Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir read in 2023
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II
Denise Kiernan
4/5 stars
Interesting story about the women who left their homes to come to Oak Ridge, Tennesse in the Appalachian Mountains to help with the winning of the World War II effort. The women did not know at the time what they were doing at this secretive site till the end of the war. Well written!
A Caring Life: What fifty years in nursing has taught me about humanity, compassion and community by Keith CoxIf you don't want to be a cancer doctor, why not be a cancer nurse? This one is also by an Australian, and this guy never figures out why people get cancer either. Treatments are usually chemo and radiation. Being a guy means that he's better placed to tell people about testicular cancer, and advise young men to sperm bank should they want to become a dad prior to treatment.
After a while the anecodotes become a bit of same same with people dying but just with prolonged or palliative care. However, being a nurse means you aren't subject to bullying like doctors are. It also helps of you are Catholic with a belief in the afterlife, because suffering on earth makes you wonder what on earth it's all for (especially young cancer sufferers).
Australia does have specialist cancer hospitals now, the one mentioned here is called Lifehouse, although I notice Keith doesn't mention other famous Aussie cancer sufferers like Delta Goodrem, Kylie Minogue or Olivia Newton-John. He name drops a lot of others that Australians are supposed to know though.
Know My Name, by Chanel Miller5 stars! No, make that 7 stars.
I have never found another book like this one. Chanel takes us through what feels like every minute of her terrible, humiliating experiences at the hands of Brock Turner and the public pillorying that followed, in the news, in the courtroom, at work, everywhere she went for the next five years, utterly changed by an experience that she (luckily) can't remember. I loved the way she tore away all Brock's evasions and lies, how she found support in so many places, how she finally jettisoned her doubts about herself and saw it all clearly again. Read this wrenching story. It will change you, in a good way.
Mod
5 stars
Tom Brokaw is a tv newsperson. He writes about inspirational people that worked hard and fought to make our country better. Most of us have not had to live through The Great Depression and don't have a first-hand experience of living through those times. This book is about his ancestors and mostly his mother and father. At first I didn't think I was going to like his father but after awhile you learn to love him for the decent human being he was. This is a short book you can read in an evening.
A Forager's Life: A tender and spellbinding debut memoir by Helen Lehndorfhmm Goodreads must be have gremlins catloguing their books as that is not the subtitle given on the cover of my book.
Its actually 'Finding my heart and home in nature' . 'Naki gal Helen recounts growing up with a freezing works hunter father and a jam preserving mother, as many rural couples were in the day, living off the land not only because they were rural but also just out of necessity. But when Helen goes off to university and meets city academics and delves into punk, hippiedom and mystical tendencies she does a sort of 'finding herself' thing too, going on a druid trek or OE in the UK although motherhood puts paid to the deep end of that. Her second son is diagnosed with autism so she has to learn how to deal with that.
So it's not all agey but more deeply practical foraging plants with a few dead bird stories chucked in. She gets into permaculture, and does the whole frugal hedonism thing, but the difference between her foraging and hipsters is probably she was born with it as normal so it was never a citified hobby farm thing for her. Recipes for nettle tea and nasturtium pickles included.
Selina wrote: "A Forager's Life: A tender and spellbinding debut memoir by Helen Lehndorfhmm Goodreads must be have gremlins catloguing their books as that is not the subtitle given on the cover..."
Sound as if this intriguing book may have been reissued with a different subtitle. It happens so often with true crime that I started a discussion to handle it, starting back at Shelfari:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Fishface wrote: "Selina wrote: "A Forager's Life: A tender and spellbinding debut memoir by Helen Lehndorfhmm Goodreads must be have gremlins catloguing their books as that is not the subtitle giv..."
Strange, why do you think that is for true crime? Not just different subtitles but totally different titles? Seems like it's an awful lot.
Daughter of Gloriavale: My Life in a Religious Cult by Lilian TarawaIn an isolated pocket of the West Coast of the South Island in NZ Gloria had sixteen children by Hopeful Christian (aka Neville Cooper, convicted sex offender) and the resultant community of families was named after her. Lilian was one of the grand daughters who grew up in this Christian Commune, or rather cult, that seems to me from the way she describes it like an extended life-long Christian Camp. They all shared accomodations in big block houses and ate dinners with the women doing all the cooking and cleaning while the men did important business things. Hopeful Christian would oversee everything like a Pope and spout endless sermons of rules that everyone living in Gloriavale had to obey..or be shunned.
