You are the author of your life

An article about an onslaught of memoirs: 'In self-defense, I have tried to construct a memoir taxonomy, just to impose some sort of order on this sprawling genre. Important categories include the retired-statesman (or more likely, bureaucrat) memoir, the traumatic-childhood memoir, the substance-abuse memoir, the spiritual-journey memoir, the showbiz memoir, the spirit-of-place or vanished-era memoir, the illness memoir and the sexual-exploit memoir. To name just one recent example of each, in order: "Taking Heat," by Ari Fleischer; "The Glass Castle," by Jeannette Walls; "Smashed," by Koren Zailckas; "Leaving the Saints," by Martha Beck; "Kiss Me Like a Stranger," by Gene Wilder; "When All the World Was Young," by Barbara Holland; "Stranger in the Village of the Sick," by Paul Stoller; and "The Surrender," by Toni Bentley, which sounds as though it might be a military memoir but is not.' That's the one about the ballerina and her Quest For The Great Butt Fuck, which turned out to be My Most Sensuous Experience Ever. The article lists memoirs to read, plus three books about how to write yours.