Eleanor Roosevelt’s impact on current American culture is easy to underestimate. This book puts her back in her rightful place in her historical era as well as pointing out the initiatives she started that continue to this day. In spite of the power of her words and the strength of the coalitions she assembled, the battles she fought continue to be fought.
Craig Machen is a bad boy, or was a bad boy (if you can ever really shake that persona). It’s not entirely his fault, though. Rather, it is a result of a series of unfortunate life circumstances that led him to be self-destructive. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, and strippers. ‘Still Life With Brass Pole’ has it all- in excess. It is a drug and alcohol-induced road trip on which Machen takes the reader in this coming-of-age memoir.
Imagine life is pretty good! Yeah, you’ve got bills to pay and kids to clothe and feed. But overall, it’s pretty good. You’ve got a spouse, a family, a house, a job, a car…outside of the day to day stresses, you can’t complain much.
Against the intense drama of ilms like Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, and so on, Frank Jolliff’s memoir, 365 and a Wake-Up, paints a comparatively benign picture. That contributes to both its strengths and its drawbacks.
As I think back to what I learned from reading S. Stanley’s memoirs and contemplate how this review should begin, I recall a commercial for Google Chrome which highlights Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Organization, providing positive and encouraging messages for gay youth. Several videos in the series were posted by gay seniors doting that “It gets better with age!” Truer words were never spoken when it comes to describing Gordon’s autobiography entitled My Two Wives and Three Husbands.
Jana Pryor witnessed it all. Her grandmother, Jane, suffered for 5 years from Alzheimers and Jana was her caretaker for every day of it. The book is Jane’s eye witness account. Told in 9 chapters, a quick 90 pages, Jana takes you through each slow stage from beginning to end.
Having considered becoming a foster parent just last year, I was more than willing to read and review Dennis Harris’s book, Foster Child. It is the true account of the author growing up as a ward of the state. Dennis was born in DC and became an orphan at a very early age when his working Mom could no longer afford to take care of him. Unfortunately for him, he remained in a city operated orphanage for much of his youth until he eventually entered foster care.
In a world where one decision can alter the course of a lifetime, Elliot Tiber spins a tale of change more glittering and twisty than the Yellow Brick road. Palm Trees on the Hudson (A true story of the mob, Judy Garland & interior decorating.) showcases the narrative of Tiber’s life pre-Woodstock. Our narrator clicks his ruby heels and escorts readers through a world filled with scowling Jewish mothers, Bohemian neighbors, and outlandish Mafia clientele. Past all the trials and turbulence, Tiber’s audience is afforded sensual immersion in Judy Garland’s music, inspired styles of self-expression, and night life so dazzling my wanderlust began to ache for old New York, New York.
Wow! What a story! This is a true account about a family during the Vietnam War and the rise of Communism. This powerful story is told by one of the daughters of the family. The writing in this memoir is excellent and contains many bits of history as well as family stories.
All his life Charlie Winger has been climbing. He rose up out of his recidivistic destiny to a successful white collar career, ascended some fascinating and daunting peaks around the world, and overcame prostate cancer. Now, past seventy, he’s taking on the bureaucratic mountain of gaining an official pardon for his earlier crimes, to rid himself of that shadow. Two Shadows is his mountaineering-focused memoir.
