Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir read in 2021
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Koren
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Dec 29, 2020 01:20PM
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5 stars
This is a short history of the Beatles centered around John Lennon and ending with his death. The book goes back and forth between the narrators voice and the voice of the murderer. I don't think I have ever read a Beatles biography so some of it I remember hearing at the time when I was a pre-teen but a lot of it was new to me. If you are a huge Beatles fan I doubt there is a lot here you dont already know. If you are a fan of the author's fiction I think you will like this nonfiction book.
Stand Up Straight and Sing! by Jessye Norman,Jessye Norman--what a voice, what a talent, what intelligence! I'll be honest--I expected to love her memoir since I have admired her musical talent for many years now as one of the great voices and opera talents to come out of the 20th century. Make no mistake, not everyone with a great voice has the acting talent to do opera, and she had both, plus a fabulous natural instrument. It was also interesting, on the heels of reading A Raisin in the Sun, that Norman originally planned to become a doctor, but it was after she was offered a full tuition scholarship at Howard to study music that her mother nudged her slightly that way--and as wonderful as she may have been as a doctor, she gave so much to so many through her voice--sung and spoken.
While there were things I really was happy to read about, I think I was looking for more of a biography and more time spent on her voice training and musical career, and less on her spiritualist religious views, her philosophy of life and a few other things. I expected to read about racism, especially in the US since she grew up during Jim Crow in the south, for one thing, and I thought she handled this with dignity. I like that she didn't drop names when she brought up negative experiences with individuals (not into gossip). However, I thought it very telling that in her photo of her singing spiritual with soprano Kathleen Battle that she calls her her colleague, and not her friend; I wonder if they weren't friends or if this was due to the reputation Battle garnered for herself (and I have no idea if Battle's reputation was warranted, since I have never met her).
Of course, I will still enjoy hearing recordings of her singing.
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5 stars
Who doesnt love Dolly? She is such a smart, funny, warm, giving person. This book is about her music and how her life influenced the music she has written. Each song is preceded by someone that writes a brief blurb about the song and Dolly, then the lyrics to the song and Dolly speaking about writing the song and how the song came about and most of them are influenced by her life and then a beautiful picture of Dolly which usually ties to the story. I read this in e-book format but I saw the actual book in the bookstore and I certainly think you would get more of the Dolly experience from the actual book, which is a large coffee table size book with glossy paper and beautiful pictures. I chose to get the ebook from the library as the actual book is fairly expensive, although I suspect a huge Dolly fan would treasure it.
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2 stars
I don't watch the Young And The Restless so I did not know who Thom Bierdz was. I wanted to read it because it looked like it was a True Crime book. It really isn't. There is very little about the crime. It is mostly a memoir about the author. His brother kills his mother with a baseball bat. There is a lot here about the author and how he felt about his brother and the rest of the family. His brother is schizophrenic and the author doesnt seem to be very stable himself. He talks about his homosexuality a lot and how insecure he is in his feelings about that but he tells us often how good looking he is. His acting career never really gets off the ground and he turned to his artwork. He has put a lot of his artwork in the book and if you want to see more you can go to his website. I didnt really understand the artwork and it wasnt my cup of tea.
Mod
3 stars
This would have been better as an autobiography but Lesley did not write an autobio so this is as good as it gets. It would have been interesting to hear Lesley's inner thoughts of being a lesbian in an age where it wasn't very acceptable, especially if you were in the entertainment business. There are no personal interviews even with Lesley's family and friends, so the book is written more as a fan than as someone who knew her personally. Because of this the book spends more time going through her music and other professional accomplishments one by one and too much detail. If you are a fan you might like this as there are not a lot of bios out there but otherwise I would skip it. I dare you to read this without getting It's My Party and You Don't Own me stuck in your head.
Koren wrote: "This would have been better as an autobiography but Lesley did not write an autobio so this is as good as it gets. It would have been interesting to hear Lesley's inner thoughts of being a lesbian ..."Whats the title of this book Koren?
Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows?
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You were quick to catch my mistake. I have fixed it!
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5 stars
I'm a huge Monkees fan. I admit it. I enjoyed reading this 'behind the scenes' look at the group and Mickey's personal life. While most girls had a crush on Davey, my crush was Mickey. It's amazing that they are still popular more than 50 years later.
