top of page

Search Results

663 items found for "six memoir"

  • Review of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathanial Ian Miller

    The pacing of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is measured, as befits a story that is largely about daily The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is Nathanial Ian Miller's first novel. you like books set in the unforgiving cold, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six

  • Review of Blood: A Memoir by Allison Moorer

    I didn't know of the author before her memoir began garnering attention. Blood: A Memoir reads like her journal; Moorer sifts through memories, looks through photos, celebrates read as though Moorer is flogging her significant sorrow and anger or highlighting dramatic events for memoir I first mentioned this book in the Greedy Reading List Three Memoirs I'm Reading Now, 10/7/20 Edition You might also like the list Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year.

  • Review of An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

    her baby at nine months in utero and her experience living through grief in this stellar five-star memoir This is a heartrending memoir about losing a child. one of McCracken's short story collections, Thunderstruck & Other Stories, in the Greedy Reading List Six You might also be interested in the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Powerful Memoirs About Facing

  • Review of What I Ate in One Year (and Related Thoughts) by Stanley Tucci

    Stanley Tucci is also the author of the cookbooks The Tucci Table and The Tucci Cookbook, as well as the memoir

  • Review of Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond by Henry Winkler

    I listened to Henry Winkler read his irresistibly candid, funny, and poignant memoir.

  • Review of Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School by Kendra James

    In Admissions, Kendra James explores race, friendship, ambition, and the absurdities and rhythm of daily life during her time at a New England boarding school. Kendra James was the first Black legacy to graduate from The Taft School, an elite boarding school in Connecticut. When she later works as an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for independent prep schools, she finds herself examining her high school educational experience with a more critical eye, forcing herself to delve more deeply into aspects of her years at Taft that she largely glossed over at the time--and ultimately debating whether or not she should be advising families to pursue the same precarious path she herself followed. Digging into the past often seems a difficult undertaking, and as she looks back, Kendra James explains that her main goals when she attended Taft were not bringing to light racial injustice and leading a charge toward change, but typically teenage: to escape into role-playing video games and write fan fiction, to bond with a few classmates through watching favorite movies, and, primarily, to secure a spot in a college of her choice, then to (as is the goal for many high schoolers, for various reasons) get out of high school and get on with the rest of her life. James notes repeatedly that she felt largely unseen and unknown during her boarding school years. When she attends various Taft alumni events in the years following her graduation, they cement this same feeling. Her appearance in a Taft publication that lists her incorrect graduation year (and reunion year) grates on her as more evidence of this. The majority of page time is focused on aspects of James's boarding-school life, including its rhythms and peculiarities. James received financial aid to attend Taft, then $35,000 a year, and she then attended Oberlin for college, which, by her and her parents' design, was an admissions door likely opened more widely because of her Taft pedigree. But the book is not in large part about financial or class privilege. At times James laments the absence of frank discussions about race that she might have had with her parents, and she criticizes the lack of information she received from them on the topic. She wishes she could have learned more from them before entering Taft about the many ways she might have expected race to affect her life--especially considering the vastly white, elite circles her parents had either dipped their toes into or immersed themselves in: for example, Taft, Smith, Brown, and her father's banking job. The author notes that when she was a high schooler, in that place and time in our society, she didn't have an understanding of the power of daily microaggressions nor of blatant racism--nor did she have the language and perspective she now has to talk about such things--in order to sift through the many disturbing race-based incidents in her young life. James's evaluation of events of these years--including the racism she experienced at school; diverse, acute instances of disturbing behavior, whether race-based and class- and gender-based; and the social segregation of social groups by race--feels hesitantly explored at times as she attempts to dig into her raw teenage feelings while acknowledging her youthful lack of understanding and her early, unformed grasp of the myriad social, racial, and class issues shaping her experience. Regarding a situation in which the strict rule-follower James was accused of wrongdoing while at Taft, the author acknowledges that for years she largely glossed over not only the event, but the racial issues bubbling beneath the incident and her resulting emotional trauma, pushing all of this down until her reckoning with it in young adulthood. Late in the book, James shares select portions of a disturbing article a white student wrote for the school paper while James also attended Taft, in which the article's author largely blames the school's racial divides on the students of color themselves and mentions her discomfort about the existence of programs and events that put people of color at their center. James expresses anger and frustration at Taft's ineffective response--and at the many missed opportunities she sees before and after that event for the school to have shaped an effective approach to true inclusion. In Admissions, James offer a book that is partly a social critique, partly a recounting of the absurdities she experienced, and partly simply her unique story of living away from home and often feeling lonely and alone in her experience. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Kendra James was a founding editor at Shondaland, where she worked for two years. She has written articles for various publications and is the author of a romance novel, When Hearts Collide.

