The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin

The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This audiobook, narrated awesomely by the author, Lara Love Hardin, was excellent! I did not like Drug fueled Lara and I rooted for her sobriety and a normal life. I love her journey and also the book she co-authored with Anthony Ray Hinton, The Sun Does Shine, which is a MUST READ too!

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The Sun Does Sine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This audiobook forward was read by Bryan Stevenson & narrated by Kevin R. Free. This nonfiction story written by Anthony Ray Hinton is about his 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He is a good man who is first astonished he is convicted & then remains in angry stony silence for a few years because he can't imagine why this travesty happened to him. But when he begins to let himself turn a corner because his mother and best friend visit him weekly; he also gets involved in reading & sharing it with his fellow prisoners in a book club. Bryan Stevenson is the lawyer who changed things for Anthony Ray---becoming his friend and believing in his innocence. This is a must read that will make you angry and make you cry, but Anthony Ray keeps a positive outlook and believes he will one day be free--but he sees many of his prisoner/friends die in the electric chair as he fights the battle for his freedom.

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My Broken Language: A Memior by Quiara Alegria Hudes

My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quiara Alegria Hudes' biography/memoir contains her life as a child of a Jewish father and Spanish mother but the world she lives in is what she writes so compelling about---history her activist Puerto Rican mother has told her and shown her over the years. Using stories we learn about her life in North Philadelphia and her time in Malvern, we learn about the barrio, the many players in the life the author wants to know more about and read/write/sing about.

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Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes

Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Awesomely narrated by Paul Holes; this audiobook covers Holes' time solving cold cases, serial killer captures and rapist cases. His stories are compelling; his need to solve cases to help the families was pivotal and affected his life, his marriages and his relationships with his children. A must read!

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The Pale-Faced Lie by David Crow

The Pale-Faced Lie by David Crow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many thanks to my cousin, Colleen Bresnahan for recommending this true story of David Crow, his father and David's family as they are targeted many times throughout their life by their bully of a father. Pontificating all the time, just being a blow hard, David and his brother and sister live in a reign of terror during their entire life as their father tries to draft them to kill their mother and others he abhors. Told by David, who is a hell cat himself, David has a side that feels empathy, while his father only feels empathy for animals. Constantly telling David about the people he killed and got away with, his convict father also has a side that beguiles others---like the doctor in jail that gets him out early and the women who marry him. Despite his learning disabilities David loves to read and continues to go to school to better himself. It is only through counseling and forgiving his mother, father and himself that David feels he can have a relationship and makes his way successfully in the world.

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My Time Will Come : Amemoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope and Redemption by Ian Manuel

My Time Will Come: A Memoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope, and Redemption by Ian Manuel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As Just Mercy floored me, so did Ian Manuel's gripping biography about his young life in Florida in the slums and with no guidance. Beloved by his grandmother, a father not around and a drug addicted mother, Ian suffers at home, in school and in his neighborhood. With a group of boys at age 14, he holds up a white man and woman in a parking lot, shooting the woman in the face and continuing to shoot as she runs away. Given life without parole, he spends the next 20 years in many jails and many of those years in solitary confinement (enduring unimaginable abuse). Ian's words are harrowing, powerful, beseeching, powerful and he loses hope many times but through reading a bible, writing poetry, he dreams of a day he will go home. I could not put this book down, everyone must read this and they will be changed. Highly reocmmended!

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Tastre: My Life through Food by Stanley Tucci

Taste: My Life through Food by Stanley Tucci
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Tara Smith for lending me this awesome, and oh so honest and funny look at Stanley Tucci's life and his love of food. I love him as an actor and now also as an author. He was so interesting as he gushed about food, provided recipes (yay!), and let us see his life as a youngster through to COVID and a health scare. What I loved most were his exclamations over food---his descriptions were authentic and I hung on every word---especially when he really liked something---we are treated to a big FUCK as the BEST way he can describe tasting food (and he did this a few times) that was just beyond awesome. I enjoyed his parents and their love of food and how it became Stanley's life too and his way to pass on memories through food to his family. A must read!

