Your Memoir, the Way You Want It | | | |  | |
“A Book is a Present You Can Open Again and Again...”
As the old saying goes, “A book is a present you can open again and again,” and this newsletter offers some suggestions for those who would like to give books as gifts during this holiday season and beyond. In my opening comments here, I’d also like to highlight publishing services as a special gift that has brought many people to Modern Memoirs over the years.
In the case of Commissioned Memoirs, our full publishing services have often been gifted as a meaningful way to mark a loved one’s significant milestone, like a retirement, anniversary, or 75th birthday. One spouse may commission a memoir for another, or sons and daughters have done so for their parents. In such cases, we prepare a Modern Memoirs Welcome Package for the recipient/soon-to-be-narrator, explaining our process and initiating the work of creating a beautiful book to document and preserve a person’s life story.
We have also worked with several clients who have already written parts of a memoir (on their own, in our workshops, or through online programs) and who receive our professional Assisted Memoir services as a present because they want editorial support and a customized design to create an heirloom-quality book that will last for decades to come. “I’m not a writer,” one former Storyworth user said to us after his daughter introduced him to Modern Memoirs, “but I have all of these stories now, and I need your help to make them into a book I’ll be proud of.” Family members of passionate amateur genealogists have also engaged our services as a gift to help their loved ones compile and present the findings they’ve made after years of research.
If a recipient of the gift of publishing services from Modern Memoirs feels any hesitancy at following through with a project, it’s often expressed with words along the lines of, “I’ve had a good life but not an extraordinary one. Who am I to publish a memoir?” To such sentiments we say: Everyone has a story to tell, and the memoir you publish is not only a gift for you, but for all who know and love you. (As for the amateur genealogists, they are pretty much always delighted to publish their work!)
If this idea strikes a chord with you, I hope you will contact Modern Memoirs today to give the gift of publishing services to someone special in your life. Our team of creative, professional, sensitive bibliophiles is here to help.
With warm wishes,
Megan St. Marie
President
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The beautiful image at the top of this newsletter offers a sneak peek at the Modern Memoirs 2023 Winter Solstice card. It was developed by Book Designer Nicole Miller, based on a woodblock print in the public domain, now held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (“High-Ranking Courtesan” (Oiran), from the series Five Shades of Ink in the Northern Quarter (Hokkoku goshiki-zumi); artist: Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, ca. 1754–1806); date: 1794–95).
If you aren’t sure whether you are already on our mailing list, or if you would like to refer someone to our business, please contact us today and let us know where you would like us to send the Winter Solstice greeting card.
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Book Shopping?
Check Out Our Affiliate Page on Bookshop.org
Have you visited the Modern Memoirs affiliate page at Bookshop.org? No matter the time of year, and whether they appear on our carefully curated lists or not, all books purchased through our affiliate page will support our business and independent bookstores nationwide. Click on the link below to take a look around.
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Reflections from Client Carell Laurent, Author of “Pignics” and What Holds Us Together
Interview by Genealogist Liz Sonnenberg
“This book was written for my family, and they are loving it. Some members are too young to be cooking yet, but they love the stories. Some of the older members are expressing joy that they can cook something they remember having in the past but didn’t know how to make...”
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Compiled by Publishing Intern Olivia Go
Earlier this year, Memory Lane Books & Gifts was launched as a new online retail arm of the business, where we are pleased to sell a growing list of books by our staff and by several of the talented authors Modern Memoirs has published. Click on the book covers below to purchase any of these titles for yourself, or to give as gifts. Newsletter readers can use the code MMGIFT23 for free shipping through December 31, 2023.
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I Am NOT Old Enough! The Twenty-Seven Stages of Adjustment to Living in a Retirement Community
by Hilde Adler
$10.00
With heart and humor, Hilde Adler recounts the challenges and adjustments that came with her decision to move into a retirement community.
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A Southern Madam and Her Man
by David B. Dearinger
$21.95
Historian Dearinger tells a Gilded Age story about his great-grandmother, Susie Tillett, a successful madam, and “her man,” Arthur Jack, a saloonist, gambler and horse-trader. This is a meticulously researched tale of conventional people making unusual and even socially suspect choices to do the best they could in the world they lived in.
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Old Lesbian Memory Quilt: Stories told by Edie Daly on her 80th birthday
by Edie Daly
$21.95
The inspirational memoir of Edie Daly, a lesbian born in 1937. Stitching together pictures and stories from journals that she has kept through the years, this book acts as a quilt of her life.
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Many Worlds: A Collection of Poems
by James A. Heffernan
$15.99
A compelling poetry collection inspired by physics and anthropology. These verses will stir the soul and make you wonder. The reader is invited to mingle with concepts from the mundane to the spiritual.