  • Review of Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir by Lacy Crawford

    Crawford's memoir lays bare systemic lies, gross injustices, horrifying abuses of privilege and power Know My Name by Chanel Miller is another memoir that thoughtfully reflects on sexual assault, societal

  • Review of The Beauty of Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

    Harper's memoir begins when her marriage is ending and her medical career as an ER doctor is beginning Another doctor's memoir that came to mind as I read this book (a memoir that connects faith and science in a memoir that made me cry) was I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and #memoir, #threestarbookreview

  • Review of Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

    Crosley's memoir traces a treasured friendship and the gutting loss of that dear friend. In Sloane Crosley's memoir Grief Is for People, she explores life after the loss of her closest friend I was intrigued by Crosley's mindset and the dark humor, devastating grief, and powerful memories she

  • Review of Dimestore: A Writer's Life by Lee Smith

    ICYMI: Smith evokes a vivid sense of the regional South in her fiction, and in this memoir she traces In her memoir Dimestore, Lee Smith traces her beginnings in the Appalachian coal-mining town of Grundy What could have been simply a charming memoir about growing up in Appalachia and an account the incredible I mentioned this book in my Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore.

  • Review of A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir by Colin Jost

    I do like a thoughtful memoir if I can get it, and in A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir, Colin Jost offers Memoirs have been hitting the spot for me during Pandemic Times even more than usual. #memoir, #nonfiction, #threestarbookreview

  • Review of Yearbook by Seth Rogen

    I recently mentioned my memoir love (again) and how I've been drawn to memoirs by funny people lately For more more MORE memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out the Greedy Reading Lists Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into, Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year, Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In, Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite, and Six Powerful Memoirs about Or simply search "Memoir" in the Bossy search bar on each page of this site.

  • Review of Going There by Katie Couric

    I listened to Katie Couric's memoir Going There, in which she traces her media career from its modest This isn't the crux of Couric's memoir, and I imagine it was difficult to manage how to address this : Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality

  • Review of Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile

    I listened to Broken Horses: A Memoir by Brandi Carlile, and I highly recommend the audiobook. Broken Horses feels like a memoir for which I might actually need to experience the audiobook and the I often feel torn when I read celebrity memoirs, because while I understand that people must keep some If you like memoirs, you might try the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year, Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into, and Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself

  • Review of Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

    The author shares his love of food, cooking, and sharing meals in this irresistible memoir that's also I've been on an audiobook memoir kick, and Stanley Tucci's Taste is the latest love of mine on that list But Taste is also a memoir. For more memoirs you might like, check out the Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore It also links to five more memoir lists, including a foodie memoir roundup!