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3 stars
I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. I thought she went into way too much detail about her fertility treatments and childbirth. I kept thinking 'poor little rich girl'. But then if she didnt it wouldn't have been a very long book as it is only 225 the way it is and a quick read. If it had been longer I dont think I would have stuck with it. That said, for someone who is going through postpartum depression it would probably be a help just to know others have been through the same thing. It also might be helpful for pregnant women to know that this could happen. Brooke said she did not know about PPD before she went through it. Just for fun, be sure to google when you are done as the book came out in 2005 and the baby she writes about is now 17 years old. I also found out she had another baby after the book came out and she is still married to the guy she was married to in the book.
Koren wrote: "I'm a Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music, and Madness by Mickey Dolenz5 stars
I'm a huge Monkees fan. I ad..."
I was still very young when their show came out but watched it with my older sisters. Everyone had their favorite Monkee. Usually it was Davy Jones.
Mod
5 stars
I'm a huge Mon..."
Yes. Everyone loved Davey but I thought Mickey was the funniest and i loved his curly hair. I always wondered if it was real and I still don't know after reading the book.
Koren wrote: "You Don't Own Me: The Life and Times of Lesley Gore by Trevor Tolliver3 stars
This would have been better..."
Not knowing who she was, I looked up the song that this reminded me of and of course, it was her singing it.
Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from the Original Epicenter, by Fang Fang3 solid stars!
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Secrets of Lost Cats: One Woman, Twenty Posters, and a New Understanding of Love
Nancy Davidson
3.5/5 stars
Nancy Davidson explores the unusual topic of missing cats and the posters that people make when their cats go missing. Her exploration of this topic came up when her own orange tabby went missing. She made posters to help find him and discovered a myriad of other missing cat posters in her area. She has a degree in clinical psychology and wanted to know the stories of the people who lost their cats. So whenever she found a lost cat poster, she would try to contact the owners. Some were open to her and some were not. This was such an interesting and usual topic that I sped through this book!
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass4 stars
This is a very powerful book, and I think that it, along with Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl are important books to be read in schools, although, of course, most teens don't read books this old it seems.
This book was written when Douglass was around 27 or 28 (can't be sure since slaves were not allowed to know when they were born or how old they were), so within ten years of his escape. For me the shock factor was not what it would have been if this were the first account of the brutality and the perversion of religion (Douglass, who was Christian and even held a secret, illegal Bible Sunday School for slaves for a year while still a slave, wrote an appendix to discuss this), etc, involved, but it was still horrible. I would like to say that people no longer do this, but only this week I read about the a 12 year old Pakistani Christian girl, not going to put in any details, and of course in many parts of the world such horrible enslavement and treatment still happens.
I realized part way through that I have actually read this before. I must have read my mother's copy when quite young (this makes sense since I have known about the brutality since I was growing up and this could have been one of my first exposures to it). This isn't the first book I thought I'd never read before where I have had this happen.
Most Likely to Succeed, Alan Gelb3 solid stars!
This story starts when the author spots two very creepy-looking men in a pickup truck near his house. They put him off so much that he calls the police about it. At almost the same time, a whole family is being murdered right across the way. A good, interesting read about a pretty unusual case of familicide. The author rightly characterizes this case as a truly mysterious situation full of unknowns, the central unknown being the suspect. The court proceedings were well compressed into a readable format, and the dangling questions were laid out very well. Being a neighbor and acquaintance of many of the principal characters gave him a great deal of access to areas of this story that a lot of authors wouldn't have -- and still he came away mystified. Read it and you'll understand why.
Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff
Michael Nesmith
3.5/5 stars
Probably best known to older generations as one of The Monkees, Nesmith writes about his life which included his stint on The Monkees. After the show ended, he continued to work in the TV and movie industry but he also fought to find meaning in his life. There is also a CD that has some of Nesmith’s music on it called Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs The Music but it doesn’t come with the book.
How to Keep Your Doctor Happy: Top Tips for Perfect Patients By John LarkinNot really a memoir, although could argue it's one doctor's memories of his awful patients. But thing is there was just way too many things to remember to keep your doctor happy in this book.
I prefer not to see them. Or dentists. Thing with dentists is they are always asking for money, or giving you horrendous bills in the end the only way to keep them happy is to set up an automatic payment each week from your cheque account.
Titanic: True Stories of her Passengers, Crew and Legacy by Nicola PierceThis book has lots of chapters on various different passengers and crew, so ok to dip in and out of. I think I prefer a more in depth memoir though.
Interesting thing that struck me was the class differences, although there's still very much class divisions to this day, the names of the classes have just been changed.
Steerage/third class =economy
second class = business
first class = mile high club/ A-list
Selina wrote: "How to Keep Your Doctor Happy: Top Tips for Perfect Patients By John LarkinNot really a memoir, although could argue it's one doctor's memories of his awful patients. But thing is..."
