Tag Archives: memoir

October 17, 2012 · 12:55 pm

How to Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

How to Be a Woman

 

 

I’m just gonna throw this out there - I didn’t love this book*. In fact, I had some issues with a lot of it. So if that might upset you, then please feel free to skip this whole thing. Also, I’m not really going to call “spoilers” for anything in this book, because it’s a memoir/feminist issues kind of book, so there’s not really “spoilers”, you know?

Caitlin Moran says that if you have a have a vagina and want to be in control of it, then you’re a feminist. And that’s a cool definition, one I can totally get behind… except that most of the rest of this book is the reason why I don’t like saying that I’m a feminist.

So, the book kind of follows Caitlin as she grows up and encounters various growing-up issues that females run across. We start of with periods, body hair, boobs – all the stuff that has to do with puberty, basically. From there she discusses weight issues, running into sexism, love, marriage, strip clubs, kids, abortion – all the more adult stuff. And all the chapters usually tie into the feminist issues that go along with those topics. Even when there’s nothing feminist about that topic…

I’m trying really hard right now not to vent about all of my little issues with this book. (It helps that I already went over them all, practically chapter by chapter, with my boyfriend while I was reading it. I ranted a lot.) Soooo… let’s just do this in a clearcut fashion then, huh?

Here are the things I liked:

  • The chapter about abortion. Probably the best written chapter in the book.
  • The part where she talks about weddings, and how it’s insane that people spend SO MUCH MONEY just on one day when that money could be used for so many better things.
  • Her saying that she’s all for pornography (her issue is with the porn industry, I guess, but not porn itself.)
  • Her actual definition of feminism.

Here are some things I didn’t like:

  • That she tries to turn things like body hair, underwear, shopping, and more into feminist issues. They’re not, really. And that she basically blames men for pressuring women to conform and that’s why we get Brazilians or wear thongs. (I promise, 90% of men could care less about these things. If all women decided next week to not wax down there and we went back to granny panties, there would be no uproar from most of the men.)
  • That at her first job she went around making out with the whole office, but then was all “That’s sexism!” when some guy asked her to sit on his lap. Sure, it was inappropriate and screwed up… but honestly what did you expect?
  • That she glorifies Lady Gaga as a feminist. Just… ugh.
  • That this is a “how to be a woman book”, but near the end she goes and spends a ton of money on a designer purse because of what she sees in a magazine. The fact that she’s in her 30′s and worrying that she’s not a “normal woman” because of what she reads in a magazine says more about her insecurity issues than anything else.
  • That in the chapter “Why You Should Have Children” chapter, she says that anything else in life you might enjoy - champagne, Paris, etc. – is just a consolation prize because you don’t have a kid.
  • That she rails against the porn industry because they cater so much to men, and that there should be more porn aimed towards women. This is not a feminist or sexist issue – there’s a reason that they cater to men – it’s called supply and demand. Men buy a whole ton more porn than women do.

If this had been just a regular memoir and not titled “How to Be a Woman” and not promoted as a feminist book, I might have enjoyed it more. But this is in fact, how NOT to go about being a woman (If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already figured it out. This book is not geared towards teens) and how not to be a feminist, either. Caitlin Moran has actually made me realize why I don’t like the word “feminism” – she tries to blame men for things that they really have no control over and aren’t forcing women to do. She hardly mentions actual problems, like pay inequality, sexual harassment, how rape is prosecuted around the world, etc. She says that women should be allowed to do whatever they want, but then criticizes strippers. She goes all “fuck the patriarchy”, but I don’t see her running for any government office, either. From now on, maybe I’ll just say that I support women’s rights, or equality for women, rather than use the F word. At the very least, Moran did me a favor by helping me to see exactly what irks me about that word.

Sooo… this was an interesting book. There were a few laughs. She made a couple good points. But I have a lot of post-it notes spread throughout my library copy, in which I’m arguing with her. Overall, it was frustrating.

You want to know how to be a woman? Don’t give a crap what anyone else thinks and do what YOU want.

 

Sarah Says: 2 stars

 

*PS Laura don’t hate me!

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September 21, 2012 · 5:00 am

Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs

Ohhh, A.J. Jacobs. You’re so hilarious.

Jacobs is a writer / journalist who essentially takes on these massive, life-altering projects and then writes about it. The Know-It-All was about him reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica, and The Year of Living Biblically was about him trying to follow the Bible as literally as possible. His newest book, Drop Dead Healthy, is about him trying to be the healthiest man possible – which leads to him trying all sorts of crazy diets, workouts, and health advice. Considering my own recent health kick lately, this was a perfect pick for me.

