Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir read in 2025
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https://youtu.be/CfkBb0iW-mY?si=Dl1Xu..."
Book reviews are par..."
I find animal abuse more traumatic than human abuse, except children. I don't know why.
Koren wrote: "Karin wrote: "Nicholas wrote: "She read the entire book and said she loved it. She gave it 3 out of 5 stars only because it made her sad. https://youtu.be/CfkBb0iW-mY?si=Dl1Xu..."
Book r..."
I find human abuse more tragic because someone is abusing their own species, but all abuse is tragic.
by E. Jean Carroll
At first I could not believe I really was going to read Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President by E. Jean Carroll. After all I had read a memoir ghostwritten for Monica Lewinsky many years ago. Instead of an innocent-ish intern who fell for Clinton and has been smashed into infamity, we have a powerful writer who knows who she is and what she is about who was just enjoying a delightful comedic moment that went all wrong. Now in this book we see how she made sure to use her power to get honest legal assessment of the sexual assault, to most use monies received to help causes E. Jean Carroll supports and Trump despises, such as women's reprodoctive rights, voting rights, climate protection and more.
She closes with:
Fate loves the Fearless.
Indeed.
The Story of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover
by Jan Gradvall
4/5 stars
Interesting story about the group musical ABBA, from their early beginnings to when they split up! I enjoyed this book! Non-Fiction
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3 stars
You can bet from the title that this is a rather depressing story. A young man (22) gets cancer. He is engaged and gets married during his battle. I was interested in the story when I saw that he had lymphoma, which is what I had. I would have liked to have read more about the medical aspect of his battle. The book is 24 years old and a lot has happened in the field since he had his cancer. His cancer had spread when it was discovered and he initially had a great deal of pain. I was told that lymphoma is easily treatable with the chemo drugs they have today. The young man in the book was told if his lymphoma came back it would be a death sentence, but that is not true anymore. This book looks more at the spiritual side of his battle and not as much the medical side.
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3 stars
Not as much a medical memoir as a spiritual memoir. I felt bad that she was diagnosed with cancer so soon after having a baby that she tried for years to conceive, so I did a google search and found out she is still alive and in remission.
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3 stars
Once I got used to the writing style, then I liked the book more. It is like she is talking to her younger self. At first it was very confusing and at times I was still confused as I went along. Most of the book is about anorexia and how what people say, especially those closest to us, can shape how we see ourselves.
Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge, by Don Lattin3 stars
It's hard to give a high rating to a book that left me so heartsick and disgusted, but it's as well-researched as the author could manage and the information seems to have been handled very responsibly. The one sentence that brought all the fragments together for me as I read was somebody's statement about how we need to stop thinking of the Family as a religious cult and see it instead as a crime syndicate. Ricky is only the highest-profile victim. RIP Ricky.
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
John Green
4/5 stars
This fascinating book is about tuberculosis, which is one of persistent and deadliest infection in the world. Green tells the story of Henry who has TB. Well written and interesting! Non-Fiction
Julie wrote: "[book:Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection|220..."
Wow. My dad actually worked with a man quite a bit older than him who was one of the leading TB experts in the States back in the day and had done surgeries for that. My dad didn't do anything like that.
In the 1950s one of my late aunts and her husband each had part of a lung removed for TB; their eldest daughter spent a year living with our mutual grandparents; their son was born after it was all over, so they're four years apart (my cousins.)
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5 stars
It scares me to think about how companies put the lives and health of its workers and the public in general to make tons of money. In this case, it is the lead in gasoline, but also other things like paint, plastics, etc. Scary that in America the companies do not have to prove something is safe, it's up to others to prove it and take action. Thankfully, today, there are agencies that monitor safety in products and workplaces, but there is still much to be done. If you read and liked The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, then you will probably like this book and the case against radium is actually mentioned in this book.
My Next Breath
Jeremy Renner
4/5 stars
This is the story of the actor Jeremy Renner who went out on New's Year Day when he was crushed by a fourteen-thousand-pound snow cat nearly killing him. This was a fascinating and scary tale about his will to survive. Biography
The Haunted House Diaries: The True Story of a Quiet Connecticut Town in the Center of a Paranormal Mystery
William J. Hall
4/5 stars
The title actually gives away the story line. This is the true story of a haunted house in Connecticut. I thought it was very well written. Horror
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5 stars
If you were a teen girl in the 60's and early 70s I think you will enjoy this memoir of an editor of Tiger Beat magazine. She interviewed and was friends with all of the major teen idols of the days: Bobby Sherman, David Cassidy, the Osmonds, the Monkees, the Bee Gees. It was interesting to read about how the stories were written on the level of a pre-teen or young teen level and if the idols weren't always what we imagined it was covered up, but that's not really surprising. This is more a "look who I know" memoir, but entertaining to those who grew up during that time and had major crushes on those guys.
