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The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

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Title: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Author: Barack Obama

Publisher: Crown 2006

Genre: Memoir / Political Science

Pages: 384

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nonfiction Adventure; U.S. Presidents; ebook; 52 Books -- W4

The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call for a different brand of politics—a politics for those weary of bitter partisanshipand alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces—from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media—that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.

I'll tell you up front that I voted for Obama twice.  I'm not an ardent fan, but I definitely liked him better than what the other offered.  That being said, I went into this book with a desire to know more about his thoughts before becoming President.  It was interesting reading it with the knowledge of what he's done since 2008.  Overall I really enjoyed reading the book.  I agree with Obama on many political and cultural issues.  This country is artificially divided.  We do hold many of the same values and yet the media and politicians would have us think that every neighbor is our enemy.  The other parts that I took issue with were those that dealt with religion.  I definitely have some disagreements with Obama on that topic.  Thankfully his Presidential leadership has kept the separation of church and state intact.

tags: 4 stars, Barack Obama, ebook, memoir, political science, U-S- Presidents
categories: Book Reviews
Sunday 01.19.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

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Title: Medium Raw

Author: Anthony Bourdain

Publisher: HarperCollins 2010

Genre: Memoir; Food

Pages: 308

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nonfiction Adventure; ebook; 52 Books - W2

Medium Raw marks the return of the inimitable Anthony Bourdain, author of the blockbuster bestseller Kitchen Confidential and three-time Emmy Award-nominated host of No Reservations on TV’s Travel Channel. Bourdain calls his book, “A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook,” and he is at his entertaining best as he takes aim at some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, Alice Waters, the Top Chef winners and losers, and many more. If Hunter S. Thompson had written a book about the restaurant business, it could have been Medium Raw.

I read Kitchen Confidential last year, and I have to say that I enjoyed this one more infinitely more.  I think my main issue with KC was that at times it was so technical.  Because I do not have a background in cooking, there are terms and techniques that I just don't know.  I had to stop periodically to look something up to truly understand what Bourdain was discussing.  This book is a lot more friendly to the average reader. We are treated to the personal views of Bourdain as they relate to the food industry.  I loved his chapters about the Food Network and its stars.  I loved the chapters highlighting specific chefs.  And I really loved the chapters where he discussed his own transitioning thoughts and ideas.  It was a nice companion to his No Reservations television series.  Very enjoyable read!

tags: 5 stars, 52 books in 52 weeks, Anthony Bourdain, Bout of Books Readathon, cooking, ebook, memoir, nonfiction adventure
categories: Book Reviews
Tuesday 01.07.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

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Title: Hyperbole and a Half

Author: Allie Brosh

Publisher: Touchstone 2013

Genre: Graphic novel; Memoir

Pages: 384

Rating:  5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Graphic Novel; Mount TBR; Bingo -- 5 from 2013; 52 Books -- W48; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: I own it!

FROM THE AUTHOR: This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative—like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it—but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:

Pictures Words Stories about things that happened to me Stories about things that happened to other people because of me Eight billion dollars* Stories about dogs The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!

I have followed Brosh's blog for awhile now and always find myself moved by her posts.  Her raw honesty cuts right to my soul.  (Okay, that sentence sounded a bit crazy, but it's completely true).  I may not have her specific problems, but I think everyone can relate to believing themselves to be crazy and fucked up every once in a while.  It's nice to have that reaffirmation.  And it's wonderful to follow Brosh's stories in and out of the crazy in her life.  While reading, I laughed quietly to myself and loudly to everyone.  I teared up on my occasions.  I also found myself shaking my head in agreement to some of her more introspective stories.  This may look like a fun little collection of stories with illustrations, but it's so much more.  Brosh stands stripped bare before the reader allowing them to see all her flaws and all her beauty.  This is a must read!

tags: 5 stars, Allie Brosh, book bingo, comedy, fall into reading, graphic novel, memoir, mount tbr
categories: Book Reviews
Tuesday 11.26.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

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Title: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Author: Alison Bechdel

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin 2006

Genre: Graphic Novel; Memoir

Pages: 232

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Graphic Novel; Women Authors; Bingo - 5 from TBR

How I Got It: Library loan

In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.

Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.

