Baker, Russell. Growing Up - Growing up in America between World Wars. A model for memoirs. This book exhibits excellent techniques to emulate.
Baker, Russell and William Zinsser, ed. Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir—By two of the top writers in the memoir genre.
Barrington, Judith. Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art—Whether you want to write the literary masterpiece or a treasury of family stories for your grandchildren, Barrington is the voice of experience. Detailed writing exercises are included in each chapter from the start of the book to the end. Good for writers' groups.
Bombeck, Erma. Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing from America's Favorite Humorist—Anything by Bombeck provides ideas and patterns for writing life experiences with humor.
Browne, Renni, and Dave King. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print—If you want to learn from the pros, this is the book to own. Chapter 7 is an outstanding guide for writing believeable, true-to-life dialogue.
Case, Patricia Ann. How to Write Your Autobiography: Preserving Your Family Heritage—A useful guide for even the beginning memoir writer.
Dobson, Shirley, and Gloria Gaither. Let's Make a Memory—"Great Ideas for Building Family Traditions and Togetherness."
Gordon, Karen Elizabeth. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed—Humorous, witty, slightly risqué twist makes grammar fun.
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History—A horizontal linkage of people and events. More than 30,000 events in an overview of 7,000 years of civilization.
Holmes, Marjorie. Writing Articles From the Heart: How to Write and Sell Your Life Experiences—Step-by-step advice for turning your personal experiences into saleable articles.
Kempthorne, Charley. For All Time: A Complete Guide to Writing Your Family History—How-to and inspiration, a friendly guide for capturing the essence of family. Charley's the best at capturing the "scene."
Koch, Kenneth. I Never Told Anybody, Teaching Poetry Writing in a Nursing Home.
Kress, Nancy. Beginnings, Middles, and Ends (The Elements of Fiction Writing)—Kress is very good when it comes to techniques for creating characters. Don't miss her column in Writer's Digest.
Ledoux, Denis. Turning Memories Into Memoirs, A Handbook for Writing Lifestories—Bring the past alive and share it with others in a captivating way, as the author offers advice and skills from his popular workshops.
McCourt, Frank. Angela's Ashes —Populated with memorable characters and moments, McCourt's story telling technique effectively breaks the old rules for capturing voices. You might like to try his style.
McCourt, Malachy. A Monk Swimming —Anecdotes and memories —a parody of the Irish voice.
O'Conner, Patricia T. Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English —If you're tired of the boring, bare bones rules of Strunk, there's a witty and entertaining book by an editor at the New York Times Book Review.
Polking, Kirk. Writing Family Histories and Memoirs —A useful guide crammed full of ideas and how-to suggestions for the memoir writer.
Rainer, Tristine. Your Life As Story: Discovering the 'New Autobiography' and Writing Memoir as Literature —Ranier's book will help in finding the story, the meaning, within your life experiences. She was the keynote speaker at the Association of Personal Historians Conference, 1998.
Ring, Nancy. Walking on Walnuts —Memories of a Jewish immigrant family that fled Russia and later the Holocaust for a new life in the U.S. Stories and recipes handed down from generation to generation, such as Great-Grandma Esther Hanna's taiglach, peach and honey upside-down cake, and fig apple pie.
Roorbach, Bill. Writing Life Stories —A great new find! Roorbach's humor makes writing creative non-fiction more fun than ever. His book is a wonderful source for new ideas and techniques.
Sielen, Rae Jean and Amy Stevenson, Eds. Mountain State Stories of the People —From the back cover: "Individual lives and the simple pleasures and sometimes bittersweet memories of those lives. Parental advice. Childhood follies. Magical places. Hunters' tall tales. Loved ones lost. Family farms. Life in the hollow. New lives enriching those of the old, and vice versa. Appreciating yesterday."
St. Louis, Melinda. Put it in Writing Guide for Populore Narratives —A 220-page guide including choosing a topic, offers editing and publishing services.
Sloane, William. The Craft of Writing —Has an excellent chapter on sharing the experience —"Fiction and the Means of Perception."
Smith, Lee. The Christmas Letters —Lee Smith also wrote Fair and Tender Ladies, a story told only through letters. Now she's created a novella from three generations of Christmas letters from 1944 to 1994. Each letter records the significant events of the year before and ends with a recipe, such as "Mrs. Goodwillie's Bible Cake," with its ingredients taken from Scripture. (Quotes from Kirkus Associates)
Stratton, Joanna L. Pioneer Women: Voices From the Kansas Frontier —Autobiographical accounts.
Strunk, William, Jr. and E.B. White. The Elements of Style —Goes beyond what is to correct to how to write effectively. Timeless book on clear and concise writing.
Viorst, Judith. Forever Fifty —Humorous poetry. Amazon's synopsis says, "For the next decade, a baby-boomer will turn 50 every seven seconds. What would they do without the wit and wisdom of Judith Viorst's classic exploration of that delicate time in life?" Her humorous writing is inspiration enough to lead one to try their own.
Viorst, Judith. Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations that All of us Have to Give up in Order to Grow —Examines loss as a necessary experience for personal growth. Life affirming, life changing, and timeless. "Wise and witty insights into how we all must adjust to the inevitable changes of life."
Vogler, Christopher. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters —Based on the work by Joseph Campbell, this book shows how all storytellers use mythic structure to create powerful stories.
White, Bailey. Mama Makes up Her Mind —Humor, essays and first person stories — memoirs of their home in South Georgia. "Bailey White's sketches evoke a sort of real-life Lake Wobegon." —The New York Times.
Wolfe, Tom. A Man in Full — Try Wolfe's style when writing memoirs or life stories. Review from Amazon.com: "A Man in Full is packed with the sort of splendid set pieces we've come to expect from Wolfe. A quail hunt on Charlie's 29,000-acre plantation, a stuffed-shirt evening at the symphony, a politically loaded press conference—the author assembles these scenes with contagious delight. The book is also very, very funny. The law firms, like upper-crust power house Fogg Nackers Rendering and Lean, are straight out of Dickens, and Wolfe brings even his minor characters, like professional hick Opey McCorkle, to vivid life."
Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Non-Fiction — Amazon.com's synopsis calls this book "An indispensable tool for anyone who writes or wants to learn to write."
