A Girl Named Zippy, She Got Up off the Couch, Too Close to the Falls, The Glass Castle

Some of my past faves have been memoirs, particularly of women who overcome adversity of one kind or another. The best stories are told with a healthy dose of humour and dry wit. At the top of the list are A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch, and Other Heroic Tales from Mooreland, Indiana, both by Haven Kimmel. The first is the story of her own childhood, and the second the story of her mother's life when Haven was young. Both are surprising, inspiring and funny. (I enjoyed most of her fiction too, with the exception of her latest, Iodine.) In this same category of memoir fall two books that I would not have believed were true had they not been clearly marked Biography, Catherine Gildiner's Too Close to the Falls, and Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle. Again, these were funny, improbable and without any sense of self-importance. Great reading, particularly for women "of a certain age".

I've posted cover pictures for most of the books I mentioned along the left side of the page. Click on any cover to take you to that record in the Kingston Frontenac Public Library's catalogue.