I used to hear stories (anonymous, of course) about this sort of thing from my dad. Both my dad and my sister say that most people only remember the first instruction they are told, so I wonder why the doctors don't just write them down, but don't bother telling them that.
What irks my sister is when people have health problems that could be alleviated by healthier living (losing weight, quitting smoking, etc) but just want a pill right away. And people like to blame doctors for over-prescribing! She is NOT talking about people who really can't lose weight, of course, but many can lose at least enough.
In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators, Jeffrey Rinek5 stars!
A great read, full of well-told stories of true crime cases. Most of these cases are not especially famous, but all of them are tragic and important to know about. The author is not your sterotypical tough-guy FBI agent. He struggles right on the page with the pain and sorrow and vulnerability stirred up by these atrocious crimes. Don't miss this memoir. I couldn't put it down.
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Not really a memoir, although could argue it's one doctor's memories of his awful patients. But thing is..."
I'll bet one of the number one peeves is people who self-diagnosis through WebMD.
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Not really a memoir, although could argue it's one doctor's memories of his awful patient..."
My experience has been that if you tell a doctor something that is bothering you you will get a pill because that is what the doctor thinks you came there for. If you didnt want a magic cure you wouldnt have come to the office and if they dont give the patient something they are going to go home and whine that the doctor didnt do anything.
Mod
3 stars
The book started out good with a lot of name dropping and nostalgia for the 60's music scene, but after that it is mostly about the author and doesnt go into a lot of detail about the other members of the group. At times I thought he dwelled a little too much on each individual song to the point where it seemed more like filler to make the book longer. I saw The Association in concert a few years ago and they were soooo good and worth it if you get a chance to see them.
Mod
4 stars
For those who are not familiar with Gavin McCleod he is a prolific actor who is best known for Mary Tyler Moore Show and Love Boat. I found the real life actor to be just as likeable as his television characters. He comes across as a gentle, loveable guy who fell along the way and picked himself up and brushed himself off and started over. It was almost but not quite annoying how he can come up with so many adjectives for how wonderful, talented, amazing everyone is that he meets but he truly seems to like almost everyone. The cast of the Mary Tyler Moore show really does appear to be as close in real life as they are on the show. A coincidence maybe, but the day I finished the book was also the day that his co-star on the Mary Tyler Moore show, Cloris Leachman died. Sadly, the book is 8 years old so a lot of the people mentioned in the book have passed on since it was written.
Koren wrote: "This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith and Life by Gavin McCleod4 stars
[bookcover:This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through H..."
I got this on my to read list- glad you liked it!
Mod
4 stars
[bookcover:This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Vo..."
I deducted a star because of what seemed to be a lot of name dropping, but otherwise I would say it wasnt the greatest autobio I've ever read but it wasnt bad.
Koren wrote: "This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith and Life by Gavin McCleod4 stars
[bookcover:This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through H..."
I'm glad you liked this--I gave it 4 stars as well, but rounded up from 3.5. It wasn't brilliant, but enjoyable and not full of gossip and dissing people.
Karin wrote: "Koren wrote: "This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith and Life by Gavin McCleod4 stars
[bookcover:This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Vo..."
I read it some time ago, even though I never really saw the Love Boat. But when I did a cruise, I watched it in my cabin. I thought it was a good book even though I didn't know half the people he mentions. Worth a read.
Koren wrote: "Karin wrote: "Selina wrote: "How to Keep Your Doctor Happy: Top Tips for Perfect Patients By John LarkinNot really a memoir, although could argue it's one doctor's memories of his..."
Some doctors give green prescriptions. Eg. go the gym. They might give you a discount.
The doctors prefer you let THEM do the diagnosing. If they pick up what you think it is, then it's all good, but don't tell them that when you visit. They don't like it if you think you are smarter than them.
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride4 stars
This is not just a story about race and racism, although it certainly is about that. It is not just about dysfunctional families, although it certainly is about that. It is not just a story about religion, although it certainly is about that.
In The Color of Water, McBride writes a deep and thoughtful memoir/biography of both his mother and himself. On the one hand, he pulls no punches and he lays things out, the good, the bad and the ugly, but on the other hand he is not bitter and he recognizes the dangers in stereotyping people. This is one of the things I love about his writing, although this is the first nonfiction book of his I have read.
About the race issues—he is a biracial man who identifies as being mixed but also as black. His parents married in the 1940s when marriage between black and white were a social taboo (but not illegal in all 50 states). He grew up while his elder siblings were embracing the civil rights’ movement in the 1960s. One of the great things about McBride is that he humanizes people, or, after reading Brené Brown, I could say that he doesn’t dehumanize them. While he recognizes wide problems, doesn’t assume what individuals think because of the colour of their skin, their background, etc. and he realizes that people are complex.