As he starts off the book, he talks about how there have been SO many medical advances and stuff over the years, but that thanks to the Internet the crazy ideas are still around…

“Thanks to the Internet, just about any quarter-baked idea ever conceived still gets traction. Case in point: trepanning, a practice that dates back to 6500 BCE and involves drilling a hole in the skull to let out evil spirits. I did an Internet search. And guess what? It’s still around. Check out the International Trepanation Advocacy Group. It’s website features images of green-tinted brain scans next to doctors in white lab coats writing complicated math equations on boards. Apparently, this is not your caveman’s trepanation. No, this is totally scientifical drilling of holes in your skull.”

And right there is an example of how he infuses humor into basically every topic he talks about in this book. But even though the book was pretty hysterical and had me laughing out loud several times, it also gives you a lot to think about. He explores SO many things – how sitting is so damaging to our health, the Paleo diet, barefoot running, superfoods, the effect of pets on our health, the benefits of squatting, trying to live toxin and chemical-free life, food science, and how even the healthiest of us die eventually. And as he talks about the various things that he attempts to try to improve his health, it made me want to do some of it. I would TOTALLY have a treadmill desk in my future house – walk while you’re working or online. It’s brilliant. Or his tips for trying to eat less junk food – in an effort to avoid his favorite sweet treat, he told his wife to send a thousand dollar check to the American Nazi Party if he ate one. It worked – he didn’t even have a desire to eat those sweets, because the repercussions would just be too horrible to think of.

He sums up the book with some of his favorite advice, the habits he’ll probably continue with, and how he’s happy to be more in shape because he wants to be around for his wife and sons for as long as possible. Overall, this was a really fun book but also really relevant. I got this out from the library, but I’m definitely going to go buy my own copy to add to my collection of A.J. Jacobs books.

 

Sarah Says: 4 stars

 

 

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September 8, 2012 · 5:00 am

My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler

Chelsea Handler

 

Chelsea Handler is just hysterical. I just really like her sense of humor – it’s crass, sarcastic, and a little mean. So OBVIOUSLY her talking about her various sexual encounters in a book is bound to be hilarious.

I kind if liked that at least half of these stories were about times she DIDN’T sleep with a guy – there were a lot of awkward situations that she got herself into but never turned into anything more than that. I laughed out loud several times while reading this, especially when she started to go on and on about her love of midgets. There’s male strippers, Ecstasy, sketchy cruises, costumes, copious amounts of drinking… it gets crazy. Of course there was nothing eye-opening or truly surprising here, but it was a fun book. I read it in a couple of hours, and it was fluffy, mindless, and made me laugh.

This is a perfect book to read if you’re just trying to relax and want something short and hysterical to read. My only recommendation is that you read it with a nice amaretto sour or some other sort of fun drink, cause Chelsea’s constant consumption of alcohol kind of makes you want to get up and make yourself  a drink.

 

Sarah Says: 3 stars

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June 3, 2012 · 2:57 am

Maus 1 & 2 by Art Spiegelman

Maus

So. Maus. I basically never really heard of these books until I read Laura’s review of MetaMaus a while back, and the idea intrigued me. A survivor’s tale of the Holocaust in comic format, in which the Jews are mice and the Nazis are cats? Interesting. And it was.

Maus 1

So, basically Maus is written and drawn by Art Spiegelman, whose father Vladek was a Holocaust survivor. Though he and his father weren’t very close for many years, they eventually start talking again and Art interviews his father about his story. Maus 1 is the first volume, in which Vladek recounts his story from the time before he meets his wife (and Art’s mother) Anja, to the time when they are both captured and taken to Auschwitz. It also shows the beginning of Art’s interviews with his father, and we catch glimpses of their strained relationship and Vladek’s difficulties in old age.

Maus 2

Maus 2 continues the story, starting with Vladek and Anja being taken to Auschwitz and eventually to the end of the war. At the same time, Art and Vladek’s relationship continues in the present day and Art tries to deal with some of the issues he has as the result of being a child of a Holocaust survivor, as well as trying to deal with the commercial success for Maus 1.

These books are extremely well done. Some may think that such a serious topic in comic-format would lose some of its importance, or its horror, but that would be wrong. Instead the awfulness of this time and of Vladek’s story is accentuated by the simple but strong images. Vladek’s story as a survivor is impressive – while he certainly suffered, he was also resourceful and in fact sometimes it was  hard to wrap your head around just how awful it must have been for him. But then you glance at the pictures and see the starved corpses and hanging bodies around Vladek and it reminds you of the pain he must have gone through. The fact that this story is done in comic-format made it one of the most powerful Holocaust stories I’ve read.