Going in, I didn't really know what to expect from this novel.  I was expecting a straight forward memoir, but instead got a wonderful mix of literary insight and family memories. Following Bechdel's narrative feels almost like an intrusion on her private self. She bares all as we move from her early childhood to ruminations on sexuality and the complexities of family and identity.   In many ways, it reminded me of Persepolis.  Instead of making an entertaining version of life, the reader gets an honest brutal look at life and growing up.  Definitely a powerful read.

tags: 4 stars, Alison Bechdel, book bingo, family, graphic novel, memoir, women authors
categories: Book Reviews
Monday 08.19.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner

Title: The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Author: Mark Bittner

Publisher:  Three Rivers Press 2004

Genre: Nonfiction memoir

Pages: 288

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: T4MC -- Adjective in Title; Genre -- Nonfiction; New Author; Book to Movie

How I Got It: Loan from a friend

In this appealing, heartfelt account of one man's attempt to bond with wildlife, the author tells how he made friends with a flock of birds and in the process found meaning in his own life. In the early 1990s, Bittner, a 42-year-old who was still living like a "dharma bum," discovered that there were wild parrots in the trees and on the power lines near the house he was caretaking on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill. Having nothing else to do, he decided to feed the birds on his fire escape and occupy his time by observing them. Soon they appeared every day, noisily demanding seeds, and for the next few years, he devoted most of his time to the wily and comical birds, which turned out to be cherry-headed and blue-crowned conures-escapees that originally had been caught in South America-and their progeny. Crowds gathered outside his house to see him with the parrots perched on his arms and head taking seeds from his hands, and he became famous as "the birdman of Telegraph Hill." Because he found that each bird had its own personality, he named them according to their individual characteristics, and in this charming record of their activities, they seem almost human. At a time when he lived like a hermit, the birds brought him joy and became his only friends. It's a bittersweet story-that is, until a documentary filmmaker shows up at his doorstep.

One of those books that had caught my eye at some point, but I never actively sought it out.  A friend noticed it on my Goodreads To Read shelf and lent it to me.  The book started off slow for me.  I was not really enjoying learning about Bittner's early life or search for meaning.  I was on the verge of giving up on the book, but I stuck it out a bit longer.  He hadn't even encountered the parrots yet.  I had to at least read until then.  Once he encountered the flock, my interest in reading the book spiked.  I found myself fascinated by the different bird personalities.  I wanted to figure out the meaning behind their behaviors just like Bittner.  I found myself growing attached to various members of the flock.  Eventually my heart broke when some died.  I felt joy with their triumphs.  I was scared when hawks were spotted.  I was pulled in the world of this anomaly.  I loved the entire middle section of the book.  As the end neared, my interest waned with the reintroduction of Bittner's philosophy and general life beyond the birds.  I finished, but my disinterest in those sections knocked the book down a star.  Still, a wondrous read.  Next time I venture into the city, I'll sure be on the lookout for the parrots.

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Movie:

Pretty much the book.  But we get to see beautiful moving images of the parrots.  The one thing the books had lacked: color photographs.  Watching the movie I finally got to see what they actually looked like.  Very enjoyable film, but probably not necessary to watch the film and read the book.  One would have been sufficient.

tags: 4 stars, animals, Mark Bittner, memoir
categories: Book Reviews, Movies
Thursday 06.27.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

MWF Seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche

Title: MWF Seeking BFF: My Year Long Search for a New Best Friend

Author: Rachel Bertsche

Publisher: Ballantine Books 2012

Genre: Nonfiction - Memoir

Pages: 347

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nerdy Nonfiction - Relationships; Blogger Recommendations; Women Authors; Mount TBR

How I Got It: I won it

When Rachel Bertsche first moves to Chicago, she’s thrilled to finally share a zip code, let alone an apartment, with her boyfriend. But shortly after getting married, Bertsche realizes that her new life is missing one thing: friends. Sure, she has plenty of BFFs—in New York and San Francisco and Boston and Washington, D.C. Still, in her adopted hometown, there’s no one to call at the last minute for girl talk over brunch or a reality-TV marathon over a bottle of wine. Taking matters into her own hands, Bertsche develops a plan: She’ll go on fifty-two friend-dates, one per week for a year, in hopes of meeting her new Best Friend Forever.

I won this ARC over a year ago.  I kept meaning to read it, but somehow just never picked it up.  I finally did and found myself underwhelmed.  I thought the premise was interesting as I am in fairly the same boat Bertsche was.  But I quickly tired of the long drawn out observations and scientific research.  It made the entire endeavor feel a bit too forced.  I kept wanting to ask why Bertsche felt it necessary to reach the 150 total friends.  Why can't you be happy with a couple of great friends, a few casual friends, and some acquaintances?  I also tired of the comparisons to a Sex and City type friendship.  That was a television show, not real life.  Adult women with family and job responsibilities can't just lounge around all day for brunch or shopping.  We need to be more selective in how we use our time.  I just couldn't get behind the whole book.

