I purchased and read no less than five books about writing a personal history before choosing to write this review of "Turning Memories Into Memoirs: A Handbook for Writing Lifestories" by Denis Ledoux . From the Table of Contents, to the Chapter Outlines, to section descriptions, I found this book to be the most organized, and easiest to follow of all the ones I had read. Ledoux's introduction comes right to the point; he describes how to use the book and briefly enumerates what you will need for the project of writing your personal history.

In the "How to Read this Book" section of the introduction, Ledoux suggests that you should at least read the first 2 chapters of the book and then "either read the rest of the book in the order presented or flip through it to the sections that seem to be the most helpful to your stage of writing." Once you have glanced through the book you will realize why he makes this statement.

Each chapter of "Turning Memories Into Memoirs" has bulleted and bolded headings for each topic, followed by short and concise explanations and directions. Also in each chapter of this book, there are one or more helpful Exercises. One could easily write a personal history just by reading and following the simple Exercise sections of this book.

Chapter One - As You Prepare to Start
Are you struggling to find the motivation to write your personal history? Most of the books I read attempted in the first few chapters to motivate the reader to writing action. I was truly impressed by Ledoux's analysis and approach to motivations for personal history writing. His writing encourages and excites the reader to start. He points out the rewards gained for yourself and your family by writing your personal history -- for example, increased family unity and personal insights. Yet he also acknowledges that only when you start writing your personal history from your own needs are you likely to succeed. He says, "People motivated by 'I ought to' and 'it's good to' are usually not successful memoir writers" (28).

Chapter Two - Getting Started
Ledoux describes the Memory List as the backbone of writing (41). Though I saw the memory list mentioned in other books, Ledoux's explanation of how to create the list was easier to implement. For example, he says that when creating memory lists: "Do not force yourself to be chronological ... or thematic, ... and do not strive for cause-and effect relationships... Do not censor your memories" (41-42). I noticed that many of his suggestions in this book will prevent you from ever having "writer's block. "

Chapter Three - Moving Your Stories Along
In Chapter three Ledoux educates the reader on how to make their life stories more interesting and exciting. Once again I found the development and presentation of this topic to be easy to understand and follow. The bold and bulleted headings were a handy review as I returned to this chapter again and again to revise my personal stories.

Chapter Four - Interviewing & Research
I believe this chapter would be good for anyone attempting to write a family history. However, you may not need it if you are only planning on writing a brief personal history. The chapter is well worth reading though because Ledoux does do a good job of concisely covering the topics of interviewing and researching.

Chapter Five - The Truth
I loved Ledoux's statement in this chapter which reads, "... remember that your ultimate goal is to record your version of the truth -- not someone else's. (Writing their version is their job!)" (115). I believe this will give any writer the confidence to express their memories without fear of the contradictions that come from someone else's view of the life event described. Remember each person will have a different memory about things that happened because they will be observing the event from their perspective.

There are 4 more Chapters to this book, each with their own emphasis. In addition there are 3 Appendices; one of which is an interesting reading list for lifewriters. I highly recommend the book "Turning Memories Into Memoirs: A Handbook for Writing Lifestories" by Denis Ledoux. I believe it will help you in writing your personal history and, as a bonus, help to improve your writing skills generally.