Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Hidden Gem Memoirs

 

Horse Boy: A Father’s Quest to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson. A father and horses help an autistic boy find his way.

 

Farm Girl by Karen Jones Gowen. What it was really like to grow up in the depression years on a farm in Willa Cather country.

 

Stop-Time by Frank Conroy. One of my first assigned books in college in the Fall of 1980. A harrowing childhood saved by writing and jazz.

 

Eleanor’s Story: An American Girl in Hitler’s Germany by Eleanor Ramrath Garner. A fascinating look at what happens when a German-American family returns to Germany during the depression for a job with much more promise.

 

The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West by Imran Ahmad.  An hilarious and heartwarming story of a Muslim boy landing growing up in London and trying to fit in.

 

Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good by Kathleen Finn. The memoir of a Michigan family, food and life.

 

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron. A sweet memoir of a cat who lived in an Iowa library.

 

A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: The Journey of Doaa Al Zamel.  You can read my full review here. Dramatic tale of one young woman fleeing Syria.

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See You in A Hundred Years: One Family’s Search for Simpler Life by Logan Ward. The tale of what happens when a very modern couple tries to live like it’s a hundred years ago. Really live like it. If you loved the PBS Show The 1900s House–this is the rural American version sans the reality tv cameras. A good read.

 

Memories of Ninety Years by H.R.H. the Duchess of Gloucester. When Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott married George V’s 3rd son, Prince Henry, she was the Lady Di of the moment. at 35 she was an older bride, but she’d lived a very interesting life–including winning an international photography contest. This is her 2nd memoir-the “pretty” one with all the photos, drawings and other memorabilia.

She is the only non-Princess to be allowed to use her name with “Princess.” The Queen allowed it after her Uncle Harry died so that Alice did not have to go through life as “Princess Henry, Dowager Duchess of Gloucester….” Her first son, the “other” Prince William was a very modern young man who, like Princess Diana,died tragically at a very young age. If you are guessing that the names William and Henry/Harry are familiar–well, Charles wanted his sons to, of course, have traditionally royal first names, but only those not then in use. William and Henry (Harry) were the top of the list.

 

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