Subscribe via RSS Feed

Category: Memoirs

Review: The Last Goodnights by John West

[ 7 ] September 4, 2010

Reviewed by Claudia R.

“I don’t know what my booze bill was for that time, but I’m sure it was big. I had good reason, though: I had to kill my parents. They asked me to. Actually, they asked me to help them with their suicides, and I did.” – John West

Assisted Suicide is the common term for controversial actions by which an individual helps another person die upon their wanting to do. This is a concept almost always reserved for people who are terminally ill. In the United States, only three States “allow” assisted suicide: Oregon, Washington and Montana. Even then, there is a mountain of red tape and legalities that must first be dealt with, rendering the entire process a living nightmare.

When John’s ailing father asks his son to aide him with his suicide, John does not hesitate. His father, a prominent doctor, understood what would happen to him as the cancer progressed, and John was sure of his father’s mental faculties at the time of the request. Together, they schemed and plotted the last goodbye. In his book, The Last Goodnights, John details the days leading up to the final moments, the aftermath, and the inevitable consequences, first for his father and then again for his mother.

In journal form, John takes the readers through the experience, describing a unique and personal perspective in the lives of all involved, offering a different opinion of death with dignity, driving home the point that each situation is intimate, and should never involve government intrusion in the first place. Having to dance around the legalities of assisted suicide during such a grievous time is like adding insult to injury. The government should not have any rights over our bodies and the choices and decisions we make with them at any time during our lives.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Death is as natural as life, and should be sweet and graceful”. I agree. We should ultimately all have the choice to leave this earth when and how we see fit. Unfortunately, at this time, most of us do not.

Unfortunately, many do not see it this way and John’s book brings the controversial subject to the forefront in his memoir. Definitely a conversation piece, this book is sure to make you think about your own d-day and the choices you can or can’t make. Simple, tender, honest, brutally honest, The Last Goodnights will linger in the back of your mind long after you’ve finished reading it.

For more information, please visit The Last Goodnights website.

Claudia lives on Cape Cod with her husband and two children. She entertains her passion for reading in between being a full-time Mom, aspiring writer, avid photographer & volunteer for Missie’s Closet, an emergency food & necessities pantry for the low-income in her area.

This book was provided free of any obligation by John West. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

  • Share/Bookmark
View Post

Review: Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini

[ 8 ] September 2, 2010

Reviewed by Carly M.

Like many books set in Italy, Keeping the Feast is a book that revolves around food. Buying food, preparing food, enjoying food…these tasks are the constant background noise to a story that is, in many ways, the exact antithesis of culinary pleasures. Where the food comforts, the story agitates. Where the food tantalizes, the story repels. Where the food strengthens, the story despairs. Such is the back and forth in this memoir about the lives of two journalists whose lives took a sudden and tragic turn.

Paula Butturini and John Tagliabue met in Italy while working as foreign correspondents. Marginally successful in their careers and satisfied with their lives abroad, the pair decided to marry and make a life for themselves. However, within a month of their marriage, John was shot while on the job. This book tells the story of the strain that his injuries, many surgeries, and resulting depression took on their young marriage as they tried to rebuild their life in Rome.

I was initially excited to read this memoir, after hearing some good reviews. I was disappointed, however, to find that Keeping the Feast did not live up to my expectations. Although Butturini’s story is complex and intriguing, I found the constant discussion of food and the continually leaping back and forth in time to be very distracting. I feel like this book would have worked better if it had been separated into two projects: the flowery celebration of food in Rome and the detailed, gritty story of the events that made up the first few years of their marriage. The combination of the two just didn’t work for me.

Carly lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband and their two cats. Her favorite thing to do is to curl up by a window with a library book.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Riverhead Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

  • Share/Bookmark
View Post

Review: Eight Days in Darkness by Anita Wooldridge and Angela Roegner

[ 5 ] August 29, 2010

Reviewed by Claudia R.

Eight Days in Darkness: The True Story of the Abduction, Rape, and Rescue of Anita Wooldridge of Anita Wooldridge by Angela Roegner and Anita Woodridge takes readers, in intimate detail, through the horror and violence of the eight days Anita was held captive. Written with the help of her therapist, Anita gives an insider glimpse of the moments leading up to and subsequent days of her abduction, and the emotional and physical toll they took upon her and everyone in her life.