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4 stars
I really didn't know much about Valerie Jarrett, in fact had never heard of her before the incident with Roseanne Barr and was curious why Roseanne had so much hatred for her. I still don't know what Roseanne's problem was. The incident is actually about 2 paragraphs in the book and Valerie just calls her a celebrity without mentioning her name. She seems like a nice lady, who was super intelligent and a lot of times just seemed to know the right people and had a lot of luck, along with hard work. Initially she met Michelle Obama through her work and later became a trusted advisor to President Obama. An interesting lady who led an interesting life.
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4 stars
I can't imagine how hard it would be to go through 3 deaths in a very short time. And yet the author keeps her sense of humor and doesn't sound like she is straining to keep things light-hearted. First her father dies, then her young husband died from a brain tumor and then she has a miscarriage. That would be a lot for anyone.
The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I
Jim Leeke
4/5 stars
This is the true story of the men who went to WWI to work in the Chemical Warfare Service and who were baseball players. Some of them lost their lives in the service. Sports
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4 stars
I was amazed that someone who was raped years ago would want to embark on an investigation of the man's family. She also wanted to interview the man himself, but he had passed away. Her investigation reveals many years of trauma and abuse and also poverty in the man's past. Some food for thought.
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4 stars
I am the same age as Donny Osmond, so have followed the Osmond's music since I was 12 or 13 years old. While most of my friends had a crush on Donny, my favorite was Merrill. A lot of people probably consider Donny the lead singer of the group, but actually Merrill was the lead on most of the Osmond's songs. Most of us probably know that the Osmond family are active Mormon religion, so it shouldn't be a surprise that there is a lot of spirituality talked about in this book. It was refreshing to read a book about the entertainment industry that didn't have a lot of drug and alcohol use and sex. Merrill talks a lot about his upbringing and family. Even at the end, the last two chapters are taken from his mother and father's journals. I think all Osmond fans will like this book, even though there are no earth-shattering secrets here.
Koren wrote: "Black Bear: My Life Story by Merrill Osmond4 stars
I am the same age as Donny Osmond, so have followed the Osmond's music since I ..."
That makes complete sense to me. First of all, he's older than you (I usually had crushes on older boys, but not always when I was 12) and secondly he was the lead singer on many songs and once I started getting more into music it was lead singers I was attracted to if I was attracted to any of them.
I didn't start of watching them on TV and loved Donny's voice plus he had songs on the radio. You and my husband are born the same year but he was never a fan of the Osmonds (how many boys were as compared with girls? Plus he wasn't into that style of music.)
The Peepshow
Kate Summerscale
4/5 stars
This is fascinating true-life story of the deaths of three women who were killed in London and found in a wall and another woman who was under the floorboards in a house in 1953. Reg Christie was looked into as a main suspect but nothing came of it. Harry Procter, reporter looked into it to see if he could solve the mystery of the murders. Non-Fiction
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4 stars
The story of a female athlete who came to America as part of a track team at a university and is raped. She uses her athletic training to help her overcome the trauma.
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5 stars
I've read several books about the immigrant experience, and believe me, they do not tell the whole story. This is the first book I have read from the viewpoint of the border patrol. These people have seen things that no human being should have to see. People that have been murdered and left with their body parts missing, immigrants who got lost in the desert and perished from lack of food and water and the heat. This guy's mother was an immigrant, and he ended leaving the border patrol and befriending an undocumented immigrant. So we get the picture from both sides...the cartels and drug dealers, but also the good guy that just wants to come here and make a living. I wish everyone would read this book to see what immigrants and border patrol goes through.
Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me
Ralph Macchio
4/5 stars
This book is on Ralph Macchio who has played Daniel LaRusso in the film series, The Karate Kid and in the TV series Cobra Kai. He talks about his life and his film career. I highly enjoyed it.
