5 comments about The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming.

1. I found this book to be very compelling. I enjoyed it so much that I stayed up way too late to finish it. The cover picture alone absolutely pulled me in and forced me to buy this book. I enjoyed Jeannie's story, and how much her life changed from how she thought things would go. Her life is quite different from mine, but I understood the strong desire to have children, and also raised two boys myself (now grown).
   
   The story of lavender is a very sentimental thing for me, as my mother loved the scent of lavender very much because it reminded of her grandmother, who wore it. I didn't used to like it, but it has grown on me with the stories of my long gone grandmother and great-grandmothers. Now that my mother is gone, it reminds me of her, too.
   
   I was surprised at the outcome at the end but was pleased to see how Jeannie was able to make such a big and unexpected change and be very happy with it.
   
   I'm sure I'll be visiting some local lavender farms soon. Thanks to Jeannie for sharing her life.



2. I stumbled upon this book when researching "how-to" books for starting a garden. I was anxious to get to the chapters that dealt with the Lavender, but it didn't take long before I was hooked on the main characters, Jeannie and Robb. Actually, I still can't get them out of my head. What an enchanting life and story! I feel inspired and fortunate to have read this wonderful and true story. We should all be so lucky to have a "Robb" in our lives...I think Jeannie is a very smart woman for following her heart and I'm especially thankful she wrote this book.



3. I was really looking forward to reading this book. In fact, my library even ordered it for me. I'm sorry to say that I was a little dissapointed in the book. Not so much the writing-the writing was fine. It seemed like a good subject-chuck the corporate rat race and start a lavender farm in Texas while living in a cool refurbished dream farm house.
   
   Although, that's not what I got out of the book. I could not get over the fact that this smart, independent woman turned into such a doormat. Everything was Rob's way or thr highway. He would latch onto an idea and dig in, no matter how it affected his family or take into account the needs and desires of his wife. When rob wanted to move from New York, Jeannie did not and protested a little, but stood by her man and moved to Austin. (Austin is actually a hip place to live BTW).
   
   On another whim, he decided that Austin is getting too congested and he wanted to move to a more rural part of Texas. Again, Jeannie did not want to move again, but of course she went along with whatever he wanted. The farm house they moved into needed to be completely remodeled, so what does Rob do? He makes his very exacting plans for the house, takes off on a long photo assisgnment, and leaves her behind to do the work and deal with the contractors and remodel. When she was pregnant and almost due, he takes off on another assignment, and leaves her benhind in the middle of nowhere Texas during flash floods and no way to get out. Again, he takes off while she was battling post partum depression.
   
   Then he gets this brilliant idea when shooting a story in Provence to start a lavender farm. He and some neighbors planted the plants, and guess who was left behind to maintain and harvest the plants while he was off on another long assignment? After all this, Rob wants to sell the farm, uproot his family again and move to Mexico.
   
   All I can say to the author is good luck-you're going to need it-and get a backbone for goodness sake! This man is walking all over you.



4. This book is for any woman who thinks she has somehow strayed from the life that she had always imagined for herself. Although Jeannie's journey was still more exciting than most by far, with exotic travel and building a magazine-worthy dream home, she encounters the same issues most women face, regardless of financial status. It makes you realize how different people are and how strong individial desires are, for many people would have given anything to be leading the life she so wanted to escape. This book is an example that life doesn't always have to go as planned. And once you see the beauty in that, life's lemons transform into lemonade. Or in this case, lavender lemonade.



5. I was trying to save this book for summer vacation reading but the minute I opened it I knew it wouldn't wait. The book has all the right ingredients: relationship issues, childrearing dilemmas, world travel and adventure, plant and nature life, business and money making life, friendships, career decisions, health problems, and more.... All brought to life by the insightful, funny and smart narrator.
   
   This book is especially for anyone who feels a potential rising inside to go out into the world and experience something else and see where it leads. If you read this book you might become motivated to take steps to a new kind of future for yourself even within the confines of your day to day life.
   
   If you liked the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert then you will like this book. "The Unlikely Lavender Queen" reads like a novel, I found myself turning the pages to watch the story unfold. Enjoy the book!

