Zinsser, William (ed.). Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of MemoirHoughton Mifflin Company, 1987Hardcover, 166 pagesISBN 0-395-44526-4 This book originated as a series of talks sponsored by the Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc., and presented at The New York Public Library in the winter of 1986. The book contains a memoir and introduction by William Zinsser, […]
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Conway, Jill Ker. When Memory Speaks: Reflections on Autobiography Alfred A. Knopf, 1998Hardcover, 205 pagesISBN 0-679-44593-5 This book opens with the question “Why is autobiography the most popular form of fiction for modern readers?” (p. 3). The reason, Conway tell us, is that “We want to know how the world looks from inside another person’s experience,
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Grafton, Sue. “N” is for Noose (1998) Henry Holt and Company, 289 pages, $25.00 hardcover ISBN 0 8050 3650 4 Sue Grafton’s new novel finds Kinsey Millhone ready to leave Nevada after caring for Dietz, her off-again, on-again lover, for a couple of weeks after his knee-replacement operation. Dietz refers Kinsey for a
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Grafton, Sue. “J” Is for Judgment (1993) Fawcett Crest, 360 pages, $6.99 paperbackISBN 0 449 22148 2 A little over five years ago Wendell Jaffe disappeared from his sail boat, leaving behind a suicide note and a failed, fraudulent investment company. Jaffe also left behind a business partner who went to jail for fraud, a
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Karr, Mary. The Liars’ Club: A Memoir Viking, 1995Hardcover, 320 pagesISBN 0-670-85053 Recommended Poet Mary Karr grew up in an East Texas town, where her Daddy, like everyone else’s daddy, worked at the oil refinery. After work the men would congregate at the American Legion Bar and swap stories, a gathering that became known as the
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Woods, Stuart. Dead in the Water (1997) Harper Collins, 325 pages, $25.00 hardcover ISBN 0 06 018368 3 Stone Barrington arrives in St. Marks, a Caribbean island nation, where he has chartered a yacht for 10 days of sailing. You can look at this site to know where to buy all the supplies
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Cross, Amanda. In the Last Analysis (1964) rpt. Avon Books, 176 pages, $5.50 paperback ISBN 0-380-54510-1 Carolyn G. Heilbrun, the reality behind the pseudonym Amanda Cross, was a professor at Columbia University in New York City. In Cross’s Kate Fansler mysteries I hoped to find books with a bit more substance than many current
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Woods, Stuart. Dirt (1996) HarperCollins, 272 pages, $24.00 hardcover ISBN 0 06 017666 0 When fax machines all over the country begin receiving exposés about ruthless New York gossip columnist Amanda Dart, she hires Stone Barrington to find out who’s giving her a dose of her own medicine. Barrington is a former policeman, now
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Feminist critic and scholar Carolyn G. Heilbrun was a tenured professor of literature at Columbia University in New York City. She published mystery novels featuring heroine Kate Fansler under the pseudonym Amanda Cross. I originally read In the Last Analysis, the first Kate Fansler novel, because I had frequently heard this series described as “literate
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Woods, Stuart. Santa Fe Rules (1992) Harper Paperbacks, 332 pages, $5.99 paperback ISBN 0 06 109089 1 After leaving his Santa Fe home one morning to travel to his Hollywood home and workplace, film producer Wolf Willett is stunned to read his own obituary in The New York Times. He, his wife, and
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