Tag: autobiography

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

The Groom Will Keep His Name by Matt Ortile ~ Book Review

Morgan

Groom will keep his name and candy bars

Bold Type Books
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: June 2, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Libro.fm for this incredible audiobook! Matt Ortile’s narration of his essay collection: The Groom Will Keep His Name: And Other Vows I’ve Made About Race, Resistance, and Romance is, in turns, incredibly powerful, informative, hilarious, and heart-wrenching. Rinse and repeat. This book covers so many important topics that I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around everything Matt touches on.

Matt moved to the United States from the Philippines at a young age and quickly came to hate his last name, which his new peers either did not know how to pronounce, or purposefully chose to mispronounce. From there, Matt goes on to explore the racism so prevalent in America through his own learning experiences. He identifies the times in his life he was complacent, and allied himself with the dominant culture instead of other immigrants, and indicates how easy it is to fall into this kind of behavior in this country. Matt is not scared of baring himself fully to the reader. He boldly chronicles his dating and sex-life living in New York City as a queer individual. His ability to reflect earnestly on past relationships and identify lessons that they taught him, good or bad, is extremely commendable and introspective.

From life as a self-proclaimed ‘Vassar Girl,’ to the hustle of being a millennial in Manhattan, to his annual trips to the Philippines, to an examination of the construct of marriage (especially from the queer perspective), Matt’s writing is consistently insightful and educational in a manner that feels effortless. He inspires action, he inspires sorrow, he inspired me to look deeply at my own life and privileges, and he is incredibly entertaining. Overall, this book is an incredible exploration of personal growth. The arc of the essays comes full circle as Matt reclaims the pride he feels in his last name and the connection it gives him to the Philippines and his family. I could not stop listening to this audiobook, and now that I’m done, I’m tempted to start it all over and try to absorb more. 

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Buy the audiobook on Libro.fm
Buy The Groom Will Keep His Name at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs by Jennifer Finney Boylan ~ Book Review

Morgan

Good Boy with Brownies

Celadon Books
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: April 21, 2020 (Thank you to Celadon Books and BookishFirst for the ARC)
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

This book far and away exceeded my expectations. Jennifer Boylan’s writing is truly enjoyable to read. Not just clear and eloquent, enjoyable! Her humor and wit are wonderfully woven into the prose and snuck up on me. Boylan is a master at incorporating pithy quips and flippant cultural references into the midst of musings on her past.

The premise of this book was extremely unique. I know that Boylan has other memoirs, but this is the first I had read of her. The setup for this particular book included outlining her life through a timeline composed of the dogs she’s had. You might think that by dog number seven, it would be repetitive to hear another set of canine descriptors, but each dog was such a unique character, that this was not the case.

Boylan creates a web of relationships to each dog. They are more than just timeline benchmarks, they are parts of her family — however her family may be defined at any given time. Mother, father, sister, wife, each have a different relationship to, and take on, each dog. It shocked me how many strange and extremely disobedient dogs Boylan’s experienced over the years.

Beyond the canine aspect of this book, there is, of course, Boylan’s life story. Boylan wonderfully details a childhood as a boy, reacting and interacting with his sister and parents, and the fear surrounding transitioning to being female. Boylan narrates, in a very straightforward manner, all of her experiences, and the real, raw, emotional reactions around her. It was especially interesting hearing about her reaction to finding out that her son also identified as transgender. The scenes towards the end of the book with Boylan and her wife spending time with their children and friends were so incredibly well written. They were infused with painful emotion, but the outward actions reflected a joyful, supportive family.

I definitely recommend this book. If Boylan’s writing has not been on your radar before, it should be now!

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Buy Good Boy at an indie bookstore near you
Buy Good Boy on Amazon
Good Boy on Goodreads

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

Educated by Tara Westover ~ Book Review

Morgan

Educated Book

Random House
Release Date: February 20, 2018
Genre: Memoir
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

I am going to start off this review by addressing the half a star (err cookie) that I knocked off my rating. The only reason this memoir wasn’t a full five out of five for me is because of my own personal discomfort when reading about the violence and abuse Tara was subjected to. Her experiences are, of course, the essence of the book. The stories are told in a matter of fact and straightforward manner, but the descriptions of injuries and accidents were hard for me to swallow. That’s my problem, and not a problem with the writing or the book as a whole. That being said, this was an incredible book. I doubt there is much I can get down in a review that hasn’t been said already, but I’ll do my best.

Educated is a memoir about a girl growing up in rural Idaho. She is raised Mormon, with a father who is convinced the government is inherently evil, and the End Days are imminent. He works hard to try to prepare his family for the impending end of life as they know it, making sure they have access to weapons and water. For an income, he scraps metal, and employs his children as his team in this dangerous endeavor. The kids do not go to school. The education system is understood to be a means of government control. Most of the children don’t even have birth certificates, and, at least for a while, there is no record of their existence.

That thought in and of itself terrified me. If there’s no record that you are a person, no one external from your life is able to look out for you. Tara doesn’t even know her own birthdate, nor do her parents. One by one, Tara and her siblings become curious about education. Tara and several of her brothers take it upon themselves to study for the ACTs and enroll themselves in college. Despite not having any formal education until she steps into a college classroom for the first time, Tara becomes committed to her education. To me, the narrative read as if she were so starved for knowledge that she couldn’t get enough of it. She wanted to make up for the years when she had so little, and learn it all.

