Search Results

Bryson's examination of the human body, its processes, its wonders, and its limitations is surprising, illuminating, and wonderful. “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body: A Guide for Occupants is made up of fascinating, funny, odd, and often unexpected information about the complicated corporeal shell we each inhabit. With his signature wit and curiosity, Bryson delves into everything you didn't know that you didn't know about the body (and, I'm glad to say, he narrates the audiobook edition of the book). “The great paradox of the brain is that everything you know about the world is provided to you by an organ that has itself never seen that world. The brain exists in silence and darkness, like a dungeoned prisoner. It has no pain receptors, literally no feelings. It has never felt warm sunshine or a soft breeze. To your brain, the world is just a stream of electrical pulses, like taps of Morse code. And out of this bare and neutral information it creates for you—quite literally creates—a vibrant, three-dimensional, sensually engaging universe. Your brain is you. Everything else is just plumbing and scaffolding.” I'm willing to accompany Bill Bryson anywhere he wants to take me, and an adventure through body systems, grievous injuries, and our various, wondrous healing processes is no exception. Bryson considers the body's systems, outside positive and detrimental influences upon the body, and disease and the process of death. He inspires wonder, shares knowledge, and offers sometimes shocking factoids about our bodies and how they work. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Bryson has also written the smart, wry travel books The Lost Continent, Neither Here nor There, Notes from a Small Island, Notes from a Big Country, and Down Under, as well as two books about the English language, Mother Tongue and Made in America, and A Short History of Nearly Everything and A Really Short History of Nearly Everything. I mentioned The Body: A Guide for Occupants in the list Shhh! Books I'm Giving as Gifts This Holiday.

Parton shares the background and context for 175 of her songs, frankly discussing her inspiration, life, and the formerly untouchable topics she dove into headfirst through songs. What's better than listening to Dolly talk about her inspirations, her artistic journey, her joys and her silliness, those who have influenced her, and her motivations--along with short musical snippets? Nothing. This is a fast-paced book, as Dolly talks about various thoughts as related to 175 of her songs, while country music author Robert K. Oermann intersperses short intros to add structure and background. The interjections from Oermann are necessary, but they sometimes feel abrupt, and while Dolly's stories are as intriguing and delightful as I'd hoped, she seems to feel the need to provide summations, which begin to feel repetitive. But none of that really mattered to me. I adored listening to Dolly laugh and ponder and reminisce and reflect. Through decades of straight-talking song lyrics, she has instinctively and repeatedly offered sympathetic points of view of the persecuted, disrespected, and dismissed: prostitutes, the poor, unwed teenage mothers, and more. The characters in her songs are often driven to the edge of what they can cope with. Sometimes Dolly lets them fall, but other times her songs about freedom (with her metaphors of butterflies and eagles) set those in her songs soaring. Meanwhile, Dolly's offhanded mentions of endless projects, ideas, collaborations, and plans make clear she's one of the hardest working women in show business. I mentioned Dolly Parton, Songteller in the Greedy Reading List of book ideas Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Another Dolly-focused book I'd like to read is She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh. The author examines the social progressiveness that progressive female singers like Dolly have championed through song.

Young offers a brutally honest behind-the-scenes look at the systematic abuse she suffered in The Children of God cult and a front-row view of the misogyny and gaslighting she experienced in the military in this powerful memoir of resilience, reflection, and self-discovery. Daniella Mestyanek Young grew up the daughter of high-ranking members of The Children of God cult in Brazil. Her mother was forced to marry the cult's leader when she was thirteen and worked as secretary for "The Family" for many years. While in the cult, Daniella was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused, while being told these acts reflected God's love. She was not allowed to attend school. Young doesn't flinch away from sharing the grueling details of the generational abuse, hunger, male-dominated power structures, and various methods of deprivation that kept her and other cult members under control of the Uncles, as the group called the men in charge. At age 15, after years of excruciating systematic suffering, Young escaped to Texas, enrolled in school, and made a new life for herself. After various naïve missteps during her entry into a more typical American life, she graduated and gravitated toward the armed forces in intelligence. She spent years fighting against destructive misogynistic power structures and making her way, struggling with mental health issues, and trying to establish an identity within a constrictive, gaslighting environment. I'm fascinated by a peek into a secret scene, and cults and the military each fit the bill. Young's pain in both avenues is substantial and horrifying, and she is brutally honest. Yet Uncultured is primarily an affecting account of Young's impressive perseverance, hard-fought growth, personal reflections, and significant strength. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of St. Martin's Press and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? For more more more memoirs that you might want to try, check out these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality

ICYMI: Poet Elizabeth Alexander writes a gorgeous account of her love affair with her husband and the trauma of his sudden death in a heartbreaking, heartwarming account of moving through the darkness and holding tight to life's beauty and its pain. “The story seems to begin with catastrophe but in fact began earlier and is not a tragedy but rather a love story. Perhaps tragedies are only tragedies in the presence of love, which confers meaning to loss. Loss is not felt in the absence of love.” In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander writes gorgeously about Ficre Ghebreyesus, the husband she lost suddenly; the elements that made him irreplaceable to her and to the world; and the impossibility and inevitability of adjusting to life without him. Alexander shares the trauma surrounding this enormous loss--which occurred days after Ghebreyesus's fiftieth birthday surprise party--and her personal journey toward finding peace. Much of the book explores the beauty of companionship, and with poetic gorgeousness Alexander lays out her unique love story. “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand.” Reading his widow's account of life with Ficre made me feel deeply connected to him. This was exquisitely beautiful. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I mentioned The Light of the World in my Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore. You might also be interested in the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality.

