Book Review: My (Part-Time) Paris Life by Lisa Anselmo
Lisa Anselmo had a good life in New York City. A good job, with family nearby, and regular vacations in Paris. Then her mother passed away from cancer, and Lisa felt utterly unmoored. She reached out to Paris, beginning to spend more time there. The time there helped....Book Review: Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
Terese Marie Mailhot bares it all in her memoir, Heart Berries. Nothing’s off limits—abuse, mental illness, dysfunctional family and relationships. I often say that a good memoir lets me slide inside the author’s skin. This is a rough skin to spend time in, and I give...Book Review: Thanks, Obama by David Litt
Native New Yorker David Litt was politically aware enough in college to volunteer for Barack Obama’s first Presidential campaign. Then he moved to Washington, D.C. and tried to get a job after graduation. After an internship, he networked himself into Obama’s White...Book Review: The Electric Woman by Tessa Fontaine
Tessa Fontaine runs away to join a circus sideshow after graduate school. It’s dream fulfillment, and a chance to escape the reality of her dramatically ill mother. While many daughters would refuse to leave their mother’s side, Fontaine has a more complicated...Book Review: Becoming by Michelle Obama
It isn’t easy to be the 9 zillioneth reviewer of Becoming by Michelle Obama. But here I am, wondering how I’ll make this an original and meaningful review.Let’s get the basics out of the way. I loved this book, and am especially glad I listened to the audiobook. While...Book Review: River Queens by Alexander Watson
River Queens is the story of a voyage through America. But more than that, it’s the story of Alexander Watson, Dale Harris, their dog Doris Faye, and their boat the Betty Jane. It made me laugh, learn, and even shed a tear.Watson and Harris are landlubbers from Dallas...Book Review: From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein
Beck Dorey-Stein is a charming and funny young woman, as is her book, From the Corner of the Oval. The day after I finished her book, I met Beck at the Harrisburg Book Festival. She joined former speechwriter and fellow author David Litt on the stage, while...Book Review: What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir by Abigail Thomas
Abigail Thomas has been writing and publishing for most of her adult life, which has been long. In this memoir, What Comes Next and How to Like It (WCNAHTLI), she opens up about a variety of personal experiences. It’s about her dogs, her children, her best friend, her...Book Review: 32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line by Eric Ripert
Eric Ripert and his book 32 Yolks made me think about my own knife skills. And how pathetic they are. This enticing memoir, subtitled From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line, tells the story of his early life and career beginnings. It’s an enjoyable read, even when...Book Review: The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story Of War and What Came After from Clemantine Wamariya is the moving memoir of a Rwandan refugee. In truth, it’s the story of Wamariya, her sister Claire, and a variety of other family members. But it’s told by Wamariya, who was...Book Review: Joni: The Anthology by Barney Hoskyns
Joni: The Anthology is a variety of articles, interviews, and reviews collected by editor Barney Hoskyns. It is all Joni Mitchell, all the time. And, even if you aren’t a rabid Joni fan, it’s an interesting collection. The “chapters” are individual, previously...Book Review: Promise Me, Dad by Joe Biden
Before my ebook hit 25%, Joe Biden’s family stories in Promise Me, Dad had me crying. There’s plenty of other content in this heartfelt memoir, but the focus is on Beau Biden’s fight with cancer. Beau is Joe Biden’s oldest son, technically Joe III. His life story is...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...Currently reading
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