Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir read in 2022
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State of Terror by Louis penny & Hillary Clinton"
Let me know how you liked the Hilary Clinton book. I've been thinking about reading it.
The Country Nurse Remembers: True Stories of a Troubled Childhood, War, and Becoming a Nurse
Mary J. MacLeod
5/5 stars
This was the third book in the series but chronologically it is the beginning of her life story and the beginning of her career in nursing during WWII. She discusses her life, the death of her mother and her problems with her stepmother. I really enjoyed this book and the rest of the series. Highly recommended!
Here are the memoirs I've read so far in 2022.1. Beautiful Country, by Qian Julie Wang - ★★★★
This is an immigrant memoir. The author was a child when her parents moved from China to New York City. It was interesting to read about how she adjusted to life here, and the poverty they lived in. Her parents struggled to survive, her father working as a clerk in a law office and her mother taking a series of low-pay factory type jobs. There were a few TMI moments which is why it lost a star in my review.
2. Man's Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl - ★★★★★
Only the first part of the book was a memoir. The second two parts were about psychology, and I found it all very interesting. Victor Frankl was already a working psychiatrist who helped patients in suicide prevention. When he was detained and sent to a Nazi prison camp (Auschwitz) he observed his fellow inmates and what helped them survive, or the attitudes that signified giving up on life.
3. By Canoe and Dog Train: The Adventures of Sharing the Gospel With the Canadian Indians, by Egerton Ryerson Young - ★★★★★
This was an unexpected pleasure for me. This man moved with his family to a remote town in Manitoba where he established a mission. As part of his work there he routinely took long, arduous journeys by dog sled in winter, or by canoe in summer, to visit people living in still more remote areas within a few hundred miles of his home. His descriptions of camping in the snow are memorable. Brave man!
4. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, by Mary Rowlandson - ★★★★★
This memoir was written by a Puritan woman whose town was attacked by Native Americans during King Philip's War, 1675-1678. King Philip was the assumed name of a Native American chieftain. As retaliation for an earlier attack on the Native Americans, they invaded Lancaster, Massachusetts and killed quite a few citizens, then kidnapped others. Mary Rowlandson was one who was taken, and her daughter who had been injured during the attack. Very sad story but also worth reading. This took me only one day to read, and to study to learn more about the war which I'd never heard of before.
5. Shadows on the Klamath: A Woman of the Woods, by Louise Wagenknecht - ★★★★★
This is the memoir of a young woman working for the US Forest Service in Northern California in the 1970's and 1980's. It explained a lot about the work she did in the Klamath National Forest. She started as a clerk but quickly went on to a job that involved planting new trees in areas that had been logged. Hard work! She also wrote about her love life in about half the chapters. I found it all very interesting, especially since I now live in the town this took place in.
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4 stars
Heartbreaking story of child abuse and neglect that takes place in Denmark in the 80's. It is hard to believe that parents would behave the way her parents did. At times I thought some of the things that happened with social services were something that could only take place in Denmark or in that period of time and they don't happen anymore, or at least I hope so. A heads up if graphic sexual depictions offend you, you might want to skip this.
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4 stars
The author chronicles his life from the time he was almost killed by his biological father, through his dysfunctional adoptive family and adult years of drug addiction and alcoholism. It's very sad and you just want the author to have a happy life. The ending left me unsure if that had happened. He did overcome his addiciton, at least at the time of the writing, but didn't seem to have found a satisfying relationship. Lots of typos throughout.
Walter Sickert: A Life by Matthew Sturgis4 stars
I liked this very much, even though I got it from the library and had to skip around quite a bit before the due date. Well-written and very deeply researched; luckily Mr. Sickert left a great deal of his life behind in the form of not only paintings, but letters, friendships, relatives and reminiscences. The author even spent the last chapter debunking him as a Ripper suspect, especially the risible work of Patricia Cornwell. Sickert himself quipped: " It is said that we are a great literary nation but we don't really care about literature...We like a good murder." Sickert, always intrigued by the Ripper case and a TC man through and through, would have been so flattered to be called a suspect. I hope that, wherever he is now, he knows about that funny little honor.
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3 stars
I have read autobios on other cast members of the Little House On The Prairie and I have to say this is my least favorite. Caroline played the mother of the Ingalls clan. If you think she is like her character, guess again. But then, maybe we should not expect someone that came of age in the 60's would be like a pioneer woman. I liked that she was honest about her drug and alcohol use. But most of the book seemed to be a lot of complaining and whining and was very self-centered. A word of caution, if you love the character of Carolyn Ingalls but are very much against abortion, you may want to pass on this book, as she goes in depth relating not just one, but two times she had an abortion, and gives very little reason for doing it except that it didn't fit into her lifestyle at the moment. The book seems to end abruptly with her marriage to Alan Radford. It took a google search to find out she had an adopted child with him, they divorced, and she was married a third time.