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The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many thanks to my friend and librarian, Mary Alice, for giving me her copy of this debut by Dr. Michele Harper, a memoir about her adolescent life and her life as an emergency room doctor. Michele's compassion and love for her work as a doctor helping those seeking emergency room services was far reaching, humbling, and so moving. This is a must read and I for one am so glad we have the many doctors who valiantly care for patients in their care!

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Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast

Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Milly Neff for recommending Roz Chast's awesome, compelling graphic novel about her life with her parents as they age (so does Roz!!!) I have passed it on to my mother, who is 84 years old, living in a continuing care facility with my father---she will see some parallels and the laughs Roz generates with her illustrations and conversations!

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You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to Sherman Alexie narrate this moving, gripping, honest book about his life, his mother's effect on him throughout his life, memories of his Indian upbringing and move from the reservation school to a white high school, his family (wife, Diane and 2 sons), his regrets, his accomplishments, and his health. Using poetry and essays and Alexie's poignant voice I was mesmerized by everything he had to say about life, his family, the world and the way he speaks in this memoir and love/hate relationship with his mother.

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Reading With Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship by MIchelle Kuo

Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship by Michelle Kuo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many thanks to my wild librarian group for this gripping read! Michelle Kuo is a very special, committed teacher who working in the Delta as a Teach America teacher, who has a life changing experience as she struggles to reach the poor, reluctant students in Helena, Arkansas. Over the disagreeing, but loving immigrant parents, Michelle becomes entrenched with Patrick, a student who has a poor attendance in school, a father with questionable parenting, and a mother he loves very much (she also is the only working parent). As Michelle begins to see Patrick as special and promising, she leaves for law school. When she finds out Patrick is in jail for murder, she returns and tries to help him through reading, writing and poetry. I could not put this heart breaking book down and it was due to Michelle's writing, her personality and her commitment that she and Patrick connect and begin a life long friendship.

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Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi

Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved Sara Saedi's memoir of her teen years as an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. Teens will enjoy her humor, her family observations, her cultural references but be saddened by the fear she suffers on being deported if anyone finds out she is not a citizen of the United States.

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Even If Your Heart Would Listen: Losing My Daughter to Heroin by Elise Schiller

a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44540937-even-if-your-heart-would-listen" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">Even If Your Heart Would Listen: Losing My Daughter to Heroin by Elise Schiller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My heart ached as I read Elise Schiller's account of her daughter, Giana's life with her illnesses of asthma, her drug addiction and her sudden death from a heroin overdose. With the world gripped by opioid addiction, Elise's heartfelt agonized story is needed. There is much agony and anger that goes along with addiction and this book tells the truth about what Elise feels, what she learns and how she is continuing to deal with the loss of her daughter.

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Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to my god-daughter Casey Swiski for giving me her copy of Just Mercy---OMG, it was so good, compelling and very many times, just awful to read. Bryan Stevenson taught me so much about the really tough job he has trying to save those on Death Row. He also gives important details on the history of the courts, prisons, racism and the injustices still being perpetrated today. I thank him for being committed to the prisoners, their families, and communities to strive for justice for those who have been incarcerated with little help from lawyers and the legal help they need to have their cases heard. The US has a broken system that Bryan Stevenson so eloquently delivers; but he and those he tries to help, suffer as well too. The world needs more Bryan Stevensons! A must read for all!!!

