Talking about memoirs and memoirists loved (and this is just a few of the books on my long list) on Biographile

I'll never be good at choosing favorites. I've never much excelled at making lists. But today, on that wonderful site, Biographile, I'm talking about memoirs and memoirists I've loved—a handful, really, of a very long list. If only for the pleasure of getting to know Biographile for yourself, I hope you will check it out.

And — I just received this photograph taken by Jen Cleary a few weeks ago, as part of the First Person Arts Festival. Since that is the one and only Dani Shapiro up there (who is listed in my Biographile story), I thought it appropriate to use the photo here. She was extremely generous to come to Philadelphia and talk with us.

The piece begins like this, below:

That word favorite? It does me in. Arrests me.

My favorite husband is my only husband. My favorite child is my only child. My favorite condition is alive. Beyond that, I have too many favorite foods to count, and my favorite color depends on the day, and my favorite flower is anything that somehow manages to survive my gardening ways, and I like pinot noir most, much of the time, except when there’s also a malbec around or a really fine cabernet.

And concludes here.