Back in St. Olaf...

I've developed something of a passion for memoirs lately, especially those written by women who went on grand adventures (often by accident) or pilgrimages that turned out differently than they had planned.  The genre has exploded since Eat, Pray, Love took over the Bestseller List, so that now even Half Price has an ever-expanding memoirs section as well as a "Travel Memoir and True Adventure" area I'd never ventured into before. 

My favorites are those that sound like they were written by people I'd actually sit down and have a cuppa with in real life, rather than "literary" sounding stories.  The best memoirs combine the honesty of a journal with the gravitational pull of a great novel. 

I've always hoped to one day have an adventure worthy of retelling this way--I talk about my day to day nonsense all the time on the Internet, and have told a few true stories that might not be out of place in a memoir, but still, up until recently I haven't really thought that anything that interesting would ever happen to me. 

Now I'm beginning to think it just might.  I'm thinking of travel and adventure as things that do happen to "people like me" (meaning broke-ass fat girls too shy to order their own pizza), if I gird my loins and make them happen.  What these memoirs show me is that anyone can live an extraordinary life if they remain open to the possibility that something new and wonderful could be around the next corner.

Here are my favorites, in no particular order; they include single-author memoirs as well as collections of true tales:

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Amazing Adventures of DietGirl by Shauna Reid

Expecting Adam by Martha Beck

Book of Shadows by Phyllis Curott

Holy Cow: an Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald

I'm the One that I Want by Margaret Cho

Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie is Not the Answer by Jen Lancaster

Fun Home: a Family Tragiocomic by Alison Bechdel

No Touch Monkey! and Other Travel Lessons Learned too Late by Ayun Halliday

The May Queen: Women on Life, Love, Work, & Pulling it All Together in Your 30s, edited by Andrea N. Richesin

Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures: Funny Women Write from the Road, edited by Jennifer L. Leo

Got one to recommend? Do so in comments!

Comments

[Jaka Merriman]

For the record, adventure can happen any time and any place. But if you want to go out and look for it, I totally encourage you to do so! The world is such an amazing place and it's just waiting for you to get out of the house to see it.

I don't think I've read any biographies of adventure-having' females, but I'll keep my eyes and ears open for you.

And you know that if you wrote your memoirs that there'd be loads of folks to read it, right?

[Nadia]

I'm quite fond of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Especially the chapter where she describes the whole process of attempting to get her turkeys to breed. That had me in stitches.

[Sjh]

Without Reservations
Becoming the Enchanter
Longing for Darkness

I love this genre too!

[Kim Turcotte]

Does Mutant Messages from Down Under count?

It is one of my favorite "finding yourself" books!

[Brandi]

Sand in my bras is a definite favorite! I really enjoyed the story of "all natural girl" and the Ellen Degeneres flying phobia...

[Michelle]

Ayun Halliday is the best! She has food/cooking memoir of sorts as well called "Dirty Sugar Cookies," which is hilarious.

[Ms Alex]

Hi, I'm living my own adventure right now, working on 101 goals to complete in 1001 days. I take it day by day, dreaming and planning in equal measure. :)

I really enjoying Show Me The Magic which is the story of a woman travelling through Benin, a country not much visited. It's a trip where she learns a lot about the people and herself.