And the very first read of the Memoiring Book Club is...
The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch! Here's what to know
Like many creative people, I’m not a fan of spreadsheets. But as a Capricorn, I can tolerate cells and formulas and cut-and-paste problems and make it happen.
And that’s what I did today, for very good reason.
Last week, I asked the earliest members of our brand-new memoir book club if you wanted me to pick the books or if you wanted to vote. You filled out my little Google Form (which is less loathsome than a spreadsheet), and Google spat out this pie chart showing that 45.9 percent wanted a say. Another 40.5 percent have decision fatigue and were like, YOU PICK. (The rest of you with your petite rainbow pie slices of opinions somehow figured out how to share those with me despite the fixed Yes or No setting I thought I’d selected.)
Anyway… today I tallied up what you want to read first, from this list of nine amazing memoirs. Using a spreadsheet.
Below is that very book, but, trust, you’ll see the others resurface as picks for future months.
The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch (2012)
I’ve had The Chronology of Water on my TBR list for way too long, and I’m ecstatic to finally be putting it in motion. Lidia Yuknavitch is a legend among art-makers and writers, a "misfit (her word, check out her Ted Talk and book based on it), a best-selling author of several novels, including her latest Thrust (2023), “a very good swimmer” (more about this in the memoir), and the founder of Corporeal Writing, in Portland, Oregon, a collaborate creative lab/ workshop series devoted to writing by and through the body, one workshop at a time. Are you getting the sense that something very special is about to take place? (If not, that’s my fault, not hers.)
Read Yuknavitch’s bio in her own words here. I mean, now. And keep reading below it for the eight things she says her writing is “informed, deformed, and reformed” by.
Then GO GET HER BOOK! Remember, Pen America gets a percentage if you buy it here on our Book Club page at Bookshop.org.)
I know I’m going to love reading The Chronology of Water with you and chatting about it in a few weeks. Go get your copy and I’ll be checking in with you about ways for us to connect about it. Happy reading! Melisse
That TED talk is such a gift. One of my lifetime articles of faith is that most people, deep down, think they don’t fit in. And that all the reasons they would give for that feeling of otherness are the very things that make them most lovable and most endearing to other people, if they have the courage to be exactly who they are so we can really see them. Cannot wait to read the book now!