Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion

Here is where you can post books you are reading that dont fit the topic of the group.

The Analects of Confucious

Unfortunately, if I tell people I am reading this book, they give me a wide berth.
Most people prefer to chat about reading something thrilling about killing.

Evening's Empire: The Story of My Father's Murder by Zachary Lazar
2 stars


I am not a fan of the fiction based on true events genre. I didn't know this was what it was when I ordered the book. The author is at least honest in telling us that if he didn't know the details or the conversation he just makes it up. The cover looks very much like a memoir but it is not. I think if the author would have delved more into the facts of this case, which revolve around shady land deals in Arizona in the 70's, it could have been a 5 star book. This book is based on his father's murder in a gangland-style shooting right before he is set to testify before a grand jury.

Selina wrote: "The Analects of Confucious

Unfortunately, if I tell people I am reading this book, they give me a wide berth.
Most people prefer to chat about reading something thrilling about ki..."

I've had that reaction when reading philosophy and/or relgion.

Right now I am reading a memoir, Stand Up Straight and Sing! and some fiction, the latest installment in the No. 1 Ladies series, How to Raise an Elephant.

The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones
4 stars!

I have never read anything like this! Intensely written with a different, distinct voice coming from each character. Every word drips with meaning, every action is significant, and the story builds towards its resolution without losing direction for an instant. And there's plenty of blood and gore. Read this one. Just read it.

The Best of Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson
5/5 stars
This is a collection of Matheson's short stories, a few of them I recognized as being made into TV episodes and films. Matheson's imagination never disappoints as you wonder where this story is going to end up, from the church organ who doesn't want to be replaced and the man who woke up only speaking French which he never studied in his life. Highly recommended!

Confucius from the Heart: Ancient Wisdom for Today's World by Yu Dan

Explains Confucius for the 21st century. In translation.

Another translation I'm getting into..a crime novel this time. And the main character is a librarian. The detective is a hacker. Second Sister by Chan Ho Kei

The Librarian by Salley Vickers
I actually finished this one, at first thought it was dull but it got a bit better. Set in 1950s small town England, so read it more for the historical value than anything else.
Has list of children's books in the back from gushing author. As a librarian, I think it could have been better written though, the main character was so gauche. But then not all librarians are whip-smart.

The Lilies of the Field
William Edmund Barrett
4/5 stars
A sweet novel about a young African American, Homer Smith, who on his travels ends up working for a convent of nuns and helps them build a church. This was made into a film with Sidney Poiter and I thought the film was very faithful to the book.

"MAUS" by Art Spiegelman

Julie wrote: "
The Lilies of the Field
William Edmund Barrett
4/5 stars
A sweet novel about a young African American, Homer Smith, who on h..."

I have watched that movie several times. One of my all-time favorites.

News of the World Movie Tie-in : A Novel by Paulette Jiles
5 stars


I read this because the movie trailer looked really good and our theaters are closed now because of covid and I saw the library had the ebook. Couldnt put it down. The author did a wonderful job of showing how the little girl did not understand English ways after being kidnapped and living with Indians for 4 years. After she is rescued the Captain is paid to deliver her to her relatives. Her parents have been killed. Not a very complicated plot but I felt like I got to know the characters and didn't want the book to end.

The Rejected Writers' Book Club by Suzanne Kelman

Another librarian novel. I didn't really like the snobby main character though, who goes on a road trip to San Francisco with a bunch of small-town women on a bizarre quest to procure a rejection letter from a publisher which was a bit too cutesy and melodramatic for me. Lighthearted and read with a grain of salt. File under 'chick-lit' 'quirky' 'american'.

So far Second Sister is the best of the bunch, more so for a bit of psychological depth of character and Hong Kong setting than the others.

I couldn't finish The Giver of Stars which was about librarians in the Appachalians.

Koren wrote: "News of the World Movie Tie-in : A Novel by Paulette Jiles
5 stars


I read this because the movie trailer looked really..."

Loved the book - can't wait to see the movie!

Skin and Other Stories
Roald Dahl
4/5 stars
Dahl has a vivid imagination and does not disappoint in this collection of odd short stories. One of my favorites was Skin, a tale about a man whose back was tattooed by a famous artist and lengths people will go to have it. I enjoyed it.

Tilly and the Bookwanderers by Anna James

A tween book this time, part of a series called Pages and Co in which the main character, who lives in a bookshop, encounters fictional characters. Should have all the ingredients of meta-fiction for book-lovers and librarians to love but I wasn't really into it!