5 comments about My Life on the Run: The Wit, Wisdom, and Insights of a Road Racing Icon.

1. This book, captures the essence of what a runner can experiance, and hope to be. Bart is a great story teller, who's compassion and grace shines through!



2. I loved reading Yasso's book. I didn't want it to end, and it is a book I will reread. Yasso both inspired me and entertained me.



3. All in all, I thought this book was very entertaining. I am an intermediate runner, who loves to hear the experiences of other runners. The stories contained are all well written and entertaining. This will motivate current runners to try and experience new races and novice runners to get off the coach.



4. I loved this book! It made my plods along the local trail seem so much more meaningful knowing that the sport can lead to such amazing experiences. And it made me look forward to what stories my own running will bring.



5. It's been a special several months for running months. Late last year, Ben Cheever's STRIDES came out and now Yasso's book.
   
   Less polished than Cheever's book but every bit as special, buy it if you're a runner and buy it for a runner if you're not - they will THANK you.
   
   Many people say they have the greatest job in the world, but through these pages Yasso makes you believe he deserves the honor and - even more so - makes you see that he believes he deserves the honor. Simply put, a classic from a classic.

5 comments about Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife.

1. Irene's account of polygamy in general and how she survived and overcame it is an incredible life story. A talented producer and director need to get together and turn this into a blockbuster movie for the world to see and understand what happens to people when their lives are planned from the minute they are born, and their thinking controlled. I agree with another reviewer that this book should be in all book clubs.
   Should any movie producers be lurking, my choice for Irene would be Jennifer Garner....and not only for the facial resemblance. I believe she has the talent to take the viewer from the lowest of Irene's trials to the heights of her exuberance, and everything in between. I also think Jude Law, if he would dare, could excellently portray the sometime witty, charming,religious,strict,overbearing,cold,and kind Verlan LeBaron. If anyone should want to make this book into a film, they must not deviate from the story and its locales. To do so would ruin it.



2. This is one of the best books I've ever read and I've read alot. I felt like I was right there with her going thru the joy the pain and anger of being trapped in her religous hell. I kept wanting her to see the light and get herself and her babies and get out of there. I also found myself feeling somewhat sorry for her husband at times because all and all he was somewhat caught up in the trap also along with the other wives. I would definely recommend this book to anyone who likes a down to earth author with warmth and humor.



3. I struggled throughout the entire book to find some empathy for Irene and her situation. I never found it. She made a choice to marry into a polygamous relationship, and she spent about 375 pages too many complaining about it. She forever complained about not being the special wife, the favorite, and so forth, but does she forget that she was Verlan's second wife?? It should make for a very short discussion at our book club.



4. I also read Irene's other ex-sister wife's book, "His
   Favorite Wife". I found it to be very interesting how
   they could all have the same husband. At times I felt
   sorry for Irene, but at the same time, its liked, 'hey,
   wake up, you are in America", women should not not be
   suppressed like that, all in the name of believing in that
   religion they were brought up with.
   For all those people, who cannot comprehended how and
   why they lived the polygamy life, read this..a clear
   understanding, but, yet, totally its all about choices
   they could make, if they were not fanatics.



5. I could not put this book down. I went from one heartbreaking chapter to the next. I am so glad Irene has found happiness and a good man to love.
   
   I am LDS and feel she missed the mark a bit in her accuracy. However, I understand she was recounting doctrines as she believed or was told. People continue to fail to understand that LDS people do not recognize any off-shoots as "LDS." Either you're maintream or you are as different a religion as Catholics or Baptists. If you are not a baptized member of the LDS faith, you are not LDS, period. Our church is in NO way affiliated with FLDS or any other sect practicing polygamy. It is an error to refer to them in any way as "mormon."
   
   This book so clearly illustrates what is lost when people fall away from the prophet and start their own churches. Doctrines like polygamy are turned into something that does not resemble in any way the way plural marriage was practiced by the actual LDS church.
   
   I cringed as I read about how Irene starved for affection from Verlan and the trauma each new wife brought. I know that God wants all his children to be happy and that no matter what, no child of His is ever forgotten. Irene needed these experiences and probably wouldn't give up 1 of her many children to be the person she is today. She should be proud that although there were many difficult years of adversity, she emerged from it a good person and has found happiness. She is an inspiration to anyone who didn't (or doesn't) live in an ideal situation that there is always hope beyond your circumstances.

