“I learned that writing a memoir is like figure skating: it looks effortless and beautiful from the outside. . .”

“… while in reality, you stretch thy groin so much that you nearly split yourself in half for the whole world to see.” The author, JVN, whose trademarks are joy and kindness, shares what happened after the first memoir was published. Some readers expected JVN to be their source of … Read More

“There is a difference between wallowing and bearing witness.”

Lakin continues, “Think of yourself in the role of storyteller . . . instead of as the victim who has been wronged and deserves retribution or pity . . .” For all the memoirists who are reluctant to write about difficult episodes because they don’t want to come off as … Read More

“Part of these essays probably are rooted in genuine recollections, but how, in the circumstances, can we trust anything that he [John Forster] says in them?”

But how much can we trust the new conclusions drawn by this author, writing 150 years after Dickens died? That’s the question readers need to consider. Newly digitized information is now available, and the author has a Ph.D. in English literature from Oxford University. I enjoyed this book, knowing that … Read More