I think the author was leaning too heavily on fan-fic and nostalgia for this one, with some dubious and too much expository telling that was dragging it down. Plus it was too similar to the 'Whatever After' series for me to like.

Am I just being fussy? And I had read A Little Princess for the first time last year, but I thought having the main character be the half-sister of the girl in the book was just a bit too far-fetched for me.

Canterbury quake by Desna Wallace

Another 'My New Zealand story' written in 11 year old diary format. All about the Christchurch earthquake of 2011. Something nobody really wants to relive! I wonder if even now people are hyper-vigilant about aftershocks and tremors and checking all buildings before entering.

I expect the latest in this series will probably be one about covid-19...

Some more (english) children's novels...The Borrowers and Danny the Champion of the World, one of the Roald Dahl books I never got round to reading as a child. I enjoyed Danny, which was a simple straightforward tale the Borrowers required a bit more suspension of the imagination.

Next up is The Story of Tracy Beaker.

A Fine and Private Place
Peter S. Beagle
4/5 stars
This story revolves around Jonathon Rebeck, former druggist, who came to the cemetery 19 years ago and never left. Rebeck talks to the dead people who appear to him and tries to avoid the cemetery workers so he won’t get kicked out. All this changes when the spirits of two dead people appear to Rebeck. Laura and Michael both died separately but met and fell in love in the cemetery. When circumstances appear that cause Michael to have to be removed from the cemetery, Jonathon and his new friend, Mrs. Klapper conspire to find a way to keep the dead lovers together. I thought it was a most charming story.

Moral Compass by Danielle Steel

I was wondering how the Queen of rags to riches tales would handle this one. The plot outline is intriguing...a rape case in a fancy newly opened co-ed prep private boarding school on the East Coast of the US.

Knowing a bit more about Danielle's charmed life and marriages to felons meant this one was an easy one for her to tell...and it does seem with the writing was pouring out of her exploring every nook and cranny of it, but makes for a somewhat dry and repetitive tale reading it.
It felt like she was stating things rather than really getting into the boys characters and motivations, and also, from the girls victims point of view, trying to convince herself of things. Yes its shameful to admit to being raped, but I thought it would go into a bit more of the trauma of the violation than dismiss everything as a drunken mishap and the effect its having on the boys and their high flying parents, because of criminal records etc. Steel's style of writing is that every boy's parents are described, what they wear, how much money they make, and their marital status. This can get a bit tedious when there is six of them at the party.
Page turning nonetheless, and you want to cheer that the police detectives themselves are so vigilant, and that justice is served because if same thing happened in NZ police tend to turn a blind eye and not even bother investigating - even when women cry out.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Just started, the first chapter is great. Well paced and full of things that were new to me. I am looking forward to reading the remainder.

Ken wrote: "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Just started, the first chapter is great. Well paced and full of things that were new to me. I am looking forward to reading the re..."

Some say that he is the ancestor to 8 percent of European males, but I am really not sure how they proved that.

The Story of Tracy Beaker and Starring Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson

Wow these books are great, and funny and touching. This is no Wimpy Kid tale - Tracy Beaker is streetwise and tough and living in a children's care home. She doesn't have a dad and her mum is a Hollywood star (so she believes) so can't look after her.

All she wants to live in a real home and a real family. Definitely recommended for kids.

Pistols For Two
Georgette Heyer
3/5 stars
Author Heyer is known for her historical romance novels and mysteries. This book contains several of her historical romance short stories and has a couple of excerpts from 2 of her novels. This is definitely for romance fans. I read some of her novels years ago and it was fun to re-visit her writings and to read her short stories.

The Midnight Gang by David Walliams

My first David Walliams book, he seems to write one every couple of months now.
I enjoyed it though I think its more for the 7-10 age group, older readers might get a bit bored of all the slapstick humour, which relies on a lot of onomatapeoia! And pictures.

People say he's the successor to Dahl, though he doesn't really have the fantastical magic of Dahl though the nasty grown ups trope is well-honed. In this one children stuck in hospital have adventures.

Slime by David Walliams

Similar formula, except this one the nasty adults are on an island and the child hero takes revenge via slime.

