Recently, following the writer’s adage to read the genre you write, I set out to read memoirs in search of stories that would inspire my own writing and push me to expand and excel.
Some time ago, I fell in love with the memoirs of Isabelle Allende. Starting with Paula, a memoir about her youth and her daughter’s illness and death. I continued with The Sum of Our Days and My Invented Country until I have come to feel that Allende is a friend, a sentiment I’m aware she doesn’t share. Getting to know all kinds of people, both famous and not famous, is one of the joys of reading memoirs. Gradually this has become my preferred type of nonfiction.
Over the years, I have read all kinds of memoirs —everything from The Color of Water by James McBride to Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl, from The Choice by Dr. Edith Eva Eger to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, from Hillbilly Eulogy by J. D. Vance to In Sickness & In Health by Karen Propp, from A Pig in Provence by Georgeanne Brennan to The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr. I am not drawn to memoirs of disfunction and addiction, though I have read a few. I prefer a positive memoir with humor, insight into something of interest to me, and a window into a different world or an interesting personality. During the time I have been writing Wherever the Road Leads, An Artist’s Memoir of Travel, Food, and Love with a Car Whisperer, I have made the adage “read what you write” my mantra.
Throughout 2019, including during a summer road trip across the West, I read memoir after memoir. Luckily, I can read while a car passenger and my partner enjoys being at the wheel and doesn’t mind me riding with my nose in a book. My goal during the summer was to find memoirs with parallels to my manuscript (travel, food, relationships), yet different in ways that allow my story to add a new perspective or insight.
A discussion of comparable books is an essential part of any professional proposal sent to publishers or agents. At a recent writers’ workshop, I listened carefully as one of the speakers emphasized the importance of a complete and detailed list of comparable books published in the last few years. This advice brought to mind essays from my school days when we were told to compare and contrast two books or ideas. I would need to find the similarities, but also root out the differences that make my story unique. Experts on crafting a book proposal also warn against listing well-known, bestsellers as “comps.” This effectively eliminated my use of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.
How could I resist mentioning Steinbeck’s tale of travel in a camper around the United States with his dog Charley. Recently, I reread this simple story told by a literary icon and was charmed by it all over again. Back in the late ’60s when I first read Travels with Charley, I was inspired by the idea of a journey of exploration in a fitted-out vehicle camper. More specifically, Tom (my companion for the long-ago travels described in my memoir) and I copied Steinbeck’s use of a plastic garbage bucket as a laundry washing container. 
Memoirs, by definition, are each an intensely personal story. This makes finding comparative titles difficult at best. During my search, I discovered some that were obviously not comparative titles, but which fascinated me, and I read those, too. Stacks of memoirs form unsteady piles on my desk and by my bed. I know there is a spot in the travel memoir genre waiting to be filled by Wherever the Road Leads.
My 2019 memoir reading list:
• The Choice, Embrace the Possible, by Dr. Edith Eva Eger, 2017 (Holocaust and personal growth)
• An Embarrassment of Mangoes, by Ann Vanderhoof, 2004 (travel, sailing, the Caribbean, and food)
• The Truths We Hold, by Kamala Harris, 2019 (personal/political)
. Becoming, by Michelle Obama, 2019 (personal/political)
• The Only Girl in the World, by Maude Julien, 2014, translated from French (dysfunctional family and coming of age)
• In Sickness and In Health, by Karen Propp, 2002 (illness and marriage)
• The Invisible Wall, by Harry Bernstein, 2007 (family, historical, Jewish culture in turn of the century England)
• The Dream, by Harry Bernstein, 2009 (immigrant experience)
• The Blind Masseuse, by Alden Jones, 2013 (travel)
• The Yellow Envelope, by Kim Dinan, 2017 (travel, relationships)
• Travels With Charley in Search of America, by John Steinbeck, 1963 (camper travel in America)
• Nothing to Declare, Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone, by Mary Morris, 1988 (travel, Mexico, friendship)
• The Accidental Asian, Eric Liu, 1998 (immigrant experience)
• Nobody will Tell You This But Me, Bess Kalb, 2020, (family and humor)
• All Over the Place, by Geraldine DeRuiter, 2017 (travel, humor, relationships, family, illness)
• Where the Past Begins, Memory and Imagination, by Amy Tan, 2017 (family and history)
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