Book #68 of 2024: The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama As a follow-up to her acclaimed 2018 title Becoming, this 2022 release from former First Lady Michelle Obama isn’t nearly so noteworthy. Whereas that debut work was a powerful but straightforward memoir, this one blends the autobiographical genre with self-help, …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama”
Book #67 of 2024: When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown by Kenan Thompson An entertaining if disjointed memoir from the lifelong sketch comic, currently enjoying an unprecedented third decade at Saturday Night Live. I’ll repeat that: at 21 seasons on the show and counting, …
Book #36 of 2024: The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found by Frank Bruni A regrettably disjointed memoir. At its best, author Frank Bruni manages to convey a little of what it’s been like for him to go effectively blind in one eye overnight and learn he has a rare disorder that could …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found by Frank Bruni”
Book #24 of 2024: Strong Female Character by Fern Brady I’m not familiar with author Fern Brady’s comedy work, but she’s written a heartfelt and eye-opening memoir about her experiences as a woman on the autism spectrum: how getting that diagnosis as an adult in her thirties both helped her navigate her life going forward …
Continue reading “Book Review: Strong Female Character by Fern Brady”
Book #13 of 2024: The Woman in Me by Britney Spears Three-and-a-half stars, rounded up. The personal story that Britney Spears has to tell is a moving one, centering the pain she felt over decades of mistreatment in the music industry and the public eye. Between releasing a succession of chart-topping hits, she was emotionally …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Woman in Me by Britney Spears”
Book #12 of 2024: Through the Groves by Anne Hull In this memoir, author Anne Hull paints an evocative picture of her childhood in central Florida — one I found poignantly familiar to my own, despite growing up three decades later and about 100 miles east of her. The orange groves already giving way to …
Continue reading “Book Review: Through the Groves by Anne Hull”
Book #150 of 2022: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy A powerful and soul-baring memoir that completely earns its provocative title. I’m not familiar with Jennette McCurdy as an actress — her Nickelodeon hit iCarly launched when I was already a sophomore in college — but as a writer, she is immensely talented …
Continue reading “Book Review: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy”
Book #98 of 2022: Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change by Danica Roem Danica Roem makes it all look easy. As the first openly transgender person to be elected to a U.S. state legislature, the Virginia delegate has faced considerable transphobia (and misplaced homophobia) lobbed against her, …
Book #37 of 2022: Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir by Bob Odenkirk An interesting reflection from actor Bob Odenkirk on his unlikely rise to global stardom: through fairly obscure sketch comedy gigs for decades before being offered a career-reorienting role as the sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman on the critically-acclaimed series Breaking Bad, who would …
Continue reading “Book Review: Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir by Bob Odenkirk”
Book #20 of 2022: The Boy Who Lost His Birthday: A Memoir of Loss, Survival, and Triumph by Laszlo Berkowits with Robert W. Kenny [Disclaimer: Although I did not meet him until 2016 and never knew him especially well, I am a member of the temple where Laszlo Berkowits served as Rabbi Emeritus until his …
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more