Am not sure what to think of this, but children really don't have any choice if they grow up in this environment if the parents choose to smack them one for disobeying. Lilian got out, and deprogrammed, taking her rebellious family with her.
She was not a happy camper.
Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tailby Danielle HawkinsDiary of a country vet
It's never a dull moment on the farm...if you like reading about pregnancy testing cows and drenching and dagging sheep, this is the book for you.
I am pretty certain that roundup spraying weeds with a back pack sprayer may have contributed to Danielle's bout of breast cancer.
Mod
Diary of a country vet
It's never a dull moment on the farm...if you like reading about pregnancy testing cows and drenching and dagg..."
I love vet stories. My dad was a dairy farmer so reading about some of the more unpleasant stuff doesn't bother me. I'm curious about the Roundup. Was that something she used a lot or was it just once in a while?
Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear by Jinger Duggar Vuolo3 stars
I decided to read this book after watching a documentary on the cult run by Bill Gothard on Amazon Prime; this is the first time I've read anything by a Duggar and I have never seen the show they were on.
What his book is not: a tell-all, a tale of a child with an unhappy childhood, etc. It's not for people who only want the bad things or who aren't interested in Christianity or even many who have a good grip on what that is.
What this is: how Vuolo separated the garbage taught by Gothard from what is actually written in the Bible. She does write about the predatory habits of Gothard, but she wasn't blond and was never personally a victim. She barely touches on Joshua, and I felt that she hasn't fully overcome being a people pleaser.
Mod
4 stars
The author has a knack for finding lost dogs. He also has a big heart and has a hard time letting them go, so he ends up with several. This is mostly about the ones he kept. He lives in an area where it is hard to find rescues. This is just a warm fuzzy book and the stories are not necessarily anything you haven't heard before but I applaud the writer for doing the best he could for helping homeless animals.
Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tailby Danielle HawkinsDiary of a country vet
It's never a dull moment on the farm...if you like reading about pregnancy testing cows and dre..."
She did this quite often and didn't mention wearing any protective gear, spraying gorse, blackberry, jasmine, tradescantia and anything that wasn't grass and edible for sheep. Though exposure to Roundup may not be necessarily when you are spraying it but when you are mixing it up people are often not careful.
We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy
Caseen Gaines
4/5 stars
Wonderful book about the Back To The Future Trilogy. Gaines writes a thorough synopsis of the movies and what has been going on with the films and actors, and how the movies impacted on the public and fans.
Mod
Diary of a country vet
It's never a dull moment on the farm...if you like reading about pregnancy testin..."
Also if she is spraying it on food. My husband wants to spray it on my garden and I tell him there is no way you are spraying that on food. We have a cornfield only a few feet from our house and I hate hearing those planes that spray the chemicals on the fields. You would think in this day and age there would be something more organic.
Selina wrote: "Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tailby Danielle HawkinsDiary of a country vet
It's never a dull moment on the farm...if you like reading about pregnancy testin..."
A friend of ours, an abourist who switched to landscaping and care when he felt he was getting to old to want to do all of that tree work, took a course for professionals on using chemicals such as round up; after that class, and not for years before, he switched to organic yard care. There is nothing harmless about roundup, and many GMOs were created by the same company in order to well more.
Mod
3 stars
OCME is short for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The author worked there for 10 years in the Maryland office. The law in Maryland states that any sudden or unattended death must go through there office but they do not have enough staff to make this work. Coupled with the sharp increase in deaths from opioids makes the situation worse. In the beginning, I almost didn't stick with this book. I wasn't really interested in the history of the building or the layout of the building. When this book is at its best is when he talks about specific cases, but he usually doesnt go into detail about them. The back cover states that he touches on numerous scandals such as the George Floyd case, which I was interested in, but it really was just a page or two.
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie LandMaybe I will put this under Mommie Dearest as well, but it's more a solo/single mother's struggle to provide for her daughter. The mother's parents weren't any help either because they were poor and schizophrenic as well. However Stephanie struggles through and eventually gets to her dream of being a writer. Her ex was nasty to her though, but then she might have known better than to have a baby with him. I guess you don't know what that's like till you live it.
Being a maid is hard work of course, for those who've never done the job, be thankful that is not your full-time occupation.
Mod
Maybe I will put this under Mommie Dearest as well, but it's more a solo/single mother's struggle to prov..."
