A review of the essay collection Note To Self: 30 Women on Hardship, Humiliation, Heartbreak and Overcoming It All.
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Short reviews of Jellicoe Road, The Sense of An Ending, The Future of Us, Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries, One Last Thing Before I Go, People Who Eat Darkness and Moranthology.
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Short reviews of Robopocalypse, The Twelve, The Graveyard Book, The Journal of Best Practices, and Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake.
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Short reviews of A Grown Up Kind of Pretty, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, How To Be A Woman, and The Casual Vacancy.
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Short reviews of Broken Harbor, So Cold The River, I Am America (And So Can You), Losing Clementine, and I Hardly Ever Wash My Hands: The Other Side of OCD.
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Short reviews of State of Wonder, Take the Cannoli, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Wild, State by State and Savages.
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Book reviews: Devil in The White City; After The Quake; Gang Leader for A Day; Dear American Airlines; and Heft.
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A collection of short book reviews, including: When Will There Be Good News; Started Early, Took My Dog; The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat; Girl In Translation; Curtains; and Game Change.
Read more →Short reviews of three audiobooks: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach and The Odds by Stewart O'Nan.
Read more →Super mini reviews of Olive Kitteridge, Drop Dead Healthy, Steve Jobs, Fun Home and Perfection.
Read more →Super Mini Reviews of five books: Earth: The Book, A Northern Light, Revolutionary Road, The Namesake and The Slap.
Read more →Mini Reviews of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, The Book of Joe and Everything Is Wrong With Me.
Read more →A review of Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life From Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed.
Read more →A review of Flawless by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell.
Read more →A review of Susan Jane Gilman's utterly absorbing and fascinating travel memoir, Undress Me In the Temple of Heaven. I LOVED it!
Read more →A review of Haruki Murakami's memoir about running and being a novelist, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
Read more →A review of Bill Bryson's excellent and informative book, A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Read more →A review of the audibook version of The Emperor of All Maladies by Dr. Siddhartha Muhkerjee.
Read more →Continuing A People's Readalong with a discussion of Chapter 12: The Empire and the People
Read more →Thoughts on Chapters 10 and 11 of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. (A bit incomplete on my end as I didn't quite finish the reading.)
Read more →A review of Anne Lamott's Some Assembly Required: A Journal Of My Son's First Son
Read more →A review of Lauren Hillenbrand's book, Unbroken.
Read more →Reviews of Wicked by Gregory Maguire, Skipping A Beat by Sarah Pekkanan and Cruising Attitude by Heather Poole.
Read more →Covering Chapters 8 and 9 of Howard Zinn's book A People's History of the United States.
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Discussing Chapter 7 of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, which focuses on the Indian Removal policy.
Read more →A People's Readalong moves into Week 6 with a look at how women in early America were oppressed.
Read more →It is Week 5 of A People's Readalong and we're learning about the American Revolution.
Read more →A People's Readalong tackles Chapter 4: Tyranny Is Tyranny, which looks at the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence.
Read more →Time again for A People's Readalong. This week, we're looking at Chapter 3, Persons of Mean and Vile Condition.
Read more →A review of Aron Ralston's real-life survival story, Between A Rock and A Hard Place.
Read more →A People's Readalong continues with a discussion of Chapter 2: The Color Line.
Read more →A review of Sandra Newman's snarky guide to Western lit, The Western Lit Survival Kit.
Read more →A People's Readlong of Howard Zinn's book, A People's History of the United States, begins with Chapter 1: Columbus, The Indians and Human Progress.
Read more →A review of the audiobook version of Jen Lancaster's memoir, My Fair Lazy.
Read more →A review of New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast's book What I Hate from A to Z.
Read more →A review of the audiobook version of Mary Roach's book, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.
Read more →A review of The CHICK-tionary by Anna Lefler.
Read more →A review of Amy Chua's controversial parenting memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
Read more →A review of the audiobook of Anthony Bourdain's collection of essays, Medium Raw.
Read more →A review of the adventure/survival book The Ledge by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughn.
Read more →A review of Demetri Martin's very funny book This Is A Book By Demetri Martin. (The book title might also be This Is A Book. It was hard to tell.)
Read more →Mini-Reviews of three very different books: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Three Cups of Deceit by Jon Krakauer.
Read more →An audibook review of Jon Krakauer's thought-provoking and intense Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.
Read more →Mini book reviews of The Fox Inheritance, Faking Smart! and When You Reach Me.
Read more →Book reviews of books by two comediennes: Tina Fey's Bossypants and Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life.
Read more →Mini book reviews of three different books: The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson and Ten Degrees of Reckoning by Hester Rumberg.
Read more →Three book reviews of The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall, Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl, and The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell.
