Book #240 of 2018: And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready by Meaghan O’Connell A short, powerful memoir about unplanned pregnancy, birth, early parenting, and postpartum depression. I really admire author Meaghan O’Connell’s sharp, matter-of-fact tone, which basically comes across as a more human version of Amy Dunne from Gone Girl. …
Tag Archives: memoir
Book Review: Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House by Omarosa Manigault Newman
Book #235 of 2018: Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House by Omarosa Manigault Newman In the burgeoning genre of inside accounts of the 45th presidential administration, this one from President Trump’s longtime associate Omarosa Manigault Newman covers relatively little new ground. It also feels aimed at a very particular sort of contemporary …
Book Review: Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
Book #194 of 2018: Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover This memoir is a difficult read, recounting author Tara Westover’s fundamentalist survivalist childhood in rural Idaho and her decision as a teenager to finally pursue an education away from home, which leads her to realize just how sheltered and unhealthy her early life has been. …
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Book Review: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin
Book #178 of 2018: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin A powerful memoir from a wrongfully-convicted black man who spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row before finally being exonerated in 2015 by the efforts of appeals lawyer Bryan Stevenson. …
Book Review: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston
Book #170 of 2018: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston This book is interesting from a historical point of view: although unpublished until 2018, it was written in the early 20th century and based on author Zora Neale Hurston’s interviews with the last known survivor of the last known …
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Book Review: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
Book #169 of 2018: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay This memoir from Roxane Gay is a powerful and emotional read about what it’s like for the author to go through the world and take up space as a medically-obese black woman. She is uncompromising and unflinching about her own trauma: from …
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Book Review: An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn
Book 165 of 2018: An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn I think this would be a great book for a certain type of reader, but I unfortunately can’t count myself in that class. Part family memoir and part literary analysis, the story broadly tracks the relationship of a classics …
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Book Review: My Father, the Pornographer by Chris Offutt
Book 161 of 2018: My Father, the Pornographer by Chris Offutt Probably the worst thing about this memoir of a Baby Boomer childhood in rural Kentucky is its sensationalized title. Andrew J. Offutt didn’t work in the porn industry; he was a prolific author who happened to write erotic fiction (among many other genres). His …
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Book Review: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
Book #143 of 2018: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup This harrowing true story of a black man kidnapped and sold into slavery is fairly well-known thanks to the 2013 Oscar-winning film adaptation, but hearing it in the author’s own words is still incredibly powerful. As fiction, it would be a sensational adventure of …
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Book Review: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Book #130 of 2018: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Grief memoirs are tricky; they’re obviously cathartic to write, but can easily turn into a wallowing in loss that shuts out their readers. Author Joan Didion largely avoids that trap by focusing on the more mundane aspects of her husband’s death, centering this …
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