Meredith Maran

A group of successful authors offer encouragement and guidance to aspiring writers by explaining why and how they work at writing, featuring contributions from Jennifer Egan, Sue Grafton, David Baldacci, and Jodi Picoult.

20 Acclaimed Authors on how and why They Do what They Do

Why We Write

لماذا نكتب؟ عشرون من الكتاب الناجحين يجيبون على أسئلة الكتابة

For the many amateurs and professionals who write about themselves - bloggers, journal-keepers, aspiring essayists and memoirists - this book offers inspiration, encouragement and pithy, practical advice. Twenty of America's bestselling memoirists share their innermost thoughts and hard-earned tips with veteran author Meredith Maran, revealing what drives them to tell their personal stories, and the nuts and bolts of how they do it. With contributions from Edwidge Danticatt, A.M. Homes, Sue Monk Kidd, Edmund White and many more.

Twenty Memoirists on why They Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature

Why We Write about Ourselves

After a long-term love and partnership with free-spirited artist, Zoe, Alison Rose decides to have a “normal” life with a man and has a son, but both relationships have long-term complications and consequences that bring the three together as parents. Original.

A Novel

A Theory of Small Earthquakes

Turning 60 and beginning again can be daunting, especially in the midst of serious personal events. Book critic and author (Why We Write About Ourselves) Maran reinvented herself at just this turning point, after a painful breakup with her wife, the death of a close friend, and harsh financial setbacks. Leaving home, friends, and a freelance writing career behind, she moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles to begin a nine-to-five life out of necessity. What followed were struggles with housing, money, work culture, and the eccentricities of her youth-oriented new city. Her loneliness was pervasive and intensified. Through honest and vividly drawn scenes, she shares her grief and challenges. However, she artfully balances this with humor and keen perspective, and what emerges is another side to her story, one of resilient courage as she embraces her new surroundings with an open mind, reaches out to make new friends, rekindles her creative self, and re-enters the dating scene. A unifying, inspiring, and universal theme builds throughout: despite age and circumstances, it is never too late to start anew.

My Late-Life Reinvention

The New Old Me

Journalist Meredith Maran lived a daughter's nightmare: she accused her father of sexual abuse, then realized, nearly too late, that he was innocent. During the 1980s and 1990s, tens of thousands of Americans became convinced that they had repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse, and then, decades later, recovered those memories in therapy. Maran was one of them. Her accusation and estrangement from her father divided her family into those who believed her and those who didn't, and led her to isolate herself among "survivors" who devoted their lives, and life savings, to recovering memories of events that had never occurred. Exploring the psychological, cultural, and neuroscientific causes of this modern American witch-hunt, Maran asks how so many people could come to believe the same lie at the same time? And perhaps more importantly: what are the "big lies" gaining traction in American culture today--and how can we keep them from taking hold?--From publisher description.

a true story of false memory

My lie

A collection of personal reflections of the author's life explore the conflicts involved in being a feminist and assesses the threats to women and the reasons for hope

Real Life Since Feminism

Notes from an Incomplete Revolution

This gripping story -a year in the lives of three high school seniors and their school-takes us deep into the hearts and minds of American teenagers, and American society, today. The seniors of Berkeley High are the white, black, Latino, Asian, and multiracial children of judges and carpenters, software consultants and garbage collectors, housewives and housekeepers. Some are Harvard bound; others are illiterate. They are the Class of 2000, and through the lives of three of them Class Dismissed brings us inside the nation's most diverse high school-where we glimpse the future of the nation. Autumn was ten when her father abandoned her family; since then she's been helping her mother raise her two little brothers and keep food on the table-while keeping her grades up so she can go to college. Her faith in God gives Autumn strength, but who will give her the money she needs when she's offered the opportunity of a lifetime? From the outside, Jordan's life looks perfect. He hangs out with the "rich white kids"; rows on the crew team, has a cool mom, applied early to an East Coast college. But Jordan's drug-addicted father died last year, leaving Jordan reeling with grief and anger that makes his life feel anything but perfect-and his future suddenly seem uncertain. A third-generation Berkeley High student, Keith is bright and popular, a talented football player who hopes to play college ball and one day, go pro. But Keith has a reading problem that threatens his NFL dream. And the Berkeley police have a problem with Keith that threatens his very freedom. Looking into the lives of these young people, in this American town, at this time in history, we see more than what's true---and what's possible--for Berkeley High. We see what's true and what's possible for America.

A Year in the Life of an American High School, A Glimpse into the Heart of a Nation

Class Dismissed

Ben Cohen

Jerry Greenfield

Commercial success need not come at the cost of human value. Just ask Ben and Jerry, whose first ice cream shop in an abandoned Vermont gas station grew into a $160 million business. Yet Ben & Jerry continue to use the power of business to change the world. With its seemingly wacky antics, controversial social and political stands, and iconoclastic corporate policies, the company that's come to embody socially responsible business has drawn the scepticism of business analysts, the criticism of media cynics - and the amazement- and ultimately, the respect- of the business world and the people in it. As Ben and Jerry explain in DOUBLE-DIP, they haven't always known exactly what they were doing, but they've always known why they were doing it. There's a method to their madness; that method is what they call 'values-led business.' BEN & JERRY'S DOUBLE-DIP explains what values-led business is, why it's the best model for business today, and how anyone who owns, works for, invests in, or shops with a company can help make it a socially responsible business.

How to Run a Values Led Business and Make Money Too

Ben Jerry's Double Dip

Ann Heron

Jasmine and her brother are subjected to name-calling and criticism because of their father's homosexuality, which results in a school assembly to educate the students and teachers about different kinds of families.

How Would You Feel If Your Dad was Gay?

Ben R. Cohen

Two entrepreneurs whose ice cream shop grew into a multi-million dollar business share how they remained true to their values

Meredith Maran

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