Read more →Three mini book reviews of The Happiness Project, What the Dog Saw and Born Standing Up
Read more →Reviews of Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown, Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
Read more →A review of the Meghan O'Rourke's beautifully written, insightful and candid memoir, The Long Goodbye, which deals with the topics of grief, bereavement and mourning.
Read more →A book review of Darin Strauss's powerful memoir, Half A Life.
Read more →Book review of Jeff Klima's humorous (but gross, graphic and profane) memoir "The Dead Janitors Club." I happened to love it ... but it definitely isn't for everyone.
Read more →A review of Rob Sheffield's book "Love Is A Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song At A Time."
Read more →A review of a diet/exercise book called "The Great Fitness Experiment: One Year of Trying Everything" by Charlotte Hilton Andersen.
Read more →Book reviews of "Complications" by Atul Gawande, "Strangers at the Feast" by Jennifer Vanderbes, and "Backseat Saints" by Joshilyn Jackson
Read more →A review of Zoo Story by Thomas French, which provides an inside look at Tampa's Lowery Park Zoo.
Read more →A review of Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, a thought-provoking and disturbing look at one man's experiences before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Read more →A review of Gary Klaben's "Changing the Conversation," a book about financial planning for families that I found more philosophical than practical.
Read more →A review of Bill Bryson's latest book, "At Home: A History of Private Life," which I found utterly fascinating.
Read more →A review of David Rakoff's collection of humorous essays "Fraud." I liked it. A lot.
Read more →A book review of Mary Roach's book "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers," which proved to be amusing, educational, fascinating and gross all at once.
Read more →A review of "Superfreakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. This accessible and fascinating book looks at a variety of topics from an economic viewpoint, including monkey prostitution.
Read more →A book review of an amazingly funny but terrifically raunchy memoir by Rachel Shukert called "Everything Is Going To Be Great."
Read more →A review of a collection of non-fiction essays, The New Kings of Non-Fiction, edited by Ira Glass.
Read more →A review of Lee Kravitz's memoir, ...unfinished business.
Read more →A review of The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind--an uplifting and inspiring story that warmed my heart.
Read more →A review of Jen Lancaster's weight loss memoir, Such A Pretty Fat.
Read more →A review of Sloane Crosley's book of essays "How Did You Get This Number?"
Read more →A review of Columbine by Dave Cullen, a non-fiction look at the events surrounding the school shooting at Columbine High School.
Read more →A review of Rhoda Jantzen's memoir, Mennonite In A Little Black Dress.
Read more →A review of Michael Perry's memoir COOP.
Read more →A review of Andrew Martin's comic guide for housekeeping for men, How To Get Things Really Flat.
Read more →A meme concept by That’s A Novel Idea 1 Book you read: “Julie & Julia” by Julie Powell 2 Words that describe the book: Cooking quest 3 Settings where it took place or characters you met: Setting: Modern-day New York City Julie Powell—A disgruntled New York secretary, Julie Powell feels like her life is...
Read more →After my dad died last year, I developed more than a passing interest in what happens after we die. In an effort to find out more, I read the following two books at roughly the same time. In retrospect, I realize these books are like night and day: one is a religious text from...
Read more →The Survivors Club Ben SherwoodGrand Central Publishing, 2009ISBN: 978-0-446-69885-6373 pagesNon-fictionMy rating: 3.5 stars Book Overview The subtitle of the book, “The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life,” pretty much sums up what this book is about—learning about what it takes to survive and determining what type of survivor you might be. The...
Read more →A meme concept by That’s A Novel Idea 1 Book you read: “Crazy for the Storm” by Norman Ollestad 2 Words that describe the book: Survival memoir 3 Settings where it took place or characters you met: Setting: late 1970s California and Mexico Norman Ollestad Jr.—The author had a unique upbringing in the uninhibited...
Read more →A review of Liz Allison and Cecil Murphey's beautifully illustrated book on grieving, Words of Comfort For Times of Loss.
Read more →A book review of Michael Chabon's brilliant collection of essays, Manhood for Amateurs. The book that introduced me to Chabon's genius.
Read more →If the Church Were Christian Phillip GulleyHarperOne, 2010191 pagesGenre: Non-Fiction, SpiritualityMy rating: 3.5 stars Book Overview Philip Gulley is a long-time Quaker minister who has written several books on Christian faith, including If Grace Were True and If God Is Love. In other words, this book is written by someone who has been involved...
Read more →Bad MotherAyelet WaldmanDoubleday, 2009ISBN: 978-0385527934224 pagesGenre: Non-Fiction Memoir, Parenting, EssaysMy rating: 4 stars Overview For the All in the Family part of the Take Another Chance Challenge, I had to read two books by writers who were related to each other in some way. I chose Michael Chabon (the husband) and Ayelet Waldman (the...