While Vladek’s story was definitely sad and captivating, I found the present-day scenes between Art and Vladek just as interesting, if not more so. In his younger years, Vladek was smart and financially successful and his cleverness and restraint served him well when he was trying to stay alive. In his older age, these traits have hightened - to the point of ridiculousness in the eyes of the other characters/ people in the book. Vladek has become extremely frugal and prefers repairing things himself or other things to save money where he can. This actually really helped me to relate to Vladek - my grandma grew up during the Great Depression and she had some of the same habits. The comic also shows how frustrated Art was with his father, and how hard he worked to be objective when creating Vladek in the book. I did find it… odd, I suppose… that Art and Vladek didn’t seem to really grow closer throughout the interviews, but maybe that’s explored more in MetaMaus. (Which, by the way I have from the library now and I’ve flipped through it and it seems awesome. I need to read it soon.)

Also depicted in the book is Art’s struggles – the guilt he feels for having an easier life than his parents, his issues over his mother’s suicide, frustration and confusion over how to proceed with such a rough topic, and trying to deal with the commercial success of Maus 1.These were some of my favorite parts of the book.

I think his use of animal heads to show the races of the characters was really clever and really useful. I think that the same story but told with comics of human characters would have been overkill – the use of animal heads was a simple style that I really liked and left more room for detail to the story and setting. And there are all sorts of metaphorical and sociological implications to it as well, but seriously that could be a whole separate long-ass blog post. There are a lot of things to discuss in this book – the father-son relationship, the Holocaust, racism, the comic format as a medium, the effect of the Holocaust on later generations, etc. It would take hours for me to really talk about it all.

MetaMaus

Maus impressed me in a lot of ways. It was certainly captivating and thought-provoking and just fantastic. I borrowed the copies I read from the library, but I’m going to have to go out and purchase my own, and I’m sure I’ll litter them with post-it notes expressing all my thoughts and ideas and such about the book. Cause that’s what I do.

Anyways, you should read Maus. It will only take you an afternoon to read 1 & 2 (or the complete volume, if you have it) and then you can come here and talk to me about it, yes?

 

Sarah Says: 5 stars

 

 

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January 2, 2012 · 9:03 am

Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

  • Title: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
  • Author: Mindy Kaling
  • Publisher: Crown Archetype, 2011
  • Pages: 219
  • ISBN: 9780307886262

Woo-hoo! Starting off the New Year right – I read this in basically one sitting yesterday.  AND it counts as the “biography” pick for the Mixing It Up Challenge! Yay!

Also if you can’t tell, I added some book info underneath the book cover there… I’m going to try to do that for each book. Partly to make myself a little more aware of things like publishers, but also just to give the appearance of neatness and organization here :-)

OK, so if you can’t tell who Mindy Kaling is just from the book cover, then you may not watch The Office and we may not be friends. (Just kidding! Kind of…) Mindy is best known for playing Kelly Kapoor on The Office – that funny, bubbly, totally nuts girl with a high-pitched voice. Well this is her book, all about how she got into tv and some very funny but awesome thoughts, questions, and concerns she has.

Mindy apparently started out as a WRITER for The Office! I had no idea. She actually writes, directs, produces, AND acts on the show. I had no clue that she had started off as one of the shows writers, and that’s she’s like a quadruple-threat, which just makes her too cool. So Mindy talks about her childhood, always being on the chubby side, her first jobs when she came to New York City, how she became a comedy writer, her time on The Office, and a little tiny bit about her romantic life. My favorite chapter is near the end, In Defense of Chest Hair, in which she proclaims her love for a bit of chest hair on a man and says that all of those waxed movie stars look like chihuahuas.

So, I’m not going to go over every funny or interesting thing in this book, cause then you’d have no reason to read it yourself! I do think that if you’re a girl, you should just pick this up and read it – it’ll only take you one afternoon, and it’s a cute memoir. Mindy seems like such a sweet, fun person and her book is funny, light-hearted, and enjoyable. Plus she invents a new word – “pliest”, which is a written piece with a list-y quality. I’m so going to use that word.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

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October 21, 2011 · 11:51 am

One Day It’ll All Make Sense by Common

Yayyy! Finally got to read Common’s autobiography that just came out recently, called One Day It’ll All Make Sense. It seems to me that there is a HUGE lack of rap / hip-hop fans among book bloggers and if any of ya’ll is interested in giving it a try, Common is my suggestion to you.

