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Schooled by Tali Nay | A Memoir

Recently I sat at a local author’s table at Appletree Books selling my picture book, The Porch Dream, and met a wonderful local author, Tali Nay. Tali’s book “Schooled” is a memoir of her younger years up to the present – which I found fascinating because she is so young. Long ago memoirs were the domain of retired generals and long dead statesmen. But more and more it is a medium embraced by the younger and especially the celebrity crowd. Over the next few weeks, I am diving into memoirs and will bring you several books that have highlighted local lives with fantastic stories to come. Tali’s is a great place to start – her book gives honor to the everyday experiences of us all from birth to graduate school. All that school has left out, she has found and shared in her new book. I asked Tali a few questions to peak your interest.

When did the idea of writing your memoir come to you? I’ve always been a big proponent of personal histories, and as I was looking through mine after graduating from college, it occurred to me that the majority of my life up to that point had taken place in a classroom, and that I remembered the people and feelings I had much more than any facts or assignments. I thought it might be a nice idea for a themed book about the things we learn in school that don’t come from textbooks.

Read the full article on The Heights Observer Blog.

Guest Author: Tali Nay

It's like this: I love reading memoirs. While I can certainly appreciate a well-written novel (I'm just as into things like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter as everyone else), my favorite things to read are memoirs. I just love real life, because if the book is good, there's an extra sense of satisfaction in knowing that it really happened. The author really did accomplish this great thing, conquer this pesky demon, learn this poignant lesson, make it through this unimaginable trial, etc. And if the memoir is more entertaining than serious, that's even better. Because that means the author really did make this big a fool of themselves, say this ballsy thing to that other person, get themselves into this hilarious shenanigan, etc.

Read the full article on Bookingly Yours.

Schooled - Biographies & Memoirs

What is your earliest memory of school? Most likely, it involves something embarrassing or disgusting… or both. “[The] inevitable thing about the concept of school is that eventually someone will throw up.” Veritas!

A collection of short-shorts, this memoir glimpses at things about which we’ve forgotten and those we have tried to forget. Schooled travels chronologically from kindergarten to graduate school, bringing the author’s recollections to life in passages that are each much too fun to be contained in a handful of paragraphs. Along with Nay, we feel left out at recess, vindicated after acing our reports, and wildly free on the LAST last day of school.

Read the full article on SF Book Review website.

Schooled Reviewed By Bani Sodermark of Bookpleasures.com

Encounters in the classroom

This memoir is a book that gave me a bout of nostalgia. I relived my own school and university days, the successes, the accolades and the failures, some of which appeared to be too awesome to contemplate at the time. Most educational institutions, at all levels of complexity, usually radiate a very special ivory tower ambience. Documenting the nature of that milieu and how it influenced the formation of Tali Nay is the subject of this book.

In this book, Tali Nay shares the story of her schooling at the primary level, the secondary level, the university level and finally on the job front. To this end, she mentions the seemingly insignificant, everyday events that have affected her at a deeper level than she knew at the time and affected her decisions and actions later on.

Read the full article on Bookpleasures.com.

Turning ordinary into extraordinary

Here is a fresh, cleverly written memoir by Tali Nay. I loved the format of this book entitled Schooled…most likely to the fact that my life has always been the center of education similar to Tali. Tali divides her memoir into short, witty stories that she remembers from kindergarten all the way through getting her MBA in grad school. She talks about the awkward events (learning about sex) to the struggles she encountered (all those popular kids, and why she never seems to reach the height of popularity that she desires), and some sad events (death). She delights us with an elementary student’s perspective and the reader sees Tali grow…we see her expand and develop into a confident young woman who realizes popularity is self-imaged….hey who gets to decide what is popular anyway?? We get to see how she is not only shaped by her peers, but also by all the teachers that played a part in her education and growth. As a teacher, I loved seeing how sometimes the simplest lesson transforms a student. Teachers do not always get to see their impact…