Yolanda A. Reid's Blog

Five Memoirs For Your Summer Reading List

1. BRUTALLY HONEST by Melanie Brown--This memoir details former Spice Girl, Mel B, and her roller-coaster life. It covers her working-class childhood and adolescence in the UK; her introduction to the music industry when, as a teen, she answered the newspaper ad that led her to join the famous girl band; her years on tour; and her struggles with her obsessively controlling, abusive Svengali-like husband. An engrossing read.




2. ONE DROP: MY FATHER'S HIDDEN LIFE by Bliss Broyard--A fascinating, well-researched, and well-written memoir, ONE DROP depicts the "double life" of NY Times writer Anatole Broyard, who 'passed' as white for most of his adult life. I found it interesting
that the author embraced her "one drop" of African ancestry with little to no distress. Other people in the same or similar situation have not reacted favorably. Ultimately, ONE DROP ends up being an amazing example of how to investigate one's ancestry and grapple with the results. This book is a worthy homage to Ms. Broyard's father.





3. NOTHING LIKE I IMAGINED by Mindy Kaling--A collection of six personal essays that expound on the actress' life as a new mom ("Help Is on the Way") or as a secular Indian-American ("Kind of Hindu"). The essays are funny, revealing, witty, entertaining and upbeat--a fun read.




4. THE TURKISH LOVER by Esmeralda Santiago--A cautionary tale, this memoir depicts how the author 'eloped' at age 20 with Ulvi, a Turkish filmmaker seventeen years her senior, whom she partnered with for the next eight years. By the book's end, Ms.
Santiago severs her tumultuous relationship with Ulvi and graduates magna cum laude from Harvard University.




5. THE OPPOSITE OF FATE by Amy Tan--This wonderful collection of essays is chock full of scenes from the author's life--from childhood and adolescence to her life as an "author" (a moniker she dislikes). My personal favorite is "My Love Affair With Vladimir Nabokov." A few of the essays depict Ms. Tan's mother, who almost seems a character in a tragic opera.





--Yolanda A. Reid


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THE LIFE AND POETRY OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

After years of reading Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry, what I find most astonishing about her is her intellectual brilliance.  In a time when women were neither allowed to attend university, nor encouraged to read classical literature, she was extraordinarily well-read, even by modern standards. She wrote her first poem at age four.  By the time she was aged ten, she'd read widely in world history, Shakespeare, Homer, and Milton.
In addition, she convinced her father to allow he...

ANNE LOCKE: A POET BEFORE HER TIME

Incredibly, the first sonnet in English was written by a woman in 1560.  Her name was Anne Locke (c. 1530-1590).  I'd never heard of her until two or three weeks ago, while researching sonnets. All this time, I had assumed or believed that William Shakespeare, the Bard, had invented the English sonnet. 
According to Interesting Literature, the Bard wrote his sonnets thirty years after Anne Locke's version.  Thirty years!  Basically, she is known to English scholars and...

A "SONNET NOVELLA"

Described as a "sonnet novella" by its publisher, More Sonnets from the Portuguese is the love story of a middle-aged woman and her married ex-lover from college. In the very first sonnet, entitled "I am a Sensible Woman," the protagonist sums herself up perfectly:

I--Zelia Nunes--sensibly married
only once. Forty-five, no longer young.
Husband dead, four children, mortgaged, harried,
Holy obligations met, even sung.

The title is from 19th century poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's classic, So...

MY CHINESE YEAR

As Chinese New Year approached, I began to reflect on the books I read this past year.  I immersed myself in Chinese culture and language, which I've been interested in for most of my life.  So I thought I'd share three of the many books I read.  Each book is top-notch, beautifully written, evocative, and picturesque.  Each is a memoir that depicts a woman triumphing, at times despite circumstances of misogyny so blatant and palpable as to be shocking.  I encourage re...

ON READING SYLVIA PLATH

  
 
While in college, I was an avid fan of the poet Sylvia Plath.  Years later, I made a summer jaunt to a book reading by her biographer, Edward Butscher.  I had a dog-eared paperback copy of his book on my desk that I often referred to.  That day, Mr.  Butscher--a tall slender man with a mostly dark-brown beard--was gracious and cordial.  I was, perhaps, the most eager Sylvia Plath fan he’d  met in a long time, for I’d read most--if not all--of he...

ON READING THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK

 In the summer or autumn of 1989, I began  to read Doris Lessing, intermittently.   As she is a prolific writer,  I got her books from the local library.  I read her novels in sequence, as they had been written.    I started with her first novel,  The Grass Is Singing, then proceeded to the big fat tome,  African Stories, then onto the Martha Questnovels, five in all.  Amid reading the novels,  I purchased a slender,  burgu...

CHINESE CINDERELLA by Adeline Yen Mah

Chinese Cinderella  is the vivid memoir of Dr.  Adeline Yen's bitter and lonely childhood.   She had four brothers and two sisters, but her days were lonely as she was alienated from her family because they blamed her for her mother's death.   She was bullied and tormented and physically abused, and experienced  “a dreadful  loneliness.”
This book is mostly set in Shanghai, China, during the years of Japanese occupation.   At the time, young Ad...

MY SUMMER READING LIST

As summer approaches, I’ve begun making a list of books I’d like to read this summer.  My summer reading list  this year is separate from the never-ending list of novels, memoirs, and biographies that I usually accumulate.  So I read the book synopsis, critics’ and readers’ reviews,  as I make up my mind about the book.  Often, I will surf  through the author’s website. 
These are the books on my summer reading list, so far:
1—The Invention  of  Wing...

Q & A with AUTHOR YOLANDA A. REID

                                                     



Q: Favorite authors?
A: I go through books and authors in phases.  That said, I remember how accomplished I felt after reading The Golden Notebook  by Nobel laureate Doris Lessing.  A true masterpiece. So she's a favorite. I also love Wuthering Heights.  Emily Bronte wrote one of the most...