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The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso
Sarah Manguso is a poet, and if the beautiful, terse sentences in The Two Kinds of Decay are any indication, she is a fine one.
House Calls by Dogsled by Keith Billington
At first blush, it is the very opposite of a summer read, which quite often seem to be books whose covers feature iced drinks or miles of sand or seashells stretched on the seashore.
Comfort: A Journey Through Grief by Ann Hood
Ann Hood’s Comfort is about the death of her five-year-old daughter, Grace, who contracted a full-body strep infection that killed her in three days.
Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone
Life With My Sister Madonna is an absolutely unexceptional sibling memoir. In certain ways, we learn more about sibling jealousy and the nature of that green-eyed beast than we ever do about the author’s famous sister.
Lost: A Memoir by Cathy Ostlere
Cathy Ostlere’s skillfully wrought memoir of a family’s grief breaks the heart, again and again. Sometimes, it breaks the heart too much.
Around the World in 80 Dinners by Cheryl and Bill Jamison
Cheryl and Bill Jamison are best known for their numerous cookbooks, many focused on grilling and outdoor cookery. Here they shift to travel memoir with mixed results, according to our reviewer.
A Freewheelin’ Time by Suze Rotolo
Suze Rotolo was 17 when she met Bob Dylan, himself then a raw 20-year-old. “Bob was my first significant relationship,” Rotolo tells us in A Freewheelin’ Time.
Out of the Frying Pan by Gillian Clark
Clark, chef/owner of Washington D.C.’s Colorado Kitchen, had an immensely interesting book in her. Unfortunately for us, she didn’t write it.
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Looking for Anne by Irene Gammel
Noted biographer Irene Gammel brings us a brilliantly researched, in-depth and charming biography on both Lucy Maud Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables.
Swimming in a Sea of Death by David Rieff and Final Exam by Pauline Chen
Reading two memoirs about death within two days, whilst bedridden from chronic illness arguably isn’t an effective method for rapid recuperation.
Slash by Slash with Anthony Bozza
An insider’s look at life inside a particular Los Angeles bubble, a place and time that won’t recur. For Guns N’ Roses fans, Slash will be manna from heaven.
A Memoir of Friendship: The Letters Between Carol Shields and Blanche Howard edited by Blanche and Allison Howard
A Memoir of Friendship collects the correspondence from the time the two writers met in 1971, until just prior to Shields’ death in 2003.
... and His Lovely Wife by Connie Schultz
The author, a newspaper columnist and winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, suddenly found herself without an identity when her husband, Congressman Sherrod Brown, decided to run for the U.S. Senate.
The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones
January's reviewer finds food editor Judith Jones cagey about her past and protective of her privacy. In the end, “Jones’ winning personality and her fascinating story overcome the book’s drawbacks.”
The Pentagon: A History by Steve Vogel
The Pentagon still stands: strong, defiant and magnificent in its own unadorned way. Not bad for a building Vogel tells us, was "conceived over a long weekend" and constructed in a "slapdash" rush but ultimately has "proven itself one for the ages.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle chronicles the Kingsolver-Hopp family's resolution to step off the petroleum grid for one year, eating only local, sustainably produced meats, fruits, and vegetables either from or near their Kentucky farm.
See previous biography reviews -->
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