Category: Memoir/Biography

Audiobook Review, Memoir/Biography, Nonfiction, Reese Witherspoon's Book Club

From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke

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From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding HomeFrom Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

From Scratch came recommended by Reese’s Book Club. I always read her recommendations and usually resonate with them, but this one wasn’t my favorite. This book is advertised as “A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home” but I would add “Loss and Death” to that list. Given the lovely photo on the cover, I was expecting something uplifting and romantic. But, this book was far more depressing than I was anticipating.

Tembi Locke tells the story of her and her husband (who died from cancer), their journey to overcome racial and cultural barriers, their struggle with illness and death, and her quest to move on.

I will say that Tembi Locke can write beautifully. I felt like I was in Sicily and her descriptions made me feel like I was in her world. The writing was wonderfully executed. Where I struggled was in the structure of the book (or lack thereof). There wasn’t really a defined beginning, middle, or end to the story. It skipped all over the place from past to present with random stories peppered in between. And the lack of a defined literary path made it difficult for me to connect with the story or the characters.

I enjoyed the first half more than the second. Tembi’s descriptions of her husband’s struggle with cancer and his ultimate death were heartbreaking and I felt for her. But after his death, the story kind of dragged on and felt a bit repetitive in places.

I know a ton of people have really loved this book. And I will admit that while I do read memoirs, they’re never the genre that I gravitate to naturally. So if you’re a fan of memoir, you may absolutely love this one. If you pick it up, I would highly recommend listening on audio as Tembi’s narration is superb.

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Audiobook Review, Memoir/Biography, Nonfiction, Reese Witherspoon's Book Club

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

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This is the Story of a Happy MarriageThis is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Ann Patchett is nothing short of a powerhouse writer!

Living in Nashville and being a book junkie, I naturally made my way to Parnassus Books for a visit (it just happens to be co-owned by Ann Patchett herself). And while I was there, I decided to pick up a signed copy of Ann’s book, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick from 2017. As I’ve made it a goal to slowly make my way through Reese’s recommendations, this seemed like a fitting choice.

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I’m not a huge believer in reading book jackets or synopses before diving in (I read a wide variety of genres and prefer to be surprised), so I had no idea that this was a) nonfiction and b) a collection of essays. This is exactly why I don’t read book jackets. Because those two components together are not what I would typically gravitate toward in a book. And by reading the jacket and making a preemptive judgment, I would miss out on a ton of really amazing books.

In This is the Story of a Happy Marriage Ann Patchett teaches us life lessons, tells us about love and loss, gives us a glimpse into how she got where she is today both in her personal life and her career, and paints a lovely picture of Nashville that this Nashvillian really appreciated. But the magic isn’t necessarily in the content itself, but the author’s masterful storytelling. Her sentence structure and the way she combines words and phrases is magical. She had a lot of really insightful things to say that made me think. There were moments when I chuckled. And there were moments where I said, “I want to be friends with Ann Patchett.”

If a collection of essays doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you should read this book anyway. While it’s technically a bunch of short stories strung together, it reads more like a cohesive memoir. The essays flowed together logically to tell a complete story that did not feel disjointed. I would highly recommend and will definitely be reading more from Patchett in the future.

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Audiobook Review, Memoir/Biography, Nonfiction

Becoming by Michelle Obama

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BecomingBecoming by Michelle Obama

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How do I even begin to do this book justice with a review? I honestly don’t think I can. I have so many thoughts and feelings after finishing Becoming that I don’t think a simple review will accomplish everything I’d like to say. But here is my best shot.

Let me first start by saying that I don’t want this review to be a study in political ideology. But that being said, I feel like I need to give you some perspective so you can understand truly how special this book really is. Politically, I fall somewhere in the middle. I see both sides of many issues. My opinions are fairly split and I try to keep an open mind at all times. But when it comes to voting, I generally tend to lean to the right. I did not vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 or 2012 elections. So why am I reading a book authored by his wife?

Because our country is entirely too divided. And because if we continue to only tune into the news and dialogue that fits our political ideology, we will never close the ever-expanding gap.

Somebody told me once, “You shouldn’t listen to respond. You should listen to understand.” And that phrase has really stuck with me. It’s fairly often that I catch myself preparing my rebuttal when somebody is speaking, not really processing the words that they’re saying. And I’ve tried to make a conscious effort to rectify that tendency.

