Between the World and Me Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates Audiobook read by Ta-Nehisi Coates Published by Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group on July 14th 2015 ISBN: 9780812993547 Genres: Nonfiction, Social Science, Essays Format: audiobook Pages: 176 Source: public library via Overdrive “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the […]
Boys in the Trees Written by Carly Simon Audiobook read by Carly Simon Published by Flatiron Books on November 24th 2015 ISBN: 9781250095909 Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Music, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Personal Memoirs Format: audiobook Pages: 304 Source: public library via Overdrive Simon’s memoir reveals her remarkable life, beginning with her storied childhood as the third daughter of Richard L. Simon, the co-founder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, her musical debut as half […]
Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink Written by Elvis Costello Audiobook read by Elvis Costello Published by Blue Rider Press on October 13th 2015 ISBN: 9780399167256 Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Nonfiction, Personal Memoirs Format: audiobook Pages: 688 Source: purchased, public library via Overdrive Born Declan Patrick MacManus, Elvis Costello was raised in London and Liverpool, grandson of a trumpet player on the White Star Line and son of a jazz musician who […]
2015 was not one of the more distinguished years of my reading life, so it seems rather fitting that it’s the year I stepped away from assigning ratings to the books I wrote about. Partly because of that, and partly because the books that stood out and stuck with me did so for random reasons, I’m taking a different approach to my year-end book roundup. And since I wasn’t entirely sure I would do […]
My Life on the Road Written by Gloria Steinem Audiobook read by Debra Winger, Gloria Steinem Published by Random House on October 27th 2015 ISBN: 0679456201 Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Cultural Heritage, Nonfiction, Personal Memoirs, Social Science Format: audiobook Pages: 304 Source: public library via Overdrive Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early […]
A Fine Romance Written by Candice Bergen Audiobook read by Candice Bergen Published by Simon and Schuster on April 7th 2015 ISBN: 9780684808277 Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Personal Memoirs Format: audiobook Pages: 368 Source: public library via Overdrive In the follow-up to Knock Wood—her bestselling “engaging, intelligent, and wittily self-deprecating autobiography” (The New York Times)—Candice Bergen shares the big events: her marriage to a famous French director, the birth of her […]
Luke Skywalker Can’t Read: And Other Geeky Truths Ryan Britt Plume (November 2015), trade paper (ISBN 0147517575 / 9780147517579) Nonfiction: pop culture/essays, 224 pages Source: publisher This post contains affiliate links to Indiebound. Just in time for the release of the seventh Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, Ryan Britt discusses this and other cornerstones of over fifty years of nerd culture in a collection of smart and occasionally snarky essays, Luke Skywalker Can’t […]
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year Matt McCarthy (Twitter) Audiobook read by the author Crown (April 2015), hardcover (ISBN 9780804138659) Nonfiction: memoir, 336 pages Audiobook: Random House Audio (2015), ISBN 9781101889251 Source: Los Angeles Public Library, via Overdrive This post contains affiliate links to Indiebound. I was never inclined to pursue a medical career, but I find hospitals fascinating places, and medical memoirs have become one of my […]
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban Malala Yousafzai, with Christina Lamb Audiobook read by Archie Panjabi Back Bay Books (2015), trade paper (ISBN 0316322423 / 9780316322423) Nonfiction: autobiography, 368 pages Source: purchased audiobook (Hachette Audio, 2013, ISBN 9781478979791) This post contains affiliate links to Indiebound. I spent a week last month reading the autobiography of a sixteen-year-old. The idea of a sixteen-year-old publishing an autobiography […]
Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox edited by Joanne Cronrath Bamberger (Twitter) She Writes Press (November 2015), trade paper (ISBN 1631528068 / 9781631528064) Nonfiction: politics/essays, 226 pages A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (November 24, 2015). Shelf Awareness provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, and compensated me for the review they received and posted. This post contains affiliate links to Indiebound. […]
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir Felicia Day (book website) (Twitter) (Facebook) Audiobook read by the author Touchstone Books (August 2015), hardcover (ISBN 1476785651 / 9781476785653) Nonfiction: memoir, 272 pages Source: Purchased audiobook (Simon & Schuster Audio, August 2015, ISBN 9781442386822) This review contains links to indiebound.org In the introduction to her memoir You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), Felicia Day describes herself as “Comic-Con famous.” In the nerdy, Comic-Con-adjacent circles I hover […]
It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War Lynsey Addario (Twitter) (Facebook) Audiobook read by Tavia Gilbert Penguin Press (February 2015), hardcover (ISBN 159420537X / 9781594205378) Nonfiction: memoir/journalism, 368 pages Source: Purchased audiobook (Blackstone Audio, February 2015: ISBN 9781481505833, Audible ASIN B00SYNWZBC) This post contains affiliate links to IndieBound. ————————————————————————————————————— Photojournalist Lynsey Addario has done much of her work in a post-9/11 world, in the part of the world […]
Good Mourning: A Memoir Elizabeth Meyer (Twitter) (Facebook), with Caitlin Moscatello Gallery Books (August 25, 2015), hardcover (ISBN 1476783616 / 9781476783611) Nonfiction: memoir, 288 pages A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (September 11, 2015). Shelf Awareness provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, and compensated me for the review they received and posted. This post contains affiliate links to Indiebound. Good Mourning is the story […]
I haven’t been a regular viewer of the Weather Channel since I moved to sunny coastal Southern California, but even this region does have its weather issues. (And when weather is a story here, it’s huge.) It’s literally been years since this mostly desert climate has received adequate annual rainfall, and that’s led to a wildfire “season” that lasts nearly year-round. The wildfires clear land that turns into mud and floods when we do get rain. […]
Anchor and Flares: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hope, and Service Kate Braestrup Little, Brown and Company (July 14, 2015), Hardcover (ISBN 0316373788 / 9780316373784) Nonfiction: memoir, 336 pages Shelf Awareness for Readers provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, but it was not submitted, published, or compensated by them because it was not completed by deadline. Kate Braestrup’s Anchor and Flares is subtitled “A Memoir of Motherhood, Hope, and Service.” I’d suggest that “hope” and […]
