Category: Biographies (Page 1 of 2)

When I tried to borrow this new book from the library there were over 100 people waiting for it!

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump, Ph.D

I decided to purchase my own copy, and I am going to summarize it below for those of you who may still be waiting for it or are curious.

For several reasons I don’t think it’s necessarily worth recommending (though I’m glad I read it). So, if you prefer. you can read my summary, and move on to other books!

Usually I don’t “spoil” books, as you know if you read my blog regularly.

I spent the last couple of days (this was a very quick read) plowing through a memoir by Tiffany Jenkins: High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict’s Double Life

Through lies and ingenuity, Jenkins managed to stay high on opioids for several years while living with a sheriff’s deputy, but her desperate acts result in her withdrawing on the floor of the county jail, surrounded by her boyfriend’s friends. And this is where the memoir begins! The following pages detail her journey from a secret junkie to an extremely unpopular inmate to, finally, a life of sobriety.

Not often can I finish a book in only one day due to work, kids, etc. but I just did…

I started reading Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro yesterday before dinner, and I finished it early this evening.

This is a memoir from an already established writer who (just for fun) sent in a DNA test to Ancestry.com, as many of us have. But instead of finding out an interesting variation from what she expected, she found out her beloved and deceased father was not actually her biological father.

I just finished John McCain’s newest memoir The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations as part of my summer reading list.

During the past year Senator McCain has intrigued me. He is one of the very few republicans to call out the President. As a dying man with terminal brain cancer, McCain wants to “talk to his fellow Americans a little more” in this book. I wanted to pay respect to him by reading it.

I believe that regardless of political affiliations, someone who has served his country, as a soldier, a POW, and in Congress for decades, and even running for President of this country has valuable insight. And I was not disappointed. Although the book is HEAVY on military details I found much to like. Here are my most memorable moments:

Continue reading

Because Roxane Gay writes with such raw honesty in Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body it will be difficult for me to write a blog post in response. The story was so powerful and HERS that it is daunting to attempt to reflect upon it. But because I loved the book and want other people to read it (and I do have a book blog – ha!!!) I will give it a shot.

Roxane Gay, also the author of bestselling  Bad Feminist: Essays, is fat, very fat. She uses this word – “fat” – about herself over and over.

“When I use the world I am not insulting myself. I am describing myself.”

Much of her story is about living as a fat person in this world, including the embarrassment, the despair, the hopelessness.

But her memoir is also about WHY she is fat.

Continue reading