Cookie Bars with Educated Book

This is a story of incredible triumph as Tara studies abroad in England, and goes on to receive her PhD. There is an endless push and pull between her education and her family. The unbelievable abuse and closed-mindedness of her family, and her mother’s inability to stand up for herself were relentless. I kept hoping for Tara to see it, to see that she could walk away.

The writing in this memoir is elegant and straightforward. It is not meant to elicit pity, it simply outlines Tara’s life thus far. Almost as amazing as this book, were these Congo Bars. I made this particular batch with mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s, instead of the baking melts called for in the recipe, and it is definitely a swap I will be making again in the future.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
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Educated on Goodreads

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl ~ Book Review

Morgan

Save Me the Plums

Random House
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: April 2, 2019
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

To say that Ruth Reichl’s career trajectory is impressive is an understatement (at least coming from the point of view of an avid reader and writer). Her memoir illustrates the myriad of ways that Gourmet magazine has played a role in her life, beginning in childhood, when she idolized the pages of her Grandmother’s copies. As a burgeoning writer, she visited the magazine’s office to pitch an article idea, but was sorely rejected. From there, she takes the reader through her time working as a restaurant critic. Her experiences there, and at the L.A. Times, are woven into small flashbacks. When she is eventually offered the role at Gourmet, Ruth is skeptical. The magazine as she sees it at the time, is no longer that which she adored as a child, it has become predictable, and she isn’t sure she has the means to make the types of major changes it would need to make it successful again. The fact is, she has no such experience. 

Nonetheless, when faced with an offer for a salary six times what she currently making,  along with a driver and yearly clothing allowance (how is that a real thing?!), Ruth takes the plunge. The rest of the book chronicles the ups and downs that Ruth, and Gourmet face. Her palpable fear when faced with her new staff for the first time gave me major secondhand embarrassment. Ruth jumps the gun, trying to please her new colleagues by agreeing to start her new job three months early, while finishing up her current job. Ruth’s people-pleasing qualities were all too relatable.

The ebbs and flows in Ruth’s experience at Gourmet were remarkable. I ate up every detail (pun intended) from the ultimate success of David Foster Wallace’s game changing article on the ethics of human eating habits, to the unexpected outrage that followed the decision to put a cupcake-covered cake on the front of the magazine. The struggle with keeping a constant staff was especially eye-opening, as was the insight into the way that Condé  Nast runs, seemingly swapping around upper management from publication to publication with little warning or explanation. Those segments of the memoir were disheartening, and I could feel Ruth’s frustration.

I also loved the way Ruth tied her family life into writing that was primarily career oriented. Her son’s relationship to food was interesting, and especially how much he longed for his mom to stay home and cook for him. This was a unique contrast to my childhood experience of longing for a chance to eat at restaurants.

The descriptions of food throughout this memoir were, of course, mouthwatering. It’s obvious that Reichl has spent much of her life writing about food: she knows exactly how to make her words succulent and enticing.  Overall, this book was, in and of itself, a delicious treat. It far surpassed my expectations, especially as an ARC I received, and did not seek out for myself.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Buy Save Me the Plums on Amazon
Save Me the Plums on Goodreads

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

Becoming by Michelle Obama ~ Book Review

Morgan

Becoming book with Venetian Cookies

Crown Publishing Group
Release Date: November 13, 2018
Genre: Autobiography
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Where do I even begin with this book? To say that the former First Lady is an inspiration would be a vast understatement. Through every facet of her life thus far, Michelle Obama has illustrated incredible drive and commitment to causes and experiences she is passionate about. Becoming walks us through her life, illuminating key events, moments, experiences, and people that have influenced her in some way. Not once does she come across as conceited, or as if she is trying to display her accomplishments, but the impressive nature of them shines through regardless. 

From her childhood, growing up in an extension of her Aunt and Uncle’s home, Michelle was constantly striving for more. She listened to her Aunt’s piano students fumbling through their practices confident that she could do what they were doing, but even better. Upon beginning her own lessons, she tried to excel further in her songbook than was expected of her, resulting in a strict life lesson on following rules. She utilizes the disparity between her Aunt’s battered piano keys, and those of the shiny new recital piano as a beautiful depiction of the way that privilege, or lack thereof, can affect the performance of an individual in different settings and circumstances.

Throughout her autobiography, Michelle offers insight into her non-linear career path, and her internal conflict as she struggled to decide how and when to make changes in her life. Her dedication to pursuing a law degree, and practicing law  only to ultimately realize it was not what she wanted, gave me immense relief. If even Michelle Obama didn’t have her life figured out from the get go, surely I’ll be okay, too. I also thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the development and growth of her relationship with Barack, and the way that his political pursuits affected their family. I had never given much thought to how moving into the White House would cause familial upheaval, especially with young children involved.

The entire section on life in the White House, and the adjustments Michelle had to make was extremely thought provoking. The lack of freedom that came with that sort of lifestyle, from not being able to go out for a casual date night, to not being able to take her daughter on tours of college campuses, showed life as the First Family with an unexpectedly melancholy lens.

The response to the ending, will, I’m sure, have a different effect on different readers, but I found it heart-wrenching and powerful. Every bit of this book fascinated me, and only left me wanting to know more about this incredible woman. I’ve found that the more I like a book, the shorter my review tends to be, and that seems to be a case here yet again. Perhaps it’s because I think that instead of spending more time reading my take on the writing, you should go and read the actual book itself.

(Also pictured, homemade Venetians! It’s a family recipe, but this one looks similar)

Buy Becoming on Amazon
Becoming on Goodreads
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