I read this book four years ago, according to GR. I liked it. I don't remember a 'mommy dearest' character. How would this book qualify as a mommy dearest' memoir? The way I understand it 'mommy dearest' refers to an abusive mother.
Thomas Hardy: Behind the Mask, by Andrew Norman3 tearful stars
An absolutely tragic read, and when I say that I mean a real-life Greek tragedy about a man whose life was ruined and who spent his entire career writing novels about it. I'm not sure I agree with all the conclusions drawn in this psychobiography, but a lot of it really seems to fit. Read this if you want to understand what makes someone into a a good Discordian saint.
Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie LandMaybe I will put this under Mommie Dearest as well, but it's more a solo/single mother's s..."
Sorry I wasn't thinking in terms of strictly abusive mums but just memoirs about mums or being a mum in general when I wrote the title.
Although Stephanie's mum was kind of absent from her life, gave her no support when she had her grandchild and went off and lived in Europe.
Mod
5 stars
Love this lady and her music so much that this is the second time I have read her memoir. Her album Tapestry is at the top of my all-time favorite albums list. She is so down to earth and I love that she is an environmentalist and loves solitude and nature. She brings back a lot of memories from the seventies in this book and talks about how many of her songs came about. I highly recommend this memoir for anyone who is a fan of 60's and 70's music.
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less by Terry Ryan3+ stars
This is a book where it was the title that made me decide to read it.
This book was quite mixed for me. Some of the things were quite interesting, but honestly I got tired of so many jingles since not all of the ones listed were good, particularly for those of us who weren't even alive in the 1950s and don't get all of the word plays because we don't know the conext (some were explained, thankfully). However, some were quite brilliant.
I found the book more interesting near the end, and it was good to learn something about this facet of American history from one of the women who won the most often, even if not always first prize; her average was 1 win for every 4 contests but she, like other serious contesters, sent in multiple entries with different variations of her name and even her children's names.
Some of the most insightful learning for many would be just how much family dysfunction and abuse was hidden during this time when it is assumed that nuclear families were so much happier than they are today. Ryan's mother and siblings are impressive for how they handled their lives with Mr Ryan and for what they all accomplished later on.
Mod
5 stars
I know several people with autism, some are in my family, so I am always looking for a book that helps me to understand how they think. This author has autism and is very good at helping us understand how things that seem inconsequential to most people are overwhelming for them. I have noticed that many people with autism have special skills, and many have a special bond with animals. The author worked at a zoo and was able to see the gorillas as people with emotions and needs. She reminded me very much of Temple Grandin. She also had a pretty tough life in the beginning but went on to get a doctorate in mental health. She is a very interesting person and very articulate. I was a little disappointed that she didn't continue to work with the animals, but she did go on to do a lot to help humans.
John Hughes: A Life in Film: The Genius Behind Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club, Home Alone, and more
Kirk Honeycutt
4/5 stars
Kirk Honeycutt recaps and discusses the films of John Hughes. This book does also talk about his life but not in an in-depth way. I enjoyed it.
Mod
3 stars
In the beginning I thought this book was going to be really funny. But after a while it became sooo depressing. The book deals with suicide and mental illness. She does lean toward liberal politics, so there may be some things here that are offensive to a more conservative reader. She is bright and sassy, but I got tired of reading about all of her sexual escapades. I guess I just thought this was going to be a more humorous book but most of the time it was just kind of sad.
A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York by Anjelica HustonThe Grand High Witch, Morticia Adams, and Miss Harridan...all memorable characters who could only be played by Anjelica Huston..made me curious, just who is she?
This is her coming of age memoir, and aside from all the 60s name dropping (her father was famous director John Huston) it's a world of high-class privelige in Ireland, London and New York as Anjelica grows up. Her dad is a womaniser, but brilliant director and her mother was a ballet dancer. The family tree is complicated from all the affairs everyone keeps having. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree as her parents May-December marriage ends and young and model like Anjelica hooks up with a photographer 20 something years older appearing in all the fashion magazines, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar etc before trying her hand in acting in her dad's films.
There is a lot of luxurious description of furnishings in this book! If you don't mind that, it's a window into another world, though sad and tragic at the same time (she was lonely child, and her mother was betrayed and died young). But before you say 'poor little rich girl' at least Anjelica made the most of her opportunities and was able to handle the high life, and bounced back after falling off horses.
