I, too, read this book in one sitting. Abramson's exploration of memory is remarkable in its ability to convey entire universes of emotion and pain through a single detail. She retrieves those details despite the risks memory must pose and the temptation to forget, and presents them to the reader with empathy -- for us, for her family, and for the child she once was. Her approach to storytelling -- through snapshots and isolated scenes -- perfectly mirrors the personality characteristic that lies at the heart of her book: what happens when narrative, the way humans tell stories about themselves and make connections with others, breaks down. I was not quite the same person after reading this book. I highly recommend it.

Deb Abramson has written what we all need to read: the truth. By turns poignant and funny, this memoir brings us into the world of a girl with incredible insight and show us how she managed to grow up. It was so refreshing to read something real for a change, instead of the slick stuff we're too often fed. I highly recommend this book.

Deb Abramson's memoir is beautifully crafted. She shares intimate family details with strong, descriptive writing. There are many well-chosen scenes and moments that will stay in your memory for a long time. When my husband and I finished chapter one, we had an argument about who was going to read the book first. Difficult to put down and inspiring to read.

I read about this book on salon.com and then was convinced by the enthusiastic reviews here. They're all right: it's great.

I agree with the reviewer from Michigan. This is an amazing book -- very thoughtful, and thought-provoking with first-rate writing. I lost my own father a few years ago, so I found much to relate to here -- how the loss of a parent affects one, but also the evaluation of one's own life and character such an event sparks. After reading this book, one gains an entirely new perspective of the role of money in our lives -- how it indeed define us and our relationship to and with just about everything. An interesting and useful book for anyone facing the loss of a parent, and for all Baby Boomers finally accepting the need to grow up. (BTW -- This book is not as somber as it may sound -- the stories about coin collectors and their foibles are hysterical!)

In early 1998, Don Nichols began returning to Iowa from his life and job in Washington, DC, to be with his dying father and to oversee his parents' investments. A veteran investor who'd written eight personal finance books, Nichols found that managing the portfolio entrusted to him brought a larger understanding of money and mortality, family, love, his job at the U.S. Mint, and life choices he'd made.

Sad, funny, searching, and also financially savvy, "Currency of the Heart" is about the dimensions of investing, rediscovering family, honoring promises, the parting of a father and son, and a middle-aged son's new bond with an aging mother.

The review at Salon.com says it all: "The result is brilliant -- a book that is poetic in its prose, profound and yet effortlessly readable, a book that is full of humor and sorrow, confusion and loss and pride and joy. Time spent in Donald Nichols' head will simultaneously make you want to call your father, count your pennies, investigate whether you should be putting money in Treasury bonds, and wonder what kind of person, really, you are ... "Currency of the Heart" transcends a pathetic genre and delivers a masterpiece."

I first read Patricia Hampl's I Could Tell You Stories when I took a 1st person essay writing class, and all of us in the class became instant fans. Her book provoked endless discussions about the reliability (or Unreliability) of memory and the role it plays in memoir writing. Hampl's A Romantic Education allows us to continue following her down her chosen path as she returns to Prague in search of her heritage during the gray pall of socialism. This edition of A Romantic Education is a reissue following the Velvet Revolution and is full of richly nuanced detail that we have come to expect from Hampl. It's an elegant piece of writing that allows us to taste and dabble in the trickling stream of history running beneath the surface of the everlasting riddle of personal memory.

At first I was a little disappointed in this book because I wanted to read more of what Ueland wrote in her book "If You Want to Write." In "Me: A Memoir," Ueland said more than once she hated to write.

What a downer for someone looking for encouragement.

However, I read the book cover-to-cover and without skipping one page. I even read the introduction to the book, something I usually skip (if it's important, it's going to be in the body of the book, right?).

Ueland's writing in "Me" is refreshing. She says what she says and if you don't like it--tough. That's who she is. I like her spirit, her intelligence and her ability to make some sense out of life.

A good read. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

reading berenda made me a better person and probably saved my artistic life (or the life of the artist within me). in this book which is so different than any other memoir or autobiography, she geneously shares with us her inner life. according to her everyone's inner life is interesting. she writes about how she was on her way to germany when wwI broke out and she was stranded in egland as a result. rather than giving us one more of thousands of reports on the climate of that time she notes that everybody already knows about the war and if they want to read about it they can go to the libray. what people don't know about is her. the result is that brenda, the human being, is put on the same facinating plane as world wars and revolutions. and that is the way it should be. we are all that important and should share our selves with eachother the way brenda does. read this book for a wonderful example of how to live live like a prophet passionatly searching for truth and beauty. i am less dead by reading it. and you can be too!! also read if you want to write because it is even better!

Brenda Ueland follows her own profound advice, given in her book, IF YOU WANT TO WRITE, and tells her own story with such complete honesty and fervor, every sentence is a joy. Just as certain pieces of music lift you off your feet in spite of yourself, so, too, her courage and warmth take you over until you feel full of promise and power yourself. Brenda Ueland thrilled to her own talents and to the talents she believed to be in the make-up of every human being in this world. Brenda could not be with people without empowering them. When Ueland asked three children which of them felt inside he or she was really a genius, all three raised their hands -- and so did Brenda Ueland. Anything by this woman puts life on a whole new plane.