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Educated by Tara Westover

Educated by Tara Westover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Julia Whelan's narration of this audiobook had me spellbound! Tara Westover's book was harrowing; this was definitely a story of a life harmed by parents. I ached for Tara throughout her life but I was also angry at her, too. As she ages, matures, Tara sees firsthand her family's dysfunction but she is unable/unwilling to take help when it is offered. Even after she leaves the mountain (time and time again) she is still its/their prisoner- she alienates roomates at BYU (and does not care), loses boyfriends because she can bear to share (and with boyfriends who see this behavior- rather than ask for help, she laughs maniacally, then shuns them for seeing what they should not). It was all pretty sick SH_T, I rooted for Tara as she left the mountain, and gained an education---but at what a cost! I am so proud of her but so sad (frustrated) it took her SO LONG to receive the mental health counseling she so obviously needed. She is a gifted reader, I will read anything she writes! Highly recommended!

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Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to this excellent nonfiction book about the Van Gogh Brothers as part of the 2018 HUB Challenge and I really enjoyed the narration by Phil Fox- he was able to reach the many highs and lows in Vincent and Theo's letters to each other throughout their lives, as a reader I was mesmerized by these two brothers, their life, their selfless love for each other, yet, they also were not perfect, frustrated by each other, yet there was a fervent caring for each other that was very special. I also liked the journey of Vincent's art, the beauty of his calling as an artists and his deeply profound wish to have the world see and understand his art. Such a wonderful book; a must read for all!

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All Day: A Year of Love and Survival Teaching Incarcerated Kids at Rikers Island by Liza Jessie Peterson

All Day: A Year of Love and Survival Teaching Incarcerated Kids at Rikers Island by Liza Jessie Peterson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Liza Jessie's memoir is stunning, compelling honest, and real. Her love for these incarcerated youth on Riker's Island is passionate, unflinching, and loud. The youth's lives are heartbreaking but Liza roots for each and every inmate & pushes them to be their best self despite the insurmountable odds. She urges Black & Latino youth need to know more about their true history in America and the world. The reader is plunged into the prison, the inmates, and how things (their lives) work. Liza's artistic side (acting & theatre) really helps her connect (reach/reach out) with kids many want to forget. I read this for June nonfiction twitter chat Thursday 6/29 at 8PM with #yearofya JOIN US with any YA nonfiction titles you want to share.

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Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber by Sue Macy

Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber by Sue Macy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book as part of #YearofYA and their monthly chat, STEM and YA. Join us on Thursday 1/26 at 8PM EST for our twitter chat. Sue Macy has written a gem of a picture book highlighting the life and career of Mary Garber who only wanted to play sports and write about them. I fell in love with Mary in the man's world of sports and reporting - with World War II taking the young men overseas, Mary became a sports writer. She had a way with her writing- she was honest, positive, and covered Jackie Robinson as he overcame prejudice with grace. She had to endure being the only woman wearing a press pass (banning women from the press box). Mary attended and reported on black athletes games as well as whites. Mary Garber may have been small in stature but she was a strong voice for equality in sports, newspapers and life. She was small but mighty in her pursuit of reporting and her life was a long and rich fifty years worth of writing and awards.

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Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Trevor Noah's life is unbelievable- born to a black mother and white father in apartheid Africa; he was not welcome in any world- white black or mixed and after apartheid things changed but the archaic beliefs of many of the tribes and the government continued. I loved Trevor's narration; his voice was beautiful, believable, laugh out loud funny but also sad, angry, and questioning. His mother was his constant growing up; she made him go to church every Sunday many times for the whole day. She raised him with a tough hand but she did it all in love. For all that went wrong in his life, Trevor remained positive and upbeat. A must read from a young man who lived through hell, eeked out a life, always loved and respected his mother. Highly recommended!

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I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education & Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love Malala- her voice- her convictions- her love of family - her goal to educate girls (well everyone) worldwide. Her story was brave, heartbreaking and one that must be read and heard by all. Malala's life in Swat was forever altered just because she stood up for educating girls. Now she cannot return to her homeland but she continues to advocate and speak out. I read this book as part of the social justice theme for the February twitter chat for #yearof ya on Tuesday 2/29 at 8PM EST - join me for this great chat!

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