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4 stars
I think it would be hard enough to lose your wife to Alzheimer's disease, but to lose her at the young age of 55 would be even harder. Even though the author's wife hadn't died at the time of the writing, he still had lost her to the disease. This book is mostly how he coped with his wife's disease. While at times he maybe didn't make decisions that others would have made, he did what he thought was best for both of them. This book is different from others in that the author is a journalist and sometimes would take his wife with him on assignments, so he had the added burden of dealing with her illness while out of the country or leaving her at home. There was one point where I disagreed with him and that was after he had put his wife in a facility and later decided he needed to have a woman in his life so went on dating sites. He rationalized it by saying others had told him he needed someone and he shouldn't be alone. I thought this sounded very selfish. His wife was still living at the end of the book. I wish he would have waited to publish until she had passed so he could talk about how he coped with the ending of her life.
Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh by Alan StrachanI'm a Vivien Leigh fan from way back so, I'm not sure why I had not read this latest bio on her (published 2019) but then, since I'd read most all the bios on her already I wasn't expecting this one to tell me much new, since she died over 50 years ago.
Alan Strachan is a theatre director, so it was told more from the stage perspective rather than her movie appearances, but even so I did not really get the sense of her stage craft from his writing, until the last chapter, where he actually DID see her on stage in 3 of the last plays she performed.
Otherwise it was more of a hash of what other bios had already written about her. Sometimes the modern day comments were a bit intrusive - who cares about Trump? and the commentary on other trashy bios about the Oliviers - the rumours that Laurence Olivier was bisexual for example, I'm glad that was addressed, BUT I thought the focus was meant to be more on Vivien than the Oliviers as a couple. Yes they were like the golden couple, but the other annoying thing was, while Vivien was always referred to as Vivien, Laurence Olivier was always referred to by his last name.
As if he was the NAME and she wasn't. I didn't think this bio got much into the dynamics of why that marriage fell apart, BUT it does seem that Larry had his own affairs BEFORE Vivien ran off with Peter Finch.
However, the Macbeth play (Vivien had a talent for playing MAD women - Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Blanche du Bois, ) was something that was quite interesting, if only they had made a film of that!
If you looking for photos of Vivien, sorry this bio only has a few stage shots. Overall, its a competent bio from a stage POV about her career, and as a chronology but falls a bit short on rounding out Vivien Leigh as the complex and deeply passionate personality/character she was. That she was an actress who could draw on deep emotions and play a part even when she wasn't feeling like it, (thanks to her manic depression) or exposing an uncomfortable truth, that took guts. She did a tonne of research for her best parts - anyone who has seen Gone With the Wind can see that she truly inhabitated Scarlett O'Hara. Even though she wasn't Southern or an obnoxious belle - far from it.
And if her beauty was ever a liability this was something she had to deal too as she aged. (Can you be too beautiful? seems so... but she never went for the superficial in her roles). So I'm glad I read it, but it just seems the writing style was a bit dry. She had an amazing life, all the while dealing with manic depression (bipolar disorder) that wasn't easy to cope with, since back then the only treatment available was ECT.
Selina wrote: "Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh by Alan StrachanI'm a Vivien Leigh fan from way back so, I'm not sure why I had n..."
Nice review!
Half a Walnut Tree by Quin Tin TangNot about trees (it's referring to a Chinese proverb, which I confess I don't quite get the meaning of) but an interesting memoir about a Chinese emigre to NZ, who's parents were in the Cultural Revolution, and how she made a new life in Christchurch, even though she was IN the earthquake CTV building where the majority of casualties were.
Education was her ticket to freedom and it is a harrowing read not just with the earthquake where she was afraid to lose her 2 daughters but her parents who were split apart by politics in China. I just can't fathom how much of life is controlled by the CCP there, and how many died by the hands of the govt. I feel very thankful that my family ancestors did not stay in China while all that was going on.
Free Lunch by Rex OgleA memoir about a middle school boy's experiences dealing with poverty and getting free lunch from school.
It's very hard on children when their parents can't find work. While relatives may help, there's also parents pride at stake and his mother wouldn't accept his grandmother's charity. Rex had to look after his younger brother, and they moved from place to place, and also a great deal of domestic violence when his mother and step-dad were in financial straits.
Sadly its a common experience though children do feel isolated when they dont' understand what's going on, plus they cannot contribute though most do feel pressured to drop out of school so they can earn.
