
The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik
A year spent trying to amass the largest number of birds spotted. The author follows 3 men on their quest to break the record.

A year spent living as though it were the year 1900 on a farm, no electricity, no TV, no car, a lot of simplicity.
Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Twelve Self-

A year spent following 12 experts’ advice to clean up her house, lose weight, become more organized, raise better kids, and just basically figure out if these experts are

My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student by Rebekah Nathan
Well this subtitle really says it all. A sociology professor who, in order to better understand issues she’s having

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania by Warren St. John
A hilarious season spent with the obsessive football fans

School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School by Edward Humes
A year at a top-notch public high school following

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover
This journalist tried to interview a “newjack” (first year corrections officer) and was turned down by every one

Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year by Esmé Raji Codell
Esmé is a very idealistic, iconoclastic, well-intentioned but bristly first-year teacher who documents her trial-by-fire initiation into teaching.
4 comments:
These all sound like fun! Thanks for listing them all; I'll definitely be referring to this when I'm in a memoir mood. :)
I think the label hung on these is generally stunt memoirs. And I totally and completely love them. A.J. Jacobs has several as well. Of course, nerd that I am, I thoroughly enjoyed The Know-It-All where he tried to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica over a year. That's my idea of a great research job. ;-)
Kristen, I loved all his books, but they were mentioned in the EW article, plus I wanted to mention some lesser-known ones. In my opinion Mr. Jacobs doesn't write quickly enough, although for these types of memoirs, it's understandable.
Another is The Know it All by A.J. Jacobs, he reads the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica in a year or so! Very funny, much funnier than his Bible based read.
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