Memoirs are hot in 2025. Four truly gifted Bay Area writers taking on varied topics and wildly different approaches in their storytelling are appearing at the Hillside Club in Berkeley on March 3. As arts editor of Local News Matters and Bay City News, I’ve had the pleasure of reading them all and am thrilled to report that they’re all quite good. These writers vividly share aspects of their lives and histories with great humor, compassion, honesty and insight.
Nina Renata Aron recounts a life-changing affair with an addict in “Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls: A Memoir of Women, Addiction, and Love.” The book combines personal anecdotes and academic research in an unflinching examination of addiction, codependence and the need for obsessive love.
Summer Brenner describes life growing up in a genteel Jewish family in Atlanta in the 1950s-60s, and how her mother deals with her brother’s schizophrenia, in “Dust, A Memoir.” As an older adult, the author herself comes to terms with her sibling’s mental illness in revelatory and touching ways.
L. John Harris details his journey to uncover the mystery behind a mesmerizing painting of a girl he found on the street in “Portrait in Red: A Paris Obsession.” It’s an often-funny personal detective story in which the author makes connections between Paris right before World War II, his bohemian life in Berkeley, his search for the perfect croque monsieur and the nature of art itself.
Zack Rogow shares how, as an adult, he got to know his dad — a short story writer, critic for the Hollywood Reporter and man about town in 1950s New York who died when he just 3– in “Hugging My Father’s Ghost: A Memoir.” Rogow includes and analyzes some Lee Rogow’s published and unpublished writings, offers his own insights and even makes up imaginary conversations with his dad in the fun-to-read volume.
Memoir authors appear at 7:30 p.m. March 3 at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley. Visit hillsideclub.org.
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