Exploring the stories that shape our lives
Who are you? What gives your life meaning? What stories do you tell yourself about the life you’ve lived?
These are the questions that have guided my writing and teaching for more than thirty years. As an essayist, memoirist, and journalist, I’ve been driven to understand what goes on beneath the surface of our lives.
Introducing my new memoir
The Second Story
When the Life You Built No Longer Feels Like Enough
If you’ve ever woken up in the middle of the night and wondered, “Is this all there is?” you’re not alone.
The Second Story is an honest, often funny memoir about what happens when the strategies that once helped us succeed—proving, pleasing, and performing—stop working. What begins as a search for how to age well becomes a deeper exploration of how to live well.
Coming September 22 from Hazelwood Press
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through September 21.
“The Second Story explores what happens when outward success collides with an inner longing for something more. Thoughtful and deeply relatable, it reminds us that aging isn't a crisis to overcome but an invitation to become more fully ourselves.”
—Chip Conley, founder of Modern Elder Academy and author of Learning to Love Midlife
“Shari Caudron’s memoir might just change your life…Essential reading for everyone over 40.”
—Steven Petrow, columnist for The Washington Post and author of The Joy You Make
About Shari
Author of The Second Story, Who Are You People?, and What Really Happened
I’m a journalist, essayist, and teacher with a lifelong curiosity about the complicated realities of being human. My work has taken me from investigating people with unusual passions to helping memoir writers understand their own experiences.
Most recently, I’ve turned that curiosity inward in my new memoir, The Second Story.
Essays about identity, meaning, and the stories that shape us.
I write on Substack about the moments—painful, perplexing, and sometimes funny—that reveal something unexpected about who we are.
“I go through my emails every morning and delete, delete, delete, send to spam, delete. Then I read the ones that matter. This one matters.” —Jo
“As always, this piece went straight to the core—so real, so utterly relatable.” —Susan
What Story Is Shaping Your Life?We all carry stories about who we are and how life works. Some help us move forward. Others may no longer fit. This guided reflection invites you to take a closer look at one of yours—and imagine what might happen if you rewrote it.