Read and Dream: My Book Life: memoir

Showing posts with label memoir. Show all posts

Just Kids Review

Title: Just Kids
Author: Patti Smith
Publisher: Ecco

Blurb: In Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work--from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.

Me: The most stunning, inspiring, sincere memoir I've read.

Title: Black Boy
Author: Richard Wright
Genre: Classic, Memoir

Blurb: Black Boy is a classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. An enduring story of one young man's coming of age during a particular time and place, Black Boy remains a seminal text in our history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.

Me: With Black Boy, Richard Wright just absolutely took the title of my favorite writer about anything related to race. Incredible.

Title: My Life on the Road
Author: Gloria Steinem
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Random House

Blurb: My Life on the Road is the moving, funny, and profound story of Gloria's growth and also the growth of a revolutionary movement for equality--and the story of how surprising encounters on the road shaped both. From her first experience of social activism among women in India to her work as a journalist in the 1960s; from the whirlwind of political campaigns to the founding of Ms. magazine; from the historic 1977 National Women's Conference to her travels through Indian Country--a lifetime spent on the road allowed Gloria to listen and connect deeply with people, to understand that context is everything, and to become part of a movement that would change the world.

In prose that is revealing and rich, Gloria reminds us that living in an open, observant, and "on the road" state of mind can make a difference in how we learn, what we do, and how we understand each other.

Me: Revisiting this old favorite was such a necessary decision. It has brought me clarity and a solid foundation in navigating the new year.

Title: We Should Hang Out Sometime
Author: Josh Sundquist
Publisher: Little, Brown
Genre: Memoir, Humor

Blurb: (from goodreads) A bright, poignant, and deeply funny autobiographical account of coming of age as an amputee cancer survivor, from Josh Sundquist: Paralympic ski racer, YouTube star, and motivational speaker.

Josh Sundquist only ever had one girlfriend.
For twenty-three hours.
In eighth grade.

Why was Josh still single? To find out, he tracked down the girls he had tried to date and asked them straight up: What went wrong?

The results of Josh's semiscientific, wholly hilarious investigation are captured here. From a disastrous Putt-Putt date involving a backward prosthetic foot, to his introduction to CFD (Close Fast Dancing), to a misguided "grand gesture" at a Miss America pageant, this story is about looking for love--or at least a girlfriend--in all the wrong places.

Me: Witty, hilarious, cringe-worthy, second-hand embarrassment...Ahh I loved this book.

The Ups: John Sundquist is HILARIOUS. I adored the subject of this book and the ridiculousness and yet the relatability of wanting to know what old crushes thought about you was unbelievably funny in itself. The humor with which he works in the subject of his amputated leg, his "girlfriend" getting an actual boyfriend (news flash, it wasn't him) and his disastrous "dates" is light, breezy, and very conversational.

I finished this book in the span of an hour and a half. At first, I felt bad that I had just breezed through it, but then I realized maybe that was how it was supposed to be read.

Because in that short time I learned a few life lessons:

Love is hard, and usually sucks.
However, unfortunately for us, we tend to gravitate toward completely unattainable people. (Ahem, book boyfriends)
That one sentence you said to your crush or that text you overanalyzed? They really don't care.
When in doubt, one should scour their past and then conduct absolutely crazy and rather stalker-sh experiments and then record their priceless results.

Okay...these lessons may be a bit of an exaggeration, as much of the book is. But needless to say, I fell in love with Josh Sundquist. And I think the main idea of the book, while it may be about romance, is self-discovery and confidence, and how that affects your life.

The Downs: I do feel bad for the poor girls in this book...all of their actions are recorded from a slightly biased point of view for the world to read.

Overall: Funny, endearing, and absolutely priceless. Recommend it to everyone, even people who aren't non-fiction fans.

Rating: 5 kisses!

Hope you liked the review, and the little life lessons along with it!

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Review

Title: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Author: Maya Angelou
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Classics, Memoir, Non-Fiction

Blurb: (from goodreads) Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare") will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

Me: One of the most artistic, honest books I have ever read.

I think that this book, and Maya Angelou, for that matter, is so monumental for many, many reasons. To address something that I haven't discussed very much on other blogs, I have not read that many books written by African American authors, not on purpose, but perhaps because of lack of availability and education. It's great to see a breakthrough of black authors nowadays, but at the time this book was published (1969) it was a risky, new, brave accomplishment.

It was an accomplishment in the historical sense, but it really is an incredible work of art. The vividness with which Angelou depicts her memories, and her painfully honest take on her youth is amazing. She address topics such as rape, the separation of whites and blacks in society, the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans, prostitution, alcoholism, and everything in between exactly as she sees it.

There is not a blind side towards anything and I think that that is the true beauty of this classic. It gave such a new perspective to me on life as black female in the 40s-50s and even now. I felt such a deep connection to all the characters and individuals, even if they were not the best people. Following who seemed to be an ordinary girl grow into an intelligent, fierce woman was beautiful.

This is truly a side of a story not many people will get to know or even hear about unless the read this book. And it's worth it.

(Extra plus: English teachers LOOVEE this book, so you might want to get on their good side)

Rating: Beat My Scale!

Popular Review

Title: Popular
Author: Maya Van Wagenen
Publisher: Dutton Books
Genre: Memoir

Blurb: (from goodreads) A touchingly honest, candidly hysterical memoir from breakout teen author Maya Van Wagenen

Stuck at the bottom of the social ladder at pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren't paid to be here,” Maya Van Wagenen decided to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell. Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help Maya on her quest to be popular?

The real-life results are painful, funny, and include a wonderful and unexpected surprise—meeting and befriending Betty Cornell herself. Told with humor and grace, Maya’s journey offers readers of all ages a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence.

Me: The concept itself didn't really interest me at first, but I'd seen it at a lot of bookstores and the fact that it was written by a fifteen year old really intrigued me.

The Ups: First...the cover. If you read the book, you find out she is basing her popularity experiment on a 1950s popularity guide, and I think that the cover reflects the colors and cuteness of that time period and the modern teenage life perfectly.

I think that if this book had been a novel, and written in fiction about a girl who went through this, I would not have enjoyed it at all. I would have groaned and moaned about how cliche it was. But since it genuinely happened, and I could feel the sincerity of Maya, I found myself laughing and cringing along with her.

I think that what really brought the book to life was the fact that I could really feel Maya through her writing. I think that the entire book was written with very strong voice, and I never got tired of Maya and what she thought. I was always intrigued by her stories, and wanted to be her friend. And I think I really liked her personality. She was someone I would want to be friends with in real life.

The Downs: I guess the overall message, that popularity isn't just about what you wear or whatever, and that it also means having people like you and caring for them, was incredibly sweet but again...a bit cliche. A lot of memoirs have really lasting impressions on me, but the message was just something that has been overused.