Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs

The “52 micro-memoirs” in this collection range in length from a single sentence to several pages. They’re non-linear, at turns whimsical, fascinating or profound, and they’re addictive, I’d read a hundred more. Here’s one: "In every book my husband’s written, a character named Colin suffers a horrible death. This is because my boyfriend before I met my husband was named Colin. In addition to being named Colin, he was Scottish, and an architect. So you understand my husband’s feelings of inadequacy. My husband cannot build a tall building of many stories. He can only build *a* story, and then push Colin out of it."

The range of emotion captured in the shortest of memoirs is the most memorable. The ability of two sentences to stop me and make me ponder and feel deeply is not to be missed. It’s funny, sad, and wonderful.

Fennelly shares 52 flashes of memory that has extraordinary meaning to her and forms a word picture of who she is as an American human being. While reading I imagined Fennelly digging deep to show the underlying mystery, drama, humor, frustration, and love that made her take pause, breathe in the moment of memory and make meaning out of it, then honor that slice of life by placing it on the blank page for me to see. I have read this collection of micro-memoirs several times and each time I found her to be joyous in her writing. She is in love with words. She has the skill to script a memorable experience that engages me. What a great ride! That’s a good thing, otherwise, she may as well be knitting or bartending.

I loved this book. A true genre-breaker, Heating and Cooling is both poetry and prose and unbelievably powerful. Like the cover hints, this is delectable food that you can't stop devouring from the moment you open it up. Fennelly artfully incorporates so much imagery and emotion into each word that a whole lifetime is captured in a single of her 52 micro-memoirs. She's witty, somber and uncompromisingly real. You will know her intimately through her stories -- as a writer, a lover, a sister and daughter, a mother and a wife. And I challenge anyone to look at safety scissors or cysts in the same way again.

It was not a straightforward book and the meaning was hard to understand without spending large amounts of time and thought but, that’s just me I’m not a big reader.

I love short stories. These are the shortest of short stories - a hybrid of prose and poetry, all that meaning packed into the smallest package. Some reviewers have said the stories aren't memorable but I disagree. These are EXACTLY the kinds of stories that re-surface for me, rich with details and snippets of conversation. The author has a keen eye for this sort of form. A quick, satisfying read.

If you’re looking for a quick immersion into someone else’s life take the couple hours to read Beth Ann Fenneley’s 52 Micro-Memoirs. Some are poignant, some are laugh out loud funny, and many are memorable. Penises and all...

Each page is a surprising and lovely glimpse into daily life of marriage, parenthood, and work from the eyes of this remarkable author. I have never read a book of micro-memoirs before and I loved it! I could not put it down - whether it was the subject matter or the writing style, it was a beautiful read. My teenage daughter happened to pick it up as well and was pulled right in; it is a rare occasion that my daughter and I enjoy the same book. I look forward to future books from this author.