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
Tag Archives: memoir
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
The Face of a Naked Lady: An Omaha Family Mystery by Michael Rips
I came across this book because the author is the father of the girl who wrote the memoir of growing up in the Chelsea. I googled her parents because I was intrigued by who would raise a girl who graduated high school in 2016 and put out a memoir shortly after. Her mom is an … Continue reading
Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom by Sara Benincasa
I had mixed feelings about Agorafabulous!. On one hand, it was fascinating to read about agoraphobia, on the other I felt like she was trying too hard to be funny at times and occasionally was slightly offensive. For example, she’d refer to people’s race, sexuality or ethnicity all the time even when it didn’t matter. It … Continue reading
Trying to Float: A Memoir by Nicolaia Rips
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
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