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5 stars
This book reminded me of the saying "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". Growing up in Hawaii in the 1970's, before the island was taken over by commercialism, the oldest child of hippie parents, she learned at a young age to fend for herself. It was not easy. Her family was dysfunctional, and she often felt responsible for both her parents and younger siblings. Add to that, being bullied by the native children. Thankfully, she had grandparents that helped her quite a bit. I loved it at the end where she told what happened to the people in her life after she grew up and I loved it that she found her soul mate. I will definitely look for the second book in her life story. I didn't want this one to end!
Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live
Susan Morrison
4/5 stars
Wonderful look at Lorne Michael's and his tenure at Saturday Night Live. I thoroughly enjoyed this book but it is a little long.
TV and Entertainment
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Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live
Susan Morrison
4/5 stars
Wonderful look at L..."
I've seen this one at the library and passed it by because of the size. Maybe some day.
7000 Days In Siberia by Karlo StajnerA memoir about almost 20 years in gulag camps and in a forced exile. 5 stars!
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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5 stars
The mother of singer Beyonce. She is an amazing woman. She goes after what she wants, she's talented, sassy and pretty. She encourages others to be their best. She has gone through a lot in her life and she was instrumental in getting her daughters' careers off the ground. Really an inspiring and amazing lady.
This Is Your Mother: A Memoir
Erika J. Simpson
4/5 stars
Interesting true story about a mother (who grew up with her parents as sharecroppers) and her daughter and the lives they lived together and apart. Non-Fiction/Biography
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5 stars
This is my third time reading this book. That's how much I love this book. The author wrote this book about his grandfather, who he never met, as he died before the author was born, so his story is taken from stories he has gathered from his family.
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3 stars
What a treasure this book must be for the great granddaughter of Sidney Poitier. Sidney wrote this book in the form of letters to his great granddaughter and it is filled with his life experiences and thoughts about life. I read a memoir by Sidney years ago, but its been long enough that I don't remember a lot about it, but I'm sure a lot of this is written about in his first memoir, so if you have read that one, I would probably skip this.
Hick: The trailblazing journalist who captured Eleanor Roosevelt's heart
Sarah Miller
5/5 stars
What an interesting book about Eleanor Roosevelt and the female journalist, known as Hick who became enamored with Eleanor. Hick corresponded back and forth with her through 3,500 letters along with meeting Eleanor on occasion. Highly recommended! Biography
This technically doesn't belong, but since the title says it's a biography, I've decided to post this here. I added this to my want to read shelf in May, 2024 and read it for an alphabet challenge (such a worthy cause, I know!)
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
3/5 stars
Siefe is a writer with an MS in mathematics, so the good thing is he understands much of what he's writing. The history of zero, which isn't something that has always existed and was resisted in Europe (the Greeks hated the idea) is interesting, but then he goes off into philosphy and sciences. I'm not going to delve into this, but suffice it to say that it gets rather technical times.
However, Siefe lost an entire star for times when he left his lane into things he is apparently quite ignorant of. One example is that in the bit in italics before one of the chapters, he played with a Bible verse by inserting the mathematical definition of the Greek Word Logos from and older Greek into the Koine Greek of the Bible for ratio. Clever? It took me less than five minutes, including the time to log into my computer, to confirm that Pythagoras lived before the standardized Koine Greek of the Bible had been established; both then and later the only place the word "logos" meant ratio is in mathematics. ie, what he did was nonsensical.
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3 stars
I had never heard of this condition called mirror touch. It's like empathy, but people who have it can actually feel the pain other people are having. In this book, the author is also a doctor, which makes it more complicated. I enjoyed this book when he is talking about his personal life, but at times he goes off on a more text-bookish rant, which was a little boring. There is some medical jargon that isn't really explained so if you are not a medical person this could be a little confusing.
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4 stars
Listened to this on Audible. This is an older book, written about a female soldier who was wounded and taken captive during the Iraq War. Worth a search to find out what Jessica is up to today. She became an elementary school teacher, did some acting and does motivational speeches.
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4 stars
Interesting stories about working in an ER, with the emphasis on working with people that were dying.
One Stop West of Hinsdale: Love Derailed in a Sixties Suburb
Valerie Kuhn Reid
Interesting true story of a family in the 60's who lived in the suburbs of Illinois and fell apart. Non-Fiction/Biography
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One Stop West of Hinsdale: Love Derailed in a Sixties Suburb
Valerie Kuhn Reid
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Sounds interesting!
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3 stars
This biography is heavy on her love life and light on her movies. I was disappointed that there was very little time spent on Gone With The Wind. After all, Vivien would probably not be as well-known if it wasn't for that movie. The author spends a lot of time talking about how beautiful she was and how everyone loved her, but by the end of the book I didn't love her much.
