Memoirs: The Truth Is Often Stranger Than Fiction

For Christmas, as some of my regular readers may know, I received Michelle Obama’s amazing memoir Becoming, which I only got around to reading recently. The book is spectacular in every way, detailing in elegant prose her personal rise from Chicago kid to hotshot city Lawyer, right the way through to becoming a pioneering First Lady of the United States of America.

Many of the passages in the book are truly incredible, including her detailed description of the presidential motorcade, which is something I cannot get over. The book got me thinking about how I need to read more memoirs and autobiographies; after all, some stories just cannot be made up.

Previously, I had only really read the autobiographies of comedians, and that of Dick Van Dyke (he met my nan so I wanted to know if she got a mention), mostly for the funny anecdotes and when I simply needed to read something that wasn’t crime fiction for a bit. However, over recent months I have begun to see the value in reading more non-fiction, in particular memoirs.

The same is true of my viewing habits; as previously I only watched films or TV series, with the occasional reality TV show (usually involving food) thrown in. My favourite genres are fantasy, thriller and crime, as I really love to escape reality and delve into something make-believe. However, recently I have been checking out a few documentaries on various topics, including an awesome one on Netflix about Canadian cat shows, and, on the other end of the spectrum, the disturbing true crime documentary Abducted in Plain Sight.

Viewing these documentaries and delving into Michelle Obama’s exceptional book have shown me that there is something in reading beyond my traditional scope, which is something I have been keen to rectify for a while now, and have even made into my New Years Resolution for 2019.

With this new focus in mind, I have a couple of great blog tour reviews coming up which are getting me reading some books that are out of my comfort zone but definitely well within my sphere of interest. The first is Rose McGowan’s memoir Brave, which I am incredibly excited to read as I am a massive fan of her ideas and her fierce commentary on how women are treated in today’s society. The second is A Perfect Explanation, a really awesome fictionalised account of the life of Enid Campbell, granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll by Eleanor Anstruther. Both blog tour posts are coming in March, Brave on the 8^th and A Perfect Explanation on the 11^th, alongside The Widening Gyre by Michael R. Johnston, so watch this space!