"I think, that we need to detach ourselves from fashions and fads, that we should work with one eye on the earth and the other on heaven, that we must return regularly to silence" (p. xiv), editor Philip Zaleski writes in the Preface to this collection in The Best Spiritual Writing series, which he introduced in 1998. Although his latest edition lacks many of the compelling voices of previous years--Natalie Goldberg, Anne Lamott, Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, and Philip Levine, for instance--Zaleski once again provides his reader with an adventure for the soul.

Based on his experience hearing the secrets of confession, Lorenzo Albacete, a Roman Catholic priest, observes that the "language of the inner life is a serene silence, a deep hurt, a boundless desire, and occasionally, a little laughter" (p. 3). In his "Sabbath" poem, Wendell Berry dreams "of a quiet man/ who explains nothing and defends nothing but only knows/ where the rarest wildflowers/ are blooming, and who goes/ where they are and stands still" (p. 16). In another memorable poem collected here, "Clear Night," Charles Wright wants "to be bruised by God" (p. 277), while gazing up at the stars. In his essay, "Bear Butte Diary," John Landretti introduces us to a shaman with an appreciation for coffee and cigarettes (p. 66). In perhaps the most moving essay here, "Stillbirth," Leah Kuncelik Lebec learns from the heart, through her seven-month-old stillborn baby, that God loves us all, "yes, loves us, all six billion--whatever--of us, teeming over the earth" (p. 104). Brian Doyle contemplates "grace" in "Grace Notes," and David James Duncan contemplates "strategic withdrawal" in his essay. While Thomas Moore examines the "in-between places" of transition that make life worth living (p. 184), Valerie Martin meditates upon Saint Francis, and Terry Tempest Williams ponders Saint Teresa in Spain, a place that looks much like her home in the American southwest: "Little excess. Nothing wasted" (p. 260). Joan D. Stamm considers "the way of flowers."

In short, this 277-page collection will not disappoint those readers interested in experiencing spiritual perspectives that have one eye on "the dusty world" and the other on heaven.

G. Merritt

Philip Zaleski has done a masterful job of seeking out and commending the work of some eighty writers who live for "making sentences," as Joseph Epstein confesses. And because they do, they tell with great beauty of the particular struggles and joys which have brought them along a spiritual path. Some of these writers make us comfortable, some disturb. The reading becomes an opportunity to accept the challenges of the particular life I have chosen. In doing that, I, too, see a blessing within the day Today! Your heart will be softer and your mind more open after exposure to these adventurers. Where other spiritual writers offer us helpings of chicken soup, here is spread the finest of feasts. Paella for the literate soul! (Even if you're nearer the North Pole or a Zen Community than you imagined.)

St. Augustine is one of the greatest thinkers the West ever produced. Born in North Africa in the waning years of the Roman Empire, his Confessions detail his ultimate conversion to Nicene Christianity after a ten year journey through the various trendy sects of the 4th century C.E. Augustine was a member of the Manichean heresy, a follower of Astrology, and an all around sinner. He enjoyed the barbaric games of the coliseum, was overly proud of his education and teaching positions, and just couldn't bring himself to give up the ladies. He even had a son, Adeodatus, who was born out of wedlock. In short, Augustine loved the things that most people love, and he loved the same things that we love in our decadent age. This is what makes this book so relevant today; it shows how little the human race has come in 1500 years. Augustine's struggles are our struggles.

Two points of interest are worth mentioning here. The first is Augustine's mother, St. Monica. Throughout the book, Monica is an omnipresent figure in Augustine's life. She is a tireless Christian, and she does many things to try and bring Augustine into the faith. She prays incessantly, has visions and dreams from God that promise Augustine's conversion, and she follows her son everywhere he goes. Augustine gives much praise to his mother, but it's important to remember that he was writing this account after his conversion. At the time, Augustine must have been sick to death of some of her antics. He actually lied to her so he could sneak off to Rome without her, although she was soon on a boat so she could catch up with him. I also felt sorry for his father, Patricius. Dad wasn't really into the Christian thing, so Monica put on the pants in the family. Augustine even says that Monica made God the 'true' father in their house.

A second point of interest is Augustine's actual conversion. He seems to go through two of them in quick succession. The first is an intellectual conversion, as Augustine uses the texts of Neo-Platonic authors to prove to himself the fallacy of the Manichean theology. It seems the Manicheans believed in a Christ figure that was not fully divine, as well as the idea that God was a substance. Augustine shows how substance can be corrupted, making this idea totally incompatible with the idea of a perfect God. After all, if a substance can be corrupted, how can it be perfect? After the intellectual conversion, Augustine still can't totally believe because he can't give up the fleshly sin of lust with women. This second conversion finally comes about in the famous 'pick it up and read' incident in the garden. Augustine, wracked by his sins and on the verge of some type of mental collapse over his anguish, hears a child's voice singing, 'Pick it up and read.' Seeing this as a sign from God, he picks up Paul's Epistles and reads the first thing he sees in the book. He reads a passage about the evils of fleshly vice and his conversion is complete.

