Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion

I thought I might start a thread -
What is the funniest memoir you've read that had you laughing out loud?

I enjoyed Carrie Fisher's 'Wishful Drinking' . She actually made it into a show. It's hilarious. The sequel, 'Shockaholic' wasn't nearly as funny but carried on her life story.

I also liked Tori Spelling's 'STORI Telling'. Mostly poking fun at herself, but also, disturbingly neurotic. Of course both these memoirists are in the entertainment business. but I think, if you were born in a trunk and your life is on the screen, might as well make it amusing.

I'm not sure if the books of David Sedaris would be considered a memoir. They are more like memoir essays. However, his stuff always has me chuckling.

My votes go to Dead Giveaway: The Rescue, Hamburgers, White Folks, and Instant Celebrity... What You Saw on TV Doesn't Begin to Tell the Story... and Disco Bloodbath. They are both laugh-out-loud funny AND they both happen to be true crime stories.

Some humerous memoirs that I gave 4 or 5 stars:
1. What's So Funny by Tim Conway
2. Backstage With The Hollywood Squares by Peter Marshall
3. Country Music Broke My Brain by Gerry House (if you like country music be sure to read this).
4. My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall
5. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Allison Arngrim
6. This Time Together by Carol Burnett
7. Last Words by George Carlin
8. Just A Guy by Bill Engvall

1. Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James


2. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
by Bill Bryson

Liz wrote: "I'm not sure if the books of David Sedaris would be considered a memoir. They are more like memoir essays. However, his stuff always has me chuckling."

Yes they were funny, not all of them, but I liked the one 'I talk pretty one day'

Selina wrote: "Liz wrote: "I'm not sure if the books of David Sedaris would be considered a memoir. They are more like memoir essays. However, his stuff always has me chuckling."

Yes they were funn..."

I have never been able to decide whether his essays are fictional or not. Either seems possible.

David Sedaris' books do come under 'memoir, but as with most memoir/travel/humour writers such as Sedaris/ Gerald Durrel/P Leigh Fermor/Axel Munthe (and myself included) half of the anecdotes are highly embellished to make them good stories.

One suspects so, but one can never catch them at it!

My favourite funny memoir (it has its serious side): Dear Me by Peter Ustinov. But a very close seond: The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven - always funny, always urbane; and I really liked the second volume of his memoirs as well, Bring on the Empty Horses.

Must read Dear Me. I laughed so much forty five years ago when I read The Moon's... and Bring on...... that I sort of tried to model my efforts on them!
Funnily enough I used to work with Trubshaw, who got me into bad ways - frequently nipping off for a drink when on set - back in the days when I was in TV and film.
By the way, did you ever manage to have a look at my latest?
Anthony

Jerry-Book wrote:

2. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

[bookcover:The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt ..."

I've read this one, it was funny in places but I think it went on a bit too long. Funny memoirs need to be short as brevity is the soul of wit.

Also another one I liked is Fran Drescher's 'enter whining'
she later wrote another one on a more serious note about her battle with breast cancer.

David Sedaris reminded me of another Dave - Dave Barry.

He wrote some funny anecdotes. He was a columnist.
Actually I think he was funnier than David Sedaris.

Anthony wrote: "Must read Dear Me. I laughed so much forty five years ago when I read The Moon's... and Bring on...... that I sort of tried to model my efforts on them!
Funnily enough I used to work with Trubshaw..."

Not yet as I want to read Under a Croatian Sun first - a couple of beta reads and reviewing obligations to meet, and I will get to it.

I think the funniest memoir I've read is Shirley Jackson's (yes, that Shirley Jackson, the one who wrote "The Lottery" and "The Haunting of Hill House) Life Among the Savages

Erma Bombeck was also a humorist I enjoyed, she wrote columns but I don't know if she wrote a complete memoir...

Selina, I think your remark about the titles your family would ascribe to your memoir should be preserved in literary history!

Funniest one I've read is

by Nora Ephron. I've also read her other book

and it was funny also but not as funny as the first. Although, I do think you probably need to be female and over 40 to really appreciate the humor.

Robin wrote: "Funniest one I've read is

by Nora Ephron. I've also read her other book
[bookcover:I Remember Nothing: and Other Ref..."

I enjoyed both of these. Sometimes we need to laugh at ourselves.

I'm not over 40, but I read Musings from Middle Age by Kerre Woodham, it was a bit scary. Also quite funny but in sort of rueful way. Kerre is a talkshow host on nz radio.

She also wrote - 'Short fat chick to marathon runner' and 'short fat chick goes to Paris' which was quite amusing, memoirs about running marathons.

Selina wrote: "Erma Bombeck was also a humorist I enjoyed, she wrote columns but I don't know if she wrote a complete memoir..."

I think all of her books were essentially humorous memoirs, like The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank.

Did my contribution disappear from this discussion? I can't find it. The funniest one I've ever read was the rueful Dead Giveaway: The Rescue, Hamburgers, White Folks, and Instant Celebrity... What You Saw on TV Doesn't Begin to Tell the Story.... He doesn't just talk about the day he rescued everyone from Ariel Castro; he tells you his whole life story and how it all led to him even being there that day.

Fishface wrote: "Did my contribution disappear from this discussion? I can't find it. The funniest one I've ever read was the rueful [book:Dead Giveaway: The Rescue, Hamburgers, White Folks, and Instant Celebrity....."

this looks good :-)

Fishface wrote: "Did my contribution disappear from this discussion? I can't find it. The funniest one I've ever read was the rueful [book:Dead Giveaway: The Rescue, Hamburgers, White Folks, and Instant Celebrity....."

I dont remember seeing your first post. Perhaps you didnt 'save' it. Anyway, that book sounds hilarious just from the title. Who writes it? Never mind, I will look it up.

Fishface wrote: "My votes go to Dead Giveaway: The Rescue, Hamburgers, White Folks, and Instant Celebrity... What You Saw on TV Doesn't Begin to Tell the Story... and Disco Bloodbath. ..."

**cough**

Now reading Erma Bombeck a collection of four of her books.
This one I am reading is If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries What Am I Doing in the Pits?

This site is frikkin' bizarro. I made the post, saved it, it disappeared; then after I complained about it and re-posted, it reappeared right where it belonged.

I went onto Aunt Erma's Cope Book
which was a hilarious satire on self-help, but didn't go on to Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession because,,,well, I'm not a mother and I'm not sure I want to know...

Because Erma wrote during a different era I'm finding it quite interesting with the references to the oil crisis etc. But then as I finished reading the third book of the four omnibus I felt sad for her. I think being a housewife in that day and age was too overwhelming for her and maybe she got into it too young.