Alexander Hamilton: A Life
Willard Sterne Randall
4/5 stars
I knew little about Hamilton’s life before reading this book but Randall paints a portrait of a very smart and interesting man who was willing to become involved in the building a nation. Highly recommended!]
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5 stars
At first I wondered how the author's traumatic childhood had anything to do with the story of running an animal sanctuary. Keep reading. It all ties in. I loved her story and what she does for the animals. I can't imagine having so many animals and working full time. I would have liked to have read more stories about the animals. The secret of a good memoir is leaving the reader feeling like they know you and want to meet you and never wanting the book to end. I felt all of these things with this book. I wish the Funny Farm was closer to me so I could volunteer.
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Vincent Bugliosi
4/5 stars
This is the fascinating and horrible story of the Manson murder spree when 5 people were killed in an attack masterminded by Charles Manson that occurred in August 1969 near Hollywood. Vincent T. Bugliosi Jr. was a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney and the lead prosecutor in the trials and this book was written by him. I thought this was a well written, detailed account of the crimes and the trials of the people involved in the crimes.
I was curious to see who was still alive of the people involved and found this article from March 2022. https://laist.com/news/criminal-justi...
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Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Vincent Bugliosi
4/5 stars
This is the fasc..."
Published in 1974, I think I probably read it when it first came out, long before I knew True Crime was a genre. Maybe it wasn't back then.
Koren wrote: "Julie wrote: "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Vincent Bugliosi
4/5 stars
Th..."
I stuck this here because it had so much biographical data of the participants involved in this case and it was so good!
I think I've read this but not sure either - before my GR days.Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties was a good one from one of the girls that went around with him. Interesting to see it from her perspective.
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Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
[author:Vincent Bugliosi|28828..."
No problem.
Julie wrote: "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Vincent Bugliosi
4/5 stars
This is the fasc..."
Another source on the subject of "where are they now?" Is Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders.
If you like memoirs like The Glass Castle, Hillbilly Elegy, A Wolf at the Table and the like--just finished Never Simple by Liz Scheier. It was amazing. She has a really special voice, would love to read more from her.
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4 stars
This book is at its best when the author talks about his personal life. He gets too detailed about the plays and shows that he has written and acted in. Except for Mrs. Doubtfire. That seems strange because, in my opinion, it is his work that I am the most familiar with. He played Robin William's brother in the movie. Mrs. Doubtfire was only two paragraphs in the book. This guy is hilarious and a proud member of the gay community. It is interesting that he is a talented playwright and acted in many of the plays that he wrote.
Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?: The Lost Toys, Tastes, and Trends of the 70s and 80s
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
3/5 stars
The authors talk about the bygone products, TV shows, stars and trends of the 70’s and 80’s. If you grew up in that time period you will probably get a kick out of this book. Anyone up for a candy cigarette?
Kaypeigh wrote: "If you like memoirs like The Glass Castle, Hillbilly Elegy, A Wolf at the Table and the like--just finished Never Simple by Liz Scheier. It was amazing. She has a really special voice, would love t..."Was it miserable or triumphant overall would you say? I've read loads of misery lit - including those you note, but am trying to read more upbeat stuff now..
Julie wrote: "[book:Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?: The Lost Toys, Tastes, and Trends of the 70s ..."
I remember candy cigarettes - "Fags"! They were briefly renamed as "Fads" until soon being discontinued.
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[book:Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?: The Lost Toys, Tastes, and Tren..."
Isn't it crazy that our parents gave us candy cigarettes! But, back then smoking was cool. Everybody of my parents generation did it.
Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand by John Markoff. More than you'll ever want to know about the life of Stewart Brand. My review is here:https://mypointbeing.com/2022/04/12/w...
The Joy of Gardening by Lynda HallinanNZ Gardener magazine editor Lynda Hallinan is a regular monthly fixture in the garden world and written many books..this books is a bit more eye candy (have been to her garden.. it's impressively chic) as well as a joyous essay on ..the joy of gardening. In this Lynda is free to opine on anything and everything to do with her obsession...though its not something her two sons or husband necessarily share!
There's also a bit more about Lynda's life as a recovering journalist - no, she's not really cut out for hard news reportage so she's elevated the gardening section of the newspaper to good news that's worthy of a monthly if not weekly update.
I used to envy Lynda's garden a bit (and how she can just drop insane amounts of money into buying so many plants for her garden?! ) but now in some ways she's kind of made a rod for her own back so it kind of was like some garden karma if she works too hard putting the rest of us to shame. File under 'The Good Life' though she too has written a book on that also Back to the Land. A Year of Country Gardening
Chuck Amuck: The Life and Time of an Animated Cartoonist
Chuck Jones
4/5 stars
Chuck Jones who worked for Warner Brothers, discusses his life growing up and his career in animation, drawing Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pigs and many more toons. This book contains lots of his sketches and drawings. I enjoyed it and all the sketches, cartoons and pictures.
