Read All About It: Another Fake Memoir?

With the awesome headline "Greg Mortenson's 'Three Cups of Tea' may be two-thirds poppycock," Plain Dealer book editor Karen R. Long recounts the allegations presented in yesterday's Sixty Minutes expose on Mortenson's book.

I haven't read Three Cups of Tea, so I can't give my opinion on this particular book...yet.

I did, however, read Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Now, I realize that outrageous and hard-to-believe things do happen to people, but sorry, Oprah, I just don't see how you fell for that one. I also read Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. The family Burroughs wrote about on the book sued him for libel. He settled.

Here's the problem with memoirs: how do you fact-check people's memories?

Well, you can't. But you can check matters of public record, and it seems that in the case of memoirs, publishing companies are not doing their homework.

The Frey debacle has made me reluctant to read other "memoirs." And when I have, I find myself continuously questioning the plausibility of the author's story. (See my review of Orange Is the New Black.)

Know what's scary, though? Three Cups of Tea is required reading for soldiers sent to Afghanistan. What if it's not true?

What are your thoughts? Have you read Three Cups of Tea? Other memoirs? Do you think most memoirs are truthful, embellished, loads of horse puckey? This blogger wants to know.