ICYMI: I loved Taylor's exploration of various faiths, striving for open-mindedness, respecting differences, and finding captivating new avenues for her faith in this five-star read. In Holy Envy, Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest who left a position as a church pastor, shares her experiences and surprises while teaching a course on the religions of the world at a small Southern college. Holy Envy is a thought-provoking, accessible look at world religions and at the bridges that can be built between people of various faiths by considering traditions and beliefs that overlap as well as those that are wholly individual. Taylor examines differences in faiths as well as where varied faiths intersect, and by seeing these religions through the eyes of her students--many of whom are venturing into knowledge of world religions for the first time--Taylor shares how she learned more than she could have imagined. I found her lengthy exploration of the concept of and circumstances of “the stranger”--and how it can shed invaluable new light on a life and established beliefs--especially interesting. Taylor is smart and thoughtful, delicate yet straightforward, and I was taken with her vulnerability and honesty as she revealed how the lessons she learned related to and reflected upon her own experiences. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Barbara Brown Taylor is also the author of An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, Learning to Walk in the Dark, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, and other books. I love her thoughtful writing and introspection.

In Katherine May's nonfiction ode to settling in, stepping back, and slowing down, she explores her own

reading Sally Rooney's newest novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You; the brilliant Isabel Wilkerson's nonfiction

In researcher and professor Angela Duckworth's nonfiction work Grit, she explores the combination of For more nonfiction books, check out the Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction Books that Read

Come As You Are is fascinating nonfiction from sex educator Dr. Another nonfiction, engaging book I loved that is about the human body and how it works is Body: A Guide

More Memoirs I've Loved I find a good memoir irresistible, whether it's made up of key moments from the life of someone unknown to me or it's the background of a famous person's journey. For more more MORE memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out the Greedy Reading Lists Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into, Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year, Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In, Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite, and Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality. How many memoirs is too many memoirs, you may ask? Dear reader, the limit does not exist! Have you read any of these books? I'd love to hear what you thought. Which other books should I add to my memoir to-read list? 01 The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher The Princess Diarist is based upon the diaries Carrie Fisher kept while she was a young woman stumbling into her iconic lifetime role as Princess Leia. Fisher is candid, funny, charmingly offbeat, and she's mastered the art of honest self-examination. I loved listening to her fantastically raspy voice as she read her memoir in audiobook form--and she relates her youthful affair with the gruff and married Harrison Ford for the first time here. I felt like a little too much time was spent on youthful poetry and fanciful teenaged musings, yet the young Carrie seemed frequently and charmingly self-possessed even as she questioned her own motives, feelings, and life path. I laughed out loud repeatedly at Fisher's good-natured, self-deprecating, and confidently oddball views and contemplations. For my full review of this book, check out The Princess Diarist. If you love Carrie Fisher, you might also like A Star is Bored, a fictionalized celebrity-focused book written by Carrie Fisher's former personal assistant, Byron Lane. It was fun but also poignant, and I loved it. 02 Dimestore: A Writer's Life by Lee Smith “...the linear, beginning-middle-end form doesn’t fit the lives of any women I know. For life has turned out to be wild and various, full of the unexpected, and it’s a monstrous big river out here.” Lee Smith has written numerous fictional stories about the Appalachian South, including Fair and Tender Ladies, On Agate Hill, and Oral History. Here she traces her beginnings in the Appalachian coal-mining town of Grundy, Virginia, where the background of her life was filled with tent revivals, mountain music, and her daddy's dime store and the community that flocked to it. What could have been an interesting and charming memoir about growing up in Appalachia and the incredible changes in rural Virginia from the time of Smith's childhood to now surprised me with its depth and darkness. I was taken with Smith's open exploration of the good, bad, and ugly in her life, and I adored reading mentions of University of North Carolina English professors, other Chapel Hill figures, and the hidden gems of places that I love. 03 Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story by Jewel I'm a fan of Alaska: The Last Frontier, which is about the Kilcher family--of which Jewel is a part. She only occasionally appears on the show, but she comes on to yodel (her grandparents came to Alaska from Switzerland around World War II) with her extended family from time to time, which I love to see. Anyhoo, in her memoir Never Broken, the singer-songwriter traces her Alaskan origins, her first singing performances (at age 3 alongside her parents), how she began to write songs to express herself, and the now-famous story of a DJ airing her bootleg song and beginning her rise to fame when she was 18 and homeless, living out of her car. In Never Broken, Jewel shows really lovely extensive introspection and a detailed account of the fascinating-disturbing story of her youth. She shares her ongoing, active commitment to personal and emotional growth, bettering the world, being true to herself, and evolving through hardships. She seems like a good egg, and I really liked spending time with her through this memoir. 04 The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander “The story seems to begin with catastrophe but in fact began earlier and is not a tragedy but rather a love story. Perhaps tragedies are only tragedies in the presence of love, which confers meaning to loss. Loss is not felt in the absence of love.” Alexander writes gorgeously about the husband she lost suddenly, the elements that made him irreplaceable to her and to the world, and the impossibility and inevitability of adjusting to life without him. She shares the trauma surrounding this loss and her personal journey toward finding peace. The author explores the beauty of companionship and like a poet, she lays out her unique love story. I didn't know I'd care so much about a person I'd never heard of or met by reading his widow's account of life with him, but this was exquisitely beautiful. 05 I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend by Martin Short Martin Short has recently had excellent TV roles on The Morning Show and Only Murders in the Building, and each one has reminded me of how much I love his performances. In I Must Say, Martin Short shares stories of his Canadian childhood dreaming of making it big in show business in the United States, his years of hard work and tenacity, and the magical roles that marked his success. “We arranged to spend the next day, a Sunday, looking at apartments together, followed by a round of tennis, since we both played. Before Nancy left the Pilot that night, I said to her lasciviously— I don’t know what possessed me—“Have you ever tried a comedian before?” Which was either very sexy or very creepy, depending on your opinion of me. She just stared at me, betraying no emotion, and said, “I hope you have a racket. I’m pretty good.” I Must Say is naturally full of famous names and encounters, but it doesn't feel as though Short is gratuitously name dropping. I burst out laughing at some of the transcripts and asides in Short's book. His voice in this memoir is honest, funny, and poignant, and he and his many stories are just irresistible. Short comes across as charming, nutty, grounded, and really endearing in this fun, funny memoir. 06 It's Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Okay Too) by Nora McInerny Purmort “He will die, I know it, and I go there, though I have no business doing so. Our human imaginations are woefully unprepared for predicting actual pain, but I hack away at it anyway, trying to form a scar before I m even wounded.” Twentysomethings Nora and Aaron fell in love. They were romantic and silly and young. Then Aaron was diagnosed with a rare brain cancer, but the couple doubled down, becoming engaged in the hospital, marrying after Aaron's first surgery, and having a baby while Aaron was undergoing chemotherapy. It's Okay to Laugh is a darkly humorous account of the author's numerous and condensed life-altering tragedies. The brief life-lesson interludes that break up her story felt jarring to me, but her account was honest, raw, sad, and sometimes very funny.