5 comments about The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir.

1. I was very fortunate to grow up in this period in a small town. It was amazing that the kids in Iowa were doing the SAME dumb stuff as we did in Texas. I had the electric football game and never could figure out how to have fun with it. We went to the local fair and got into the stripper tent at age 15 (true). The stripper in Texas was probably on a circuit that went to Iowa. All in all, a fun book to read for anyone of that era. All the buildings are now gone, but the memories still remain. Bill did a great job bringing those back to life.



2. As I finished this amazing book Des Moines made the news by flooding today. Even though I have never been to Iowa, I felt sad due to having just read this memoir of Bill Bryson's who is from Des Moines. This is a wonderful valentine to Iowa and to Bill's childhood growing up in Des Moines. It is so funny that you will find yourself laughing so hard and so loud. I was born the same year as Bryson and could relate to everything he recalls while growing up in the strange world of the 1950's. He brings back what a very strange time the 50's were. How did we ever become such an interesting generation after a decade of jello,black and white westerns on TV,Dick and Jane books, sci-fi badly made movies and a long list of ridiculousness that our parents and government held up as rules for the good life in America. Bryson's talent of looking at things that at first seem funny(ha-ha) but underneath those events or things lie a lurking dark side of reality that is anything but funny.



3. There are over 200 reviews for this book that attest to really how good it is.
   
   What's most enjoyable is that if you lived during the 50s, Bryson has brought back to you many of the memories all of us enjoyed. This book is laugh-out-loudable while tickling your memory. If you enoy Jean Sheppard and his tales (A Christmas Story), then you are guaranteed to enjoy the Thunderbolt Kid. I was there wish there was a sequal... there certainly was back in the day!!



4. Bill Bryson writes of bygone days during his middle-America, middle-class childhood in the 1950's. Many hilarious vignettes sparkle, including "the toidy jar," getting permission from the teacher to go to the bathroom (Number 1 or Number 2??) and his friend Willoughby who ran the scan involving bugs and pond water in his restaurant food to get free meals.
   
   There were times I was doubled over in laughter. You may get a few belly laughs too, especially if you grew up in the 1950's.



5. Anyone born in the 50's can relate to the experiences of Bill Bryson. I began reading this book on an airplane and was laughing so hard, the people around me were smiling. Bill Bryson uses excellent humor to bring his story to life. You feel as though you know him or someone like him. Memories of my own childhood came flooding back. Excellent read. Never dull.

5 comments about Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights.

1. No offense to Yoshino, but in truth, he doesn't make many actual points. This is a great book if you want to hear about his personal journey, but it's not very enlightening overall.



2. A mix of professional experience, glimpses of personal experience, poetic imagination and some interesting ideas for America's future. I am glad I've read it. The only regret is that the book doesn't lead to a powerful, clear vision for the country. The very interesting ideas from the introduction are just briefly repeated at the end. Maybe someone else will build upon this material? The book certainly encourages a discussion. Maybe that was the whole point?



3. The Publisher's Weekly review says it all, but I cannot let the opportunity pass to add my voice to those honoring this book. Yes, it's a simple concept, elaborated over 200 pages, but there is nothing monotonous about it. The academic monotony characteristic of similar monographs is thwarted through the simplest of means: the scholar-author is also a poet. He writes on the minutiae of civil rights law with the compression and unexpected image that make strong poetry memorable. I heard the author speak on the concept of Covering on the Maine Public Radio broadcast of the Chataqua Program. The discussion was interesting enough, but when he read the Epilogue, I immediately thought, "I have to have that in my Commonplace Book." As a politically active gay man and 15-year conductor of a gay men's chorus, I've often meditated on the meaning of cultural appropriation, assimilation, and accommodation and the resulting effect on actualization and abnegation of the individual. So, Kenji Yoshino's orderly discussion of coversion, passing, and covering is immediately attractive to me. But it is not my habit to read 'brainiac' books. I'm put off by the customary tone, talking down to me, especially when the subject of the discussion is, by inference, me and the people I know and love. This one is the exception. I feel like Yoshino and I have just spent a long evening, with a wide variety of friends, talking about something of immediate concern to all of us. And then there's that Epilogue. Talk is one thing, but how we live it out is usually quite another. And it's never simple. That's why it's best left to the hands of a poet, and this poet has done it well.