So, in this here book Lonnie Rashid Lynn (better known as Common) gives us the story of his life. Each chapter starts with a letter to someone in his life, which I thought was a cool idea. Common takes you on a journey from his childhood to his teenage years, to his struggle to become a more successful rapper and to dealing with fame, relationships, and controversy.

Obviously, you probably aren’t going to read this unless you’re already a Common fan and that’s okay. That’s usually how it is with memoirs. But there were a couple things in the book that I liked in particular that I just wanted to mention:

- He talks with so much fondness for his mama, and I love that. She actually writes in her thoughts in some of the chapters, and it was interesting to see how much she struggled to make him a good, honest person but still able to man up and take care of himself. (This actually reminds me of my honeyman and how he was raised. I give so much credit to women who are able to raise truly great men.)

- He delves into his relationship history a bit and it was interesting to see him reflect on past loves and how they affected him. We all do this – dissect what happened, how it happened, why it ended, and how we came out better for it.

- He speaks about the whole White House controversy – basically some conservative politicians trying to run a smear campaign against him when he was invited to the White House as part of a poetry night. It was a really weak effort on the conservatives part to make Obama look bad, and MAN I was infuriated when it happened. He handles this all very gracefully.

- I learned more about his older cd’s. Honestly, I didn’t start listening to Common until my boyfriend had me listen to him about 4 years ago. I didn’t know who he was before that, at least not knowingly – I probably heard him before and didn’t realize it. So I’ve only listened to his last three cd’s, but now I really want to go out and listen to more of his older stuff.

And that’s about it. If you ever hear about Common, you’ll hear him described as a “conscious rapper” and that’s more or less true. Sure he raps about some grittier stuff, but I like Common so much because he’s socially, spiritually, and poltically aware and that comes through in his songs. He’s thoughtful and intelligent and his songs make you think. I hate when people automatically associate all rap with “thug / hate / sex / violence” music, I hate when people hear Lil Wayne on the radio and assume that THAT’S what all rap is. Common is the perfect rapper to clear up those misconceptions. He’s a great example of hip-hop.

So, overall an interesting read. Go listen to Common (I recommend his cd’s Be and Finding Forever) and if you like what you hear, then check out his book.

Sarah Says: 3 stars

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May 29, 2011 · 3:44 pm

>Bossypants by Tina Fey

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For reals, I love Tina Fey. I used to feel like a jerk for saying that, because I really only noticed her when she did those Palin sketches on SNL, and then fell in love when I started watching 30 Rock (Liz Lemon is like the best TV character ever). I’ve been wanting to read this since it came out, but a couple weeks ago I was STILL like #40 on my library’s hold list, so when I got a good coupon for Borders, I caved and bought Bossypants. (Seriously though – Little, Brown, & Co publishers – it’s criminal that you’ve priced a hardcover book with less than 300 pages at $27. Are you insane? Good thing I had that 50% off coupon, and my extra 10% membership discount.) So now, having read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it, I feel justified in saying that yeah, Tina Fey rocks.

This is Tina’s recollections of childhood, school, awkward dating situations, jobs, and finally her awesome shows and being a mom. She’s witty and funny throughout the whole darn thing, while still remaining cool and intelligent. She’s one of those famous people that you could totally picture being friends with. And that’s saying something for me, because I honestly don’t have a lot of female friends.

A couple highlights / my favorite parts:

    • “Two peanuts are walking down the street. And one was a salted.” (This was just a random joke in the intro – TOTALLY perfect for my corny sense of humor.)
  • She dedicates a whole chapter to addressing some of the rude comments she’s seen about herself online. And man does she know how to bite back :o )

 

  • She defends the use of Photoshop, pointing out that it’s not inherently evil and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good. And that it’s better than plastic surgery.

 

  • While she pokes fun at her single-life encounters with the opposite sex, she’s respectful whenever she mentions her husband. She doesn’t get vulgar or sexual when she talks about him, it’s cool that she respects her married life.

 

  • She talks a bit about sexism she’s encountered over the years and voices her feminist stance. I have issues with modern-day feminists – mainly because the ones I meet are too “girls rule and boys drool”, and they tend to be really jerky about my desire to be a childless housewife. But Tina writing about how tough it is for female comedians, and talking about how infuriating it is to deal with people who have working-mom issues… it reminded me what feminism is SUPPOSED to be about. Choosing what YOU want to do, and not having to deal with someone else’s bullshit, criticizing you because what you want to do goes against the preconceived notions people have for what women are supposed to be like. So props to her for that.