This isn’t a book for everyone. Every detail of her torture, including sexual acts, are described in great length. Written as a healing tool as well as a way to demonstrate the cruelty and disgustingly perverse mind of her captor, Eight Days in Darkness relives for the readers the hell of each day and the effects on family, friends and authorities as they desperately sought to find Anita, alive.

Abducted from her home by a casual acquaintance, Anita is forced to sleep in a locked metal cabinet, as well as stay in it when ‘the mole’ (her captor) could not watch her. Surrounded by squalor and filth, Anita must perform the most degrading acts as well as entertain her captor in an effort to survive; prayer and determination are the only weapons she possesses.

Readers are introduced to the team that worked diligently to track her down and save her, as well as friends and family and the ripple affects of the abduction on a small town. No one is innocent, everyone is a suspect, every lead followed, no matter how bizarre or far fetched with one common goal: finding Anita alive.

The writing isn’t spectacular, alas. Religion, God and prayer is sprinkled liberally and without limits throughout. I struggled a few times with both, because for me, it made the story even more, too much more, personal. But I understand that Anita experienced a living hell few can claim, and helped write this book as a means to demonstrate the hate and love, good and evil that exists in the world. As well as providing a case study for the FBI which is still used today as a training tool.

This is as real as it gets, however, and anyone anticipating a light, bare bones read won’t find it here. Dark, scary and no holes barred, Eight Days drags readers in to Anita’s hell and the ensuing struggle that only victims of such heinous crimes can understand.

Still healing, Anita has begun to move on from this part of her life and shares her tale through public appearances and lectures, opening heart and soul to the public in an attempt to protect and prevent future attacks. For those interested in the human mind in all it’s shapes and incongruities, this is a must read.

Please visit the official book website to learn more.

Claudia lives on Cape Cod with her husband and two children. She entertains her passion for reading in between being a full-time Mom, aspiring writer, avid photographer & volunteer for Missie’s Closet, an emergency food & necessities pantry for the low-income in her area.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

  • Share/Bookmark
View Post

Review: Matches in the Gas Tank: Trial by Fire in the Armstrong Cult by Carla Powers

[ 5 ] August 28, 2010

Reviewed by Lauren K.

Matches in the Gas Tank is a commanding memoir about religion and family. The emphasis of the book lies not on the inner workings of the Radio Church of God, but instead on the inner workings of the Powers family and how the church influenced and ultimately had a hand in destroying them.

Carla Powers tells her story in a careful, yet poignant way. She is not quick to pass blame on the church but instead shows the error of their ways and their teachings in regards to her family and herself. Despite Herbert W. Armstrong’s, the church’s founder and leader, looming influence, Carla does not fill the book only with his words and views. This memoir is one of a woman coming to terms with her lack of a relationship with her alcoholic and non-existent father.

Carla has overcome poverty to become a successful lawyer in Texas, far from her sheltered beginning in the Radio Church of God. When she receives the call that her father is dying, she is instantly thrown into the memories she has worked long and hard to forget. As she goes to the hospital, she joins her mother and two brothers, Steve, who still thinks fondly of their father and Dan, who never even knew him, and the four of them push through the memories and hurt to figure out care for the man laying the hospital bed. This is the very man that almost destroyed them all, individually and as a family.

Powers’ memories are vibrant and clear. She remembers details with amazing accuracy yet does not overwhelm the reader with useless information. You can feel her pain in listening to her parents argue, feel her shame when the ministers come to inspect the house, and ultimately feel her triumph when she realizes the lessons she learned and that her upbringing helped shape her into the strong woman she became. For those looking for an intimate look into a fanatical religious movement, this is not that type of story; this book is for anyone looking for a success story, one of a woman who started with almost nothing and came out with so much.

In addition to working on her own personal writing, editing Messy Magazine, and writing for multiple sites, Lauren is also currently pursuing her MFA in English. More of her work can be found at goldiesays.wordpress.com.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Bright Sky Press. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

  • Share/Bookmark
View Post

Blog Tour & Giveaway: What We Have by Amy Boesky

[ 186 ] August 17, 2010

Please join Amy Boesky, author of What We Have, as she tours the blogosphere with TLC Book Tours!

To learn more about Amy Boesky, please visit her website!

Reviewed by Meg M.

Amy Boesky’s What We Have: A Family’s Inspiring Story About Love, Loss, and Survival, begins with a sense of hope. We are told the story of a young Amy who meets Jacques, a man she falls in love with the instant she sees him. Not long after, Amy learns that she is pregnant with their first child. Interweaved throughout this tale of a growing family, however, is the devastation of loss. No woman in their family has lived past the age of forty-five, all of them victims to cancer. Amy and her sisters, Julie and Sara, are rapidly approaching the age of thirty-five, the age where preventative surgery could help to avoid the cancer that has stolen so much from their family.

