Category: Memoir

A review of The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop

As her memoir shows, Kelly Bishop (formerly “Carole”) brought years of experience to the role of Emily. Those of us who were entertained by this determined fictional character will find Kelly as resolute in real life as she was in that role.  Her lifelong pursuit of her dream is inspiring.

A Review of Finally Autistic: Finding My Autism Diagnosis as a Middle-Aged Female by Theresa Werba

Werba’s personal reflections and anecdotes are firmly rooted in data: an autism assessment, school report cards that highlight her “unsatisfactory” levels of self-control, and even developmental reports from when she was in preschool (all reproduced in full within these pages). Her blending of subjective reflections with objective data points make this a unique work.

A review of The Book of Happiness by Joseph Mark Glazner

At its core this is a book about the entirely human path to responsibility and personal accountability.  From a very early age the author parents emphasized self-sufficiency, doing him an immense favor that parents rarely bestow upon their children today. 

A review of Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman

Poetry gives suffering form, and giving suffering form is an antidote to despair.  Yet content matters, too.  For Wiman, much confessionalism is “an idolatry of suffering…an outrage that no person (or group) has suffered as we have, or simply a solipsistic withdrawal that leaves us maniacally describing every detail of our cells.

The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing

Throughout The Garden Against Time, Laing returns to the concepts of gates and walls: while she sees the need for secrecy, or at least privacy, as having been crucial for the formation of what she calls a queer “counter-state” (213) in the face of oppression, she is well aware that borders and barriers to access are tools of oppression as well.

A review of Seeing Through by Ricky Ian Gordon

Even in the midst of this plague and the terrible death of so many beautiful people, most of whom I had a crush on as a teenager, there is always humour and a sense of the creative transformation which makes this book a constant joy to read. Ricky’s descriptions are so apt, darkly funny and full of delicious gossip, you want to commit them to memory for re-use.

A review of A Brilliant Life by Rachelle Unreich

Unreich tells her mother’s story with an immediacy that feels close. Though Mira sees some of the worst of what human beings are capable of, she talks about her luck, and the goodness of people. Even in the midst of her worst hunger and bleakest moments, Mira never stops being a beacon of hope for those around her.