A Moving Memoir

Adding My First Memoir to My Lending Library

I’ve just added my first memoir to my bookcase and what a heart-stirring introduction to the genre it turned out to be.

As my new colleague, ChatGPT, explains:
A memoir is a form of nonfiction where the author reflects on personal experiences and memories, typically focusing on specific events, themes, or periods in their life—rather than recounting their entire life story, as an autobiography does.

That definition came to life for me through The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse by Vinh Nguyen, released on April 8, 2025, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Nguyen was one of the many Vietnamese “boat people”, refugees who fled the country by sea after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Alongside his mother and siblings, he escaped in a crowded boat, part of the mass exodus of those seeking safety and freedom across dangerous waters. His father fled separately and then vanished without a trace. The memoir traces not only Vinh’s harrowing escape but also the emotional terrain of absence, longing, and inherited memory.

The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse contains all the key features of a memoir: it’s written from Vinh’s perspective, it focuses on his memories and reflections, and it shows, often through dialogue, how personal experiences shape an individual, through offering lessons and insights.

Nguyen himself describes the memoir in this way: “It begins with memory and it moves forward. As it moves forward, it hits the limits of memory. And so increasingly, the book becomes speculative. I moved towards thinking about what could have been—what did I want to have happened?”

I discovered The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse through the Amnesty Book Club, which featured it in celebration of World Refugee Day on June 20th.

Amnesty also hosted an online interview with Vinh Nguyen offering listeners a thoughtful, vulnerable conversation that adds even more depth to the memoir’s reading experience. With Amnesty’s permission, I’m sharing the link to the recorded interview with Vinh Nguyen here.

If you’ve ever wondered how personal memory and historical events intersect on the page, this memoir is a beautiful, poignant place to start.

P.S. For those interested here is the link to join the Amnesty Bookclub.

-Sister Nancy Wales, CSJ

image: Nathan Dumlao/unsplash

Soul Food: A Book Recommendation

If you are on the lookout for a book recommendation for your spiritual reading, may I suggest, the new book (February 2024), “Come, Have Breakfast,” by Elizabeth Johnston, csj. As a lover of the psalms, beholder of God as creative mystery, and a member of our Federation Ecology Committee I found it a perfect fit for me.

I was pleasantly surprised to find how readable yet profound  this well known, erudite spiritual writer’s insights conveyed nourishment for my soul. I appreciated the author’s use of language laced with poetic and biblical images and the book’s format of individual one-sitting meditations.

Amazon eloquently introduces Johnston’s book to potential readers:

“In her latest work, prize-winning theologian Elizabeth Johnson views planet Earth, its beauty and threatened state, through the lens of scripture. Each luminous meditation offers a snapshot of one aspect of the holy mystery who creates, indwells, redeems, vivifies, and sanctifies the whole world. Together, [the meditations] offer a panoramic view of the living God who loves the earth, accompanies all its creatures in their living and their dying, and moves us to care for our uncommon common home.” -Amazon.ca

To sample Come Have Breakfast and have an opportunity to meet with its author, Elizabeth Johnston, csj I suggest viewing Sister Elizabeth in a one-on-one interview with her book’s publisher, Robert Ellsberg, below.

-Sister Nancy Wales, csj | Avid Reader

Image: freestocks @freestocks

SUMMER READING

If you are on the lookout for an engaging book for backyard, front porch or cottage summer reading,  as one reader to another,  I offer you one of my picks for a good summer read. I suggest you find yourself a copy of The Maid. It was named one of the most anticipated books of 2022 by Glamour, Chatelaine, and Canadian Living among others and was an instant #1 bestseller. Nita Pronovost, writing under the pen name Nita Prose, is a Canadian author living in Toronto. Nita is a long-time book editor who has recently become a multiple award-winning mystery writer. The Maid, her first book, has sold over a million copies and has been published in more than forty countries in over thirty-five languages. Certainly, wanting to avoid being a spoiler, I sum things up as it is a tale of human dynamics, robbery, murder, and matters of the heart. I don’t hesitate to say, you’ll never look on a maid in ever the same way again.

““Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” ”

— Malorie Blackman

If you enjoy the writing style of Prose, you can read The Mystery Guest, Nita’s second mystery featuring several of the main characters you will have met in reading The Maid.

You might also like to read Nita Pronovost’s own article which ran in the Toronto Star in December of 2023. In it, the author reveals in her own words how a novelist takes a tiny nugget from her real life and turns it into fiction.

-Sister Nancy Wales ,CSJ

image: Anna Hamilton @lovingdreamer/Unsplash

Be a Book Nut!

“Be awesome! Be a book nut!” — Dr. Seuss

As an avid bookworm, I once again find myself engaged in beginning a new series of novels set in England during the World War II period.

I just finished reading A Peculiar Combination on my Kindle while taking a few days to visit my friends in Cincinnati. A Peculiar Combination begins Ashley Weaver’s Electra McDonnell four book series, with number four, Locked in Pursuit, yet to be released until May 2024. It follows up on A Peculiar Combination (2021), the Key to Deceit (2022) and Playing it Safe (2023).

In A Peculiar Combination, Ashley introduces us to Electra and her Uncle Nick. Not wanting to be a spoiler, I’ll just say Electra and her Uncle Nick find themselves working with the initially hard to read Major Ramsey to avoid facing imprisonment. Employed by the British government Electra and Uncle Nick find themselves eager to do their bit for king and country. Thus begins their close calls and the novels twist and turns.

You might want to check out your local library’s catalogue. I found A Peculiar Combination is available at the London Public Library.

-Sister Nancy Wales, CSJ

Summer Reads

A Recommended Summer Read from a Self-Identified Bookworm

Dear Readers,

If you are on the hunt for an entertaining page-turner to enjoy this summer at the cottage, by the pool, in your backyard or on your porch may I suggest the novel, Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult.

I might be speaking to the converted. Professor Google informs me that this well-known author’s works are translated into thirty-four languages in thirty-five countries, and she has authored twenty-eight novels three of which are, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes and Harvesting the Heart. In addition, five of her novels have become movies: The Pact (2002), Plain Truth (2004) The Tenth Circle (2008), My Sister’s Keeper (2009) and Salem Falls (2012). Even before her latest book had been released, Netflix announced it had acquired the rights to Wish You Were Here, anticipating turning it into a feature film.

I have found each of Jodi Picoult’s novels to be an excellent read. She skillfully tackles current and thought-provoking issues through her thorough research. This captivating author’s riveting writing style is peppered with interesting twists and unexpected turns, which hold the reader’s rapt attention.

If you doubt my recommendation, here is Jodi Picoult in her own words introducing you to her latest book, Wish You Were Here

Happy Reading,

Sister Nancy Wales, csj Avowed Bookworm