  • Review of The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama

    I listened to this audiobook and highly recommend immersing yourself in Michelle Obama's voice as she shares calm, wise, funny, or poignant reflections, personal practices, and gems of advice regarding retaining hope and being your best self. Many of us, I think, puzzle out our identities only over time, figuring out who we are and what we need in order to get by. We approximate our way into maturity, often following some loose idea of what we believe grown-up life is supposed to look like.... We make mistakes and then start over again.... We sample and discard different attitudes, approaches, influences, and tools for living until, piece by piece, we begin to better understand what suits us best, what helps us most. I read Michelle Obama's wonderful book Becoming, but after my wise friend Katherine mentioned having listened to it, I immediately wished I had heard Michelle's calming voice read it to me too. So I decided to listen to The Light We Carry and was instantly sure audiobook was the right format for me. Rather than pretending there are quick fixes for life's challenges and difficulties, Obama opens up her "toolbox" of emotional, meditative, and optimistic methods of coping, reminding herself of what's what, and ways in which she carries on in the face of adversity. While her White House circumstances are unusual and some of her related recollections are unique, her methods translate to the rest of us and daily life. She builds her book around pivotal encounters with others or aims to answer questions that have been frequently posed to her, along the way sharing more of the story of her family, marriage, political life, friendships, frustrations, hopes, goals, and joys. It sounds unfairly simplistic to summarize her practices with the short, catchy phrases she builds upon: "starting kind," "when they go low, we go high," and forming a "kitchen table" of friendships. While the ideas aren't complicated--which is the point of this book, after all: offering meaningful ways to be and to keep hope and be a light in the world--there are emotionally revealing stories and shining gems to dig into here. I didn't necessarily come away with new approaches (aside from entertaining the idea of incorporating a version of her friend's "Hey, Buddy!" morning self-greeting), but I thoroughly enjoyed and felt calmed by listening to this wise, kind, savvy woman read her gorgeously written thoughts and well-crafted reflections. Her writing--deep self-reflection with sometimes poetic phrasing--is just beautiful. I loved reading this and spending time with Michelle Obama. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Michelle Obama is also the author of Becoming and American Grown.

  • Review of Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

    Haig is vulnerable and specific in his short memoir about his own experiences with mental illness and Matt Haig explores his experiences with depression and mental illness in his short memoir Reasons to If you like to read memoirs, you might try the titles on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into, Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In, Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality , and Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite.

  • Review of You Can't Be Serious by Kal Penn

    Penn's thoughtful memoir explores serious issues yet also made me laugh out loud. I'm generally in for memoirs, and lately I've been drawn to memoirs by funny people. Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into, Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year, Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In, Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite, and Six Powerful Memoirs about Or simply search "Memoir" in the Bossy search bar on each page of this site.

  • Review of Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics by Dolly Parton

    Parton shares the background and context for 175 of her songs, frankly discussing her inspiration, life, and the formerly untouchable topics she dove into headfirst through songs. What's better than listening to Dolly talk about her inspirations, her artistic journey, her joys and her silliness, those who have influenced her, and her motivations--along with short musical snippets? Nothing. This is a fast-paced book, as Dolly talks about various thoughts as related to 175 of her songs, while country music author Robert K. Oermann intersperses short intros to add structure and background. The interjections from Oermann are necessary, but they sometimes feel abrupt, and while Dolly's stories are as intriguing and delightful as I'd hoped, she seems to feel the need to provide summations, which begin to feel repetitive. But none of that really mattered to me. I adored listening to Dolly laugh and ponder and reminisce and reflect. Through decades of straight-talking song lyrics, she has instinctively and repeatedly offered sympathetic points of view of the persecuted, disrespected, and dismissed: prostitutes, the poor, unwed teenage mothers, and more. The characters in her songs are often driven to the edge of what they can cope with. Sometimes Dolly lets them fall, but other times her songs about freedom (with her metaphors of butterflies and eagles) set those in her songs soaring. Meanwhile, Dolly's offhanded mentions of endless projects, ideas, collaborations, and plans make clear she's one of the hardest working women in show business. I mentioned Dolly Parton, Songteller in the Greedy Reading List of book ideas Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Another Dolly-focused book I'd like to read is She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh. The author examines the social progressiveness that progressive female singers like Dolly have championed through song.

  • Three Memoirs I'm Reading Now, 10/7/20 Edition

    travel, and she shares how she sometimes struggled to fit into either of these settings. 02 Blood: A Memoir I didn't know about Allison Moorer before her memoir began getting good reviews. Blood: A Memoir is said to read like a personal journal. Have you read some captivating memoirs lately? If you like memoirs, you might also like to take a look at the Greedy Reading List Six Illuminating Memoirs

  • Review of The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

    I listened to Dave Grohl's memoir, in which he tracks his youth in Springfield, Virginia; through his

  • Review of Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong

    Wong structures her memoir into letters for her daughters without editing out her intimate experiences Sometimes a celebrity memoir just hits the spot. #memoir, #threestarbookreview

