🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 A searing, heartfelt memoir that feels like it was written as much for the author, as for the reader. For how else does one, who has felt the inexplicable need to express herself, in words, (written or otherwise), from a very early age, make sense of whole-scale tragedies impossible…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Absolutely not your typical memoir — but then again, Sue Aikens is not your typical human. The narrative covers Sue’s tragic beginnings as a young girl, abused and unloved; to her mentors, loves, and children as her family life evolves; all the way to her eventual settlement on her…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Breezy and candid, intimate and expansive, this memoir, by non-fiction writer Susan Orlean, refuses to be typecast. The author, an expert in the art of a quirky sort of storytelling, featuring uniquely interesting real-life characters, places or topics, each of which is are not quite what you’re expecting, will…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Both a searingly intimate memoir and a true-crime story, this book was so hard to put down that I read it in practically one sitting. A heart-rending look at a traumatic crime,and the family involved, written from the vantage point of the author, a sixteen year old teenager at…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 A comprehensive, compassionate look at the specific challenges and approaches targeted to assist patients with early-onset cancer (diagnosed in one who is eighteen to forty-nine years old). As unbelievably challenging as a cancer diagnosis at any age is, the author, a clinical psychologist who has focused her practice exclusively…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 This powerful book is written by a self-proclaimed (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) “Master of Feelings”, Dr. Marc Brackett, a professor focusing on Emotional Intelligence, and in particular, the perhaps lesser-known practice of emotional regulation. We cannot control the situations we find ourselves in, but we can learn to manage (that is,…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 A true story, based on the fascinating life story of Anna, a Norwegian woman, now seventy years old, who for decades has spent each spring-time tending to the nesting needs of eider ducks on the remote island of Fjærøy, off the coast of Norway, just south of the Arctic.…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟➕ A memoir unlike any you will read, this is a gorgeously written, unputdownable look at the life of Maggie O’Farrell, one of my favorite novelists, and in particular, the seventeen times this particular life has almost ended. If Maggie appears to have more than the “normal” amount of brushes…
A memoir and a somewhat complicated review — for a story beginning with horrific child abuse and leading to what will become a life-long adult search for healing — that could not help but raise all sorts of emotions in this reader. Empathy, pain and compassion. Curiosity and hope. Wonder,…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 A fascinating look at the hidden dangers of glucose spikes, and what we can do to avoid them. Written by a biochemist, (aka the @GlucoseGoddess), this is an accessible and terrifically informative introduction to our metabolism, — the effect the food we eat (and a number of other surprising…