5 Reasons Why I Love a Good Memoir

A walk on Philly's riverfront got me thinking about this one especially

As I walked the city streets of Philadelphia this morning, from Fishtown to the Race Street Pier, it became an exercise in metaphors more than a heart and lung workout. That’s partly because I kept stopping to take photos. And that’s partly because I couldn’t help thinking about how it feels to launch a memoir. And that’s because today is the launch of Kadian Grant’s memoir, Leaving a Charmed Life: A True Story of Choosing Authentic Happiness.

Writing about an intimate slice of your life is hard enough, revisiting memories and making meaning from melding them into a cohesive narrative. But then it becomes a book and you’re expected to let people read it. You actually hope people read it, and like it, but part of you wishes you can just close your eyes and not hear another word about it.

That’s because publishing a memoir can feel like showing up naked in a room of fully clothed strangers. But when you feel the love and friendly support of others, it can be more like gently shining a soft light on tender but strongly healed scars. Either way, it takes a lot of courage! But there’s a better metaphor besides being nude.

Here’s 5 reasons why I love a good memoir:

1. A good memoir is like a bridge spanning a river as wide as the Delaware, taking you from a state of curiosity to a state of understanding, perhaps taking you places you’ve never experienced.

2. A good memoir carries you in the flow of ideas and words like a river, but not only in the main channel. It takes you off into the narrower channels of details, where you see things you didn’t expect.

3. A good memoir takes you closer and closer to the bridge, revealing deep-water reflections. You might not notice the structure that’s holding it up, but there’s beauty and strength to be seen if you look.

4. A good memoir helps you notice synchronicities, as if Life has been reading over your shoulder and wants to point out the themes. Like what are the odds to find a sidewalk sign pointing the way to happiness on the same day you’re releasing a book about authentic happiness!!??!!

5. A good memoir helps you see delicate details and the big picture, where at first glance it may seem bleak. I remember a friend reading my memoir of cancer caregiving years ago, telling me it was hard to read the chapters where life was exceedingly tough. She said something like, “But you had to live it, so I could at least keep reading it.”

Please give a round of applause to Kadian Grant for her courage to share her amazing story of eradicating toxic generational patterns so that she could live an authentically happy life.

If you would like to help boost Leaving a Charmed Life’s rankings, we invite you to join our Launch Day effort to buy as many books as possible on Amazon. Or you can go directly to Barnes and Noble or Bookshop or see other links at KadianGrant.com.

Thank you for helping Kadian’s memoir make a splash and good ripples!