Read more →The Impostor’s DaughterLaurie SandellLittle, Brown and Company, 2009ISBN: 978-0-316-03305-3246 pagesGenre: Memoir, Graphic NovelMy Rating: 3.5 stars The Basic Story The book is a memoir of the author’s struggles to understand her father, who lied about almost everything in his life and screwed a lot of friends and family members. As a result, the author...
Read more →Where The Mountain Casts Its Shadow Maria Coffey St. Martin’s Griffin, 2003 ISBN: 0-312-33901-1 229 pages As many of you already know, my father died in a mountaineering accident this past August. It was a shocking loss for our family. You’re never really “ready” for someone you love to die, but when they die...
Read more →The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life As An ExperimentA.J. JacobsSimon & Schuster, 2009ISBN: 978-1416599067256 pagesNon-Fiction, HumorMy Rating: 3.5 stars A.J. Jacobs has created his own little niche market: conducting experiments in his life and then writing about them. The first of these books, The Know-It-All, chronicled his experience reading every single page of the...
Read more →Bright Lights, Big AssJen LancasterNew American Library, 2007Memoir, HumorISBN: 978-0-451-22125-4382 pages This is my second Jen Lancaster book, and I enjoyed it even more than the first one (Bitter Is the New Black). A rollicking memoir by a very funny but bitchy lady, Bright Lights, Big Ass is a bit more free-wheeling than her...
Read more →A bit about one of my favorite books, The Classics Reclassified by Richard Armour.
Read more →Why I love Into Thin Air by John Krakauer so much.
Read more →A meme concept by That’s A Novel Idea 1 Book you read and/or reviewed: Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like… 2 Words that describe the book: Unusual experiences3 Settings where it took place or characters you met: This book is a collection of 50 different stories intended to impart the basics of what it...
Read more →Title: The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest UniversityAuthor: Kevin RoosePublishing Info: Grand Central Publishing, 2009ISBN: 978-0446178426Pages: 336Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir In an effort to spice up my book reviews, I’ve been tinkering with different ways to review books. For this book, I thought it might be fun to review it by paying...
Read more →As the year draws to a close, I realized that I still have a shot at completing the 2009 Mini Challenge. I’ve been poking along with this challenge all year and actually considered just abandoning it. BUT, I realized I’m really really close so I’m going to try and push through to get it...
Read more →Title: Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper Author: Diablo Cody ISBN: 978-1-592-40273-1 Publishing Info: Gotham Books, 2006 Number of Pages: 212 Book Category: Memoir The other day when I wrote my review of Her Fearful Symmetry in the form of an open letter to the author, I had an...
Read more →Hosted by That’s A Novel Idea 1 Book you read and/or reviewed this week: Marley & Me by John Grogan 2 Words that describe the book: Dog love 3 Settings where it took place or characters you met: 1. Setting: Early 1990s-2000s, Florida and Pennsylvania 2. Marley—a male Labrador retriever affectionately called “the world’s...
Read more →Title: Lit Author: Mary KarrPublishing Info: Harper Collins, 2009Number of Pages: 386Book Category: Memoir Book Overview Lit is Mary Karr’s third memoir. Her first, The Liar’s Club, chronicled her toxic childhood in Texas and her volatile relationship with her artistic, raging, alcoholic mother and sad, distant, drunken father. Her second memoir, Cherry, covered her...
Read more →Title: Alex & Me Author: Irene M. PepperbergPublishing Info: Harper Collins, 2008Number of Pages: 226Book Category: Memoir, Non-Fiction Book Overview The subtitle for this book is “How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed A Deep Bond in the Process.” I think this sums it up pretty well...
Read more →Title: I’m Down Author: Mishna WolffISBN: 978-0312378554Publishing Info: St. Martin’s Press, May 2009Number of Pages: 288Book Category: Memoir Why I Read This Book This book was my pick for the Judge A Book By Its Cover part of the Take A Chance Challenge. This part of the challenge asks participants to: Pick out a...
Read more →Title: The Handy Answer Book for Kids (And Parents): Second Edition Author: Gina MisirogluISBN: 978-1-57859-219-7Publishing Info: Visible Ink Press, October 2009Number of Pages: 292Book Category: Non-Fiction, Parenting Book Overview Kids ask a lot of questions, and sometimes adults don’t know all the answers. (Shocking, I know!) So this book provides answers to 800 questions...
Read more →Title: Creating A Charmed Life Author: Victoria MoranISBN: 978-0-06-251580-3Publishing Info: HarperOne, 1999Number of Pages: 214Book Category: Spirituality Book Overview This compact book is filled with practical and sensible advice for women (and men!) who would like to create a charmed life, which the author characterizes as unhurried, effortless and filled with grace and poise....