Service With a Smile
P.G. Wodehouse
3/5 stars
This is the first Wodehouse novel I have read but it is the 5th in the series that concentrates on Uncle Fred, 5th Earl of Ickenham. He is visiting his friend Lord Emsworth who has to deal with his lost prize pig, a new secretary and a group of church lads camping on his property. This was quite a romp especially with several plot lines for a book that is only 190 pages long.

Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose by Dr Suess

Plus five others in a box set labelled 'silly stories'. Great fun to read aloud. I liked this one.

The Sunflower Forest by Torey Hayden

Nearly finished but I want it to be over soon! Torey is just laying it on a bit thick here with the tragedy. It's about an unstable mother who has memories of concentration camps and the narrator is a teenager dealing with it.

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown, but I just started it shortly before bed last night after finishing another book. So far, so good.

Maus II by Art Spiegelman

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson

I'm going through a glut of bookshop/librarian books. This one wasn't too bad, but I didn't like the main character that much. I wanted it to be more about the bookshop, books and other characters than her complicated family secrets.

Innocence By Dean Kootnz

I kept trying to figure out exactly which CITY this book is set in but it never said. Only because the main quasimodo-like character meets the other goth girl in the central library. But it's not about books or libraries..it's a kind of manga/beauty and beast/vampire/apocalypse/horror tale, with way too many flashbacks that nothing much was happening in the present. In the end the guy gets the girl, although he doesn't really do much to get her. I know it's a city where it snows because of the endless description of it.

Mission Girl: Paihia, c.1840 by Fleur Beale

Another 'My Story' book, this time set back in 1840 where a Maori girl leaves her tribe as her mum dies and someone's seeking revenge, and goes to live on a Pakeha mission station learning how to read and write around the time when the Treaty of Waitangi is signed.
It's not really all in diary format since the girl is still learning how to write, and she seems a lot older than the usual 11-12 year old narrators of "My Story' tales.

Also as it's written by a Pakeha, her conversion story to Christianity doesn't seem to ring true. Worth reading though for a bit more background/perspective to the complicated events around the time of the treaty.

The Great Book of Rock Trivia: Amazing Trivia, Fun Facts & The History of Rock and Rollby Bill O'Neill
5 stars


Just a fun book that doesn't take long to read at 145 pages. Now I'm ready for the next trivia game.

The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay
Another bookshop novel.
But the plot was a bit too similar to The Bookshop of Yesterdays in that a young person inherits a bookshop, except this time it's the aunty not the uncle who dies.

So yeah. Read if you've got owning bookshop fantasies, but otherwise, I prefer to read about real bookshops, because the stories these authors weave are kind of ...whatever. Plus the heiresses don't seem to like books all THAT much. Of course the point is you leave it to someone who tries to do everything to
save the ailing bookshop and it all turns out oright in the end because one of the employees buys half of it...or they change the name of it..does that really happen IRL?

I can't think of anybody I know who actually inherits a bookshop or even a business these days. The people that REALLY love books work in libraries and aren't trying to sell you anything...

Selina wrote: "The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay
Another bookshop novel.
But the plot was a bit too similar to The Bookshop of Yesterdays in that a young person inherit..."

These days it seems librarians have to have a college degree and computer experience, which the young people have but us older people usually do not. Is it that way where you live?

I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy
Erin Carlson
3.5/5 stars
This is a very interesting look at Nora Ephron’s life and career, in particularly focusing on her three most famous film romances - When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. I have always loved film and this book does a nice job in discussing Ephron’s films and has plenty of juicy facts about each of them and how they came about!

Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay
Another bookshop novel.
But the plot was a bit too similar to The Bookshop of Yesterdays in that a young..."

Yes, that's what it's turned into, but I would say if you don't love books or able to convey that you are kind of sunk in this job.
If you don't like books that much but love information you might be better off working in museums or archives, or IT, or maybe the CAB. (Citizen's Advice Bureau).

For bookshops, ideally the owner and workers love books too, but you'll always get the person who's a retailer/business person and sees books primarily as commodities to be bought and sold and make a profit from. Or just another job.

I'm aghast at how some people treat books. They jam them in upside down, sideways, leave them open, pile them up, read them in the bath, leave them in the sun, rip the covers off, scribble on them or horror of horrors leave them on the shelf, collecting dust and never read them.

Selina wrote: "Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay
Another bookshop novel.
But the plot was a bit too similar to The Bookshop of Yesterdays i..."

