Tag: memoir review

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Worthy by Jada Pinkett Smith ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Genre: Memoir

When a memoir starts by recounting an experience with ayahuasca, you know you’re in for a wild ride. Jada Pinkett Smith’s memoir recounts her life, starting with drug dealing while growing up in Baltimore, through the present. Jada’s life is anything but conventional. She talks us through her marriage that’s not really a marriage with Will Smith, her journey with spirituality, and motherhood. I find it so odd that she and Will named their children after themselves, but it’s very telling of how she comes across in her memoir (in my opinion, very self absorbed without any reflection on her actions).

Jada’s life is such a far cry from mine and because of that I found much of it fascinating if hard to wrap my head around. She tells everything exactly as she experienced and understood it, again, with no self-reflection.

Between chapters, Jada often introduces therapy-esque exercises she encourages readers to participate in. Things like telling your friends you love them or reflecting on XYZ in your life. I found this so bizarre – she’s not a therapist and reading her story made me not ever want to take advice from her, so why was she qualifying herself to be preaching these exercises to readers? It was a majorrr turn off and made her come across to me as completely full of herself.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Worthy on Goodreads
Buy Worthy at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Down the Drain by Julia Fox ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Memoir

I read Down the Drain for a book club having no idea who Julia Fox is and, to be honest, I still don’t really know who she is. This memoir follows Julia’s life from the time she’s very young to present day. It paints a picture of a child who was denied love from her parents and forced to fend for herself from a young age.

Her time in NYC featured lots of drugs, a sugar daddy, and her escapades as a dominatrix. From there, we follow Julia to New Orleans and are chaotically introduced to friends who seem to come out of nowhere. It was a little hard to keep up with the pacing.

This is an overview of Julia’s life without any reflection. She tells her story exactly as it happens. It was fascinating to read about a journey so different from mine and to see how she was able to fight for herself and become famous (for what exactly, I’m still not sure). It was hard to see her make the same mistakes over and over without commenting on that at all, but I guess that’s either not the kind of book she wanted to write, or that self-awareness doesn’t exist. I think she woke up one day and said “I’m going to write a memoir” and that was all the forethought that went into it.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Down the Drain at an indie bookstore near you
Down the Drain on Goodreads

Book Review, Memoir

Little Weirds by Jenny Slate ~ Book Review

Morgan

Memoir
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

What a whimsical, unusual look at the world through the eyes of Jenny Slate. Although this is categorized as a memoir, it reads more like magical realism or even poetry. If you go into this hoping for a cut and dry depiction of Jenny’s life, you’ll be disappointed. It’s clear that Jenny sees the world in a manner that’s purely her own; a manner that’s lyrical and visual and totally captivating if you let yourself get sucked up in it.

I listened to the audiobook and it was magic to hear Jenny reading her own words and emphasizing what was meant to be emphasized. Although the nature of the writing is whimsical, the content is raw and vulnerable. The feelings and moments Jenny details are real and often painfully relatable, but brought to life through visuals I would never have thought of on my own.

It’s difficult to try to express how wonderfully unique this book is, since I have nothing to compare it to, but if you want to explore the world through a lens that’s not your own, that’s perhaps a little weird, pick up this book.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Little Weirds at an indie bookstore near you
Little Weirds on Goodreads

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Memoir
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Beyond the Wand was a wonderfully insightful and humorous insight into the world of Tom Felton. As a huge Harry Potter fan, I loved getting the inside scoop on the actors real personalities and on-set interactions. Learning about the way the kids were mentored, formed cliques, and grew up together was so fun to hear about and made me want to watch the films again ASAP.

We also got to learn about Tom beyond Harry Potter (hence the title). He details his difficulties getting jobs once the series ended, his struggles with addiction, and his friendship with Emma Watson (sigh). Tom’s wit and humor are infused throughout the book, but there is also a frank honesty with which he recalls his past. He doesn’t shy away from sharing the hard parts.

The audiobook is narrated by Tom himself, which was especially fun to listen to. That being said, the physical book includes several pages of photos that bring his stories to life, as well as a foreword by Emma Watson that can’t be missed. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, I highly recommend this one to learn about what makes Tom Felton more than just Draco Malfoy.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Beyond the Wand at an indie bookstore near you
Beyond the Wand on Goodreads

Book Review, Nonfiction

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy ~ Book Review

Morgan

Simon & Schuster
Memoir
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

This book was so hard to read, but I could not stop. Jennette is an incredibly talented writer and the way she details her childhood makes it feel like everything is happening to her in the present. She unflinchingly details the abuse she underwent from her mother, and how at the time, she fully believed her mother was acting in Jennette’s own best interest. This included forcing Jennette to become a child actress, teaching her disordered eating, and showering her until she was a teenager.