4. I recently heard Professor Yoshino speak here in Seattle on a day in celebration of Human Rights Day, and I can attest to his being a gifted speaker and possessing an extraordinary intellect.
   
   However, with respect to the notion of "covering," a term I believe that he has coined in this book to illuminate a polemical topic that he wishes to place squarely into the fore of the larger map/discourse of civil rights in the U.S., I am perplexed that his notion of the "mainstream" apparently does not take into account more dimensions, e.g., the cultural anthropological/sociological.
   
   From my own experience as a gay man AND as an Asian-American, I have found, largely to my dismay, that in either social group, there is, in fact, a "mainstream" that does, in fact, exert pressure to conform to its "majority" norms, behaviors...
   
   And I would suppose that in any "society," whether it be in a nation-state such as Japan, or a social group such as African-Americans, that there do exist "mainstream" cultures that individuals within those groups do have to "contend with."
   
   "Covering" as Yoshino has placed it has, by dint of his conceptual definition of it has overwhelmingly negative connotations, one which allows a "mainstream" body within a social group to exert pressures on individual members who do not conform, whether out of choice or due to individual disposition.
   
   But sometimes what could be considered "covering" (by some people) is also a means of what one could consider "healthy assimilation" or a reasonable concession to the majority--without being in any way a "sell-out."
   
   When and where such "concessions" become a sell-out, of course, is an open question. But even where "adaptation" in some behaviors to the "norm" of the mainstream does occur, it may simply entail "building bridges" and acknowledging the opinion of the majority rather than remaining in isolation from them.
   
   (If, for example, I am a nudist, I can still choose to walk outside of my house WITH clothing on, if only in simple deference to the fact that the law and the majority of my fellow citizens deem it an offense or offensive or both).
   
   This is not to deny the legitimacy of the claims of gay people to equal rights (to marriage, protection from discrimination in the job market, etc.) but to point out that "covering" might be understood in a more nuanced context. Covering, in all its different aspects, is not tantamount in all situations to being an "assault on civil rights."
   
   Covering may simply describe the "interface" where the majority and a smaller grouping, at least in a particular situation, and where the minority accedes to the norms of the former--despite the negative overtones that the author is ascribing to it. In other cases, the reverse (majority accedes to the behaviors of the minority despite a clear divergence of opinion) could and, in fact, DOES happen in America.
   
   In some instances, too, dysfunctional or inappropriate (vis-a-vis the majority) behavior by a minority is tolerated, condoned, or even lauded.
   
   Discussions of loaded discussions of "diversity" or "covering" need to be evaluated within a context rather than be seen in a predetermined, black-or-white intellectual "matrix."
   
   In other words, the major concern that I have with this book is that it too "obviously" has an agenda stamped on it.
   
   The personal details disclosed nicely balance the analytical (legal) side of the discussion.
   
   But in terms of overall appeal to both mind AND heart, a little less Paul Haggis (director/screenwriter of "Crash"). Taking a strong position on an issue, with corroborative evidence, is fine. Re-iterating that position--as a constant thread--throughout a long discussion may seem to some people evidence of "not dodging an issue." But considering all the different dimensions of that issue would provide, I believe, a more balanced, more cogent argument in favor of one's position.



5. Dean Yoshino has given us a lesson using the perfect mixture of poetry and prose in this his latest work. Reading it was like listening to a Aretha Franklin: refreshing! But most importantly, the work will act as a bridge between minority groups; limning aspects of experience that we all--- religious, sexual, and ethnic--- have in common. That is to say, it will help us to understand how the laws of the land apply to all who are pressured to conform to majority norms.

5 comments about Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.

1. I live an hour away from Beech Creek, Alison Bechdel's tiny hometown and the setting for much of her graphic memoir Fun Home. I've always found the area oppressive: dark, looming mountains casting perpetual shadows on impoverished, dying valley towns. But after reading Fun Home, I revisited Beech Creek, to see Bechdel's childhood home and the grave of her father Bruce, and to remind myself of how cruelly ironic life can be.
   