So here I am, listening to an audiobook written by Michelle Obama with every intention of understanding her life through her eyes and experience. And can I just say that it was phenomenal!

Like her or not, you can’t deny that she has led an incredible life. From growing up on the South Side of Chicago to attending Princeton and Harvard and eventually becoming First Lady of the United States, her journey has been astounding. But outside of her accomplishments, I really resonated with this book because of how real she felt as a human being.

Michelle talked about her struggles with fertility and experience with IVF to conceive her two daughters. She talked about grappling with how to approach parenting her children in the eye of the public. How she should balance allowing them the freedom to be children with the potential threats to their lives that required extensive security details. She talked about her work surrounding childhood obesity and how she advocated for healthier food options for school lunch, regular daily exercise for all children, and a garden on the White House lawn to grow fresh produce. She discussed her insecurities. As a highly educated and intelligent lawyer who graduated from two Ivy League institutions, it was difficult for her to accept comments from the public that she only got where she is today because of the success of her husband. She talks about the challenges of being African American in the US and how that has impacted her journey through life. I truly believe that her ability to relate to the everyday woman is the reason this book has become the success it is today. Any woman can see themselves in Michelle’s story and can relate to at least a portion of her life.

Do I think there is an element of bias in this book? It’s an autobiography told from one person’s perspective. Of course there is going to be bias! If I wrote a book about myself, I’m sure there are people who wouldn’t agree with my account of history. So if you are going into this book with a closed mind and less-than-flattering preconceived notions about the Obama administration, you likely won’t enjoy some of the commentary. But, only when we open our minds to understand the perspective of others can we really move forward together.

If you’re questioning whether you should read this book or listen to it, I would highly recommend audiobook. Michelle narrates the story herself and let me tell you… she could be a professional audiobook narrator. I was mesmerized. She truly captivated my attention from start to finish. And at a little shy of 19 hours, it’s quite impressive that my mind did not drift off for one second.

I could seriously go on and on about this book. There is so much to talk about. So many layers to dissect. I would highly recommend Becoming as a book club read because of the plethora of content from which to draw discussion. It could probably be discussed over the course of several separate book club meetings to be honest.

I can’t recommend this book enough. And I wish I could do it justice with this review. I hope I’ve come close and perhaps convinced at least one person to read it (in addition to my husband, who I’ve already persuaded).

You should purchase from Amazon right now and you can do it right here!

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Memoir/Biography, Nonfiction

Educated by Tara Westover

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EducatedEducated by Tara Westover

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you enjoy nonfiction, you HAVE to read this book.

If nonfiction isn’t really your thing, you and I should be friends because it’s not my thing either. But this book was so darn good that I might have just turned a corner on my feelings about nonfiction.

This story is unbelievable. No, seriously. There were times when I could not believe somebody could have gone through so much in life and persevered through it all. It is truly something special to read this book and gain perspective on how some children are raised, and the obstacles they have to overcome in life that many of us take for granted.

Educated is a memoir written by author Tara Westover about her life growing up in a devout Mormon family. Her father is somewhat of a survivalist (with a touch of bipolar). Her mother is a midwife and naturalist. They believe in modesty and traditional gender roles. She is the youngest of seven children. And Tara never stepped foot in a classroom. That is, until she turned 17 years old.

This book is about Tara’s journey of self-discovery through education. The juxtaposition of what she learned via her family’s teachings about morality and religion with the formal education she received in college was so interesting. I could not believe some of the things she had to learn at such an advanced age in relation to your typical school age child…. how to use a scan-tron, that you actually had to read the textbook instead of just looking at the pictures, and the definition of the Holocaust. Things most people would consider common knowledge were foreign concepts to a young girl living a sheltered life.

I honestly could not listen to this audiobook fast enough. The first half of the book was somewhat slow moving and I wasn’t quite sure how all of the small stories told along the way tied in together. But by the second half of the book, I was fully on board and was able to see how every story was a piece of a larger puzzle that shaped Tara’s journey.

Cannot recommend this one enough. It is so interesting and inspiring. Looking at the obstacles that Tara was able to overcome and the many accomplishments she achieved along the way, I can confidently say that this book exemplifies that age old saying, “You can do anything if you put your mind to it.”

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