She's written a sequel which is called Watch Me, and I'm reading that one now. It's mostly about her relationship with Jack Nicholdson to begin with. I don't think it could have been one big book as she has lots of stories to tell!
Being Britney by Jennifer Otter BickerdikeThis bio is more a series of articles in chronological order about Britney Spear's pop stardom and her ups and downs. If you've seen the Netflix doco Framing Britney Spears or ever heard 'Baby one more time' or was just alive in the 90s when she shaved her head and had a breakdown then all these things may be familiar to you as she was constantly in the media like USA's own Princess Diana, except this was a pop princess.
What it's like to Be Britney, we don't fully know until we hear it straight from the horses mouth but for sure it's not easy, though she's the most real and relatable one there is --before Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, because she had the 'girl next door' image she inevitably grew out of, but that's what happens to child stars.
Nobody denies that she has star quality and everything she does rates a mention whether good or bad, because she's...Britney. Having just got out of her conservatorship perhaps she can start making her own decisions again and be a free woman though its sad that she isn't allowed to make her own mistakes and constantly treated like a child and money making commodity. Even her body is not her own and who's to say whether she would have crashed and burned without her dad keeping an eye (or tight rein) on her?
In The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever author Prudence Peiffer offers a group biography of several artists who lived and worked at Coenties Slip on the waterfront in New York City during the 1950s and 1960s. An interesting slice of art history about a group with whom I was previously not familiar.My review:
https://mypointbeing.com/2023/09/15/t...
Watch Me by Anjelica HustonTold she would never make it, that she had no talent and only got anywhere due to her director father John Huston's name, Anjelica Huston resolved to make something of herself and became a great character actress, in the process winning Academy Awards and other honors. After a on and off again relationship with Jack Nicholson (womaniser!) and Ryan O'Neal (ditto!) she found love and companionship with a Mexican sculptor and became great aunty to numerous nieces and nephews, whilst also looking out for her younger half siblings (half-sister Allegra has also written a memoir) and her father when he was dying of emphysema from smoking too much.
And then her husband. She does dish some juicy gossip about her co-stars on the set of films, and also has directed a few that I'm interested to see. A very interesting window on a priveliged Hollywood life with its share of heartbreaks. If you want to know what it's like to live on rarefied world of Muhollland Drive, Anjelica was pretty much in the midst of it all when she was Jack Nicholson's mistress.
Koren wrote: "A Natural Woman: A Memoir by Carole King5 stars
Love this lady and her music so much that this is the second time I have read her me..."
Loved reading this though I was disturbed by her abusive partners/husbands. I remember one chapter she ended with an 1800 number to call for help if anything happened to her readers like the kind of relationship she described in her book.
Selina wrote: "Koren wrote: "A Natural Woman: A Memoir by Carole King5 stars
Love this lady and her music so much that this is the second time I ha..."
I read that book and really enjoyed it.
Mod
5 stars
Love this lady and her music so much that this is the second time I ha..."
Was lucky last Saturday we went to a local fair and a guy playing guitar and a woman playing keyboard were doing a Carol King tribute. She was an excellent singer and I loved every minute of it.
Julie wrote: "
In on the Joke: The Original Queens of Standup Comedy
Shawn Levy
4/5 stars
Levy relates the ..."
Julie wrote: "
In on the Joke: The Original Queens of Standup Comedy
Shawn Levy
4/5 stars
Levy relates the ..."
Critically important to the history of stand-up comedy. Now on my to be read list. Thanks.
John wrote: "Julie wrote: "In on the Joke: The Original Queens of Standup Comedy
Shawn Levy
4/5 stars
Lev..."
Interesting. I read a different history of women in comedy, including stand up.
This book really helped shed a light on the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with the two women who were doing comedy.
Mod
3 stars
At first I didn't care much for this book. More than half the book is the author telling us how beautiful her mother was and yet very distant to everyone. I kept thinking about books I have read where the mother was abusive and yet this author seems to be psychologically traumatized because her mother was distant, not just to her but to pretty much everyone. I kept thinking this was a poor little rich girl story. She tells us over and over how beautiful her mother was. I was more interested later when she talked about her bouts with cancer.
My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business
Dick Van Dyke
4/5 stars
This is not a current book about Dick Van Dyke but he writes about the highlights of his career in TV and film and talks about his family life up to 2011. I always admired him and this was a very enjoyable book.
