David Sedaris — The Best of Me (Book Review)
David Sedaris is a new author for me, and his 2020 compilation, The Best of Me, was the perfect place to start. He introduced me to his family, his outlook on life, his writing style, and the general ethos of his audience. And yes, I laughed plenty. A few tears fell...Azedah Moaveni — Lipstick Jihad (Book Review)
Azedah Moaveni writes part memoir and part political discussion in her 2005 book, Lipstick Jihad: Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran. Although the events in this book are over 20 years old, as I read it in 2021 the topics and issues felt relevant....Sharon Stone — The Beauty of Living Twice (Book Review)
Sharon Stone writes about plenty of dramatic moments in her 2021 memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice. To date, her life story includes adopting three sons, surviving two traumatic brain injuries, contributing mightily to good causes, and yes, acting up a storm....Sarah McBride — Tomorrow Will Be Different (Book Review)
Sarah McBride covers a wide variety of topics in Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality. But given the complexity of gender identity and McBride’s own path, it’s not surprising. This was also a perfect pick for Pride Month. It fits...Jane Goodall — Reason for Hope (Book Review)
I remember watching Jane Goodall specials from National Geographic when I was a kid. So, when I saw her 2000 book Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey at a book sale, I grabbed it right up. This is a memoir, but it’s also a treatise on how nature connects us to the...Angela Howard: Sin Child — A Harrowing Memoir (Book Review)
Angela Howard is a brave woman. Her memoir, Sin Child, shows that she achieved this character trait because she survived. Oh my, what she survived. And in the process, she clearly developed some serious internal strength. Nobody could beat it out of her, though God...Sarah M. Broom: The Yellow House (Book Review)
Sarah M. Broom creates a tour de force memoir in The Yellow House. And truthfully, it’s so much more. It’s about her family, her childhood, and the house she grew up in. But it’s also about her home city, New Orleans, including the politics, the racial divide, and the...Ukmina Manoori — I am a Bacha Posh (Book Review)
Afghani author and warrior Ukmina Manoori tells their unique story in I am a Bacha Posh: My Life as a Woman Living as a Man in Afghanistan. When they were a child, Manoori’s parents decided they needed another son. But whether due to genetics or medical situations,...Erin French — Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch (Book Review)
Erin French details how she reached success in her upcoming memoir Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch. (Available early April 2021.) It’s not a straight A to Z path, but one that goes backwards, forwards, and even sideways. Of course,...From Paramahansa Yogananda: Autobiography of a Yogi—A Classic Memoir
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda is exactly that. Yogananda details episodes in his spiritual and bodily life from childhood until the book’s publication around 1945. The stories are wide-ranging and vary between India and the U.S. But primarily,...Dysfunctional Family Extraordinaire: Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump, Ph.D. (Book Review)
If you’ve been present for the last five years, you know that Donald Trump (herein mostly referred to as 45*) is all about winning. But sometimes his wins aren’t especially positive. Like the story Mary Trump tells in her new book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My...The Beautiful Struggle, a Coming-of-Age Memoir from Ta-Nehisi Coates (Book Review)
With The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, I claim completion of the Ta-Nehisi Coates canon. (Not counting his work on Black Panther graphic novels.) Now I want to go back and re-read some of his later books with the perspective I...Caitlin Myer on Escaping Abuse, Church, Patriarchy in Wiving
(Book Review)
Caitlin Myer explores family, identity and the role of women in her upcoming book Wiving: A Memoir of Loving then Leaving the Patriarchy. The story starts in Provo, Utah where she’s the youngest child in a medium-sized Mormon family. And her Art Professor dad holds it...
Book Review: Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett
Musician Mikel Jollett didn’t have an easy childhood. In his upcoming memoir, titled Hollywood Park, he tells his story. It’s a moving exposition of many topics, from cults to chronic depression, addiction, and the power of family to both hurt and heal. Jollett’s...Book Review: Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
Dani Shapiro tells the true story of her DNA test journey in Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love. On a lark, she does a DNA test and unexpectedly discovers that her dad isn’t her biological father. She then allows her readers to be a fly on the...Bookshop.Org Affiliate
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
Find Me on these Book-Related Sites
Recent Comments