by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 31, 2021 | RELAX: Memoir
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,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 20, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
John O. Brennan does everything you’d expect in his 2019 memoir Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, at Home and Abroad. He lived a CIA life. But this isn’t all clandestine stuff, like watching a season of Homeland. While there are some parallels, Brennan...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 2, 2020 | RESIST: Politics
I spent 30 hours listening to Barack Obama in November. Hint: It was the audiobook of his recently released memoir, A Promised Land. I consider it time well spent, as well as an enjoyable listen. And even though I was alive and politically aware during the events of...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 26, 2020 | LEARN: Everything Else
Reading My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg is like dipping my toe into the world of judges and legal briefs. It’s a marginally vast compilation of lectures, briefs, interviews, and other writings from the Supreme Court Justice. They begin early in life—with a school...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 8, 2020 | RESIST: Social Justice
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha wrote What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City to tell what happened in Flint, Michigan. But it’s not just her story. It’s the story of her clinic, her city, her state, and her country. And they are...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 27, 2020 | RELAX: 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,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 3, 2020 | RESIST: Politics
What does it say about my reading habits that when I needed something easy, I picked up the 2017 book Unbelievable: My Front Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur? And that subtitle? It’s not holding up over time, if the state of the 2020...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 25, 2020 | RESIST: Social Justice
Brittany K. Barnett tells a series of moving and disturbing stories in her new memoir, A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom. If you read social justice books like The New Jim Crow or Locking Up Our Own, you must get your hands on a copy of this...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 23, 2020 | RESIST: Politics
We are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump is all politics. Authors Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin started a grassroots movement in the wake of the 2016 election results. In this book, they explain what led to those results, and what the potential...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 26, 2020 | RELAX: Memoir
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 18, 2020 | RELAX: Memoir
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 25, 2020 | RESIST: Politics
Dan Pfeiffer is coming soon to a bookstore near me, promoting his new book, Un-Trumping America: A Plan to Make America a Democracy Again. Since I’m attending that event, I decided it was high time I read his first book. And I think I’ll be glad I read them closer...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 21, 2020 | RELAX: Memoir
Cheryl Strayed writes about her life-changing solo backpacking journey in Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s not a new book. In fact, it’s been on my digital shelves since 2014. So, I figured, it’s about time I give it a try. Strayed’s story has...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 13, 2020 | RELAX: Memoir
I am so impressed by Sally Field. In Pieces is a poignant, charming, and absorbing tale. And she lived it all. Although she never glosses over the difficult parts of her life, she intersperses them with her triumphs. Through it all, we learn just how hard a Hollywood...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 6, 2020 | LEARN: Medical Memoir
If I’m going to read about death, let it be a book by Caitlin Doughty. And in this book, Doughty travels the world, investigating various death-related practices. She makes the topic fun, which obviously sounds different from how we typically perceive death. What I...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 3, 2020 | RELAX: Memoir, RESIST: Feminism
Chanel Miller went to a fraternity house party one evening, and woke up in the hospital the following morning. What happened in between is just one reason why she’s written a memoir. During the party, Miller got quite drunk and passed out. Her sister and friend...
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