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State of Terror by Louis penny & Hillary Clinton"
Let me know what you think of the Hillary Clinton book.
Mod
4 stars
I have to confess, I have never watched The Big Bang Theory. I had no idea who this guy was. But the cover looked like it was an interesting book. Kunal seems like a nice guy and kind of funny so now I am going to look for reruns of The Big Bang Theory.
Koren wrote: "Kit wrote: "Julie wrote: "[book:Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?: The Lost Toys, Tast..."
in retrospect it was wack, yes. I guess the tobacco companies were even advertising it was good for your health at times. Sad.
I wonder what else people were/ are getting duped in to thinking was healthy when it wasn't . Oh - oxycontin, Sacklers..hmm.
Well amaze balls! There I was thinking they had been discontinued but they continue in another iteration...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FADS_Fu...
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie WangQian, (or Julie as she likes to be known as) writes about her childhood growing up in America and having to lie about her immigrant status. I enjoyed this memoir as its really getting into what it's like to be not just an only child but all the things immigrants have to deal with...not fitting in, learning language, crappy jobs, cramped accomodation, anxious parents, white privelige, lazy teachers.. being poor, 'shopping' on the roadside (actually, scavenging) and never knowing where home is.
Not sure why her parents went to Brooklyn, New York when they came from China (why not San Francisco?) as the Chinatown in SF seems a bit more cohesive/supportive than the bullying and oppressive one they encountered in NYC. Brooklyn always seems to get a bad rap by writers, though A tree grows in Brooklyn like its some kind of miracle - is it REALLY a concrete jungle?
I don't know how old she is but must be round my age if she was obssessively reading the Baby Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High books. The memoir ends as she's heading to graduates primary/elementary school.
At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman's Journey of Discovery by Rebecca OttowaAn American expat marries and makes a home in Japan. This was an interesting memoir of short chapter vignettes on what it's like to be a Gaijin housewife in a village in Kyoto, Japan, in a traditional home that's been in the family for 13 generations. A lot of the customs and rituals are demystified here. The illustrations are a nice touch.
I have to say the two cultures (Japanese and American) couldn't be more different in their outlook, but she learned not so much to fit in, but embrace the culture as well as teaching the Japanese a thing or two about Western ways.
Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry HudsonNot sure if the cover picture is of her and her sister because there's another girl in it and there are no other photos in this memoir/journalistic piece about growing up in poverty. File under mis-lit? From what I read, most of the miserable experiences were not actually from growing up poor really but her mum's poor choices, and absent parenting. Basically her mother had her out of wedlock, drank, and they moved from place to place when she couldn't pay the rent, in various B and Bs and council flats across England and Scotland. As a 'grown up' she revisits the towns where she lived or stayed, to find things much the same, but I think it's more for therapy for the author than as a reveal of how bad or poor the towns were.
That she lived to tell the tale is somewhat of a miracle, though as always in mis-lit, libraries and librarians get glowing praise for being the safe harbour and providing books to escape from the grinding poverty. Also the concept of poverty-proofing schools is interesting, though the free lunch thing is obviously still a bone of contention for those that need to have it.
Madge: The life and times of Madge Oberholtzer: The young Irvington woman who brought down D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan by Charlotte Halsema Ottinger4 stars!
I was so impatient to read this that I bought it on Kindle and started reading it the next day. Full of interesting information of all kinds -- from an exhaustive biography of Madge herself to the story of what happened to the national KKK membership following the murder, and the later history of the house her killer lived in. Voluminous appendices with photos and "whatever happened to this person" mini-biographies of almost every single person mentioned in the story, AND their descendants. There's a photo of just about every single person, too. Massive listing of sources. This is destined to be a basic sourcebook on all things Madge Oberholtzer and all things D.C. Stephenson.
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5 stars
There were some laugh-out-loud moments in this book. A Humorous look at growing older, friends, sex, and a few other things. The author was raised in the South and lives in New York. She brings her southern humor to her Northern friends. I will definitely look for more by this author. A quick and easy read.
Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls
Mary Downing Hahn
4/5 stars
Set in 1956, two young high school girls are killed in the woods causing great consternation in their community. Buddy, a young man is thought to have killed them but is let go. Will they ever find the killer(s)? This is based on a true story. This is considered a Juvenile book but I really enjoyed it and wondered why it was in that section because I think adults would enjoy it. I have read Hahn’s other books and would like to read more of her.
