January, or “Jani,” was born a genius; at three years old, she could read and calculate mathematics in her head. But if she didn’t receive constant mental stimulation, she could succumb to violent meltdowns.
Category: Reviews
An archive of our reviews of memoirs, essay collections, and other works of creative nonfiction.
Review — Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster by Kristen Johnston
Love is exactly the word that comes to mind when reading the memoir of actress and literary newcomer Kristen Johnston. Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster (Gallery Books, 2012) encompasses her brilliant journey from darkness to light.
Review: The 90 Day Rewrite by Alan Watt
“At the heart of every story lies a dilemma.” So begins the new book by Alan Watt, The 90 Day Rewrite. Latching onto the success of his first book, The 90 Day Novel, he attacks the rewrite process with the same vigor. He starts off with a review of what we learned from his first…
Review: I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl by Kelle Groom
Memories aren’t linear. Shame doesn’t subside with each confession. That is the world inside Kelle Groom’s memoir, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl.
Review: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
“That perhaps being amidst the undesecrated beauty of the wilderness meant I too could be undesecrated, regardless of what I’d lost or what had been taken from me, regardless of the regrettable things I’d done to others or myself or the regrettable things that had been done to me. Of all the things I’d been…
Review: Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
Set amid the dark, dingy streets of Boston where the homeless sleep on park benches or regroup in shelters to survive another day, Nick Flynn has one last opportunity to engage his father, a homeless, self-proclaimed novel writer.
Review: Becoming Jimi Hendrix by Steven Roby and Brad Schrieber
Certain names in twentieth century music will always ring as champions. Born a little too late, I’ve never paid much attention to Jimi Hendrix’s music so when I stumbled across this biography, I decided to correct this wrong.
Review: No Regrets: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir by Ace Frehley
Paul “Ace” Frehley is alive and with no regrets. His rock and roll story is one of interest for musicians, aspiring guitarists and the KISS army— the multitude of fans.
Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson
Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, titled simply Steve Jobs, is not the first book about Jobs, though it is the first since his death and the only one prepared with his assistance and approval.
Review — Trespasses: A Memoir by Lacy Johnson
How does home define a person? Does it seep into skin; into speech; into society? Lacy Johnson’s Trespasses: a Memoir explores these questions as she examines her struggle to escape home in order to discover it.
