Book #174 of 2021: Yearbook by Seth Rogen A heartfelt and hilarious memoir from actor Seth Rogen, reflecting on his childhood and Hollywood career thus far. I especially love how he centers his Jewish identity throughout, both in the particulars of a youth spent at bar mitzvah parties and religious summer camps and in his …
Tag Archives: memoir
Book Review: Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America by John Lewis
Book #167 of 2021: Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America by John Lewis In this 2012* publication, author John Lewis shares the guiding principles that he has found particularly effective in his work as a Freedom Rider in the Civil Rights Era and later a progressive Representative in the …
Book Review: How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t by Lane Moore
Book #149 of 2021: How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t by Lane Moore Somewhere between essay collection and memoir, this debut title from comedian Lane Moore covers a lot of ground with a few puzzling omissions. The author tells us her childhood dream was to write for The …
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Book Review: On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
Book #148 of 2021: On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed In the conclusion to this book, author Annette Gordon-Reed describes it as a “brief sketch of the history of Texas told through vignettes of my family.” And that’s pretty accurate, I would say. Despite what the title suggests, it is mostly not about Juneteenth, the holiday …
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Book Review: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Book #143 of 2021: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin This 1963 title has long been on my radar as a foundational text of antiracism, and you can definitely see a throughline from its essay “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation” to Ta-Nehisi Coates writing …
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Book Review: Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
Book #99 of 2021: Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad A searing first-hand account of author Suleika Jaouad’s experience contracting a rare form of leukemia in college, the years of medical anguish that followed, and her faltering attempts to rejoin regular life after being one of the lucky few …
Book Review: Chance: Escape from the Holocaust by Uri Shulevitz
Book #66 of 2021: Chance: Escape from the Holocaust by Uri Shulevitz This 2020 title is a little unusual among Holocaust memoirs, both for its aim at a middle-grade audience and for its depicting a life more distantly touched by Nazi violence. Jewish author Uri Shulevitz and his family fled German-occupied Poland into the Soviet …
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Book Review: No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox
Book #46 of 2021: No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox I think most people probably have a fondness for actor Michael J. Fox, due to lingering affection for the beloved characters he’s played, sympathy for the early-onset Parkinson’s disease that reoriented his career and continues to affect his …
Book Review: The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift by Steve Leder
Book #44 of 2021: The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift by Steve Leder A powerful meditation on saying goodbye to loved ones who are dead or dying, and learning how to carry on without them. Author Steve Leder is a rabbi who has spent decades counseling his congregants …
Book Review: How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana with Abigail Pesta
Book #37 of 2021: How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana with Abigail Pesta A harrowing account of author Sandra Uwiringiyimana’s early life during the Second Congo War, in which she was forced to flee her childhood home, witnessed the murder of her younger sister in an armed massacre …
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