Meticulously researched, always interesting, and consistently infuriating, Empire of Pain is essential nonfiction Patrick Radden Keefe is a master of compelling, important nonfiction. book Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland was one of my Six of the Best Nonfiction

1619 Project highlights tragic, uncomfortable aspects of our nation's history in an important work of nonfiction

While taking the reader through her children's health crises, Philpott considers the power of worry, of love, and of trying to let go and simply live. When you’re an adult who thinks your own churning mind is what keeps everything safe, it’s called anxious. In her newest memoir Bomb Shelter, Mary Laura Philpott explores her worries about and views of the world, and she ponders existential questions about life and death. Philpott considers her paralyzing fear of her children's health challenges and takes the reader through the emergence of her son's epilepsy and her daughter's asthma; she considers aspects of her parents' lives previously unknown to her; and she pieces together facts about her family that she had never recognized. As Philpott wonders with dread what else could go awry, she faces that she has subconsciously believed that the power of her active caring and worrying could possibly prevent future tragedies. As far as I can tell, the uncertain part is: every second we’re alive, until the last. Philpott faces the unwelcome yet freeing reality that so much is out of our control, and she considers whether appreciating the fragility of moments--and the beauty of this fragility--may be the key to staying sane as we enter the unknown events of the future. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Mary Laura Philpott is also the author of the memoir I Miss You When I Blink. I listened to Bomb Shelter as an audiobook.

For more nonfiction spy stories about the Cold War, check out two great books by Ben McIntyre, the gripping

Caste is consistently powerful, profound, disturbing, and absolutely necessary nonfiction reading from

This is an irresistible tribute to Kalb's funny, opinionated, fiercely loving grandmother--a granddaughter's best friend and a wise and formidable character. I listened to Bess Kalb's irresistible love letter to her late grandmother, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me. The audiobook was wonderful and read by Kalb. The author saved every one of her grandmother's voicemails, and here she uses them--along with emails, letters, vividly recalled conversations, and her grandma Bobby's imagined thoughts from beyond the grave--to construct a picture of a formidable, tough-love, fiercely protective matriarch in Bobby Bell. Through Bell's voice we also learn what has shaped the other women of the family: we hear rich stories of Bell's own mother--who fled Belarus in her youth--and her hardships and determination; and we glimpse the difficult relationship between Bobby and her daughter (Kalb's mother) and how it affected each woman's life trajectory. Nobody Will Tell You This But Me is based upon Bobby's stories and exchanges with Kalb, but I knew I was hooked on this one and on Bobby's voice when Kalb began the book with an imagined critique from Bobby of her own funeral. Kalb shares rip-roaring tales of family history; Bobby's distinct pride in generations of the family having overcome various hardships; her crisp, specific advice about fashion, shopping, love lives, career, and transportation; her unwavering familial loyalty, even within fraught relationships; and, ultimately, Kalb's own loss of her beloved best friend and grandma, which shakes her life and reshapes the family forever. Bobby's recounted memories don't paint her as anything close to a saint; she recounts the evidence of her faults as passionately as the recollections of her life's triumphs--many of which center around having made Bess feel safe and happy and seen. This is a heartwarming, funny, poignant, sassy tribute to a life fully lived and to a determination love freely, deliberately, and unwaveringly. It made me laugh out loud and brought me to tears. I just adored this gem. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Emmy-nominated writer Kalb (Jimmy Kimmel Live!) is also a contributor to New Yorker. This is her first book, but I really hope she writes another.

into the complications and implications of Quanah's white-Native American heritage, emblematic of the conflicts If you like to read nonfiction, you may like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction

Despite some small moments that felt heavy-handed, this is a powerful, fast-paced, compelling nonfiction The subtitle of Browder's nonfiction book is A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight If you like nonfiction books that read like fiction, you might try the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction Books that Read Like Fiction or Six of the Best Nonfiction Books I've Read

Going There shines through Couric's insider peeks at the media world, playful insights about famous people and behind-the-scenes dynamics, and her vulnerability about difficult periods in her own life. I listened to Katie Couric's memoir Going There, in which she traces her media career from its modest beginnings to her present-day fame; she mentions a few dalliances with notable figures in her youth; and she explores her steady determination and how it led her through the zigzags of her life. She takes us through falling in love with her first husband Jay Molner, having their two daughters while she and Molner were frantically building their careers, and the horrible loss of Jay to advanced colorectal cancer before she and he had been married a decade. Couric is candid about the emotional turmoil surrounding her grave loss--and her hope and emotions related to trying to find love again. She also shares context around pivotal career moments spanning decades, including key interviews and decisions, her work friendship with Matt Lauer, and her healthy professional competitiveness with Diane Sawyer and other women in the news. The behind-the-scenes looks at professional decisions and network dynamics were particularly interesting. I also loved the casual name-dropping of famous people in Couric's circle. I did find the personal, passing sharing of others' intimate details jarring, however (regarding lascivious moments with Larry King, Neil Simon, etc.). There is somewhat of an exploration of power and sexual abuse within some of Couric's professional environments, and she expresses her horror about the infamous revelations that came to light regarding years of Matt Lauer's horrifying behavior. This isn't the crux of Couric's memoir, and I imagine it was difficult to manage how to address this topic without being able to give it the page time and attention it deserves, but this felt awkward, maybe fittingly so. Going There shines most brightly though Couric's insider looks at important media moments, her playful insights, and the vulnerability she shares about difficult periods in her own life and moving forward after tragedy and disappointment. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? For more more more memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality

Taylor's books exploring faith and life's meaning are delights: she is wise but unassuming, knowledgeable yet open to new experiences, and often funny and self-deprecating. “To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir.... And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.” After leaving her position as a pastor and writing a book, Leaving Church, about the experience, Taylor here explores finding faith, moments of reflection, and meaning in the world around her in An Altar in the World. Through exploring everyday chores--practices as simple as walking, washing, praying, or bestowing simple blessings--Taylor explores the ways she grounds herself in everyday life while connecting with deeper meaning. I love Taylor's voice and am in for all of her books. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Taylor also wrote the wonderful book Holy Envy, which I read with the same group as I did this book. I loved that book even more than this one because I felt that Taylor's personality came through in it even more fully, and I adore spending time with her. She's wise but unassuming, knowledgeable and open to new experiences, funny and self-deprecating.