Amy’s story is one of balance; a constant struggle to balance fears about her health (and the health of her family) with the new life she lives with her young daughter and husband. Suddenly, her mother is diagnosed with cancer, five years after beating it the first time. All at once, Amy is forced to think of a future without her mother, and learns that a life lived in fear is no life at all.

This book was beautifully written, which is no surprise, seeing that Amy is an English professor. As stated by Patricia Wood, the author of Lottery, Amy’s memoir reads more like a novel than a memoir. Poetic, heartbreaking and inspirational all at once, Amy doesn’t hide her anguish, fear, and the desire to overcome it all to live a life of fullness.

Meg lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Ryan. Marketing professional by day, freelance writer by night, Meg writes about life, entertainment and everything in between on her blog, Morning Cup With Meg.

Giveaway:
1 winner will receive a copy of Amy Boesky’s memoir, What We Have!

Mandatory entry: Please comment on this post with your e-mail address.

Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via e-mail, follow or subscribe to the feed. You must verify the subscriptions. (1 entry each)
- Enter another giveaway on this blog (1 entry each)
- Become a fan on Facebook (2 entries)

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on September 3rd.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by St. Martin’s Griffin. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

  • Share/Bookmark
View Post

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Rae by Chelsea Rae Swiggett

[ 173 ] August 17, 2010

Please join us for the TLC Book Tour of teen authored memoir series Louder Than Words! Know a teen who is interested in writing for the Louder Than Words series? Have them submit their story here.

Reviewed by Vera (Luxury Reading)

Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety, and Social Phobia, part of the Louder Than Words series, is the story of Chelsea Rae Swiggett as told in her own words. As far back as Chelsea could remember, she felt different. The sounds of airplanes kept her up at night, worried that one might crash into her house at any minute. Family road trips were a source of constant anxiety as Chelsea imagined dozens of different ways to die in a car. High school was its own ordeal. Transferring to a new school for freshman year, Chelsea hoped to make a fresh start, but her fear of social interactions led her classmates to believe that she was at best extremely socially awkward and at worst mute.

As Chelsea struggled to step outside her perceived comfort zone and be more social, the result was just more uncomfortable silences and missed opportunities to form bonds with her peers. Her admissions to her mother that she was different were met with “you’re just shy”; Chelsea finally met with a psychiatrist when she blurted out that she was depressed, and was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

Constant anxiety was a new concept for me, and reading Rae gave me a better understanding of what it’s like to live with this disorder. Chelsea was very honest in describing her feelings and experiences, and I think her story is an important read for anyone. Those who don’t know much about the disorder will hopefully learn to be more sensitive towards individuals suffering with anxiety. For those who deal with anxiety on a daily basis or who have family members that do, Rae will show them that they are not alone and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Giveaway:
Here’s the big giveaway you’ve been waiting for! One grand prize winner will receive copies of all 3 Louder Than Words books we’ve reviewed here – Alexis, Hannah and Rae! (click on the names for our reviews)

Another winner will receive a copy of Rae, courtesy of the publisher!

Mandatory entry: Please comment on this post with your e-mail address.

Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via e-mail, follow or subscribe to the feed. You must verify the subscriptions. (1 entry each)
- Enter another current giveaway and tell me which one you entered (1 entry each)
- Share this giveaway on a social network of your choice. Click the “Share/Save” button at the bottom of this post (1 entry each)
- Become a fan on Facebook (2 entries)

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on September 3rd.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by HCI Teens. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

  • Share/Bookmark
View Post

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Hannah by Hannah Westberg

[ 116 ] August 10, 2010

Please join us for the TLC Book Tour of teen authored memoir series Louder Than Words! Know a teen who is interested in writing for the Louder Than Words series? Have them submit their story here.

Reviewed by Jenna A.

“At least this chaos filled the emptiness. I longed to be void of emotions again.” – Hannah

Hannah Westberg is a 19-year-old living with boderline personality disorder. In her self named memoir, Hannah discusses growing up with and around mental illness, and brings her trials and tribulations to light.

Hannah’s story starts the readers at the very beginning, indulging us in the assorted stories of her mother, father, sisters, brother and friends. Hannah grew up not knowing normal from abstract, black from white. Her mother suffered from schizoaffective disorder, abandoning Hannah and her siblings, forcing them to live with a depressed father, and an unwanted stepmother.