Read more →Title: Silverstein & Me Author: Marv GoldISBN: 978-1-59709-151-0Publishing Info: Red Hen Press, 2009Number of Pages: 190Book Category: Memoir Book Overview Shel Silverstein was many things—a children’s author, a Playboy cartoonist, a songwriter, and a playwright. (He is the author of one of my all-time favorite books, The Giving Tree.) One thing he was not:...
Read more →My Favorite Reads is hosted byAlyce at At Home With Books.The idea is to write about some favorite booksthat you read before you started blogging! In the spirit of the Halloween season, I thought I would share one of my favorite scary books with you. The thing is, this book is scary because it...
Read more →Title: Lies My Mother Never Told Me Author: Kaylie JonesISBN: 978-0-06-177870-4Publishing Info: William Morrow, September 2009Number of Pages: 370Book Category: Memoir Book Overview To say Kaylie Jones grew up in an interesting household is an understatement. Her father was James Jones—the acclaimed novelist renowned for his WWII books, including From Here To Eternity and...
Read more →A bit about why I love 24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down by Andres Martinez.
Read more →A review of The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran -- a ridiculously funny travel memoir.
Read more →A bit about why you ought to love Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disaster by Jean Shepard as much as I do.
Read more →Title: Bitter Is The New Black Author: Jen LancasterISBN: 0-451-21760-8Publishing Info: New American Library, March 2006Number of Pages: 398Book Category: Memoir, Humor, Non-Fiction Book Overview I usually don’t like to use the blurbs on the back of the book to do my story overviews, but the one on this book is just too good...
Read more →A bit about the lovely book that I think every woman should read: A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Read more →Title: The Lost City of Z Author: David GrannISBN: 978-0-385-51353-1Publishing Info: Doubleday, February 2009Book Specs: 299 pagesBook Category: Non-Fiction Book Overview The Lost City of Z combines true-life adventure, history, biography and travel narrative in one book. The book chronicles journalist David Grann’s investigation into the mystery of what happened to British explorer Percy...
Read more →Today is the first day of my experiment in Full Contact, Total Immersion Book Reviewing. Rather than just read the book like a normal person, I’m teaming up with some other book bloggers to review a book by actually living the book! For the next month, I will be reviewing The Game On Diet...
Read more →A bit about Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs -- one of the few books I actually reread.
Read more →A bit about the wonderful memoir, A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel.
Read more →Title: Do-Over!Author: Robin HemleyISBN: 978-0-316-02060-2Publishing Info: Little Brown & Company, May 2009Book Specs: 319 pagesBook Category: Memoir Book Overview The subtitle of this book pretty much says it all: “In Which a 48-Year-Old Father of Three Returns to Kindergarten, Summer Camp, the Prom and Other Embarrassments.” The book chronicles the author’s “do-overs” in ten...
Read more →A book review of Artie Lange's memoir, Too Fat To Fish. I wasn't a fan.
Read more →Title: Family ManAuthor: Calvin TrillinISBN: 0-374-15324-8Published By: Farrer, Straus and Giroux, 1998Book Specs: 184 pagesBook Category: Humor, Family RelationshipsThis book is a collection of 16 essays by Calvin Trillin on the joys and travails of life with children. He has two daughters — Abigail and Sarah — and raised them with his wife Alice...
Read more →Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading non-fiction… Do you read non-fiction regularly? Do you read it in a different way or place than you read fiction? (question courtesy of Diane) I’m always surprised when people tell me they don’t like to read non-fiction because there are so many amazing non-fiction books out there!...
Read more →A collection of short reviews for Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris, Wallflower At the Orgy by Nora Ephron, The Sister by Poppy Adams, Obedience by Will Lavender, and Memoirs of A Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux.
Read more →A review of Sparks: How Parents Can Help Ignite the Hidden Strengths of Their Teenagers by Peter Benson, Ph.D.
Read more →A review of That Went Well by Terrell Harris Dougan.
Read more →A review of the fascinating coffee table book Timeless Toys by Tim Walsh.
Read more →A review of a collection of funny stories about getting fired called (oddly enough) FIred!
Read more →A review of The Economist Book of Obituaries, which was much better than you might expect.
Read more →Recommending books about happy childhoods.
Read more →Recommending books about the restaurant business.
Read more →Recommending some books that deal with religion, faith and spirituality.
Read more →Two excellent books on the English Language by one of my favorite authors, Bill Bryson.
Read more →Recommending books about people taking on challenging quests.
Read more →Recommending some books about real-life survival.
Read more →Some books about working.
Read more →Books about motherhood.
Read more →Books about difficult childhoods.
Read more →Some books on writing that I think are worthwhile.
Read more →Thoughts on Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy.
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