Sometimes I’m in the mood for a voyeuristic memoir, looking over someone else’s shoulder into their life. Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President (2025) by E. Jean Carroll met that mood completely! E. Jean narrates the audiobook herself, which is a treat. She begins with being deposed in the first civil suit sheContinue reading “Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President”
Tag Archives: Memoir
Lovely One: A Memoir
Lovely One: A Memoir (2024) by Ketanji Brown Jackson was a completely engrossing and inspiring American story. Justice Jackson credits many things for her success, but the first is the great good fortune of the timing of her birth–in 1970, just at the dawn of the post-civil rights era where the successes that eliminated JimContinue reading “Lovely One: A Memoir”
Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes
I listened to Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon and Kim Green, upon the recommendation of a friend, and it was well worth reading, despite the sometimes difficult subject matter. Nguon, born in 1962 in Cambodia to an ethnically Vietnamese mother and Khmer father, had a happyContinue reading “Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes”
My Broken Language
My Broken Language (2021) by Quiara Alegría Hudes had been on my list for a while, and I’m so glad that I finally listened to this memoir. Hudes, a Pulitzer award-winning playwright, co-authored In the Heights with Lin Manuel-Miranda, and she narrates the audiobook, which I think enhances the listening experience. Hudes’ mixed Puerto RicanContinue reading “My Broken Language”
Body Phobia: The Western Roots of Our Fear of Difference
Body Phobia: The Western Roots of Our Fear of Difference (published September 17, 2024) by Dianna E. Anderson is, in many ways, exactly what the title says it is–a book about how, in 2024, so much of what is wrong with our world today can be traced back to the times when people only sawContinue reading “Body Phobia: The Western Roots of Our Fear of Difference”
The Third Rainbow Girl
I sought out The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia (2020) by Emma Copley Eisenberg because of her brilliant 2024 novel Housemates, even though true crime is not a genre I often choose to read. The Third Rainbow Girl is more than just true crime, though, as Copley EisenbergContinue reading “The Third Rainbow Girl”
Full of Myself
Full of Myself: A Graphic Memoir About Body Image (Pub. Date April 2, 2024) by Siobhán Gallagher is a nicely-done, visually-appealing memoir in graphic form, dealing with difficult topics, such as body image, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Siobhán starts off with her childhood in the Canadian Maritimes, as she began keeping a diary asContinue reading “Full of Myself”
Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia
In Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia (pub. January 9, 2024), Kate Manne has gathered current research and writing about fatness, anti-fat bias (fatphobia), and diet culture, and added her own philosophical analysis (she is a philosophy professor at Cornell), creating something completely original. I’ve been aware of the possibility of being a fat person whoContinue reading “Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia”
Life on Other Planets
Life on Other Planets: A Memoir of Finding My Place in the Universe by Aomawa Shields (2023) is an inspiring memoir — Shields is an astronomer, astrobiologist, actress, mother, and wife. She’s also an African-American woman with a PhD in a STEM field who was privileged to go to boarding school and M.I.T, but hasContinue reading “Life on Other Planets”
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden
I loved Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (2023) by Camille T. Dungy so much that I had to buy my own copy after reading my library copy. Soil really defies categorization–it’s a memoir (much of which she wrote during the COVID-19 pandemic), but she also writes about black history and social justiceContinue reading “Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden”
Reading While Fat 