Art and Artifice: Sneak Peak No. 1
[Below is an excerpt from my soon-to-be released memoir, Art and Artifice: From Greenlight to Gaslight. Stay tuned for more excerpts and news of the actual book launch, which is planned for late summer 2025!] “That chick can’t swim!” Megan’s voice shrieked above the noise of the party as she ran to the swimming pool […]
2024 Christmas Book Review Roundup
If you have a hard-to-buy-for book lover on your Christmas list, here is a vetted list of 34 books I’ve read this year that I can highly recommend! Those of you who follow this blog know that I write periodic book reviews during the year. Where does the time go? I couldn’t possibly write reviews […]
The Burning Light of Two Stars: A Mother-Daughter Story
By Laura Davis, 2021 I’m a member of a Facebook group that focuses on memoir writing, and this author, Laura Davis, is a regular contributor. I’ve seen her post helpful comments to other writers on occasion, and I’ve come to learn that she has been teaching the craft of writing for a living her entire […]
HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time
by Brad Aronson, 2020 Brad wrote HumanKind after helping his wife through a leukemia diagnosis and treatment, and being overwhelmed by all the acts of kindness and generosity his family experienced from friends, family, and colleagues. He started writing down and collecting these stories, and tells how small acts can make a massive difference in […]
Never Simple: A Memoir
by Liz Scheier, 2022 There are mother-daughter stories, and then there are jaw-dropping mother-daughter stories, where you read them and think, can this possibly be real? Surely this is made up? Liz Scheier learns in her freshman year of college that she doesn’t have a birth certificate. No, it’s not a simple matter of the […]
Crying in H Mart
by Michelle Zauner, 2021 Michelle Zauner has written a heartwarming story of love, loss, and food in her memoir Crying in H Mart, which came out in 2021. She is the only child of a Korean mother and an American father, and tells of her deep and abiding love of her mother whom she lost […]
The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency
by Tove Ditlevsen, 2021 The New York Times Book Review editors were wildly enthusiastic about The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency, and because I usually agree with their assessments, I dived in. But the deeper I got into this, I have to admit, the less I liked this author. This is a series of three […]
The Yellow House
by Sarah M. Broom, 2019 The Yellow House was the 2019 National Book Award Winner for Nonfiction. A memoir about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans, Louisiana, and how, in particular, it affected the poor. The “yellow house” is the house the author grew up in, the damage it sustained, and how it […]