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I love to listen to memoirs read by the authors that wrote them. Not so long ago, I was quite skeptical of all audiobooks. I viewed listening to a book as cheating, unless it was a matter of poor eyesight. I have, however, warmed somewhat to audiobooks, and memoirs read by their authors have become a...
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I meant to write this several weeks ago, before Mother's Day, but I've had trouble sitting down to try and put into words what this book meant to me. I picked it up last fall when it was new. The flyleaf calls it "a memoir of a family in transition" and mentioned children becoming teenagers...
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Christopher Buckley usually writes funny, satirical novels ( Supreme Courtship ; Thank You for Smoking ). I have read a few of his novels and enjoyed them. Still, I almost didn't pick up his newest book, Losing Mum and Pup , about the year during which both of his parents died. Writes Buckley: "They...
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You're walking down the street and a legless man on a skateboard zooms by. Your first reaction--shock? disgust? pity? Welcome to Kevin Michael Connolly 's world. Author of the recent memoir Double Take , Connolly was born without legs. Instead of being institutionalized or coddled, Connolly's...
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Many celebrity biographies possess certain similarities: ambition, failed relationships, struggle, and frequently, addictions and/or abuse. So much of the success of the book depends not only on how the author has dealt with these situations in real life, but also on how they are able to share the details...
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The Ripest Moments is a simple pleasure to read. While reading this memoir of growing up in the 40s and 50s in Jasper and rural Dubois County, Indiana, I found myself reminded over and over again of my own childhood in northern Indiana, and the cousins, aunts, and uncles we'd often visit in Ohio...
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In September of 1965 Lorree Rackstraw was a graduate student in her second year at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, apprehensive about her new teacher, a relatively unknown writer named Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut had published just three books: The Sirens of Titan , Mother Night , and Cat's Cradle ....
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Yes, that's the subtitle of the book I just finished. Wesley the Owl is a must for anyone who has ever been in love with an animal. The story is written by Stacey O'Brien, who was a lab assistant at Cal Tech when she adopted a 4-day-old barn owl after he suffered permanent nerve damage and could...
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Mark Oliver Everett is probably better known simply as E, the lead singer and creative force behind the Eels, but a few months ago he published a memoir under his full name called Things the Grandchildren Should Know . He might be a little younger than most people who've decided to write memoirs...
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Written in her 89th year, Diana Athill writes in Somewhere Towards the End not so much about getting old, but reflects on her life and, especially as the book goes on, about being old, and the matter-of-fact changes age imposes on one. It gives me great hope to read something written by a 90 year old...