Free books: Memoir & Autobiography
Drawing from Memory (2011)
This is Allen Say's autobiography of his early life and training in Japan. The artwork is watercolor, pen and ink, pencils, and photographs. The book contains a map of Japan, along with photographs of Allen, his mother, sister, friends, family and mentor. There is an intermingling of cutout pictu...
My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover If Not Being A Dumb Ass Is the New Black, or, a Culture-Up Manifesto (2010)
The book has a, lot of potential, but was terribly disorganized and really felt like a lot of random thoughts just collected and put in a book. I laughed a lot and I enjoyed her descriptions of Chicago but this according to some of Jenexpert friends is not like her other books. There is not pl...
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced (2010)
This touched my heart. How hard it is to believe that people actually sell their children off to strangers. This little girl's mother didn't even really know when the child's birthday was because she had 16 pregnancies and one was more than they could afford. This book got wide recognition with i...
Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal (2011)
Written with a great sense of humor. I laughed out loud and shared my copy with anyone who would read it. Conor Grennan is inspiring while admitting that he didn't set out to do any great thing. The people he talks about, who have given their time and more to help others are very admirable. H...
¿Eres mi madre? (2012)
I liked this book a lot less than her previous one, relating her story with her father.The drawings are always quite nice, but I found the writting a bit boring, confused, and with lots of bits that had no relation to the "Are You My Mother?" from the title.Ramblings and more ramblings and direct...
Sei tu mia madre? (2012)
For American literature grad students of my particular generation, this was probably the cliche read of 2013--I differ from this only by getting to it a year late. And, fuck it, I loved this book to death. Here are words I never thought I'd write: I actually teared up a little bit at the Lacan st...
My Beloved World (2013)
AAUW Adelante Book Recommendation by Angela Love, AAUW Palm Springs (CA) Branch: The first Hispanic person and the third woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Now, with a candor and intimacy never undertaken by a sitting justice, she reco...
A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets (2012)
I was browsing at the library and this book was beside Dewey, The Library Cat. I loved that book, so I decided to give this one a shot. I read reviews of this book prior to reading it, so I was braced for some really poor writing...as a result, I was pleasantly surprised. The prose isn't smoot...
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (2010)
The book, The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore was a very interesting read. The novel is about two men both with the same name Wes Moore. They also grew up in the same neighborhood of Baltimore with the same family type. The question is how did the both end up with completely different lifestyles...
American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot (2009)
To my knowledge, I've never seen this guy on TV. I knew vaguely that he was a talk show host at night. I ran across the random fact that Peter Capaldi was in a band, this guy was in it and wrote about that experience, as well as his own experiences as an alcoholic and struggling performer. So...
The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss (2010)
The Sense of an Ending / Julian Barnes. Only 163 pages (novella?), but provocative and memorable. (Man Booker prizewinner) Tony Webster, London retiree, relates an account of his affairs and marriage. In particular, he recalls and ponders the history of his relationship with college girlfrien...
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (2012)
In an ideal world I would give this just under 4 stars. I t's a brilliant book and Jeanette is so interesting, I would love to go for a coffee with her. I hadn't read Oranges so this was my first intro to her world and work..it's an evocative book which vividly portrays the world of Northen Eng...
Battle Hymn of the tiger mom (2000)
The reviews are what prompted me to read it, her story & wit are what drew me in and kept me. I felt as if I was strangely both reliving my own childhood alongside glimpses of my own journey as a mother; constantly saying "Yep, my mom did that...oh, wait! I do that too!" I can see why so many ...
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story (2008)
Very powerful and moving, the true story of a Polish couple who were zookeepers in Warsaw during the time of World War II and who hid and saved refuges from the Nazis. Ackerman delved deeply into the lives and events of the Polish during this terrible period, but she also brought some lightness ...
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are (2011)
As you may note from other reviews, this writer's style gets some getting used to. But it works for what she's trying to accomplish. The purpose of the book is to get the reader to slow down and BE THANKFUL. The chapter about always being in a hurry was the most convicting, but really the timbre ...