I've read many inspiring memoirs over the years, but Memoir of a Milk Carton Kid is certainly not one of them. The book is written by Tanya Nicole Kach with her attorney Lawrence Fisher. At a tender 14 years old, Kach was abducted and held prisoner by a security guard from her school.

Initially, she had run away from her broken home and went to Kach for support because thought he was someone she could trust. Instead, she was forced to live in his second story bedroom for 10 years before telling a store clerk she was in trouble.

I've read many books and memoirs, but few as memorable and gripping as Monica Holloway's Driving with Dead People: A Memoir. It begins like many before it. The author introduces you to herself as a youth and the strange family and surroundings that are imprinted in her mind. The difference is that while there are plenty of books that point out a family's eccentricities not many compare to Holloway's.

Her father's bizarre hobby of video taping local tragedies and disasters, of which her neighborhood seemed to have more than a fair share, mixed with a history of abuse and parental indifference leads Holloway to an obsession with death. Befriending a mortician’s daughter, her playground is a casket room and later her job, a driver that picks dead bodies up from the airport. As adults, she and her older sister recover repressed memories of being sexually abused as children. And despite the soul-rocking realities of her young life, she becomes a remarkable, successful driven woman.

This book is shocking, not only because of the tragic, disturbing story, but also Holloway's grace and even humor as she reveals what would leave many a quivering mess. Her mother's selfish immaturity. Her father's sick obsessions. Wondering if she were better off dead. Read more about Driving with Dead People: A Memoir

I remember watching Siskel and Ebert at the Movies when I was a kid. In my youth, I found it interesting to listen to these famous movie critics sound off on what they thought of the movies of the day, and always looked forward to their inevitable thumbs up or thumbs down. It was like a sentence being passed down by official judges. Pure awesome.

As I got older and could better understand and judge the integrity and enjoyability of movies for myself, I often found myself at conflict with my movie critic heroes' judgments. Still, I always valued their critiques and loved to read them anyway, even if I couldn't challenge their verdicts in person.

When I came across Roger Ebert's memoir, Life Itself, I was compelled to pick it up. After all, I grew up watching the man every single week and idolizing him for what seemed like the coolest job on the planet.

The book chronicled his life from his charmed childhood in central Illinois to his wins and losses as an adult, both in his career and personal life. He discussed his life in the entertainment industry and the ups and downs of being in the public eye along with how he coped with life after his battle with thyroid cancer. Read more about Life Itself: A Memoir Of Roger Ebert

I have often wondered how some of the vacuum brained starlets and trust fund celebrities get the gumption to write memoirs in their early 20s. I mean, isn't the whole point of a memoir to show off your life experience.

Unless you grew up in a third world country and was drafted into the army at age 3, odds are you haven't done enough in your life at the age of 21 to warrant an actual memoir. What about all of you? Do you think your life is good enough to be featured in a memoir that people will actually want to read.

The problem is too many of us lead rather mundane and uninteresting lives. You spend your days working your 9-5 job and come home to a loving family. It's the Leave It To Beaver Life and everyone wants that, but it sure doesn't make for good reading material. I don't think I could sit through an entire book about Tuesday family nights and Wednesday meatloaf. Read more about Is Your Life Worthy of a Memoir?