Category: Memoir

by Jewel, 2015 Danette asked me to look for this as a used book. I checked Bizarre Bazaar but no luck. However, our library had it, so I checked it out and read it. It’s very interesting. I had no idea Jewel was like this! I thought that her name was a made-up name but […]

by Patrick Svensson, 2019, translated from the Swedish by Agnes Broome 2020 Surprising that a book about eels would be so interesting, but it was! Every other chapter is his personal experience fishing for eels with his Dad in Sweden. I liked those chapters the best. He loved fishing for eels with his Dad. What […]

Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race, by Lara Prior-Palmer, 2019 This was the first book for the 2020-2021 Old Town Library Book Club. It was a fast read, like the 1000-kilometer horse race over the Mongolian Steppe it describes, in which 19 year-old Lara incredibly wins. She competed in it on a whim in the […]

by Michelle Obama, 2018 Wonderful book by and about Michelle Obama, her growing up years in the South Side of Chicago, her college years at Princeton and Harvard Law School, her meeting and falling in love with Barack Obama when he was a summer intern at the law firm where she worked, her marriage to […]

by Tom Brown, Jr. as told to William Jon Watkins, 1978 Adam’s book about Tom Brown, Jr. and how he became the tracker he is. He grew up near the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. He was taught how to track by his best friend’s grandfather, Stalking Wolf. From the age of 6 to 18, […]

by Bill Bryson, 2006 What a hilarious book. I laughed out loud on almost every page. He was born in 1951 in Des Moines, Iowa, and this is a story about growing up there in the 1950s. I LOVED his description of his mom, her horrible cooking, her forgetfulness and spaciness. His dad was the […]

by Sarah M. Broom, 2019 Interesting and well-written memoir about growing up in New Orleans East, the youngest of 12 siblings. The home she grows up in, which she calls the Yellow House, was damaged by Hurricane Katrina and then demolished. She has had such an interesting life, growing up the youngest of 12. Her […]

by Abraham Verghese, 1998 Tragic true story by the author of ‘Cutting for Stone.’ He tells about his move to El Paso, Texas, to teach internal medicine at Texas Tech. He meets David Smith, a medical student who was a former tennis pro. They develop a deep friendship via the tennis court. Abraham is an […]

By Rifqa Bary, 2015 True story about a young Muslim girl who converts to Christianity and has to run away from home for her life and safety. This book demonstrates many things but to me, it mainly shows how we Americans take for granted our religious freedom; we are free to worship who we want, […]

by Carly Simon, 2015 Carly started out life as a rich girl in NYC. Her dad was Dick Simon, founder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster. She was their third daughter and they were hoping for a boy to name “Carl” so they added a “y” and that’s how she became Carly. Music was a […]