tags: 3 stars, friends, memoir, Rachel Bertsche, relationships
categories: Book Reviews
Saturday 06.01.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Title: Unbroken

Author: Laura Hillenbrand

Publisher: Random House 2010

Genre: Nonfiction -- War Memoir

Pages: 473

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Women Authors; Library Loan; 52 Books 52 Weeks -- W19

How I Got It: Library Loan

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

This month's book club selection was a heavy one.  I've never been partial to war memoirs, but this one was very engaging.  After the initially slow start, I was hooked into Louie's life.  I knew there would be a relatively happy ending, but getting there tore my heart out.  Hillenbrand definitely did her research.  We get a beautifully crafted story piecing together a horrendous war experience.  I'm sure we'll have an interesting discussion in a few weeks for this book.  I am only hoping that our next selection isn't quite so serious.

tags: 4 stars, Lauren Hillenbrand, memoir, U-S- History, World War II
categories: Book Reviews
Saturday 05.11.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Title: Kitchen Confidential

Author: Anthony Bourdain

Publisher: HarperCollins 2007

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 486

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nerdy Nonfiction -- Food; ebook; Blogger Recommendations; 52 Books -- W14

How I Got It: iPad read

A New York City chef who is also a novelist recounts his experiences in the restaurant business, and exposes abuses of power, sexual promiscuity, drug use, and other secrets of life behind kitchen doors.

This is one of those "I've been meaning to read this forever" books.  I enjoy watching No Reservations.  I love Bourdain's style.  I even saw a few of the episodes of the television series based on the book (starring Bradley Cooper pre-super stardom).  And yet I never read the book.  A long plane ride to Indiana was the perfect time to correct that oversight.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  It's part memoir, part tell-all, part guidebook.  We see the world of restaurants from the inside, but often with a very particular perspective.  I loved meeting the crazy characters in each restaurant and kitchen.  I loved hearing about his journey from royal screw-up to famous and respected chef.  The book is loud and crude, just like Bourdain himself.  But to clean up his writing would destroy the essence of the story.  While I may not have known all the food words, I loved hearing about the creation of good food.  I love good food, and am willing to try just about anything.  I love Bourdain's philosophy of quality ingredients instead of fancy presentation.  I have a feeling I would love eating at any restaurant he cheffed at.  My only issue with the book: it made me hungry!  Reading about all this amazing food, I was constantly craving something!

tags: 5 stars, Anthony Bourdain, food, memoir
categories: Book Reviews
Friday 04.05.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
Comments: 2
 

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Title: Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Author: Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess)

Publisher: Berkley Books 2012

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 372

Rating:  5+++++/5 stars

Reading Challenges: T4MC -- NYT Bestseller; Women Authors; TBR Pile; Eclectic -- Memoir

How I Got It: Birthday present for me!

When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives.

I have been reading The Bloggess' blog for awhile now and I swear she sees into my soul.  I may not have participated in her particularly crazy adventures, but I definitely have her twisted sense of humor.  And I tend to see the world as a very strange place.  J can attest that I am pretty strange at times.  Much of what Lawson says out loud, I've thought in my head.  I guess I just have a better internal filter than she does.  But that's what makes her so amazing.  She's her and no one else.  Her memoir made me laugh at loud so much that J repeatedly asked me if I was okay.  It also made me get a bit teary eyed (especially the chapter about Barnaby Jones Pickle).  Among all the stories, Lawson conveys a great message of accepting yourself and the crazy.  My favorite lesson comes from the chapter "Jenkins, You Motherfucker":

Soon afterward, Jenkins and the other turkeys disappeared from our lives, but the lessons I learned from them still remain: Turkeys make terrible pets, you should never trust your father to identify poultry, and you should accept who you are, flaws and all, because if you try to be someone you aren't, then eventually some turkey is going to shit all over your well-crafted facade, so you might as well save yourself the effort and enjoy your zombie books.

Thank you Jenny Lawson for making me laugh and cry and feel more comfortable being me.  "Knock, knock, motherfucker!"

tags: 5 stars, humor, Jenny Lawson, memoir
categories: Book Reviews
Friday 03.15.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
Comments: 2
 

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Title: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Author: Ishmael Beah

Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books 2007

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 232

Rating:  3 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: T4MC -- Bio, Memoir; Nerdy Nonfiction -- Memoir; New Author; Library Loan; 52 Books in 52 Weeks -- Week 4

How I Got It: Library Loan (Book Club Selection)

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.