About the religious issues. The title of the book comes from his mother’s answer to him when he asked what colour God is, and her answer was brilliant. But there is more to it that that. His mother’s abusive father was a hard, hypocritical Orthodox so she grew up having to follow all of the kosher rules, etc. His father, who died before he was born, helped lead his motherto Christianity by genuinely loving her, and later started a church which was still going. For the most of McBride’s life he has been involved with church. What I often seen missing in the latest push to read black authors is the recognition of the black Christian community as being a group of church communities that is more than just one stereotyped thing as seen on TV. That said, McBride is a Christian who writes rather than an author who writes Christian genres.
I would say that in some ways, in addition to being a memoir/biography, this book is also much a Christian testimonial of two people, both with problems and issues they have had—humans, warts and all and how they came to Christ. It is not prettied up like some saccharine testimonials are, nor do I think it is intended to be a testimonial per se, but McBride makes it clear when he started turning to God and praying for help and strength to change his life and turn it around, and he was not anyone you’d have pegged to become the man he is today if you’d seen him at a certain age.
Now I have read criticisms in reviews of his mother, etc, but he is showing her warts and all, and of course I was horrified by the mess and the filth, but why would I discard the book over that when it's also about McBride and his life?. Nobody reading this book can honestly say that they have done it all right if they are parents, and to get a dozen kids to graduate from college in that era was absolutely amazing. Not nearly as many kids went to college back before college became the new high school. And, honestly, I think it's too easy to criticize people with large families because it is no longer politically correct to have them, but note that she refused to go on welfare or state aid, so she wasn't doing this on the taxpayer's dime. I wonder how many people living in the US or Canada realize just how small the homes of most of the people in the world really are.
Mod
4 stars
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
The formula has been done dozens of times. Two inexperienced people decide they want to take up farming and it's not all fun and games. The thing that is different here is that the two people are both women and life partners. No men around to help with the heavy work. It was interesting to read about the animals. Sending the animals to the butcher the first time was a traumatic experience. I wouldn't be able to do that even if my animals didn't have names. I only have one critique which brought my rating down a star, and that is that I wanted the author to have a better attitude and enjoy what she was doing but I guess in the end it turned out ok for her.
War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry
Lindy Woodhead
4/5 stars
I have had this on my reading list for a long time and though it was a long book, it was filled with wonderful details about the lives of these two women rivals in the cosmetics/beauty industry. Author Lindy Woodhead meticulously researched Rubenstein and Arden’s histories which included the beginnings of the beauty industry and their effects on it, their friendships with the rich and the famous and their rivals including Charles Revson. But she also she discussed the 20th century history’s effect on their businesses during the two world wars, Prohibition and the new trends that redefined the industry in the 50’s. The book ends with what happened to the industry in the early 60’s after their deaths. I found it fascinating.
Kate Sheppard: A Biography: The Fight For Women's Votes In New Zealand: The Life Of The Woman Who Led The Struggle by Judith DevalientI thought I better find out more about the woman on the NZ $10 note. So I picked up this bio of her.
I must confess I found it a bit boring as I'm not really one for politics, and of course this was ALL about politics.
So it wasn't really my cup of tea as I found it a bit dry and boring, and there was scant detail about her private life which would have informed her public life. All we get from this bio is she was born in Liverpool England and came to NZ when she was 21. Nothing much about her growing up years or family background whatsoever.
What I do find out is it takes her 14 years to get the bill for women's votes submitted and passed in NZ. She was a dedicated campaigner and organised meetings, edited a newspaper, wrote pamphlets, spoke, and got petitions signed. The petition was a huge roll of wallpaper with thousands of signatures that would have spanned several rooms. Her arguments of the reasons why women ought to be allowed to vote were totally sound, its just the reasons why men thought they shouldn't come across as so ridiculous now. Initially why women wanted to vote was to get barmaids banned from pubs and to stop liquor being sold to children. Kate also had other more radical ideas about equality in marriage which back in 1863, the men weren't willing to accept.
The other thing was her own marriage was kind of unhappy in the end, her son and husband left her, then died before her, even her only grandchild, and she went on to marry a recently widowed friend who she lived with while he was still married, at age 77. She died aged 81.