More Memoirs I've Loved I love a good memoir, one that offers a glimpse or a deep dive into the life and pivotal experiences of another person. For me, the best memoir makes you feel some of the author's feelings and understand their perspective. This is a genre of books I often like to listen to in the form of audiobooks read by the author, because I love hearing a person tell their own story. My to-read list of memoirs is so long it's crushing and overwhelming, but some of those I'd like to read next include: The Ugly Cry by Danielle Henderson; Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile; Speak, Okinawa by Elizabeth Miki Brina; Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford; and Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig. For more memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out the Greedy Reading Lists Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into and Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year. Have you read any of these books? I'd love to hear what you thought! Which other books should I add to my memoir to-read list? 01 A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa Ishikawa, who is half-Korean, half-Japanese, and who lived under oppressive totalitarian rule for thirty-six years, tells a fascinating story of his life in North Korea--and of his gripping escape. The promise of better work and stronger education for the children lured Ishikawa's family from Japan to North Korea. But reality was a far cry from the promised utopia. The author traces a tragic cycle of bureaucratic ignorance and force, hunger and desperation, cruelty, and resignation. This short memoir digs into the author’s repeated experience with North Korean horrors and despair—and sets these experiences in contrast to his prior life and heartbreaking knowledge of the free, if difficult, world of his youth in poverty in Japan. The version of this book that I read was riddled with typos, which I imagine came about during the translation from the author's original Japanese account. For another set of accounts of life in North Korea, try Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. My book club read this fascinating book, and I think Demick does an excellent job of exploring the brainwashing, isolation, and fear in North Korea, while building the stories of caring families and their everyday lives in which the madness is normalized. 02 This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps Celebrity memoir time! I first saw Busy Philipps acting on my beloved Dawson's Creek many years ago, and since then, I've remained vaguely aware of her best-friendship with Michelle Williams, her various acting roles, and her candid social media presence. In This Will Only Hurt a Little, Philipps conversationally takes us through her youth in Scottsdale, Arizona, her awkward years, her discovery of her comedic leanings, her friendships, and her loves, mistakes, victories, and joys. She's frank about her missteps and she embraces an active-work-in-progress approach to her personal growth and learning. I listened to Busy read this in audiobook form. It’s interesting to hear experiences a person believes has shaped his or her life, and in This Will Only Hurt a Little, Philipps offers tales from childhood and Hollywood that affected her positively or negatively, while never flinching from laying bare her own regrettable, brave, stumbling, or confident decisions, trials, and adventures. 03 Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood Lockwood is a poet, and her view of the world is entertainingly quirky and off kilter. Her father the priest is an outrageous real-life character in Priestdaddy, and Lockwood works to present him as appealingly so. Late in the book she openly laments at how difficult this is (she worries, “I️ can only write down what you say”). Her tone is loyal while remaining brutal and honest. Her mother is presented sympathetically while coming off as odd, and Lockwood herself takes on a somewhat unhinged tone while recounting off-kilter periods for the family. There’s silliness, dark humor, and life-and-death tragedy—for example, the discovery of a nearby toxic waste dump as a likely reason for widespread and devastating health effects in the community. Lockwood notes that she is not a Christian but is very much “of” the church because of her upbringing. Her exploration of rituals, abuses of power in she's witnessed, and her own present-day participation in traditions felt most interesting to me. Lockwood is also the author of No One Is Talking About This, a book that is odd, disturbing, and likely not everyone's cup of tea. But it's truly unlike anything I have ever read, and the second section, which is an enormous departure in tone from section one, brought me repeatedly to tears. Please let me know if you've read this one! 04 Inheritance by Dani Shapiro Shapiro shares her shock at discovering (via a DNA test taken on a whim in her mid-fifties) that her biological identity as the descendant of two lines of Orthodox Jews is not accurate. The parents who raised her are no longer alive to question, and with this discovery, Dani voraciously challenges her own sense of self and is shaken to her core. She wonders about whether she has a claim to beloved extended relatives who shaped her life but are not, after all, blood relations; she reflects on her religious and cultural integrity and identity; she worries about her predispositions to heretofore unknown genetic health issues; and she considers her potential legacy to her own child—all while panicking about who she is after all and how she can possibly trust what she has believed to be the truth about almost anything anymore. Through practical research, lengthy reflection, and delving into the grief and the increasing layers of loss she feels, Shapiro eventually allows herself to feel hope and a growing peace regarding the likely truth—as well as a sense of freedom in having a more fluid sense of herself as a person. I thought Inheritance was fascinating, thoughtful, jarring, and just lovely. 05 Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur Brodeur was always captivated by her mother and her magnetic personality. Her mother confided her darkest secrets to young Brodeur as though she was a friend, and she drew the teenaged Brodeur in as an accomplice to her longtime extramarital affair. I feared that reading this memoir was going to make me feel like the worst type of voyeur—that the details of the affair at the center of this story might make me feel uncomfortable at best and would feel tawdry at worst. But the story was ultimately more about an emotionally stunted mother, her codependence on her adolescent daughter, and how the author unraveled the many smothering ties to the woman whose conditional love and affection directed her life for too many years. Brodeur is a measured writer who thoughtfully considers her youth, her infatuation with and reliance on her mother (who throughout her life is only concerned with her own impulses and desires), and how her own eventual personal growth drove a rift between her and the mother she idolized, a shift that changed everything forever. Wild Game was really interesting and a quick, engrossing read that surprised me with its depth. I was given a copy of this book by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 06 My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review, writing in her mid-forties, recounts her dedication to a single book, one of her own making. She's carefully taken this book to Thailand, Paris, and London, shuffling it from apartment to apartment where it holds a place of honor and has for twenty-eight years. It's a book listing each of the books Paul has read to date. The Book of [Read] Books (which she affectionately calls Bob) reflects the author's hopes, dreams, adventures, and searches for meaning, while her life and the conditions within it affect the books she seeks out and dives into at different points of her life. My Life with Bob is also an examination of a reader's relationship with books, with reading, and with the paralyzing, never-ending, constantly expanding list of titles that make up a to-read list: “At this point, there is no human way that I could read even those books I've deliberately marked as absolute must-reads. . . . This is every reader's catch-22: the more you read, the more you realize you haven't read; the more you yearn to read more, the more you understand that you have, in fact, read nothing. There is no way to finish, and perhaps that shouldn't be the goal.” Paul delves fully into her meandering post-college years--during which Bob provides more structure in her life than anything else does. She dabbles in exploring her more recent life and reading habits as well in this thoughtful, unpretentious, gloriously nerdy, and lovable book.