  • Review of The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken

    McCracken straddles the line between novel and memoir in a work whose heart is a love letter to her extraordinary The Hero of This Book straddles the line between fiction and memoir, as the book feels like a deeply The narrator/McCracken states how much her mother detested memoirs, and The Hero of This Book even includes Perhaps you fear writing a memoir, reasonably. Invent a single man and call your book a novel. one of McCracken's short story collections, Thunderstruck & Other Stories, in the Greedy Reading List Six

  • Review of In Pieces by Sally Field

    brutal honesty, but I admit to sometimes becoming impatient with the navel-gazing necessary to create a memoir #memoir, #fourstarbookreview

  • Review of Open Book by Jessica Simpson

    I'm a sucker for a celebrity memoir, and especially listening to the audiobook as I did here, when I #memoir, #fourstarbookreview

  • Three Books I'm Reading Now, 9/24/21 Edition

    characters that spans centuries, Cloud Cuckoo Land; I'm listening to Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner's memoir Ford's memoir about growing up while her father was incarcerated and the complicated childhood that shaped 28, courtesy of NetGalley and Scribner. 02 Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner I'm listening to this memoir In her memoir Somebody's Daughter, Ford explores her complicated relationship with her mother, her endless

  • Review of Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono

    I prefer listening to my memoirs read by the author, and I loved hearing U2's songwriter and lead singer If you enjoy musicians' memoirs about the making of their music and their lives, you might like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing.

  • Review of No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler

    Reading memoirs centered around cancer is not always a go for me, but this book was special. Kate's book Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved) in the Greedy Reading List Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality. For more books I thought warranted five big stars, check out the Greedy Reading List Six Five-Star Bossy

  • Review of This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

    ICYMI: This five-star read--part memoir/part essay--is one of my favorite books of Ann Patchett's, and In This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, a book that's part memoir, part essay, Ann Patchett shares

  • Review of Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

    Jaouad offers a powerful, introspective memoir about coping with leukemia and its accompanying emotions Some shared wisdom, some showed caring through food, and one memorable acquaintance spoke to her about The journey around the country, in comparison, takes up far less space in Jaouad's memoir although it

  • Three Books I'm Reading Now, 5/3/21 Edition

    The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher's memoir focused on the Macintyre also wrote the fantastic Spy and the Traitor, which was one of my Six Favorite Nonfiction Books of the Year last year and which I also listed on the Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction Books If you like reading about female spies, you might like the Greedy Reading List Six Books about Brave I love listening to her fantastically raspy voice as she reads her memoir in audiobook form, and I'd

  • Review of Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott

    In her newest memoir Bomb Shelter, Mary Laura Philpott explores her worries about and views of the world Mary Laura Philpott is also the author of the memoir I Miss You When I Blink.

  • Review of The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything that Comes After

    That said, I have a tough time reading memoirs in which someone is fighting cancer, and I understand #memoir, #nonfiction, #heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview

  • Review of I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

    I wasn't familiar with McCurdy when I began listening to her memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died, although I

  • Review of Forty Autumns by Nina Willner

    ICYMI: Forty Autumns offers fascinating, wonderfully detailed perspectives in a rich, layered family memoir Forty Autumns is A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall, and her memoir Forty Autumns offers fascinating, wonderfully detailed perspectives in this rich, layered family memoir For historical fiction about female spies, you might want to check out the Greedy Reading List Six Books

  • Review of I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell

    I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's memoir of pivotal near-death experiences that shaped her life

  • Review of When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine by Monica Wood

    A book I loved, in case you missed it: Wood's memoir is captivating and lovely, poignant, sweet without Wood's memoir is heartwarming and funny and tragic and vivid. This memoir is fantastic. here that in the notes I made with my five-star rating just after reading this in 2012, I said "This memoir

  • Review of I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt... by W. Lee Warren

    Because it's also a doctor's memoir, I can't help comparing this to The Beauty in Breaking. #memoir, #faith, #fourstarbookreview

  • Review of The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

    I loved listening to her fantastically raspy voice as she read her memoir in audiobook form, and I'd

  • Three Books I'm Reading Now, 6/14/21 Edition

    The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading a memoir about coping with chronic illness; a twisty mystery in 01 What Doesn't Kill You by Tessa Miller The subtitle of Miller's memoir What Doesn't Kill You is A Life

  • Review of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

    I listened to this memoir, written and read by Michelle Zauner (of the band Japanese Breakfast).

