Tag: Autobiography

I Will Do Better by Charles Bock

subtitled A Father’s Memoir of Heartbreak, Parenting, and Love. Perhaps my most popular and controversial review over on Goodreads is of an absolutely abysmal “parenting” memoir by a blogger who lost his wife in childbirth and struggled to raise their child on his own afterwards. I have genuine sympathy for his situation — with my …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/11/i-will-do-better-by-charles-bock/

An Honest Woman: A Memoir Of Love And Sex Work by Charlotte Shane

Being a complicated woman who tries to deal with myself honestly, it wasn’t a surprise to me that a lot of what Charlotte Shane has to say in her memoir about sex work is stuff I’ve already thought about. Honestly, it’s stuff that most, if not all, thoughtful non-sex-worker-exclusionary feminists have grappled with too. At …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/26/an-honest-woman-a-memoir-of-love-and-sex-work-by-charlotte-shane/

Hanami: You, Me, & 200 Sq Ft In Japan by Julia Cejas

Younger me would be absolutely shocked to hear that I no longer have the time to read full blurbs or the back cover matter of books anymore, but such are the perils of having so much to read, and so little time to do it in! Present day me was thus quite surprised to get …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/12/hanami-you-me-200-sq-ft-in-japan-by-julia-cejas/

Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Y’all, I was so excited when my friend Emily asked if I wanted to read Crying In H Mart with her, especially since it would help cap Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month for me here at The Frumious Consortium. We’d both heard so many great things about the book, and it looked short and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/30/crying-in-h-mart-by-michelle-zauner/

An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman

An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman

By the early 1960s, Vasily Grossman was in an odd position with the authorities of the Soviet Union. He had been a recognized writer starting in the 1930s, and as a war correspondent he was both beloved by regular troops and honored by the state. His novels were serialized in major newspapers, and his time …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/11/an-armenian-sketchbook-by-vasily-grossman/

Advocate by Eddie Ahn

subtitled A Graphic Memoir Of Family, Community, And The Fight For Environmental Justice. As a grossly overscheduled person myself, I would genuinely like to know where Eddie Ahn finds the time and energy for everything he does! A day job, volunteer work and a cartooning career? I was both impressed and secretly comforted reading this …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/07/advocate-by-eddie-ahn/

I’ll See You In Ijebu by Bunmi Emenanjo & Diana Ejaita

After reading this wonderful, tender memoir of childhood — so close to my own yet so vastly different — I finally understood how it feels to suffer from anemoia, a longing for a past I never actually knew. Is there a separate thing for when you wish this was your past, that this could have …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/14/ill-see-you-in-ijebu-by-bunmi-emenanjo-diana-ejaita/

Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir by Denise Dorrance

As this graphic memoir opens, Denise Dorrance is a cartoonist living with her husband and son in London. Originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she calls her 91 year-old mom every day just to check in. Mom has been living alone in their hometown since the death of her husband five years prior. When Mom doesn’t …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/06/polar-vortex-a-family-memoir-by-denise-dorrance/

Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir by Ai Weiwei, with Elettra Stamboulis & Gianluca Costantini

This gorgeous hardcover graphic memoir by celebrated artist Ai Weiwei is a must-have for his fans, and a must-read for anyone who cares about modern art and, particularly, its intersection with political protest. For those unfamiliar, Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, sometime designer of architecture and longtime political dissident against the Communist government of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/05/zodiac-a-graphic-memoir-by-ai-weiwei-with-elettra-stamboulis-gianluca-costantini/

What’s Wrong? by Erin Williams

subtitled Personal Histories of Chronic Pain and Bad Medicine. After a lifetime of anxiety and self-medication, Erin Williams realized that the American health system had failed her. At best, it focused on symptoms instead of attempting to treat her as an entire person, leaving her to suffer with chronic pain and, finally, to search for …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/01/30/whats-wrong-by-erin-williams/