Mod
5 stars
Couldn't put this book down. While technically not a true crime story, it is about the crime of identity theft. The author becomes an expert in identity theft, going on in adulthood to become a university professor, not realizing the person who stole her identity as a child was someone close to her. The relationship between her and her mother is complex and her mother is a bit of an odd duck, but no one catches on to all of her secrets until after her death. For me the one think missing in this book is what steps, if any, the author took to restore her credit and her father's credit. Even though the author teaches about identity theft in college, this book isn't at all text-bookish, and is more a memoir than a self-help book.
The Tender Bar: A Memoir
J.R. Moehringer
4/5 stars
Author JR Moehringer writes about his life growing up in New York City with his mother who was abandoned by his father. He spends a lot of time with his uncles as they substituted for his father and learns from them. I really enjoyed this memoir!
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3 stars
This was slow-going for me, but I managed to get through it. I didn't know much about Edison going into this so most of it was new to me, although at times it was repetitive. I did not care for the concept of starting at the end of his life and working backwards.
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4 stars
I was interested in this book because my dog came from the Pine Ridge reservation, and I had heard about the poverty on the reservation. I was told that there are hundreds of stray dogs running around the reservation and the humane society is doing what they can to find homes for these dogs. That is how my dog came to my local humane society. She was starving and they didn't think she was going to live but she is a fighter and is now part of my family. Even though the Pine Ridge reservation is only 2 to 3 hours from me, I had no idea the level of poverty that these people live in. Tar paper shacks without running water. Even though the author writes about her experiences in the 70's and 80's, it seems that things are not much different today. The book reminded me of the movie Billy Jack, and the movie is even mentioned in the book, and the author states that the movie was pretty tame compared to what actually was happening. It amazed me that in this day and age more isn't being done for these people who survived a genocide and the theft of their land. I think we should all be ashamed of what the American Indian has had to go through.
Koren wrote: "It amazed me that in this day and age more isn't being done for these people who survived a genocide and the theft of their land..."Seems to me the genocide's not over yet, so I'm not sure you can really say they survived it...
Fishface wrote: "Koren wrote: "It amazed me that in this day and age more isn't being done for these people who survived a genocide and the theft of their land..."Seems to me the genocide's not over yet, so I'm n..."
parcelling up land which you were formerly free to roam can kill a people who love the land and have been living on it for centuries and knew every river and animal...I don't know if the US govt has formally apologised to those people for their ill treatment and theft or made moves to make amends. They can't just buy them off and give them money, but they can do other things to reconcile.
Its like with the Brits and Maori, oh, we'll just take this land and leave you a tenth. But we'll take only the best bits that we can farm on and leave you all the rest. Deal? Whatever!
Mod
Seems to me the genocide's not over yet, so I'm n..."
You are so right. What I meant was their ancestors survived. Today they are still fighting for their rights.
The Brown's Chicken Massacre
Maurice Possley
4/5 stars
Maurice Possley discusses the shockingly, true story of the massacre of the staff of a Brown's Chicken in Illinois, as they closed down the store one night in January of 1983. It took 10 years and advances in DNA testing before they could solve the case. Well researched and written.
Wizard of Oz: An Over-the-Rainbow Celebration of the World's Favorite Movie
Ben Nussbaum
4/5 stars
This is a short book celebrating the movie - The Wizard of Oz. The author discusses a myriad of topics on the film, the actors who performed and even talks about the Broadway musical - Wicked. Definitely for fans of the movie.
Mod
3 stars
Initially, I found the story interesting. I'm into genealogy and tracing my family history. After the author's mother dies, the author embarks on a journey to find out more about her past. About halfway through, I just didn't find the story all that interesting. Maybe the back cover description describing the book as a chilling work of psychological suspense and forensic memoir led me to believe there would be a lot more to the story. I ended up skimming the last half of the book.
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
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Jennette McCurdy (other topics)
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4 stars
This is the story of a friendship somewhat reminiscent of the movies Beaches or Thelma and Louise. The author is a young empty-nester looking for friendship and starts a women's group. This is before it was common for people to meet on the internet. The group doesn't really go anywhere except for the friendship of Denise. The two women are quirky and up for any adventure. But Denise has MS and she knows her life will be short so she often throws caution to the wind. Cathie has come from a hard background but she doesn't dwell on it. There were some aspects of the book that reminded me of two past friendships I have had. Both women are gone now, one physically and one geographically, so it reminded me of them. I would have given this book 5 stars but deducted one star just because at times I found the Denise character annoying, but then I think Cathie did too!