Thanks for the Memoirs Book Club

Thanks for the Memoirs Book Club will focus on memoirs from authors representing a variety of backgrounds and lived experiences. We will meet on the 2nd Thursday at 10am, every even month, starting in February (so February, April, June...)

This month we're reading Still Life at Eighty: The next interesting thing by Abigail Thomas.

Discussions will be facilitated by Mary Sussman, who previously led Shakespeare and Company (2003-2005), dedicated to the works of William Shakespeare; and League Café, dedicated to books about racial equity (2018-2023).

About the book:
In her new memoir, Abigail Thomas ruminates on aging during the confines of COVID-19 with her trademark mix of humor and wisdom, including valuable, contemplative writing tips along the way.

As she approaches eighty, what she herself calls old age, Abigail Thomas accepts her 
new life, quieter than before, no driving, no dancing, mostly sitting in her chair in a 
sunny corner with three dogs for company—three dogs, vivid memories, bugs and 
birds and critters that she watches out her window. No one but this beloved, bestselling memoirist, could make so much over what might seem so little. Memories fall 
like confetti, as time contracts, shoots forward, dawdles, and there she is, back in her 
twenties in Washington Square Park, drinking, having sex with strangers, falling in and 
out of love, believing in a better world. Whole decades evaporate as she sits in her 
chair, and a spider takes up residence beside her, who will become her boon 
companion for the next week. Sometimes dread arrives, inhabits her body like a 
shadow and all she can do is write it away, pay attention to what catches her eye, 
sticks in her brain. Whatever keeps her in the moment. Pull up a chair, have a cup of tea and enter Abigail Thomas's funny, mesmerizing, generous world.

“Irreverent, wise, and boundlessly generous."—Elissa Schappell Vanity Fair; "I want to 
grow old the way Abigail Thomas is growing old—with grace and with, humor and 
honest, dogs and dear friends."—Laurie Hertzel Minneapolis Star Tribune); "I would 
follow Abigail Thomas on any journey she ever takes. The arrival of a new book from 
this master is always a cause for celebration, because I know right away that I'm about 
to learn something important about the art of writing and the art of living, both. I 
come to her books as though to a feast, and leave fulfilled and transformed."—
Elizabeth Gilbert; "Abigail Thomas is the Emily Dickinson of memoirists, and so much 
of this book's wisdom is between the lines and in the white spaces. It may only take 
you two days to read, but the impact will stay with you for a long, long time. Abigail 
Thomas fills memory with living breath."—Stephen King; 

Abigail Thomas worked as both a book editor and book agent before writing her own first collection of short stories, Getting Over Tom. Her second and third books An Actual Life, and Herb’s Pajamas, were works of fiction. Thomas’ memoir, A Three Dog Life, was 
named one of the best books of 2006 by The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, and received the 2006 Inspirational Memoir Award given by Books for A Better Life. She is also author of the memoirs Safekeeping, Thinking About Memoir and What 
Comes Next and How to Like It. She lives in Woodstock, New York.

[B]old Age: Interview with Abigail Thomas: 
https://debbieweil.substack.com/p/legendary-memoirist-abigail-thomas

The Roundtable Podcast Interview: 
https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2024-11-20/abigail-thomass-still-life-at-80