When I worked night shift we had plenty of time to read. One time I noticed the gal I was working with was bending the corner of the page everytime she had to put the book down for a few minutes and it was a library book. If it was her personal book I wouldnt have cared what she did with it. Next time I worked with her I brought her a bookmark and explained to her that it drives others nuts to read a book after someone has 'dog-eared' it. I think she thought I was crazy.

Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay
Another bookshop novel.
But the plot was a bit too similar to [book:The Bookshop of Yesterd..."

GRRRR

My Story: Titanic by Ellen Emerson White

Another one in the My Story series, this time it's the Titanic.
I found it quite interesting, although, I really don't think this fictional 13 year old girl would have found the time to write in her diary on the night or day after the disaster!

Plus, didn't they have inkpens in those days, that needed nibs or something, it wasn't like they had ball point pens!

Selina wrote: "My Story: Titanic by Ellen Emerson White

Another one in the My Story series, this time it's the Titanic.
I found it quite interesting, although, I really don't think this fictiona..."

That's why I don't read very much fiction. It's easy to just make things up without doing the research. I love the research that goes into nonfiction.

Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "My Story: Titanic by Ellen Emerson White

Another one in the My Story series, this time it's the Titanic.
I found it quite interesting, although, I really don't thin..."

It had historical notes at the end which made up for it but I just thought a diary account of the sinking Titanic was far-fetched, plus, would she have taken the diary with her on the lifeboat? I don't know if people actually did take baggage on with them as the ship was sinking...

A Hand to Guide Me by Denzel Washington
3 stars

If you are looking for a memoir about Denzel this would not be it. These are short (2-3 pages) by various celebrities (heavy on the sports figures) talking about who has been the most inspirational in their lives and compiled by Denzel. After a while they kind of all started to sound the same, which is why I only gave it 3 stars. I think I liked Gloria Steinham's the best because it was kind of quirky and one of the few that didn't mention a parent, teacher or coach. ***spoiler alert***it's Louisa May Alcott.

Salt: A World History
Mark Kurlansky
4/5 stars
Kurlansky has always been one of my favorite non-fiction writers who makes reading a pleasure with the interesting accounts of the subject he is delving into. This book is no different and is broken up into three parts, 1) A Discourse on Salt, Cadavers and Pungent Sauces, 2) The Glow of Herring and the Scent of Conquest and 3) Sodium’s Perfect Marriage. There is some repetition of material in the different sections but overall it wasn’t a bother. Some fun facts about salt included that salary actually came from the word salt because soldiers were paid in salt, salt was also needed to make gun powder, Tabasco sauce was invented in 1869 and the Morton Salt company patented the metal pouring spout. I definitely recommend this book.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Not sure if he was riffing of David Walliams The Midnight Gang or other way round?
Anyway in THIS book it's set in a library, except, it has a quantum physics kind of twist in that a suicidal 30-something woman visits a magical midnight library after she decides she doesn't want to live anymore and somehow enters an inbetween parallel universe where she gets to experience many lives so she can pick the one she DOES want. It's a bit like the library version of the movie Sliding Doors.

This one does kinda blow your mind a bit and keeps you turning the pages...satisfying, if a little too neat ending, but an engaging read. Plus it had a SCHOOL LIBRARIAN as the Christ-like figure in it. Nice.

Note: this one won the Goodreads 2020 Choice Award for fiction.

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman
4 stars


I read this book with a sense of defeat. I wondered how in the world I, as an individual, could make a change in how we eat and how we treat the environment and has big business overtaken the world that we are powerless to change. I still feel that way, but at the end the author offers hope and many ways that we can change the world one step at a time. Now to see if these things come to fruition. If you have read other books on this topic I don't know that there is much here that you don't already know, although I think it helps to refresh our thinking once in a while.

Saturday
Ian McEwan
4/5 stars
Neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne wakes up to what was supposed to be an uneventful day of work and time with his family. However, the opposite occurs and an after a traffic accident between him and someone who is not so happy about the outcome starts off a chain of events that will affect him and his whole family. I enjoy McEwan’s books - you never know what is going to happen in them.

Martian Time-Slip
Philip K. Dick
3/5 stars
Mars is now a colony of Earth though there are a lot of problems in living there, like having not enough water access. However, it is still valuable land and entrepreneurs are buying up property. The plot surrounds a young boy; Manfred who is autistic and who may be able to see the future. Arnie Kott, leader of the Water Works Union hears about Manfred’s possible ability and takes him to the FDR Mountains on Mars to try and use his mental powers to see if his development plans will come true. Interesting concept!