This was January's book club selection.  And I have to say that I did not enjoy it.  The story of child soldiers is powerful, an evil we must combat.  But I just didn't connect at all to the Beah or any of the other people in the memoir.  I just didn't get emotionally wrapped into the story.  I stood on the outskirts seeing the story unfold, but not needing to see more.  I compare reading this story to reading We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch about the Rwandan genocide.  The way Gourevitch's book was constructed drew me into the story and the people's lives.  I felt connected to them.  I felt their fear and joy throughout.  This just didn't hit me the same way.

tags: 3 stars, Ishmael Beah, memoir, Winter's Respite Readathon
categories: Book Reviews
Monday 01.21.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Not Quite What I was Planning edited by Smith Magazine

Title: Not Quite What I was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure

Edited by: Smith Magazine

Publisher: Smith Magazine 2008

Genre: Nonfiction -- Memoirs

Pages: 243

Rating:  5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Dewey -- 920s; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: Library loan

One Life. Six Words. What's Yours?

When Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half dozen words. When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way too. The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving.  From small sagas of bittersweet romance to proud achievements and stinging regrets, these terse true tales relate the diversity of human experience in tasty bite-sized pieces.

Such a slim volume filled with great and not-so-great lives.  I sped through this, but loved every minute of it.  Upon finishing, I went back and reread some of my favorites.  Some of this are great expressions of joy, some are tragedies in few words.  I didn't initially understand the power six words could have, but I am now a convert.  This is an amazing project.  One I will be revisiting in the future.  Here are my top ten choices (in no particular order):

  • Fourteen years old, story still untold. -- David Gidwani
  • Time heals all wounds?  Not quite. -- Jonathan Miles
  • Now I blog and drink wine. -- Peter Bartlett
  • I take photographs.  I see life. -- Daniel James
  • Hiding in apartment knitting against depression. -- Laurie White
  • Oh sweet nectar of life, coffee. -- Daniel Axenty
  • I colored out of the lines. -- Jacob Thomas
  • Woman with man's name--thanks, parents. -- Curtis Sittenfeld
  • Well, I thought it was funny.  -- Stephen Colbert
  • Can't read all the time.  Bummer. -- Rina Bander

And after much debate, here's mine:  Still grieving for a lost life.

Check out more at the website Six Word Memoirs.

tags: 5 stars, memoir, storytelling magazine
categories: Book Reviews
Monday 12.03.12
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Paris in Love by Eloisa James (DNF)

Title: Paris in Love

Author: Eloisa James

Publisher: Random House 2012

Genre: Travel memoir

Pages: 258

Rating:  DNF

Reading Challenges:  Semi-charmed -- Memoir; ; Dewey -- 910s; Mixing it Up -- Travel

How I Got It: I won it!

In 2009, New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James took a leap that many people dream about: she sold her house, took a sabbatical from her job as a Shakespeare professor, and moved her family to Paris. Paris in Love: A Memoir chronicles her joyful year in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

With no classes to teach, no committee meetings to attend, no lawn to mow or cars to park, Eloisa revels in the ordinary pleasures of life—discovering corner museums that tourists overlook, chronicling Frenchwomen’s sartorial triumphs, walking from one end of Paris to another. She copes with her Italian husband’s notions of quality time; her two hilarious children, ages eleven and fifteen, as they navigate schools—not to mention puberty—in a foreign language; and her mother-in-law Marina’s raised eyebrow in the kitchen (even as Marina overfeeds Milo, the family dog).

I am sad to say that this was a DNF.  I read almost halfway through this book before deciding to put to down and move on.  Please don't take my DNF to say that it is a horrible book.  It's just I could get behind it at all.  Let me explain.  The structure of the book is short vignettes.  At least, that's what the introduction implies.  I thought I would be reading short vignettes or essays from James' life in Paris.  But no.  These "vignettes" are based mostly off of Facebook posts James made throughout her year in Paris.  Most of them are one paragraph Facebook statuses.  They are short with little to no context or commentary.  Many of them would be great FB posts, but fail to intrigue me as a reader who is not personally acquainted with the author.  Occasionally, James has an essay that caught my attention.  She uses an occurrence to then comment on cultural differences or life lesons or sheer comedy.  Those were good.  Those kept me going for another 70 pages.  But in the end those were too few and far between.  I just couldn't get through the intervening paragraphs.  I feel like this could have been a much more interesting book with a little curating.  Take those interesting pieces and expand to create essays (of more than one paragraph). I feel like I could have gotten behind that book.  Alas, this was not that book.  And so, I move on to other selections...

tags: Bout of Books Readathon, DNF, memoir
categories: Book Reviews
Wednesday 05.16.12
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
Comments: 1
 
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