Like it or not, ’tis the season… Even if you’re trying to avoid it, it will arrive. It always does! So, why not plan ahead with these gift-giving ideas? Memoirs can illuminate, inspire, educate, or simply provide an escape from our own lives by dipping into someone else’s extraordinary — or ordinary — life. Here are some great Christmas gift-giving ideas in the form of an eclectic selection of memoirs.
8 Great Memoir Gift-Giving Ideas for the Holidays
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
Canadian comic artist Kate Beaton, author of Hark! A Vagrant, which ran from 2007-2018, spent two post-university years working in the Alberta tar sands in order to pay off her student loan. This best-selling graphic memoir chronicles her time working in a threatening landscape and atmosphere, where women were outnumbered by men 50-1, and the earth was being pillaged for the sake of oil production.
Lost and Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude, and Happiness by Kathryn Schulz
Pulitzer Prize-winning and The New Yorker writer, Kathryn Schulz writes about loss, and finding love in her new memoir. Eighteen months before her father died, Schulz met the woman she would marry. This book is a keen observation of grief and joy, written with tenderness and wit.
Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley
Canadian actor, screenwriter and director Sarah Polley was a child actress, performing from the age of six, and thus had an unusual childhood. Her mother died when she was 11, and she was living independently by the time she was 15. Polley recounts experiences from her extraordinary life in these six psychologically probing essays.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir by Matthew Perry
Beloved Canadian/American actor Matthew Perry, of Friends fame, dives deep into his life story in an unflinching, cautionary look at his career, his love life, and his crippling addiction to pills and alcohol.
The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir by Paul Newman
This memoir is based on extensive diaries and transcripts by Newman, compiled into a candid memoir that discusses his difficult upbringing, career, fifty-year marriage to Joanne Woodward and his battle with alcoholism. Raw and honest, it’s a compelling read.
The Mother of All Degrassi: A Memoir by Linda Schuyler
Linda Schuyler shares personal stories of the challenges she faced in the early eighties as a female producer/co-creator of the Degrassi franchise. Initially a teacher guiding students in film production, she co-created the award-winning and critically acclaimed Canadian series that realistically depicted teen life in Toronto, Canada, and spanned 40 years, in various incarnations.
Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami
Author Haruki Murakami offers an extraordinary insight into the mind of the famously reclusive writer and his novels. This New York Times Best Seller from the award-winning writer of Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Kafka on the Shore explores the craft of storytelling.
No Bootstraps When You’re Barefoot: My Rise From a Jamaican Plantation to the Boardrooms of Bay Street by Wes Hall
Successful Canadian businessman Wes Hall recounts his rags-to-riches story, starting with a childhood steeped in poverty, abuse and racism, in Jamaica, to his emigration to Canada as a teenager, and subsequent entrepreneurial success. This is an inspirational memoir from a man who started with nothing, and worked hard, eventually founding business consultancy firm Kingsdale Advisors. Hall is using his position to help eradicate systemic racism in the business world with his BlackNorth initiative.
Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found by Allegra Huston
Writers! If you’re looking for one additional memoir gift-giving idea, check out Allegra Huston’s book.
Better yet! Give the gift of a Memoir Writing Retreat with Allegra Huston, in May 2023, in beautiful Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