The way that Jennette paints her own childhood views of her mom were so heartbreaking. She would do everything in her power to please her mom with no concept of anything being wrong with their relationship.

Although this memoir is told through the lens of someone who was a successful child actor, it is really a personal and reflective narrative of Jennette’s specific struggles. It is not a tell-all about the industry, but it does show how Jennette’s life was so heavily and negatively impacted by being part of the industry.

Jennette’s struggles with eating disorders and addiction were especially impactful. Although she invokes dry humor into her stories wonderfully, the pain of the experiences she shares will stick with me for a long time.

At the end of the memoir, Jennette talks about finally getting help through therapy. I do wish there had been a little more about how she’s doing now, to help provide some hope for those struggling with anything she discussed and to show how she has (hopefully!) grown and healed.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy I’m Glad My Mom Died at an indie bookstore near you
I’m Glad My Mom Died on Goodreads

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey ~ Book Review

Morgan

Crown Publishing Group
Memoir
Release Date: October 20, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

What a joy Greenlights was to listen to. Narrated by Matthew McConaughey himself, the audiobook version of this memoir was infused with expressive inflection and made his reminiscing and musing really come to life.

I didn’t have any insight into McConaughey’s life before reading this, and it was a wild ride. I truly never knew what was going to come next in this narrative, so much so, that at times it felt like I was listening to a work of fiction.

I love how unapologetic McConaughey is in his honesty and willingness to expose his experiences to the masses. From getting arrested while playing the bongos naked to only eating ketchup with lettuce in an attempt to be a vegetarian, the range of this memoir was extensive and never boring.

Central to all his stories is the idea of catching ‘Greenlights’ — moments that catapult you forward in life’s successes. This was a fun and interesting thread that tied the memoir together and painted a comprehensive picture of what has gotten Matthew McConaughey to where he is today.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Greenlights at an indie bookstore near you
Greenlights on Goodreads

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci ~ Book Review

Morgan

Gallery Books
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: October 5, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

If you’re planning to read Taste, I highly recommend listening to the audiobook. Having Stanley Tucci himself narrate his life to me made the listening experience all the more enjoyable. The book focuses, obviously, on the influential food that Tucci has cooked, eaten, and experienced throughout his life. The narrative is peppered (pun intended) with humor and excessive self-aware name-dropping that make it colloquial and amusing.

It was really interesting to learn more about Tucci’s life, from growing up in an Italian American family all the way to cooking during pandemic quarantine. He also details his recent battle with cancer and how that affected his relationship with food. This memoir is much less about Tucci’s professional life, and more so about the personal.

There are a lottt of descriptions of food, and recipes in this book, and sometimes it overwhelmed the narrative a bit (especially since listening to a recipe read out on audiobook isn’t the most thrilling). I greatly enjoyed the insight in between and left every listening session hungry.

Taste: My Life Through Food on Goodreads
Buy Taste at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner ~ Book Review

Morgan

Knopf Publishing Group
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: April 20, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Michelle Zauner truly pours her heart out in Crying in H Mart, a memoir that reckons with her mother’s struggle with cancer and with the distance she feels from her Korean heritage. It’s largely focused on food, and the way that supermarkets, cooking, and eating connect her to her family. Michelle is unabashed in her descriptions of how difficult she was to her parents growing up. She doesn’t shy away from fully telling her story.

When Michelle’s mom receives her diagnosis, Michelle travels back to Oregon as a young adult and does her best to care for her mom. It’s so clear how desperately Michelle wants to repay her mother for the years of caring for her, and the best way she knows how to is through food. Through vivid and mouthwatering descriptions, she reminisces on the Korean dishes her mom made her when she was young, each accompanied by a story or situation that comes along with the memory. By cooking, Michelle finds herself reconnecting with being Korean, and loses herself in the process as she struggles to come to terms with the severity of her mom’s cancer.

This memoir is painful to read, but there’s so much beauty in the depth of the writing. Michelle illustrates so much growth, from her teenage years, to the time taking care of her mother, to her ultimate success in the music industry. I really liked that she didn’t dwell on her career success — above all, this memoir is about her mom. That being said, this was a wonderful topic to end on. She tells of her concerts in Korea that her extended family came to, and putting her mom’s picture on her album and showed how her actions continue to be influenced by her mom.

Buy Crying in H Mart at an indie bookstore near you
Crying in H Mart on Goodreads