After this conversion, the rest of the book veers off on a tangent. Augustine examines the concept of time, in great detail, and writes an incredibly dense exegesis on the first parts of the book of Genesis. This section, with the exception of his discourse on time, isn't nearly as interesting as the account of his life and the fundamental changes he goes through as he tries to find the true way to live life. I do suspect that thousands have converted after reading this book because it speaks to every human on a fundamental level. The above description I've given doesn't even begin to cover the amount of information in this book. The Confessions is both beautiful and thought provoking and I would recommend it to anyone.

I do have a word of warning for those who are considering giving this one a shot. Avoid, like the plague, the John Ryan translation. It is wordy, dense, and not at all clear. Read this Penguin version, written by Mr. Pine-Coffin (great name, huh?). It is a clear and concise translation. It's one thing to struggle with ideas in a book, but why should we have to struggle with the syntax? Go forth and read, young man!

After Sacred Scripture itself, perhaps no other book has brought more people to a deeper understanding of the truths of the Christian faith than "Confessions." Simply put, it's the story of one well-educated, intelligent man who led a profligate life in a sophisticated pagan society. It took his mother, prayer, and the grace of Almighty God to make him a saint--and indeed one of the greatest saints of the Catholic Church.

What is most striking about Augustine's story is how easily it relates to our own lives and our own times. It is impossible to read "Confessions" without seeing a little bit of yourself in his tales of his early life. The book is perfect for anyone struggling with their Christian faith. Indeed, it helped bring me back to the Catholic Church.

This translation is well-written and highly readable. I own it and highly recommend it.

I was asked to read this book as a freshmen in college and I loved it. It is not an easy read, but once you read over a part once more, Augustine's logic makes perfect sense. If you've read any other Augustine, such as "Freedom of the will", this book fits right in there and explains it perfectly. In fact, this book explains most of Augustine's tenants perfectly. If anyone wants to know why Christianity took such a harsh stand against sexual sins...it's Augustine lashing out at his past. He was really tormented. Worship God or worship sex. He chose God and I'm sure he thought about going back. Augustine also developed the full Christian idea of free will, which is manifested in this book as well. Augustine is an incredible figure and a role model for modern Christians. His trials are not much different from ours, seeing as we live in a society so obsessed with sex. Augustine's Confessions is one of my favorite books. A must-read for any theologian and philosopher.

It's time for these 60's people to move on and admit that they did not invent anything new or important. They were as much insulated from life as the generations before and after them. They all wore the bell bottoms, used the drugs, and thought themselves avant garde. This book shows another side ---- their attempt to make themselves seem better by tearing down someone else. How can the author ever forgive herself for what she did to her mother when she exposed her epilepsy? How she laughed to herself as she made fun of the nun. Always she acted as if she herself was perfect. No one is, of course. Always she found something in the persons she met to judge them and find them lacking. She comes close to admitting that memoirs are not always accurate.
How can she be so highly rated?

Indispensible reading for writers and thinkers.
Patricia Hampl is both, and we are the richer for it. This collection of essays attempts to explain the art, depth, breadth, fact vs fiction, role of memory, and the allure of the memoir. Hampl shows and explains how it's possible to create a narrative arc within the genre of memoir writing from the most commonplace and seemingly mundane occurrences.
Superb book written thoughtfully, quietly, lingeringly - meant to be savored, not gulped down all at once.

We read this book as part of a graduate-level memoir writing course. One of its essays: "Memory and Imagination," offered me the best account so far in understanding what memoir actually is, why we feel motivated to write it, and the value of the first draft. Hampl confronts the intersection of memory and fiction—specifically the use of inventiveness in memoir which she interprets as part of the search for emotional truth. She champions the value of the first draft, likening it to a mystery which drops clues to the riddle of the narrator's feelings. Another of her essays questions the ethics of writing about friends and family. It's a worthy guide for any writer, fiction or non-fiction.

Read for a college Theology class. Uninteresting. She has a spiritual journey. It's just not worth reading.

Virgin Time is a book that half way in I was nearly ready to toss - the walking trip thru Umbria seemed to have little relationship to her childhood memories of a Catholic upbringing and education. Only at her return to Assisi with a Franciscan study group did the structure of the book begin to appear. Only in the last chapters of the book did the need for the first half of the book become apparent.

As for the internal spiritual journey, Patricia Hampl has a perspective that is useful and uncommon - the problem is not God but is prayer. Her resolution comes on retreat in Northern California - a resolution that has several insightful observations on prayer.

There are individuals for whom Virgin Time should be "required reading" - others will find that it is an interesting one-time read from which they will learn little other than how personal a spiritual path must be - different questions as primary - different aspects of the answer missing.

The best way to learn if this book is for you is to read it.

If you're interested in contemplative prayer, this author knows the subject well. Her years with contemplative nuns as a child, her own intense search, and the contemplatives she runs across in her travels are described with impressive perception and depth. A remarkable book, rich in specific insights and details that will be of particular interest and meaning to contemplatives.