The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish & other great memoirs

book jacket partial image of the author Tiffany HaddishThe Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish (2017)

Wow! Awesome memoir. Brutally honest and terrifying . Hearing the true stories like this by Haddish and other women has profoundly moved me to tears with gasps of horror followed by great respect for what they have had to deal with to get to this point. To be alive, in fact. To dare to be happy. To succeed. She was a great guest on The Daily Show around January 2018 or so (I think).

Hunger” by Roxanne Gay also creates an intense and intimate experience of her life through her memoir. Darn it, I can’t find a post on it but I read it book jacket of Hunger by Roxane Gay with partial image of spoonBad Feminist by Roxanne Gay a memoir simple text book jacketand it was great, sad, and distressing to learn of the life experiences of one of the most amazing minds and writers alive today. Author of the Must Read book “Bad Feminist.” Well I can’t find that review either. Maybe I read it before beginning this blog. It is certainly seared into my mind.

Sara Benincasa

Agoraphabulous!” by Sara Benincasa, another funny woman that defies the odds to survive — and to benefit all of us by sharing her story too — is a memoir of another woman saved perhaps by a sense of humor and sheer determination.

 

 

 

 

Social Justice means support for “The Least Among Us” by Rosa L. DeLauro

book jacket with photo of authorThe Least Among Us: Waging the Battle for the Vulnerable by Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (2017)

This congresswoman really impressed me when I was watching some of the C-SPAN coverage of her passionate commentary in favor of progressive values and in support of social justice. I had hoped for better, gripping, passionate writing in her book but was disappointed.

It reads more like a memoir that I expected. I thought it was going to cover substantial policy discussions “in the weeds” as has become the commonly used gag-reflexing golf analogy. The presumably editorial direction to have chapters arranged by mostly repetitive use of “In Defense of” is tiresome at best.

Chapters like “In defense of children, of women, of the hungry, and so on, are presented recounting some of the legislative action and negotiating at the time, such as in 2008. Well, that was nearly a decade ago and I am not sure anything relevant can be pulled out of journal notes or other contemporaneous documents. I think her voice and her passion is important to hear. Perhaps she will write another, organized around policy issues, using her details of what actually happened in service of the bigger picture.

Continue reading Social Justice means support for “The Least Among Us” by Rosa L. DeLauro

Agorafabulous! by Sara Benincasa

agorafabulousAgorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom

Compelling memoir (and I don’t usually care to read them) about her “mental illness” but that phrase doesn’t quite express the reality of her terrifying experience with agoraphobia and panic attacks. Superb writing; hard to imagine being so open and bold about such a difficult internal conflict with her own brain chemistry and funny, poignant, and hopeful lesson. Anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts and other issues, please seek help. I am so glad she did and lived to tell the tale and dare to write about it.