   Bruce Bechdel, a man who loves literature (in his early days he identified with F. Scott Fitzgerald; in his final days he reads Proust), an aesthete with a taste for the baroque detail of the Victorian era, and a creative and versatile designer of interior and exterior landscapes, is born and lives in rural central Pennsylvania, running the family funeral home and teaching at the local high school. He never quite fits in. Always sun-tanned and exquisitely dressed (no plaid hunter's shirts or chewing tobacco for him), persnickety and a bit prissy, but at the same time speaking with a back-country twang, Bruce seems uncannily out of place in Beech Creek.
   
   And he's a closeted gay man, who has occasional affairs on the side and otherwise sublimates his repressed sexuality by obsessively restoring the Victorian-era house in which Alison grew up. The tension of his closeted life makes him aloof, prone to violent temper tantrums, controlling, and sometimes cruel to both wife and children.
   
   Alison's Bechdel's memoir of him, and the way in which her own identity both became the inverse of his and yet in many respects parallels his, is a sophisticated narrative that underscores just how complex personal identity is. Alison is who she is, just as her father was who he was, because of the convergence of Beech Creek, sexuality, alienation, fun, repression, the need to be creative, the yearning for affection, the factuality of history and the re-creation of memory. There's no formulaic happy ending here, no artificial structuring to make more sense of the relationship between herself and her father than there really was. Instead, what the reader is offered is a profound, sensitive, bittersweet effort to explore memory in search of identity--an effort which throughout is punctuated by Bechdel's references to both Proust and James Joyce--and an appreciation for the ironies of fate which make us who we become.
   
   Other reviewers have mentioned that they read the memoir at one setting. I found it so intense that I could only take it in small portions, and even then I sometimes felt overwhelmed. For in sharing her own identity-forming memories with us, she invites us to plumb more deeply into our own. And both exercises, although potentially liberating, can also be harrowing.



2. I knew she was a cartoonist but did not know the memoir would be in cartoon form. It was reasonably well written but her family members just didn't come alive for me.
   As a lesbian, I found it especially upsetting to read about yet another woman who felt like she had come home when she put on her father's clothes.



3. An absolutely brilliant, hard to put down and very moving story. I go back to it often and think about it always. Beautiful, witty, hilarious.



4. Perhaps it is inevitable that I'd fall for this book, given that I'm a fan of comics --Art Speigelman, Chris Ware, Lynda Barry, Megan Kelso, Gilbert & Jamie Hernandez... and of course Alison Bechdel, whose Dykes to Watch Out For strip I've followed for a long time. Compared to that strip, this book has a more gentle pace and wry wit. It says as much as written biographies in a surprisingly compact way. The ending disappointed some, but surely real life is harder than fiction to tie up in a tidy bow.



5. I cannot praise this graphic novel enough. I was so impressed with way Bechdel wove her memoir together, building from one memory into the next. At first I found some of her writing potentially pretentious, something I have seen in the writings of other memoirs where the author wants the reader to know how much they know, to be impressed with the use of precise vocubulary, and the manipulation of time to unfold a story. Usually, these don't work because they are not used effectively so much as for effect. Bechdel, however, has no pretense. Vulnerable and transparent, how she tells her personal story is so powerful it breaks your heart and inspires you soul all at the same time. Her use of the same image, with a slightly different perspective, is not merely clever but perfection. If I could beg her to write about her relationship with her mother, I would. But what would be the point? Then I would want to know more about her relationships with her siblings, with her lovers, with her neighbors. I could never have enough. It is enough to hope for more.

5 comments about Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper.

1. I loved this book! Not only was it hilarious, it also gave an interesting look into a world I knew nothing about. I laughed out loud at many parts of this book--Cody is truly talented at getting humor on paper! I have passed this book on to others, both men and women, and they have all also enjoyed it. Highly recommended for summer reading!



2. Wow, so you are saying that the sex industry doesn't treat women well, that they make more money off of the women than the women do...and that one becomes a hollow shell stripped (Ha! -pun) of dignity and self worth? Really? Huh - that is like the frst time I have ever heard that. Never could have figured that out.
   