 

  • She talks about the Sarah Palin sketches that brought her so much attention during the last election.

 

  • She talks about her work on SNL & how 30 Rock was created, which I really enjoyed because I love 30 Rock so much.

 

Overall, this was a great look into Tina Fey’s life and psyche. She seems like such a fun person. It gave me a lot of laughs along the way. The only bad thing I can say is that it’s too short. And I didn’t know she wrote that Mean Girls movie… it kind of makes me want to see it now.

Sarah Says: 4 stars!

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January 25, 2011 · 3:51 pm

>They Poured Fire On Us From the Sky by Benson, Alepho, & Benjamin

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This book is a memoir of three of the Lost Boys of Sudan; Benson Deng, Alepho Deng, and Benjamin Ajak. Benson and Alepho are brothers, and Benjamin is their cousin. They were between the ages of 5 & 7 when war in Sudan hit their area and they were forced to travel for months to Ethiopia and Kenya, living in exile as refugees before finally getting their chance to come to America via the Lost Boys program – they were also extrememly lucky because they arrived in the U.S. right before 9/11, and the program was suspended for several years after that.

The things those poor boys had to endure at such a young age is unbelievable. Even after reading it, it’s hard to comprehend. I tried to imagine kids that age that I know going in the same situation and I just can’t imagine it. It definitely had me tearing up at times. Benson and Alepho spent years apart before finding each other again. And they also talk about how Kenyans criticized them and insulted them for being refugees, giving them a strong desire to work hard and make a life for themselves.

I learned a lot about Sudan reading this, and the website is worth looking at too – http://theypouredfire.com/. My only complaint is that I sometimes mixed up who I was reading about, because the chapters alternate so often. I sometimes had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself who I was reading about. I definitely want to read more about the conflicts in Sudan, thanks to this book sparking my interest.

Sarah Says: 3.75 stars

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October 16, 2010 · 12:46 pm

>The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew – Three Women Search for Understanding

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This was really interesting, and it was a quick read.

Three women from three different faiths get together to talk about their respective beliefs. It was informative, because I learned things about some of them that I didn’t know. The overall message; that they all pray to the same god, and all have the same BASIC beliefs was a good one, but one I already knew. As an atheist, it’s really annoying to watch religions bicker with one another, so that part of the book was refreshing. I especially liked that they all attended different religious celebrations with one another, and were teaching their children to be open-minded and accepting of religions different than their own. Lucky kids, because children these days are rarely exposed to that kind of open diversity.

And some parts, especially when Ranya talks about why she has faith, made me wish I was religious. It’s something I’ve wished every now and again. But I haven’t believed in God since I was about 7, and just can’t bring myself to now. I also dislike the idea of belonging to a religious group. I don’t believe in a deity, but I like to think I’m still a spiritual person, and that’s usually good enough for me. The way these women describe their faith is powerful though; powerful enough to help me understand why so many people adhere to religion, and to see the beauty in it.

Anyways, the discussions were interesting. The ladies remained respectful, but still argued when they felt something was important. And I learned a lot about the Israeli / Palestinian conflict, which I admittedly knew nothing about. I also appreciated that these women addressed the issue of rituals in religion – that though designed to unite, it actually excludes non-members, or members that don’t feel the rituals are necessary to their beliefs. It’s sad that Ranya feels excluded from the Muslim community because she doesn’t wear a head scarf, but she’s adamant about religion being about your personal relationship with your religion, not about social or cultural issues like what to wear, whether or not to use birth control, whether to eat kosher, etc.

Sadly, the last hundred pages of the book were kind of annoying. While the beginning was great because they had some intense discussions, and the second was great because they all came to appreciate their faiths and seemed more at peace with themselves than ever before, the last part of the book sucked because they got all doubtful about religion. Again. Listening to all three of them saying “Well, the Faith Club strengthened my beliefs… but now I’m feeling doubtful again” kind of seemed to defeat the purpose of the book. I wish they had ended it about 50 pages earlier.

Overall though, this was a good book and I enjoyed it.

3 stars

~Sarah

*Also, on Goodreads and Amazon I noticed that some of the reviewers gave the book a bad rating because these women weren’t “strong enough in their convictions to start with”, or because “so-and-so didn’t represent my religion the way I practice it” or “Ranya / Priscilla / Suzanne isn’t a REAL Muslim / Jew / Christian”. I think these people really over-looked the message open-mindedness and not judging others that was the big theme of the book. Sheesh.

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