Book Review: The Skin Above My Knee by Marcia Butler
I was utterly captivated by Marcia Butler’s memoir, The Skin Above My Knee. As Butler says in a YouTube video, music saved her life. It was the one constant in a world full of discouragement and outright destruction. Butler discovered music at a young age, and really...Book Review: American Yellow by George Omi
George (Minoru) Omi’s memoir about growing up second-generation (Nisei) Japanese in 1930s and 40s America is an important story. Everyone should hear more about the tragedy of incarcerating American citizens of Japanese descent after Pearl Harbor. My mother-in-law was...Book Review: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
In her vulnerable and raw memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking (TYMT), Joan Didion tells the story of her husband’s fatal coronary and her only child’s severe illness. Just the thing for reading around the holidays, right? Truthfully, I chose it because of a reading...Book Review: Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming
In Not My Father’s Son, Alan Cumming writes a moving tale of intersecting lives. One of them is his own. He tells how his father and grandfather affected him, in vastly different ways. I listened on audio, and I’d recommend hearing Cumming tell his own story. His...Book Review: Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
Patricia Lockwood’s memoir Priestdaddy is laugh-out-loud funny, quirky, and poignant. Growing up in a household where your parent is deeply involved in their religion is something I’m familiar with from my own life, yet Lockwood elevates the storytelling to hilarious...Book Review: Funny in Farsi: A Memoir about Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
Firoozeh Dumas’ memoir about growing up Iranian in California, Funny in Farsi, is a lighthearted look at her 1970s and 80s immigrant experience. Imagine moving to a country where you don’t speak the language, and everyone is geographically challenged with...Book Review: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
I picked up I feel Bad About my Neck by Nora Ephrata on a Sunday afternoon when I needed a little levity. Having loved her movies but never read her books, this was a happy find at a library book sale. And it did make me laugh some, and groan quite a lot. Sometimes a...Book Review: The Glass Eye: A Memoir by Jeannie Vanasco
Jeannie Vanasco bares her soul in The Glass Eye: A Memoir. There were times it made me squirm with discomfort. But it also touched my heart and made me appreciate her willingness to be vulnerable. The narrative thread is more of a spaghetti-like jumble of disparate...Book Review: Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? By Alyssa Mastromonaco
Alyssa Mastromonaco’s memoir of her political career, including her time in the Obama White House, is funny, inspiring, and vulnerable. When I bought it, I was wishing for a reminder of what made Obama’s presidency exemplary. I really had no idea tampon...Book Review: Tracks: One Woman’s Journey of 1,700 Miles Across the Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson
Originally published in 1982, Robyn Davidson’s travel memoir, Tracks: One Woman’s Journey of 1,700 Miles Across the Australian Outback, is a unique picture of life in the bush. To call it a travel memoir doesn’t do it justice. It’s really an...Book Review: In the Days of Rain: A Daughter, a Father, a Cult by Rebecca Stott
In the Days of Rain: A Daughter, a Father, a Cult is a memoir that lives up to its descriptive title. As her father is dying, Rebecca Stott agrees to finish his memoirs. In doing so, she tells the story of four generations including her own. Starting with her...Book Review: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley and Larry Buttrose
Synopsis: When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines. Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on...Book Review: Paula by Isabel Allende
In her wide-ranging memoir, Paula, Isabel Allende tells the story of a conversation she had with famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. As they talked, he said to her, “My dear child, you must be the worst journalist in the country. You are incapable of being...Book Review: You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson
You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson wasn’t the book for me. I picked it up from the library on a whim, based on enthusiasm from Litsy users. Although I appreciated the look into a young African-American woman’s life, her writing style left me...Book Review: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai is beyond inspiring, and her book I Am Malala is terrific. When I look at the young girls in my life, I don’t see that kind of passion for large worldwide causes. That ability to see outside herself at such a young age is what I admire the most...
Recently added to TBR
Data from Goodreads
Purchase My Book
I will definitely recommend Kick Pain in the Kitchen to my patients: Those who are looking to avoid pharmaceutical treatment and those who want to combine western medicine with alternative therapies.
Jane A. Swartz
ARNP, MSN, Rheumatology Nurse Practitioner
Recent Comments