It is wonderful yet mind-boggling that there are eight billion of us on the planet and everyone has a unique perspective to the world and to life. Some of those people are able to put it into writing for others to read and even fewer write so exceptionally well that you yearn to learn more about their lives and what they did to get through it. If you ever have felt that autobiographies or memoirs are boring, then this TBCP recommendation list about lives of some truly extraordinary people and even better stories is for you.
- The Fall of a Sparrow by Salim Ali
This autobiography brings you closer to the “Birdman of India”, one of the biggest names in the ornithology community for his contributions to preserving natural ecosystems. This book is filled with astute observations about life, written in such a witty way that you would often find yourself smiling out of nowhere!
Salim Ali recounts his exciting experiences in the outdoors and chronicles his unusual love of birds. Eighty-seven at the time of writing and an internationally renowned figure, he vividly describes expeditions to almost every part of the subcontinent, including the old Princely States, Burma, Sikkim, Tibet, Bhutan and Afghanistan. As he tells of his life as motorcyclist, timber merchant, scientist, author and decorated celebrity, a picture also emerges of pre-independent India, of Maharajas and colonial administration.
- Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux
This is a complicated, vulnerable and utterly honest story of Annie’s affair with a Russian man over the period of two years. Blurring the line between fact and fiction, an unnamed narrator attempts to plot the emotional and physical course of her relationship with a married foreigner where every word, event, and person either provides a connection with her beloved or is subject to her cold indifference. With courage and exactitude, she seeks the truth behind an existence lived entirely for someone else, and, in the pieces of its aftermath, she is able to find it. His presence is mostly psychological, in a sense that even when he is not here, he is present in the narrator’s every single thought. Life seems futile when he is not there to witness it.
- The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir by Joseph Auguste Merasty and David Carpenter
This memoir offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school. Now a retired fisherman and trapper, the author was one of an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children who were taken from their families and sent to government-funded, church-run schools, where they were subjected to a policy of “aggressive assimilation”. As Augie Merasty recounts, these schools did more than attempt to mould children in the ways of white society. They were taught to be ashamed of their native heritage and, as he experienced, often suffered physical and sexual abuse. But, even as he looks back on this painful part of his childhood, Merasty’s sense of humour and warm voice shine through.
- Being Lolita by Alisson Wood
A lonely and vulnerable high school senior, Alisson finds solace only in her writing and in a young, charismatic English teacher, Mr. North. Mr. North gives Alisson a copy of Lolita to read, telling her it is a beautiful story about love. The book soon becomes the backdrop to a connection that blooms from a simple crush into a devastating and dangerous bond. Being Lolita is a stunning coming-of-age memoir that shines a bright light on our shifting perceptions of consent, grooming, vulnerability, and power. This is the story of what happens when a young woman realizes her entire narrative must be rewritten—and then takes back the pen to rewrite it.
If you liked this list of recommendations, check out The Bombay Circle Press’ bulletin for more. See you on the next blog!