Fall for the Books

This past Wednesday at 4:30 I attended a Fall for the books reading in Dewberry hall about memoirs.  There were two authors that spoke at this event and they were Katherine Russel Rich and Susan McCorkindale.  Katherine Russel's book that she read from was titled Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language.  Growing up she was always interested in foreign languages and decided to immerse herself in the Hindi culture.  The section that she read from was from the beginning of the book where it talked about her experience with living with many different families in one home. She said that she gave the people in the story different names because to her they all sounded familiar.  The second author, Susan McCorkindale her book was titled 500 Acres and No Place to Hide.  She grew up in the city and then moved south to a farm.  The section that she read from was about learning to cope with nature and her surroundings.  I thought that both of the book were very interesting, but I also thought that they were pretty different.  I thought that McCorkindale's book was very comedic and she really tied to make her readers laugh, with both the content of the story and the way that it was told.  I did enjoy Russel's reading however to me it felt a little more serious and more confusing to follow because she changed the names of some of the people in the story. 

After the readings the floor was open for some questions.  One of the questions was is it difficult to write a memoir after the fact and have to recall the memories.  For Russel she said that while she was in India she constantly took notes so that she would remember events that happened.  McCorkindale did not take notes but she said that for her she did not have trouble recalling memories worth writing about.  Another audience member asked if they told the people that they were being written about in their memoir.  And both author's agreed that they told everyone who was in the book that they were mentioned in the writing.  Both of the authors had great things to say and I enjoyed their readings.  I hope some day to read both of their memoirs.