Isabella Bird's nonfiction account of her 1873 travels through the rugged, wondrous American West is Through the vividly recounted adventures in this lively narrative nonfiction, Bird shares her many discoveries

Thoughtful, self-deprecating, earnest, and honest, Surrender is a captivating peek into the four decades (and counting) of U2. Bono explores his faith, family, loyalty, inspiration, and important activism efforts. I prefer listening to my memoirs read by the author, and I loved hearing U2's songwriter and lead singer Bono take us through the stumbles, pain, joy, and faith that have inspired his music and shaped his life. From treasuring friends he's had since childhood (one of whom was the inspiration for the song "Bad"), to exploring "growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking)"; from digging into the difficult relationship with his father to sharing how he attempted to cope with the loss of his mother decades after the fact, Bono's Surrender is beautifully honest, self-deprecating, and fascinating. The framework of building the book around forty songs means some sections are shorter, some longer, but each has a key U2 song to anchor it. I loved listening to the book in order to hear each of these played. Bono (Paul Houson) is a natural at self-reflection; he considers his motivations, his missteps, his great joys--and his lofty goals for the band, but largely for his activism efforts. He is a family man and fiercely loyal to his bandmates and friends. Details of Bono's activism make up much of the second half of the book. He is interested in the potential power of his celebrity to do good, in learning about worthwhile issues, and in being actively involved in improving the lives of others. He played an important role in the push to cancel debt for African countries and in the battle to bring antiretroviral drugs to treat AIDS in African countries by speaking to Congress, working with various activist groups, making political friends on both sides of the aisle, and generally showing tenacity and stubbornness. I loved listening to Bono's story in his voice. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you enjoy musicians' memoirs about the making of their music and their lives, you might like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing.

A book I loved, in case you missed it! O’Farrell’s meditations on the precious nature of life felt new, honest, raw, and fascinating. We are never closer to life than when we brush up against the possibility of death. I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's memoir of pivotal near-death experiences that shaped her life and affected the way she considers her existence. Her recollections include a childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, an encounter with a potentially dangerous man in the vulnerable middle of nowhere, and her struggle to protect her daughter. The seventeen snapshots of O'Farrell's life at different stages highlight the frighteningly fragile nature of life. The construct of tracing near-death experiences to tell the story of her life didn’t feel forced at all, and O’Farrell’s meditations on the precious nature of life felt new, honest, raw, and fascinating. I loved this. O’Farrell’s writing is exacting but lyrical, capturing the nuances of the moments that lead to and make up sudden crises, arising challenges, and the dangers and narrow escapes that shape a life. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? O'Farrell is also the author of other books I've really liked: Hamnet, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Instructions for a Heatwave, and This Must Be the Place, as well as books I haven't yet read: After You'd Gone, The Distance Between Us, The Hand that First Held Mine, and others.

Haig is vulnerable and specific in his short memoir about his own experiences with mental illness and depression--and he shares the small and large motivators he uses to remind himself that his darkness will pass. Matt Haig explores his experiences with depression and mental illness in his short memoir Reasons to Stay Alive. “To other people, it sometimes seems like nothing at all. You're walking around with your head on fire and no one can see the flames.” Haig takes the reader through the emergence and progression of his depression, recounting his overwhelming emotions, the pressures of the world around him, and his reliance on his now-wife and family as ballasts through it all. He tracks the various coping mechanisms he tried, his thought processes, what worked and didn't, and moments of despair so deep he couldn't imagine coming out of them. Haig lists positive things in the world (they're referred to in the book's title) that comprise his motivations--small and large--for getting out of bed and functioning when doing so is a struggle. He seeks to explain his own situation with mental illness while allowing that others' experiences are different. And he showcases how reveling in small, beautiful aspects of life and the human experience provide him with enough hope to go on. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I listened to Haig read this audiobook. Haig is also the author of the fiction titles The Midnight Library and How to Stop Time. If you like to read memoirs, you might try the titles on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into, Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In, Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality, and Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite.