   Did this author not get enough attention as a child? Lookit me, lookit lookit...you're not looooooking! This is girls gone wild (with a brain, I'll give her that) written down - someone who flashes her goods because she is just so, like WILD and free man! Everyone knows this girl - upper middle class family and self styled rebel who is just so "real". The one you lose touch with after college because you are tired of hearing about it -you know, a self perpetuating drama queen. We all have one in our lives at some point. The dirge like forced "wildness" gets tiresome pretty quickly.A bit of self examination as to WHY would have saved this book, but apparently lifting rocks and looking under them is too much work. Instead we get a daily diary of..and then this happened...etc....No hint of any reasoning behind any of it.
   
   It has it's moments, but the material is stretched so thin it gets tedious. This would have been a great essay - novel/memoir length = no. There is no payoff for reading this book - there is no structure...it's just random items slapped together. A memoir does require an arc, not just writing it down. It doesn't string together in the end. Kind of reminded me of Gloria Steinem's Bunny expose - which covered similar ground...but which was much more incisive.



3. This book has become one of my favorites and Diablo Cody has become one of my favorite authors. Witty and relatable, she writes an informative and honest account of her experiences in the sex work industry. Although the reviews and book descriptions are frustrating/patronizing ("Whats a good girl like Cody doing in a place like this?") the book itself presents a fair look at the industry from the inside. Definitely reccomend if you're looking for a new take on sex work or an intelligent and hilarious and witty read.



4. A great summer read. I breezed through it in a few hours. Funny and super interesting. Everything you ever wanted to know about being a stripper and everything you didn't want to know, too. I loved it.



5. 224 pages of one-liners.
   
   Don't waste your time if it's depth you're looking for.

5 comments about Autobiography of a Face.

1. An amazing story of this girl's experiences growing up disfigured. I too was an "outcast on the school playground" and was "last to be picked for Gym games." I could relate to her story. What strength she had to endure so many, many surgeries.



2. As Ann Patchett says in the Afterword, this is a literary "autobiography," created, as much as remembered by the author. Lucy's life and suffering are a small part of the story. The author's courage, articulateness and beautiful prose make this a good read.



3. I originally had to read this book for a school project, and I wasn't expecting much since I usually don't find non fiction very interesting. But this book wasn't bad, it was pretty good. This girl Lucy, at nine, crashes into another kid's head playing a game during recess, and her face begins to hurt way more than it should and then swells up. She goes to the doctor and she finds out she has a tumor in her jaw, and that its cancerous. However, this book is really not about Lucy's cancer. It's about her life and the effect that the cancer has on it. At first, she really doesn't mind that much. She likes all the special attention that she is getting, and doesn't care what she looks like, even with one whole third of her jaw removed. Later however, she becomes very insecure about her face and becomes obsessed with multiple reconstructive surgeries that never work, convinced that she can never be loved with a face like hers. She finds it easier to spend time with the horses she works with at her high school job than with people. She eventually gets her face fixed (somewhat), but she thinks it's all wrong, that its not really her. I liked this because it was informative without being "whiney" and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys biographies about people overcoming adversity. It is also a good book for high school girls who are insecure about their looks, because it shows them how lucky they really are to be "whole". I suppose something like what happened to Lucy can really mess you up, but she comes out fine in the end because she learns how to deal with her appearance issues. It's a good book.



4. In Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy has written--not remembered-- a story based on her myriad attempts to attain a widely accepted form of physical beauty. (This is noted and emphasized in the book's Afterword by Ann Patchett, a longtime friend of Grealy's.) Why this fact is important to Grealy and, vicariously, to Patchett is explicitly stated: Grealy wanted to be appreciated for her writing, not for surviving what was certainly a hellish ordeal. What Patchett also makes clear in the Afterword (and in Truth & Beauty: A Friendship) is that Grealy's book was not made a bestseller due to her beautiful sentence struture. Nor was it due to some sweeping truth about life evidenced in what I must refer to as Grealy's novel. Instead, Autobiography of a Face sold well because people wanted to read about Grealy's pain. Real, remembered pain; not fictional pain. Real hospital visits, real operations, real life. The questions asked of Grealy at her readings make this obvious. By writing a fictionalized account of what happened, Grealy gave her fans a taste of what they wanted, a taste that they couldn't conceive of as fiction, because without that element of truth, the book falls apart.
   