  • Three Books I'm Reading Now, 9/10/21 Edition

    caring for his young niece and nephew after their mother's death; Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig's memoir in recent years has been primarily focused on shutting off the outside world, but the demands of a six The Midnight Library and How to Stop Time explores his own depression and mental illness in his short memoir

  • Review of The Best of Me by David Sedaris

    Whether Sedaris is reliving specific, offbeat memories and mining them for poignancy and also laughs,

  • Review of Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth

    The tone of the book is often playful--but dark humor often surrounds Libby's diminishing memory, and

  • Review of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

    #nonfiction, #memoir, #appalachian, #politicssocialjustice, #threestarbookreview

  • Review of The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg

    She had never recognized any curiosity or attraction to women before, but in this memoir, Wizenberg recounts This book was mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Three Memoirs I'm Reading Now, 10/7/20 Edition. If you like memoirs, you might also like Six Illuminating Memoirs I Read This Year.

  • Review of The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

    The Book of Delights is a sunshiny set of thoughts and examinations, yet it's not overly earnest, and it's never corny. I just loved it. “I suppose I could spend time theorizing how it is that people are not bad to each other, but that's really not the point. The point is that in almost every instance of our lives, our social lives, we are, if we pay attention, in the midst of an almost constant, if subtle, caretaking. Holding open doors. Offering elbows at crosswalks. Letting someone else go first. Helping with the heavy bags. Reaching what's too high, or what's been dropped. Pulling someone back to their feet. Stopping at the car wreck, at the struck dog. That alternating merge, also known as the zipper. This caretaking is our default mode and it's always a lie that convinces us to act or believe otherwise. Always.” Ross Gay resolved to write about a joy or delight, large or small, every day for a year, beginning on his birthday, and he pulls together the highlights of these experiences as The Book of Delights. It's a sunshiny set of thoughts and examinations, yet it's not overly earnest, and it's never corny. I just loved it. He considers his process (he's not allowed to hoard or save delights for days that might light on the good stuff; he has to find or notice something new each day), reflects on human nature, recognizes the intense delights of food and love and friendship, shines a light on small moments, and considers everything in between. Some passages are just a few paragraphs, while others are pages long. I listened to this as an audiobook (which I highly recommend), and Gay's voice (both his writing style and his speaking voice) are immensely appealing. He's wonderfully joyful and mischievous. I found myself smiling repeatedly while going about daily tasks and it felt fitting that I listened to the author's many delights for hours while happily planting my spring garden. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? My BFF Neha mentioned that her book club read this book, and it wasn't on my radar before that. This was my first Ross Gay book, and I really like how his mind works, so I'm in for all of his books now.

  • Review of Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

    McConaughey mines his decades of diaries, lived experiences, memories, and other frequently unexpected

  • Review of I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown

    Brown shares moments of reckoning, everyday evidence of yawning racial divides, and her insistent joy in embracing her black identity and self-worth. Austin Channing Brown's book is slim (185 pages), but I wore out my highlighter as I marked lines and passages to discuss with the group I read it with. In I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Brown details growing up female, Christian, and black within mainly white educational, religious, and societal frameworks--with a name her parents gave her to intentionally create assumptions that it was the name of a white man. She shows the reader what it's like to navigate organizations that purport to value racial diversity and inclusion, then unapologetically points out where good intentions often go awry, identifying pitfalls (and also some promise) gleaned through everyday life and also in her work as an expert in helping organizations attain increased diversity. She shares shocking, frustrating, heartbreaking moments of reckoning, evidence of yawning racial divides, and her insistent joy in embracing her black identity and her self-worth. Through asking for deeper thought, engagement, and action from all of us, Brown pushes the reader to listen with care and then to do thoughtful, better, specific work toward achieving racial diversity and shifting racial value systems. Any Bossy thoughts on this book? I mentioned this book in the Greedy Reading List Three Books I'm Reading Now, 12/14/20. You might want to check out So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo or Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey if you haven't yet read them.

bottom of page