Miller outlines many of the frightening, difficult, relentless aspects of coping with a chronic illness. She lays a journalistic view over some of her personal experiences and offers advice to those affected by chronic illness. “I needed a book written by someone who exists in that foggy space between the common cold and terminal cancer, where illness doesn’t go away but won’t kill you. I needed someone who lives every single day with illness to tell me that (1) I wasn’t alone and (2) my life was going to change in unexpected, difficult, and surprisingly beautiful ways.” The subtitle of Miller's memoir What Doesn't Kill You is A Life with Chronic Illness--Lessons from a Body in Revolt. Miller was a twentysomething writer in New York City when she began having odd symptoms, terrible pain, and mysterious physical issues. After multiple misdiagnoses and increasing discomfort and fear, she was ultimately diagnosed with Crohn's disease. “I became a professional patient, and a good one. I learned that bodies can be inexplicably resilient and curiously fragile. I would never get better, and that would change everything: the way I think about my body, my health, my relationships, my work, and my life. When things get rough, people like to say, this too shall pass. But what happens when 'this' never goes away?” In What Doesn't Kill You, Miller explores the isolation of enduring chronic disease and her own personal experiences coping with pain and uncertainty. She traces her own debilitating symptoms and her significant, life-threatening complications and severe flares of the disease. She spends substantial page time laying out the weaknesses of our country's health care system, and she offers footnoted information about chronic illness, its treatment, and related issues. I mentioned this book way back in June as part of my Greedy Reading List Three Books I'm Reading Now, 6/14/21 Edition. It took me a while to get through it because of the sometimes grueling reading. Chronic illness can be heavy, sobering, relentless, shocking, cruel, painful, frightening, and devastating. What Doesn't Kill You may be illuminating--especially if you or someone you know copes with chronic illness. I also found it somewhat personally triggering, which isn't a judgment, but it was my reaction. Miller's view gets broad at times, and her focus occasionally seems to stretch beyond the scope of what I felt the book was about--her facts, backed up with sources, range from those related to issues surrounding problematic health care providers (this feels somewhat off topic when it stretches into issues of sexual and other abuse by doctors) to health care inequalities and various other subjects. “…I sometimes miss being in the hospital…. It was nice, in a way, to just lie there and be taken care of. To be sick, openly, without worrying about pretending otherwise.” Some of Miller's exploration of chronic illness that I found most interesting included potential sibling resentment, unusual parent-child dynamics (related to body autonomy and personal space, for example), friend frustration (such as the popular “get better already” message, whether unspoken or verbalized), and unexpected possible positive outcomes, such as post-traumatic growth. Miller is a journalist, but I felt that her footnotes, statistics, and summaries of various findings brought me out of the heart of the book, as did her coping advice--although that aspect could certainly be valuable for a reader seeking resources and practical information. This all felt far less meaningful to me than her detailed accounts of specific scenes in her life and the pivotal (large and small) moments she went through. Her particular personal experiences, her hard-fought wisdom, and her thoughtful reflections about her own situation were the strengths of the book for me. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Other books about chronic illness that look potentially valuable and interesting but that I haven't yet read include: Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties and You Don't Look Sick! Living Well with Invisible Chronic Illness.

Zamora's memoir of his grueling journey from El Salvador to the United States without family at age nine keeps the reader within each immediate, breathless, uncomfortable, fear-filled moment through and to the unknown. Solito is one of my book club's reads for this spring, and I'm listening to it as an audiobook. In Solito, the poet Javier Zamora shares the story of his grueling journey from El Salvador to the United States at age nine. His loving grandfather shakily sends him off on a planned two-week trip through Central America and Mexico to meet up with his parents. The trip lasts seven weeks and involves challenge after challenge. Solito includes hired "coyotes" with dubious experience and intentions; groups of fellow journeyers who betray, bond, or simply disappear; hours and days of desperate thirst and hunger; brushes with death; the hollowing, youthful loneliness of being away from family--and the bursts of danger of guns and detention centers as well as the constant underlying pressure of remembering to keep up ongoing deceptions to avoid them. Zamora keeps us in his nine-year-old perspective, which also serves to keep us focused on moment-by-moment sensations and concerns and makes the memoir feel immediate and breathless. Physical discomfort (he is tired, cold, hot, burned, thirsty, hungry), emotional turmoil (he feels loneliness, fear, concern, disconnectedness), and yearning (he is desperate for trust, for assurances, for safety and security, for reunification) are at the forefront. Zamora takes us through what often feels like his literal step-by-step journey, without summarizing or skipping over impactful moments of need and want and despair. Yet he doesn't mine the difficult situation in an effort to build drama; his account feels honest and without emotional manipulation. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? You might also like the books I listed on the Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Books about the Immigrant Experience.

#memoir, #nonfiction, #threestarbookreview

Wilson's bubbly personality comes through in these essays, and her show business experiences were interesting, but I often couldn't relate to her approach or experiences. Casey Wilson, actress (Happy Endings), comedian (Saturday Night Live), and writer, shares essays and memories, breathlessly told in whirlwinds of enthusiasm, frustration, or puzzlement as she works through feelings, shares her own often-uncontrollable tendencies (eating most meals in bed and aiming to spend significant time in the bathtub; her serious sugar addiction; her reliance on psychics and various gurus for unorthodox life guidance), and relates her pivotal experiences in show business and in her personal life. I enjoyed Wilson's performances in Happy Endings years ago, but when I began listening to the audiobook I didn't realize that the author was an actress from that show, and I had to do a quick search on the Internet to familiarize myself with who I was listening to. My initial cluelessness is no reflection on Wilson's book, and I'm generally game to read memoirs by people I know nothing about. But The Wreckage of My Presence didn't resonate with me. Wilson is so outlandishly zany, so dramatic and passionate, and so habitually silly that I couldn't generally relate to her or her experiences. She frequently focuses on her obsession with Real Housewives, the Kardashians, and other reality television and the lessons she learns from years of viewing these shows. Her experiences in television were interesting, and her account of coping with the loss of her mother and her fears about her son's development felt most real and affecting for me. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like memoirs, you might try the books on some of these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs About Facing Mortality

I laughed out loud repeatedly at Fisher's good-natured, self-deprecating, and confidently oddball views and contemplations. The Princess Diarist is based upon the diaries Carrie Fisher kept while she was a young woman stumbling into her iconic lifetime role as Princess Leia. Fisher is candid, funny, charmingly offbeat, and she's mastered the art of honest self-examination. I loved listening to her fantastically raspy voice as she read her memoir in audiobook form, and I'd love to spend time listening to her no matter what she might be discussing. Here, Fisher considers the phenomenon of Star Wars, which drew her into its unprecedented whirlwind when she was just nineteen; her middle-aged embracing of Comic-Con, her passionate fans, and the odd familiarity they feel with her because of their love for Leia; and her youthful obsession and affair with the gruff (and married) Harrison Ford, who is a main topic of her teenaged diaries. She hadn't discussed their romantic relationship until this book, and she seems to still be considering its nature (and the mismatch of their personalities and lifestyles) from the vantage point of this moment decades afterward. I felt like a little too much time may have been spent on sharing youthful poetry and fanciful teenaged musings (in the audiobook these were read by a different, younger person), yet the young Carrie seemed frequently and charmingly self-possessed even as she questioned her own motives, feelings, and life path. I laughed out loud repeatedly at Fisher's good-natured, self-deprecating, and confidently oddball views and contemplations. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you love Carrie Fisher, you might also like A Star is Bored, a fictionalized celebrity-focused book written by Carrie Fisher's former personal assistant, Byron Lane. It was fun but also poignant, and I loved it.