   Patchett claims that Autobiography should stand as great literature outside its voyeuristic appeal. Indeed, Lucy Grealy was an accomplished poet in her lifetime, a feat that very few can claim without some degree of nepotism or croneyism (although I'm sure the Iowa Writers' Workshop didn't hurt). Unfortunately, the beauty and elegance of form so easily found in her verse does not translate to her prose. Her sentences, while by no means awkward, are not stunning, not moving. She could be sitting with her peers, casually relating the events of her life-- but, as she insisted at the anecdotal reading Patchett describes in the Afterword, Autobiography is not an autobiography. It is fiction. And, as fiction, it is nothing more than a laundry list of voluntary tortures, all in the name of love (or sex, or acceptance, depending on the stage of the narrator's life). The climax, as it were, is but a comfortable murmur after a grotesque surgical storm.
   
   Grealy's life story is phenomenal and heartbreaking, but only because the tale is her own. No fictional character can command our sympathies as readily as flesh and blood. For Grealy to insist that we judge her novel outside of its truth is for her to strip the book of its power-- to render it incomplete, a face struggling desperately to find a body.



5. a little wrinkled, but the text is what matters and it is a great read.... if you are into depressing stories....

5 comments about The Bishop's Daughter: A Memoir.

1. In the memoir, The Bishop's Daughter, the life of Bishop Paul Moore is explored by his daughter, Honor. From an early age, Honor has tried to understand her feelings for her father. At first, she seems to worship him, describing how as a young man he had a religious experience that turned him away from his family's wealth and toward service of God. Being wounded in WW II seemed to cement his conviction in serving God as he returns a decorated hero, bearing scars from a bullet that just missed his heart. God has saved him, he believes, for a purpose, and he is chosen Bishop of the Episcopal Church, a man respected as a paragon of virtue, a spokesman for the poor and a defender of rights.
   
   Bishop Moore was a wealthy man, but not a happy one. His first wife described him as "the most unhappy man" she ever knew. He is estranged from Honor, the oldest of his nine children, and only at a late age, when he is diagnosed with a terminal illness, do the two strive to reconcile.
   
   While describing her father's two marriages, his fights against racial injustice, and his ascent through the church, Honor also richly describes her own battles. Sexual experimentation and secrets are threaded through the story as both father and daughter explore their bi-sexuality, their sexual freedom, and the consequences. The book explores in detail the efforts of both the bishop and his daughter to hide their secrets. After her father's death, Honor goes further, meeting his long-term male lover and trying to understand his reasons for hiding this loving relationship.
   
   This book covers many important issues of our times: race, sex, faith, politics, war, and family. A beautifully written memoir, it includes many elements of biography and autobiography. The writing is simple, clear, and enlightening. Some of the details are unpleasant, but honest. I was pleased with the way the two lives are explored and then joined together in a truth they could both understand at the end.
   
   by Rhonda Esakov
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



2. Honor Moore did a stupendous, much needed service for her father, Bishop Paul Moore, Jr., herself, her siblings, and all of those in our society who remain illiterate and prejudiced about any and all sexual orientations. Given the ugly consequences of ignorance and understanding regarding homosexuality, it is no wonder that Bishop Moore, like so many others, had to hide such a significant part of himself, his sexuality, or a vital part of it, in order to perform the life service that was another grand and vibrant part of himself, his church service for the good of the millions whose minds and lives he influenced for good. We must remember that homosexuals are usually given life by heterosexuals who in so many sad cases are then ready to throw those children away. We must remember that the caste system created by heterosexuals that forces bisexuals and homosexuals to live in suffocating, locked closets is the evil that promotes what appears to be the deceit or duplicity that bisexuals and homosexuals must then practice in order to also live seemingly freely, seemingly fully. Ignorance, fear, and phobia are the components of prejudice, all prejudice. We have a desperate need to enlighten the ignorance with understanding, replace the fear with acceptance and love. Only then will we see the dissolution of phobia finally evolve. And heterosexuals must pay attention to bisexuals and homosexuals to gain a wider understanding of sexuality. The opposite side of that coin is that bisexuals and homosexuals must be ready and willing to help heterosexuals learn. That will require bi-directional openness. Any of Honor Moore's siblings and any others who think she betrayed her father need to carefully study her memoirs to see how she truly provided Bishop Paul Moore, Jr., the "wings of a dove" he so painfully sought all his life. Now her memories and our knowledge of that great man, that man of clay, can allow him to function more freely and fully as shepherd of an even larger flock. Now Paul Moore, Jr., can truly "fly away and rest,"
   