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Twelve Days in Ozerki
by Ruth Daniloff & Zinovy Yuriev
$19.99
A gripping novel with a science-fiction twist about an American journalist investigating a UFO that lands in a small Russian town. Loosely set in the 1980s, the story brings forth perennial themes of Russian politics: secrecy, suspicion, unchecked power, and survival.
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Neither Tutsi, Nor Hutu: A
Rwandan Memoir
by Prosper Ishimwe
$18.99
Prosper Ishimwe was an eight-year-old child when genocide and
civil war devastated his Rwandan
homeland. His story of survival and
healing offers both a moving tribute
to his fellow Rwandans and a stirring reflection on identity and
self-awareness.
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Higher Ground: Journals of a Jaguar Monk
by Paul Jensen
$19.99
In Higher Ground: Journals of a Jaguar Monk, Jensen (a musician whose CDs are also available in our shop) offers myriad sparse yet personal journal excerpts that provide glimpses into beautiful times spent in nature.
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Resisting Jim Crow: The Autobiography of Dr. John A. McFall
by Dr. John A. McFall
$29.99
Dr. McFall’s grandniece Lahnice McFall Hollister found his unpublished autobiography in the Fisk University archives and was determined to bring it to print. Dr. McFall’s powerful, first-person account of the rise of legalized segregation provides “bricks and mortar” to assemble a more comprehensive view of American history.
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I, Teresa de Lucena: Reflections on the Trial of a Conversa
by Ellen Kanner (translator and writer) and Annie Zeybekoglu (book artist)
$45.00
I, Teresa de Lucena tells the true story of a complex chapter of Jewish and Spanish history through an intimate lens: the transcribed and translated testimony of a woman who faced the Spanish Inquisition twice.
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A Lump in the Road: My Personal Journey with a Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) Diagnosis
by Kate Navarra
$24.99
With humor and heart, Navarra’s journey through a year of cancer diagnoses, doctor’s appointments, decisions, surgeries, and recoveries sheds light on her own personal journey with DCIS, in the hopes of offering support and solace to others facing similar circumstances.
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Making Sense of My Life in Science: A Memoir
by Evelyn Fox Keller
$19.99
After an illustrious career as a theoretical physicist and as Professor of Mathematics and Humanities at Northeastern University, Keller reflects on her life and its successes and struggles along her trailblazing path as a scientist, feminist, and MacArthur Fellow.
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To the Front: Grandfathers’ Stories in the Cause of Freedom
by Michael M. Van Ness, MD
$44.99
To the Front tells a wide range of stories about the lives of military heroes from Dr. Van Ness’s family. His reflections on their service, particularly in WWII, share how their courage has inspired him and can inspire us all.
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CLICK BELOW TO BUY BOOKS BY OUR COMPANY PRESIDENT
ON FOSTERING A LOVE OF READING IN CHILDREN
Writing as Megan Dowd Lambert, Modern Memoirs president Megan St. Marie has written several books for adults about engaging children with books and reading, with a particular focus on art and design. Find out more by clicking on the book covers below:
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December Question: What is a favorite book you’ve given or received as a gift? | |
Staff responses
Megan St. Marie: One Christmas I gave out several copies of Andrew Solomon’s Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, a powerful, insightful book that moved me tremendously as both a mother and a daughter.
Sean St. Marie: A recent favorite: Megan’s gift to me of George Saunders’ short story collection Tenth of December.
Ali de Groot: The 6-volume set of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time from my daughter last Christmas. Reading these is a long-term project!
Liz Sonnenberg: Her own set of Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew mystery books that my mom gave me when I was young. I devoured them then, and treasure them today.
Nicole Miller: The Art of Happiness by the 14th Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler
Emma Solis: I bonded with one of my first college friends, Eli, over the Netflix cartoon “She-Ra,” created by N.D. Stevenson. Later, I gifted Eli a copy of N.D. Stevenson’s excellent graphic memoir The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures, which they loved!
Olivia Go: When I was 14 my dad gifted me a copy of The Catcher in the Rye for Christmas, and it ended up being one of my favorite books! I still re-read it every winter.
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Memory Lane Stroll
We’d love to hear your brief personal reflections on the question of the month (at left). Write your response for a chance to be featured in the next edition of our e-newsletter!
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We received the following additional response to our October question, “Do you have a favorite quote about grief or loss?”
“Words by Hannah Szenes:
‘There are stars whose light reaches the earth only after they themselves have disintegrated. And there are individuals whose memory lights the world after they have passed from it.
These lights shine even in the darkest night and illumine our path.’”
—Stephen Rostand
| Scan the QR code above to visit Memory Lane Books & Gifts and use MMGIFT23 for free shipping through December 31. | | | | |
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Stop by to see us in person or online:
417 West Street, Suite 104
Amherst, MA 01002
www.modernmemoirs.com
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