Such chaos only worsened things for Hannah, and she continuously battled with drug use, suicidal thoughts and difficult relationships. In her memoir, she lets the readers in on her roller coaster of a life leading up to her rape, stints in mental wards and bouts of self mutilation.

Well written and emotionally charged, Hannah shows us the power of truth, pain, and strength with a maturity beyond her years. The story is serious, yet the knowledge that the author has lived through this pain and has written this story for others like her to share in is extremely refreshing. I would reccommend this book to anyone who has ever loved someone with a mental illness or experience it themselves.

Jenna lives in a small town in Ohio with her fiance and cat Osiris. Along with her passion for reading and the literary world, she is also a painter, poet, fiction writer, and amateur photographer.

Giveaway:
1 winner will receive a copy of Hannah, courtesy of the publisher!

Mandatory entry: Please comment on this post with your e-mail address.

Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via e-mail, follow or subscribe to the feed. You must verify the subscriptions. (1 entry each)
- Enter another current giveaway and tell me which one you entered (1 entry each)
- Share this giveaway on a social network of your choice. Click the “Share/Save” button at the bottom of this post (1 entry each)
- Become a fan on Facebook (2 entries)

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on August 30th.

Look for our review of Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety, and Social Phobia on August 17th for a chance to win all 3 books in the series!

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by HCI Teens. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

  • Share/Bookmark
View Post

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Alexis by Alexis Singer

[ 184 ] August 9, 2010

Please join us for the TLC Book Tour of teen authored memoir series Louder Than Words! Know a teen who is interested in writing for the Louder Than Words series? Have them submit their story here.

Reviewed by Jennifer J.

In her senior year in high school, Alexis felt disconnected from her friends and her parents. The previous year in school left her feeling friendless and without anyone to talk her through her rough moments. She turned to the one place where she felt she belonged and was accepted by others, an online forum she referred to as The Board. Most of her time outside of school was spent on The Board talking about everything from music to politics to life in general. There was always one person on those forums that intimidated Alexis; at the same time, she was fascinated by this older man.

Then there was the instant message from that member that would change the course of her life. She knew she should ignore it and log off, but her curiosity got the best of her. Soon Alexis became dependent on the 37-year-old married man whom she knew only as “Phil”. She relished in the attention he gave her, and grew depressed when he ignored her for days on end. Alexis learned how to manipulate the situation, providing revealing and obscene photographs of herself in order to gain more of his attention. Though she knew her behavior was destructive, Alex did not know how to stop herself. She became careless in erasing the evidence of her illegal activities, and was eventually caught by her concerned and angry mother. Even as she received the help she needed, Alexis still longed for Phil. Alexis: My True Story of Being Seduced By an Online Predator is the story of these events in her own words.

I have always felt that writing is a great outlet for any type of pain. It allows the writer to put down all of his or her thoughts and feelings to paper and release it from the inside. In writing this gripping teen memoir, Alexis was able to finally let go of some of that pain and give other teens the opportunity to learn from her mistakes. Online predators are more common than we think, and as a parent it’s important to know the signs that might indicate something isn’t right in our children’s lives.

I absolutely love the concept of the Louder Than Words series because it is about teens speaking to teens about their real life events. Programs such as Dateline appeal to parents, but I don’t think it’s a show I took seriously when I was the same age as Alexis. I would recommend this book to any parent of teenagers who spend a great deal of time online and interacting with perfect strangers. While there are some really wonderful people out there online, not every single one of them has the best of intentions, and it’s important to be able to tell the difference between those types.

Jennifer graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in English. She occasionally dabbles with her own fiction writing, particularly with the Young Adult and Paranormal genres. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and daughter.

Giveaway:
1 winner will receive a copy of Alexis, courtesy of the publisher!

Mandatory entry: Please comment on this post with your e-mail address.

Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via e-mail, follow or subscribe to the feed. You must verify the subscriptions. (1 entry each)
- Enter another current giveaway and tell me which one you entered (1 entry each)
- Share this giveaway on a social network of your choice. Click the “Share/Save” button at the bottom of this post (1 entry each)
- Become a fan on Facebook (2 entries)

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on August 30th.

Look for our review of Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety, and Social Phobia on August 17th for a chance to win all 3 books in the series!

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by HCI Teens. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
  • Share/Bookmark
View Post
Page 1 of 3123