   Gilbert Cantlin



3. In spite of one review that is totally inexplicable to me, I can't begin to express how beautifully wrought this memoir is, how honest and how moving. And--how courageous. I had the privilege of meeting Honor Moore last Sunday and it has added to the richness of the book, as how could it not? I am deeply impressed with this book and to be honest, it takes a lot to impress me when it comes to reminiscences (not the best choice of word) about one's family, one's place in it and what it means to take the risk and tell the story as one sees it, meanwhile honoring the Rashomon aspect of most anything in life that not everyone will necessarily perceive a life the same way. Brava, Ms. Moore! Many times over.



4. honor moore is a gorgeous writer--and this is her greatest work to date. a really important, moving book.



5. MY DEAD GAY BISHOP DAD - should sell;
   And what are parents for?
   I could not love thee, dear, so well
   Loved I not Honor Moore.

5 comments about How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.

1. A friend of mine gave me this book so I felt like I HAD to read it.
   It was painful though.
   The fact that the author was an advertising copywriter is way too obvious in this, the longest infomercial I've been through.
   If I could get paid for every time "Starbucks" was mentioned, I would be rich now.
   Way too much focus on Starbucks products.
   Having gone through business school I very much appreciate Starbucks' innovative Human Resource management and I share their views, particularly that one of respect to everyone. In fact, I'd heard about all this in case studies before.
   The book however has blatant product placement. Why do we need to read lists of products, which cakes are carried, etc. No wisdom in any of these.
   I'm sure some naive readers may end up spending a lot more money in Starbucks or getting a job there (nothing wrong with that) but the book should be given away for free as it seems to be a recruitment ad.
   Spare yourself the pain



2. This is one of the best books ever written about mid-life career crisis. The story of the advertising executive who ended up cleaning toilets at Starbucks is filled with wonderful anecdotes that can be best appreciated by those who are middle aged and beyond. Young adult readers may not appreciate or understand the life-changing lessons (as seen by some of the one-star ratings from other Amazon reviewers) and some of the book comes across as almost too hard to believe. But the book is never preachy--just a narrative progression through a life that was changed due to corporate downsizing and personal selfishness. It is also very well edited, mixing the author's current progression at the coffee shop with his recollections of knowing Jackie Kennedy, Ernest Hemingway and others. The end result is a lesson in humility and the need for respecting others you would normally consider beneath you. It should be required reading for college career courses.



3. This book is one of the worst books I have ever read. Its suppose to be a memoir, but really it just brown-noses Starbucks. I think he wrote this book for ulterior motives. (I think he wanted some executive position and was hoping Starbucks would oblige after reading this book.) As I read the book, I kept thinking it would get better, a plot line would eventually unravel. It never does. He writes this book to feed his ego and the reader gets nothing out of it.



4. I bought this book to read at the beach -- not expecting too much -- but interested by the concept. The biggest problem is that the author seems to be writing at an elementary level. He clearly has an interesting story, but nothing that couldn't be written in a two-page essay. He used to be successful, failed, and realized that people find contentment in low-paying jobs too. The end. I can't understand how a book this poorly written was ever published.



5. I was going to jump off a bridge this morning, but then i read this book and decided to wait until tomorrow. Very sappy. Starbucks is wonderful, the people are wonderful, the coffee is wonderful, the benefits they offer are wonderfully...someone needs to tell this guy he needs to wipe the chocolate Starbucks brownie off his nose. All that aside there were some enjoyable moments.