Surprisingly written by a girl who GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL in 2016! It is a memoir about growing up in the Chelsea Hotel. For some reason, it was on my wishlist so I requested from my library. I have no idea when I heard of it and knew pretty much nothing about it. At first, I … Continue reading
Category Archives: memoir
The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men’s Prison by Mikita Brottman
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Mikita Brottman lives in Baltimore too and the book club she starts is right in Jessup south of the city. I always like a local connection. Each chapter focuses on a different novel or play she has the prisoners read and their reactions to it. There is also a … Continue reading
Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage by Dani Shapiro
I’ve read all of Dani Shapiro’s memoirs (she has several) and so, of course, I read her latest one, Hourglass, where she reflects on her 18-year long marriage to her husband a former war reporter turned screenwriter. It is always a little weird to read so many memoirs about one person. You feel like you … Continue reading
I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies by Illeana Douglas
I’ve been a big fan of Illeana Douglas’ work for a long time so I was excited when this finally came in for me at the library. I Blame Dennis Hopper is certainly an intriguing title so luckily she starts off with a chapter with an explanation of why, exactly, she blames Dennis Hopper.* She has good … Continue reading
A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold
Sue Klebold’s book was the story of an ordinary woman who raised one of the shooters in the Columbine school shooting. Her son, Dylan, and his friend killed twelve students, a teacher and wounded twenty-four others. I remember the shooting quite vividly, I was just a couple years older than the shooters and had rather recently … Continue reading
Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner
I’ve always sort of liked Jennifer Weiner’s books. They are fluffy but generally well-written, normally set in the Mid-Atlantic, frequently feature dogs, characters are normal people and they are not too romance novel-y. I had read her blog back in 2002 (when even her publisher had to ask her what a blog was) and follow … Continue reading
When in French : Love in a Second Language by Lauren Collins
Perhaps it was a mistake reading this right after Schadenfreude which I enjoyed so much. I had both out of the library and they seemed like a natural pair: both were written by American women writers who lived abroad in a country where English was not a first language. I was wrong. When in French is well … Continue reading