Robert Kolker retraces the lives of Mimi and Don through their young marriage, their conflicts in ambition #nonfiction, #dysfunctionalfamily, #fourstarbookreview

#nonfiction, #politicssocialjustice, #fourstarbookreview

enter into reading this knowing Clavin was providing a meaty look at the topic of the town and the many conflicts #nonfiction, #western, #threestarbookreview

war, she had spied against fascists and anti-communists, Chinese, Japanese, and German; during the conflict Macintyre is gifted at pulling facts from diaries, records, and correspondence to craft compelling nonfiction Macintyre also wrote the fantastic Spy and the Traitor, which was one of my Six Favorite Nonfiction Books of the Year last year and which I also listed on the Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction Books

the early Star Wars years (and, largely, on Harrison Ford); I'm reading Agent Sonya, Ben Macintyre's nonfiction Macintyre also wrote the fantastic Spy and the Traitor, which was one of my Six Favorite Nonfiction Books of the Year last year and which I also listed on the Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction Books Macintyre is gifted at pulling facts from diaries, records, and correspondence to craft compelling nonfiction

For more nonfiction spy stories about the Cold War, check out two great books by Ben McIntyre, the gripping

The Book of Delights is a sunshiny set of thoughts and examinations, yet it's not overly earnest, and it's never corny. I just loved it. “I suppose I could spend time theorizing how it is that people are not bad to each other, but that's really not the point. The point is that in almost every instance of our lives, our social lives, we are, if we pay attention, in the midst of an almost constant, if subtle, caretaking. Holding open doors. Offering elbows at crosswalks. Letting someone else go first. Helping with the heavy bags. Reaching what's too high, or what's been dropped. Pulling someone back to their feet. Stopping at the car wreck, at the struck dog. That alternating merge, also known as the zipper. This caretaking is our default mode and it's always a lie that convinces us to act or believe otherwise. Always.” Ross Gay resolved to write about a joy or delight, large or small, every day for a year, beginning on his birthday, and he pulls together the highlights of these experiences as The Book of Delights. It's a sunshiny set of thoughts and examinations, yet it's not overly earnest, and it's never corny. I just loved it. He considers his process (he's not allowed to hoard or save delights for days that might light on the good stuff; he has to find or notice something new each day), reflects on human nature, recognizes the intense delights of food and love and friendship, shines a light on small moments, and considers everything in between. Some passages are just a few paragraphs, while others are pages long. I listened to this as an audiobook (which I highly recommend), and Gay's voice (both his writing style and his speaking voice) are immensely appealing. He's wonderfully joyful and mischievous. I found myself smiling repeatedly while going about daily tasks and it felt fitting that I listened to the author's many delights for hours while happily planting my spring garden. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? My BFF Neha mentioned that her book club read this book, and it wasn't on my radar before that. This was my first Ross Gay book, and I really like how his mind works, so I'm in for all of his books now.

Greenlights is wonderfully entertaining and endearing, showcasing McConaughey's frequently zany encounters, lust for adventure, and sometimes offbeat self-reflection. "I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops." Welcome to Matthew McConaughey's world! If you're game to roll with hearing about his unique viewpoint and approach to life, Greenlights is a fun, poignant, occasionally alarming, and often charming ride. McConaughey mines his decades of diaries, lived experiences, memories, and other frequently unexpected avenues that led to inspiration and realizations to write this "love letter to life." He offers sometimes wild stories of following various whims and passions and desires, all with a constant undercurrent of pushing the limits of his comfort and seeking challenge. He shares notable moments from his travels; industry stories; and family tales. At times he's guided in his decision-making by interpreting his own wet dreams (truly)--they aren't necessarily sexual in nature, yet they end in a climax that draws his attention and focus to the matter at hand and they thereby lead to various shifts in his life path. He recounts the repeated rite of passage in which his father demanded an all-out brawl with each of his teen or young adult sons; McConaughey recognizes the brutality and the unorthodox approach, but as with other occurrences of ferocity he mentions (his mother's broken fingers and varied instances of his parents' volatile relationship are other examples of this), he accepts it, finds what wisdom or understanding he can draw from it, and moves along. “Persist, pivot, or concede. It’s up to us, our choice every time.” McConaughey shares vulnerable moments and times when he questioned aspects of his life, and through hindsight he makes sense of what's come before, establishing value in what initially feels like failure or a misstep. He's a big believer in venturing forth, making mistakes, reflecting on them, and venturing forth again. “I haven't made all A's in the art of living. But I give a damn. And I'll take an experienced C over an ignorant A any day.” Some of these were short snippets; his “bumper sticker!” announcements felt a little jarring. I listened to this as an audiobook, and it's possible that added to the feeling of being yelled at with these nuggets of wisdom. But McConaughey's voice pulled me into his frequently zany encounters, lust for adventure, and sometimes offbeat self-reflection. Greenlights is, ultimately, wonderfully entertaining and endearing. “We all have scars, we gonna have more. Rather than struggle against time and waste it, let’s dance with time and redeem it. 'Cause we don’t live longer when we try not to die. We live longer when we are too busy living.” Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? When I started this book, I messaged my friend Hannah: "It's Matthew McConaughey's world and we're all just L-I-V-I-N' in it!" McConaughey is doing his own thing, striving for honesty and growth, and it's all pretty irresistibly engaging.

