Still Life at Eighty, The Next Interesting Thing by Abigail Thomas ‘59 When I saw that Abigail Thomas had written a new memoir, I knew what the next interesting thing would be for me.  For a memoir to work, the central character (the “me”), must be likable because this person is going to be your co

Kid Gloves, Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley ’03. This graphic memoir takes the genre to places not yet imagined in French Milk. Everyone we see walking around got to the planet the same way, yet the story in all its drama is usually behind a cloud. Lucy shows what it is all about, wha

Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas ’59. This work is a memoir composed of prose poems and discrete vignettes; together they show a woman creating a sense of self as she grows up with her kids. Still a teen, she becomes a wife and mother. She spends her twenties caring for her three children, watching he

My Mother and Me, Making it in New York After Making it Out of Berlin and Beirut by Peter Schrag ’55. This charming memoir saves a great deal of information about the life of Ilse Schrag from falling into oblivion and preserves a record of her struggles to make a life for herself and her son, the

The Girl in the Back, a Female Drummer’s Life with Bowie, Blondie, and the 70’s Rock Scene by Laura Davis-Chainin ’78?. While students at Friends, Laura and her friend Bill Arning were drawn to the exciting world of rock, playing out just a few blocks away at rock-mecca CBGB. When they decide to

Alone Together by Edes Powell Gilbert, ’49. A long time educator in New York City, serving for many years as the headmistress of Spence, Edes was well known to the Friends community, often serving on boards and committees. A personal memoir that she wrote for her children and grandchildren, Alone

A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas, ’59. At the outset, Abigail tells us that what stays the same is that her husband got hurt. A couple who fell in love in a heartbeat –she noticed he was the nicest man in the world when they first met -- find their lives shattered by a terrible accident. He w

· The Doctor Is In: Dr. Ruth on Love, Life, and Joie de Vivre by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Pierre Lehu (’67). Pierre graduated from Friends shortly before I arrived, but I heard a lot about him because his mother, Annette Lehu, was my department chair, mentor, and surrogate mother. He has collabora

· Some Day You Will Understand by Nina Wolff (not sure, early ‘80’s?) Nina’s father left her a legacy of letters and papers that date back to his escape from the Nazis toward the beginning of WWII. A teen-aged Belgian Jew, he fled with his family across France and eventually to Portugal and final

My Beloved Monster, Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat who Rescued Me by Caleb Carr   As I began this saga of man and cat, I kept wondering what seemed so familiar in the style.  I had read other books by Caleb, but that familiarity was not it.  I also found myself hearing the text in the voice of Vinc

Searching for Home, the Impact of WWII on a Hidden Child by Joseph Gosler, retired Business Manager. For about 20 years Joe and I both worked at Friends, and though I knew that he had been a Jewish baby hidden from harm with a Christian family in Holland during World War II, through this book I lear

French Milk by Lucy Knisley circa 2000 is a graphic memoir about her month-long trip to Paris with her mother. While they were there, Lucy turned 22. She sees this moment as an official entry into adulthood. I was twenty when I spent a year in Paris, and for me, it was an experience that changed m

Body in Space, My Life with Tammy by Margaret Gonzalez te. So here is my own book with Tammy on the cover. If you were in the lower school in the years from 1984-1988, you might remember her. I got Tammy from the foster care system when she was five. Elsewhere on this site you can find more abou

Things that Make White People Uncomfortableby Michael Bennett and Dave Zirin ’98. The straightforward, hopeful, angry, activist voice throughout this work is Michael Bennett’s. This NFL player was smart to partner with Dave, who knows his craft, to mold a wide-ranging coherent analysis of what ra

A Political Education, Coming of Age in Paris and New York by André Schiffrin, early 50’s. Born in Paris in 1935, André Schiffrin was the only child of a highly regarded publisher, who established the Pleiade editions, very familiar to me when I was a student in Paris. When the occupation came, Ga

The Soul of my Soldier by Abigail Calkin ’59. Abigail, a Quaker, marries a Vietnam vet. Story over. Oh, but he needs a new Rototiller, so he re-ups in the reserves, and Abigail discovers what it is like to be a military wife. He ends up doing two more tours, this time in Iraq. Abigail, a psycholo

· The Paper Garden, An Artist Begins Her Life Work at 72, by Molly Peacock (ff). Arthur Moore recommended this book to me. We all remember Molly as a poet (and a teacher who knew how to home in on children’s learning needs). The Paper Garden is a biography, art book and memoir rolled into one. Th

· Never Say Goodbye by Quentin Rowan. (I’m not sure what year he graduated –it must have been in the 80’s or 90’s) Quentin made a big mistake and suffered severe consequences from the pitiless trolls of the Internet. He composed an entire book with passages purloined from other people’s work, and

Afterimage: A Brokenhearted Memoir of a Charmed Life by Carla Malden. I read this book some time ago and didn’t write it up until now because in the book Carla stated that she had been in school in California since first grade. I saw this book mentioned in an old Class Notes but then wondered if c

The Boy Detective, A New York Childhood by Roger Rosenblatt ’58. This memoir breaks the usual memoir mold; it takes us on a meditative walking tour of Gramercy Park and its environs, where we get to witness the narrator’s mind as it ruminates, remembers and imagines. The narrator has just taught a

Not That Kind of a Girl, A young woman tells you what she has “learned” by Lena Dunham, attended lower school. I really enjoyed Lena Dunham’s seriesGirls, and was intrigued to hear that she had attended Friends. So, she’s “not that kind of girl.” In my day that was what we said to put off unwante

Little Panic: Dispatches from an Anxious Life by Amanda Stern ’89. This is a book you can’t put down, and which stays with you long after you’ve finished it. It is certainly a must-read for practitioners of clinical psych. Rarely does someone with a particular disorder have the writing talent to co

Muddy Boots and Red Socks, A Reporter’s Life by Malcolm Browne ’48. Acknowledging the influence of his Friends science teacher, Walter Hinman, Malcolm Browne thought he would be a scientist. This path was cut short when he was drafted and found himself in Korea where a series of chance events led

What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas ’59. Well, after I read A Three Dog Life, I had to find out what happened next. This book recounts her enduring friendship with a somewhat younger man, his near-betrayal of her, her daughter’s bout with cancer, and more on the dogs. I guess I’m

· Girlbomb, A Halfway Homeless Memoir by Janice Erlbaum (I think she was at Friends only for middle school, in the ‘80’s). I am grateful to Molly Peacock for telling me about Janice Erlbaum and Rebecca Wolff (The Beginners). Girlbomb is the gritty story of a girl’s coming of age in the druggy wo

· Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt.(’58?). I think Roger attended Friends about the same time that I attended Plainfield High School in Plainfield, New Jersey. Like me, he is a grandparent. His daughter, mother of three, dies tragically and suddenly in her prime, leaving a young family in shock.

· The Bone Bridge by Yarrott Benz. (ff). Anne Boster recommended this book to me saying, “You know, Marge, he can write.” I knew Yarrott as a colleague, but I didn’t really know him at all until I read this book. As a young teen in Kentucky, Yarrott is the only person who can save the life of his