When I was ten years old, I decided I would no longer eat pork. Partly brought on by the appreciation for the animal itself, I realized that I’d never much liked pork to begin with. Rather than say to people something like, “Well, I hate pork chops, but sometimes I end up eating sausage when […]
Friends, I’m on a fact-finding mission. Or to be more specific, I’m interested in the different ways people write about facts. Biographies can vary in style — journalistic, salacious, or massive in scope — and I want to know what biographies you all have enjoyed.
Ah yes, we’re in the thick of the year-end “best of” lists floating about the internet, but far be it from me to miss out on telling you what my favorites were this year. Are you in need of reading suggestions? Look no further.
When one reads a book published by Future Tense, one should expect to feel willingly uncomfortable with the author’s honesty. No matter the specific subject matter, there will be at least one moment, a feeling, a crash into clarity that makes one realize: I’ve been here too. Reading Wendy C. Ortiz’s excellent memoir, Excavation, is […]
Yes, it’s a little late into 2014 to be doing one of these posts, but one always needs something new to read, don’t they? Let me suggest five books for your literary pleasure.
Every few months or so, someone on my Facebook newsfeed or elsewhere will put out a general call for book recommendations. Other friends will chime in, and the discussion that ensues makes us all end up adding more books to our to-read mental lists. In the spirit of those sorts of posts, from the semi-varied […]
In Phoenix’s 110-plus degree summers, my husband survived high school football practices where coaches sometimes withheld water or made players run laps without stopping until they puked. When he told me about it, I was bewildered. “Why didn’t you just walk off the field?” That’s what high-school-me would have done in a similar situation. Then […]
The first book that I picked up in the reading year of 2013 was Bill Bryson’s Neither Here Nor There. The year was young and I wanted something fun and entertaining to read and I knew that Bryson would not disappoint. Indeed, this book about his travels in Europe was so funny that I found […]
Although beauty is subjective, sometimes our culture seems to decide, collectively, what we “should” consider beautiful. Is it straight teeth? The right outfit? A certain weight? Time period and geography change the ideal, but The Beautiful Anthology considers a more personal definition, beyond the “shoulds” of the world. Twenty-seven writers contribute to this collection with […]
Some people are lucky enough to know their grandparents, to have spent their formative years visiting them and perhaps learning from them. Adriana Trigiani grew up in a large Italian family and was able to develop close relationships with both of her grandmothers, and she has compiled her memories of them into a guide/memoir, Don’t […]
Ghostwriting often seems like one of those jobs that we logically know exists – celebrity memoir assistance perhaps being its most recognizable form – but we might not often give too much thought to the ghostwriters themselves. Are they only ghostwriters or do they have personal writing projects? Do they want to yell at their […]
Model Crystal Renn’s book, Hungry, may have come out in 2010, but I just read it recently. Equal parts self-promotion, tell-all dishy memoir, and beginner’s meditation on the perils of weight obsession and the benefits of embracing health at every size, Renn’s memoir might not be the most eloquent or scholarly reflection on health and […]
Recently I began reading Patti Smith’s memoir of her life with Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids, which got me thinking about the endless memoir reading I did in high school of figures in the Beat Generation and of a number of women poets. I love a good memoir.
I’m not often a hate-reader. I find there’s enough in the world to piss me off without going looking for it. I know people who hate-read blogs, magazines, newspapers, and probably sometimes books, and these are the source for much of what they write. I see absolutely nothing wrong with this if it helps you […]