Mod
3 stars
Reading the other reviews here, I think I must be the only one that found this book to be a lot of whining and complaining. I actually thought about quitting it about half-way through but figured I had come that far I might as well finished. I really thought the presidential campaign would get more interesting but it didnt. I guess I thought we would learn more about Pete in this memoir but it's really about Chasten and his insecurities and anxieties. He seems to know a lot about what others are thinking of him and looking down at him. I think if you want to learn more about Mayor Pete and the presidential campaign maybe try his autobiography first.
Joy in the Morning
Betty Smith
3.5/5 stars
Set in 1927 in the Depression era, Annie and her boyfriend Carl Brown marry. Their parents are not too happy but they take off to the University where Carl will try to earn his degree with little money and much hardship as they settle down building a life for themselves in difficult times. Written by the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, this is a semi-autobiographical novel of her life with her husband in their first few years of marriage. Enjoyable!
Mod
Joy in the Morning
Betty Smith
3.5/5 stars
Set in 1927 in the Depression era, Annie and her boyfriend Carl Brown marry. Their ..."
I think this was a movie also. It's been so many years since I read this book I don't remember much about it.
Mod
5 stars
This book caught my eye because I love fairs and carnivals. The author decided he was going to travel the US through carnivals, hitchhiking from the Eastern US to the Midwest, West, South and even Alaska and Mexico. Along the way he meets a lot of interesting people and finds the plus side and the down side of working carnivals. The only thing I wish is that he would have gone more in-depth into the past and present lives of the carnies but he did his research without the people knowing he was researching for a book so he couldn't really dig deep without telling them what he was doing. It was very eye-opening and at the end of the book the covid virus was just starting so it made me wonder what will happen with carnivals when they essentially didn't work last year.
Koren wrote: "Julie wrote: "Joy in the Morning
Betty Smith
3.5/5 stars
Set in 1927 in the Depression era, Annie and her boyfriend Carl Brown..."
Yes, it was made into a movie with Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimieux-unfortunately I can't find the film in our library's catalog.
Shepherd: A Memoir by Richard GilbertAn academic buys a farm in the appachalians to live out his dream, then finds out it's tough going!
Of course it is.
I thought he might swallow his pride and become one of those hobby farmers but he bit off more than he could chew with this one.
Julie wrote: "Joy in the Morning
Betty Smith
3.5/5 stars
Set in 1927 in the Depression era, Annie and her boyfriend Carl Brown marry. Their ..."
so Annie is actually Betty?
I recall reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn years ago, I thought that was semi-autobiographical as well.
Mod
An academic buys a farm in the appachalians to live out his dream, then finds out it's tough going!
Of course it is.
I thought he might swa..."
It seems everyone that buys a farm when they know nothing about farming writes a book about it.
Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "Shepherd: A Memoir by Richard GilbertAn academic buys a farm in the appachalians to live out his dream, then finds out it's tough going!
Of course it is.
I thoug..."
Yep. I was hoping it would be a book written by an actual shepherd who grew up shepherding and knew what to do. But no. Also, the kind of sheep he looked after didn't even have any wool, because he didn't want to bother with shearing them.
Mod
An academic buys a farm in the appachalians to live out his dream, then finds out it's tough going!
Of course it..."
Never heard of sheep with no wool. Learn something new every day.
So, wait, why even raise sheep without wool? Isn't the wool more or less the point?
Mod
A book I read recently said they were more valuable for the meat and they really didn't make any money from the wool and only sheared them because they had to for the comfort of the sheep.
Koren wrote: "Fishface wrote: "So, wait, why even raise sheep without wool? Isn't the wool more or less the point?"A book I read recently said they were more valuable for the meat and they really didn't make a..."
It is a breed called 'Katadhin'. I was kinda disappointed in the guy cos he gave up shepherding after realising he couldn't do it. He couldn't make any money from it and was only breeding sheep to be sold to other farms, he didn't kill his own sheep and he wasn't even shearing, he still had his cushy publishing job. He was like those yuppie hipster dreamer type people who think, I know I've got money, I'll just buy a pretty farm and be a farmer.
Then write a book about it.
True Blue: Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them, Randy Sutton3 stars
A collection of favorite anecdotes from police officers, like capsule-summary memoirs of their work. This was a good read, with each chapter written by a different police officer from a different city. At times I noticed how alike the writing of most of the stories were, as if the editor rewrote all the chapters in his own voice, but the content varies wildly. Right at the end, the last section was suddenly devoted entirely to tales of 9/11, and tells you parts of the story not normally told. Well worth your time.
Mod
A book I read recently said they were more valuable for the meat and they really..."
I remember in the book I read they bred the ewes and had the babies and then at a certain age they sold the lambs to someone else to finish raising. I don't remember why they did that but it worked better that way. I know they do that here with pigs and cattle too.
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
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