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5 stars
A really sweet (pun intended) memoir about two guys that moved from England to northern Wisconsin to buy an ice cream shop and bed and breakfast. There were many ups and downs, of course. The town reminded me of Gilmore Girls. There were no pictures in the book so I did a google search to find out if the town was as cute as it sounds in the book and to see if the author was still there. The ice cream shop and bed and breakfast are still there, and the bed and breakfast is gorgeous, but the book was published in 2014 and sadly the author passed away from brain cancer in 2016. I'm guessing he didn't know his diagnosis when he wrote the book as it wasn't mentioned. This book made me really want to visit Hayward, Wisconsin if I ever get that way.
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell.
4 Stars
All the difficulty that Julie has seems rather usual. I have seen videos of cooks on You Tube trying to replicate recipes found in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. So often the cook has to try again or wonder halfway through if they are getting it right. So our Julie is far from alone. . . .And yes they too have loads of dishes to wash afterwards.
In the 1960s cooking in the French style is different from cooking in the American style though some of the skills were the same. Many cooks were still making their own mayonnaise and still were and still are cutting up their own lobsters.
Cooking practice as a method to discovering and revealing self through all the frustration, commitment, and love.
Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More by James Burrows
4/5 stars
Interesting entertainment book about James Burrows who was a director of movies and TV shows including Friends,Taxi and a whole lot of other comedy series. TV and Entertainment
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by James Burrows
4/5 star..."
Sounds interesting!
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4 stars
I did not know that John Lithgow was primarily a Shakespeareian actor before he did movies and television and this book is mostly about his theater days. It stops before he gets to what most people know of his works. So I was a little disappointed that there was barely a mention of my favorite movie of his, Terms Of Endearment. I thought it was rather refreshing that he did not talk about bullying or anxiety. He said he was popular in school, even though his family moved a lot and he was often the new kid. He has led an interesting life and is honest about his faults. I would be interested to see if there is a follow-up to this book that talks more about his movies and television accomplishments. I see that he also has written quite a few children's books.
Koren wrote: "Drama: An Actor's Education by John Lithgow4 stars
I did not know that John Lithgow was primarily a Shakespeareian actor before he..."
I had no idea he did Shakespeare, either!
Karin wrote: ".I had no idea he did Shakespeare, either!"Fun fact: Paul Reubens, best known today for playing Pee Wee Herman, started out as a Shakespearian actor and planned to stay there. But fate stepped in.
Fishface wrote: "Karin wrote: ".I had no idea he did Shakespeare, either!"Fun fact: Paul Reubens, best known today for playing Pee Wee Herman, started out as a Shakespearian actor and planned to stay there. But f..."
Cool. One actor who started off doing Shakespeare who should never have switched to screen acting was Bruno Gerussi. I doubt any of you have heard of him since he was Canadian, and the show he was on was called The Beachcombers which managed 19 seasons because it sold overseas--the scenery is fabulous. He was not well liked in the local community, though.
This is a promo photo. Please note that Molly's Reach was originally the only liquor store on a 50 mile stretch of coast! Bruno is on the bottom left, but that's just a cake replica of the "restaurant."
Molly's reach was also seen in the series Murder in a Small Town which murdered a Canadian mystery series starring Canadian with Canadian accents by a. moving it from Canada to the States, b. moving it from Sechelt to Gibsons but still having a city cop (false--it's RCMP in both Sechelt and Gibsons) to go Wilson Creek which is in Sechelt, so different RCMP detachment and c. Other things, such has having a First Nations actress from the wrong First Nations (at least in The Beachcombers the First Nations actor was local)
Karin wrote: "Fishface wrote: "Karin wrote: ".I had no idea he did Shakespeare, either!"Fun fact: Paul Reubens, best known today for playing Pee Wee Herman, started out as a Shakespearian actor and planned to ..."
I barely remember that show. So now I am going to wonder why he wasn't well-liked by the affable Canadians...
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Eve Babitz (other topics)Eve Babitz (other topics)
Eve Babitz (other topics)
John Cleese (other topics)
James Burrows (other topics)
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https://youtu.be/CfkBb0iW-mY?si=Dl1Xu..."
Book reviews are partly subjective; I personally wouldn't rate a book down based because it was too traumatic for me to read. I might not finish it because of that. At this point in my life I don't read traumatic memoirs (or most memoirs) anymore, so don't even pick those up.