From Bibliobuffet.com:
When I first started writing this column in June of 2009, I was a memoir novice. I had recently gotten on an essay-reading kick, and I couldn’t get enough of short-form memoir greats like the Davids: David Rakoff and David Sedaris. I loved how I felt a connection to these authors, the same way I felt a bond with my favorite fictional characters. I think of David Sedaris’s entire family—his parents Lou and Sharon, his wacky sister Amy and his artistic little sister Gretchen—as my own dysfunctional second cousins. In my early memoir-reading days, I bought the books that were featured in the store window at Barnes & Noble, but I was too busy reading fiction to give the less notable memoirs a try. Enter Bibliobuffet. Starting this column gave me a great excuse to dive into lesser-known memoirs from first-time authors and small publishing houses. Two years ago, I had no idea how much memoirs would teach me about reading, writing, and reviewing.
Before I wrote my first review, I set some parameters for the column based on my own personal preferences. Tackling the entire memoir genre felt too daunting. There are so many wonderful new memoirs released every month, and I wanted to focus specifically on these modern stories. A new wave of memoirists have become wildly popular over the past few years, with trailblazers like Sedaris paving the way. Because I had initially fallen in love with essayists like Rakoff and Sedaris from their appearances on This American Life, I was already familiar with a small pool of these modern memoir writers—but I couldn’t wait to read and review my new finds. (more)