The young men Orenstein interviewed share their experiences with intimacy, yearn for bigger conversations about love and relationships, and are in many cases desperate for evolved ideas about masculinity. Orenstein, who also authored Girls & Sex, wrote Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity because she had read many articles about boys and sex but hadn't heard from the boys themselves. So she spent two years interviewing young men ages sixteen to twenty-two of different races, straight and gay, from different parts of the United States. She engaged in hours-long conversations about pressures, expectations, and experiences with sex and intimacy. And somewhat to her surprise, the boys really opened up, considering and sharing their own past and present attitudes about love and sex and reflecting on their sexual activity and intimacy and related matters, including pleasure, consent, asserting limits, hearing others' wants, trust, safety, care, coercion, harassment, and rape. Orenstein found that many of the boys had never had even a basic conversation with their parents about making sure that a partner wants to be intimate or about how to be "a caring and respectful sexual partner." Orenstein mentions that the Making Caring Common Project backs up these findings with data from three thousand high school students and young adults, 60 percent of whom said they and an adult had not had a conversation on these topics. (Note that most of the boys Orenstein interviewed who had had such conversations said the talks had been somewhat or very influential.) Social constructs of masculinity get deserved page time--along with many boys' stories of toxic masculinity and its harm. Orenstein pushes parents and trusted adults to "challenge the unwritten rules of male socialization, the forging of masculinity through unexamined entitlement, emotional suppression, aggression, and hostility toward the feminine," noting that "masculinity" is a trap that sabotages young men, obliterating their vulnerability, communication, connections, and emotional expression--and producing fallout that extends to their intimate partners. I would have liked more more more concrete suggestions of how to combat our societal norms here, but this may possibly be a situation in which I would be difficult to please with the amount of information that would and could fall within the scope of Orenstein's book. In her chapter "Deep Breaths: Talking to Boys," Orenstein proposes ways to ask questions to set up valuable conversations. She emphasizes that it's essential to have frequent and ongoing conversations with our boys that range far beyond "the sex talk." In Boys & Sex, Orenstein lets young men's voices create their own argument for more knowledge, bigger conversations, greater gender socialization, increased fluency in building relationships and achieving mutually pleasing sexual intimacy, and expectations of consent, respect, and joy. What did you think? Orenstein offers additional resources, including her website's list of relevant books, websites, and essays: www.peggyorenstein.com/positive-sexuality. Three other books she mentioned look especially promising to me: Talk to Me First; Sex, Teens, and Everything in Between; and For Goodness Sex.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Bill Browder's Red Notice, which is nonfiction about the author's 01 Red Notice by Bill Browder The subtitle of Browder's nonfiction book Red Notice is A True Story of If you like nonfiction books that read like fiction, you might try the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction Books that Read Like Fiction. 02 The Guide by Peter Heller A new Peter Heller

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Once There Were Wolves, Charlotte McConaghy's novel about a biologist fighting to reintroduce wolves into the Scottish Highlands and to overcome personal tragedy; The Wreckage of My Presence, comedian and actress Casey Wilson's memoir-ish collection of essays; and We Are the Brennans, Tracey Lange's family story about secrets, tragic mistakes, love, and loyalty. Which books are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy From a young age Inti realized she had a particular affinity for animals; if she tuned in, she could feel their feelings and even their physical sensations. Inti and Aggie Flynn grew up spending time with their father living off the grid and become attuned to nature, focused on preservation, and respectful of wildlife. Later in life the sisters find themselves in the Scottish Highlands together as biologist Inti works to reintroduce gray wolves into the region. Inti has hardened her heart in the years since she was a child, but she begins opening up because of the magnificent creatures she's studying. When a crisis erupts, Inti must choose between her beloved wolves and the outside world and its pressures to leave the wild behind. McConaghy is also the author of Migrations, a title my book club is reading this fall. I received an advance digital copy of Once There Were Wolves courtesy of Flatiron Books and NetGalley. 02 The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson Casey Wilson, actress (Happy Endings), comedian (Saturday Night Live), and writer, shares essays and memories, breathlessly told in whirlwinds of enthusiasm, frustration, or puzzlement as she works through feelings, her own often uncontrollable tendencies (eating most meals in bed and aiming to spend significant time in the bathtub; her serious sugar addiction; her reliance on psychics and various gurus for unorthodox life guidance), and her pivotal experiences in show business and in her personal life. She frequently focuses on her obsession with Real Housewives, the Kardashians, and other reality television. This element isn't resonating with me so far. Her account of coping with the loss of her mother and her fears about her son's development feel more real and affecting for me. 03 We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange In Tracey Lange's new novel We Are the Brennans, twenty-nine-year old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a haze. She's hungover and horrified: she was the cause of a drunk-driving accident in her adopted town of Los Angeles the night before. She's hit rock bottom and she knows it. Without other options, she skulks back to her hometown in New York. She'd abandoned her family and friends and anyone tied to her past, including her high-school sweetheart, five years earlier, and now she needs the support of people who truly know her. The longer Sunday spends at home, the more she realizes that her people need her too. As secrets become unraveled and threaten the solidity of all she thought she knew about her hometown, Sunday must decide whether to flee again or to stay and find a way through the turmoil.

#race, #nonfiction, #parenting, #politicssocialjustice

on death row after wrongful incarceration; on death row or imprisoned for life after being tried and convicted #nonfiction, #race, #politicssocialjustice, #fourstarbookreview

#nonfiction, #race, #politicssocialjustice, #fivestarbookreview

#race, #nonfiction, #politicssocialjustice, #fourstarbookreview

Troubles into a narrative, and he lays out the web of motivations and passionate beliefs behind the conflicts For me, this was nonfiction that was so compelling it read like fiction. #politics, #nonfiction, #fourstarbookreview

#memoir, #nonfiction, #heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview

I love a behind-the-scenes nonfiction spy book! #nonfiction, #memoir, #spy, #politicssocialjustice, #fourstarbookreview

Macintyre's nonfiction book was wonderful; it really read to me like fiction. Another nonfiction spy book I found really interesting was Tracy Walder's memoir, The Unexpected Spy. #nonfiction, #russia, #politicssocialjustice, #spy, #fourstarbookreview

tone of the book is joyful and vibrant, and Abu-Jaber intermingles thoughts on faith and family (and conflicts