw into gold." - I Hear Voices: A Memoir of Love, Death and Radio (Jean Feraca)

"Robinson's thoughtful and thoroughly memorable account of living with Asperger's syndrome.... is much more fully detailed in this moving memoir, beginning with his painful childhood."
- Look Me in the Eye: My Life With Aspergers (John Elder Robison)

"The memoir begins with the question of why, in spite of her black sheep, wanderlust, hippie sensibilities, Hampl never left her hometown of St. Paul, Minn. In the end, the reason is clear." - The Florist's Daughter (Patricia Hampl)

A critique of one memoir read: "There is much cooking and eating but little tasting, reading but little reflection, historical markers but little involvement."

Kudos for another reads: "The author stubbornly conveys harrowing loss and hunger for renewed life with measured matter-of-factness that allows his ordeals to speak for themselves."

Source: Publishers Weekly