I loved the idea of We Came, We Saw, We Left: A Family Gap Year by Charles Wheelan but I came out of it thinking this man must be incredibly exhausting and dare I say boring to be around. I’ve read a lot of travel and family memoirs and this was an odd one. There … Continue reading
Category Archives: nonfiction
The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey
The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey was really a mess on a lot of levels. I was very interested in the book as someone who had/has a mysterious illness myself but the unacknowledged privilege, the transphobia, the strange, circular, repetitive way she wrote, weird views on the source of racism (it’s … Continue reading
This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World by Marisa Meltzer
This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World is sort of a memoir hybrid with Meltzer exploring the history of Weight Watchers though the lens of her lifelong battle with her weight. While she is very honest about how much she doesn’t like her body, the negative attention it attracts, her … Continue reading
Enough: Notes From a Woman Who Has Finally Found It by Shauna Ahern
I have to admit that a good bit of the reason I wanted to read this book is that I had read fellow (now former for her) food blogger, Ahern’s earlier memoir/self-help book, Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And How You Can Too ten years ago and in it, she hints … Continue reading
Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship by Kayleen Schaefer
Another mashup of memoir and some research, this time into female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home was a peek into a bit of a different world for me. I could not relate to the bulk of this book at all, the author was desperate for friends and acceptance in a way that I can’t … Continue reading
Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir by Jennifer McGaha
I really wanted to like the book more than I did. Her endless making herself out to be a victim was so tiresome. She seems to still be perplexed why the people she defaulted on (hundreds of thousands of dollars!) and whose house they did not maintain or repair would not want to talk to … Continue reading
Even This I Get to Experience by Norman Lear
I was on vacation earlier this week and read a good bit of Even This I Get to Experience by Norman Lear on the beach at Assateague while I kept one eye open for wild ponies. He is the producer of one my favorite and often overlooked shows, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman as well as many famous … Continue reading
Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman
I had to hurry on this one because it couldn’t be renewed and I’m headed to the beach for a few days and need to return it ASAP. I had some mixed feelings. I liked the eight flavors she chose because they were quite varied and reflected a lot of different cultures and regions. She … Continue reading
Spinster : making a life of one’s own by Kate Bolick
Another book I had mixed feelings about. It was a mashup of a memoir of a woman who never married and the profiles of 5 (6?) “spinsters” throughout history that Kate Bolick found inspiring. Looking at GoodReads, it seems like a lot of people liked the historical woman part and didn’t love the memoir bits. … Continue reading
Poirot and Me by David Suchet
I watched Poirot since I was 9 or 10 when it premiered here on PBS and the series premiered until it ended just a few years ago. That’s roughly 2/3 of my life! One my favorite scenes was in ‘The Royal Ruby’ where Poirot shows his dining companion the best way to eat a mango. … Continue reading