Reynolds Price on the Necessity of Stories
Nan Barnes
Today’s Memoir/Family History Quote
“A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths.”
Reynolds Price
Today’s Literary Birthday
Chinese-American novelist Amy Tan was born on this day in 1952. Tan’s most popular work was her novel or mothers and daughters The Joy Luck Club. She has also written The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and Saving Fish From Drowning.
Today’s Memoir/Family History Memory Trigger
Each day we offer a question or action to help you trigger your memories of things which will make your memoir or family history richer, more detailed and more interesting. Reflect on the prompt and see what ideas it triggers. Here’s today’s:
Were there any events -- world, local, or personal, that changed your life?