The Old Man and the Gun: And Other Tales of True Crime
David Grann
3/5 stars
Interesting book on true crime! There are three stories of crime in this book. The first one was The Old Man and The Gun which was made into a movie with Robert Redford. True Crime and The Chameleon were next. The second story was just okay but I really enjoyed the The Chameleon and The Old Man and The Gun.
Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film
Patton Oswalt
3/5 stars
Actor/Writer/Standup Comedian Patton Oswalt talks about his love of films and that he had seen three times a week through the nineties at the New Beverly Cinema. Interesting!
Mod
4 stars
I thought this book was very interesting. I actually do belong to an MLM company (essential oils) and feel I have been fortunate that I have not had to go through anything like this. I signed up at a health expo, not knowing what it was about, just being told that by signing up with the company I could order products at a discount. Then I found out that I could sell to others and sign them up as wholesalers also. Well, I'll tell you, I suck as a salesperson. I cannot do the hard sell and don't like to take people's money from them. I gave away lots of free samples but didn't really get anyone to order from me. But, unlike the author, I have never been pressured by the company to do anything, have never gotten a call from anyone within the company telling me I needed to sell anything, and have been perfectly content to just place my personal order each month. One thing that surprised me was when the author pointed out that salespeople do a lot of work for the company basically for free because they don't make any money unless they make a sale. They are totally comission based and only make money if they are selling a lot. I have a new outlook on MLM's now and will be a lot more savvy when it comes to their sales gimmicks.
I finished
in February. - three stars- It w's a little ong for me. Does anyone want to read
with me i and start around the middle of next mnonth?
Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
Richard Branson
4/5 stars
Richard Branson talks about his life, his businesses and making a fortune. This was a very interesting look at how he dealt with all of his businesses. This was published in 1998 so it would be interesting to read what has happened to him since 1998.
Julie wrote: "This was published in 1998 so it would be interesting to read what has happened to him since 1998."He's active on LinkedIn and still very involved with his businesses. If you're a LinkedIn member you can follow him there.
Mod
3 stars
The late 60's and early 70s were full of happenings for the history books. This book focuses on the music of 1970 and particularly 3 musical groups and 1 musician, two were on their way down and two were on their way up, but all became legends. I mostly wanted to read about James Taylor but he was the least discussed in the book, so that was a disappointment. If you follow any of these musicians there probably isnt a lot here that you didn't already know. It was slow and plodding for me and I found myself skimming to get to the James Taylor parts.
Tara Isabella Burton’s premise in Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians is that the idea of a person creating their own image and brand predates Kim Kardashian by centuries.My review:
https://mypointbeing.com/2023/10/11/s...
Blood and Bone: Revelations of an Orthopaedic Surgeon by Russell TregonningAnother medical memoir, quite interesting reading about surgery but also I am a bit grossed out by it - had pictures of insides of knees. The author was a knee specialist and generally fixed up rugby players and netballers.
Also I wasn't surprised at the medical hierarchy and politics going on...its much the same in academia which is why I tend to avoid it and didn't carry on at University to do a phD or be a specialist.
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall
Alexandra Lange
3/5 stars
Lange writes about the history of the shopping malls and the high and lows of being in the business of building and running malls. Not the most fascinating book I have ever read.
Julie wrote: "Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall
Alexandra Lange
3/5 stars
Lange wr..."
I tried to read it but gave up, didn't tell me too much I didn't already know. I worked in a bookshop in the mall for a while. The mall owners didn't really care about their tenants, and were just in it to make profits according to my bookshop owner, but then, the same could be said about him so...?
After I graduated from college I spent seven years working for B. Dalton Bookseller. One of my pleasures was being able to open a new copy of Publishers Weekly when it arrived. So when I saw notice of John Sargent's publishing business memoir Turning Pages: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher, I was unable to resist.My review:
https://mypointbeing.com/2023/10/16/t...
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
Books mentioned in this topic
Returning Light: Thirty Years on the Island of Skellig Michael (other topics)My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business (other topics)
A Spoonful of Sugar: A Nanny's Story (other topics)
To Selena, With Love (other topics)
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert L. Harris (other topics)Mitch Albom (other topics)
Dwight Garner (other topics)
Bruce Springsteen (other topics)
Robert Samuels (other topics)
More...
4 stars
[bookcover:Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Co..."
Loved that book!