Category: biography/memoir
-
Book Review: The Bookseller at the End of the World, by Ruth Shaw
We visited the Wee Bookshops in Manapouri and met Lance, who painstakingly added up our book totals on paper and then counted the cash (no “plastic” in that shop). He somehow got us onto the topic of marriage and was adamant that marital promises should not be made lightly. I didn’t quite know what to…
-
Book Review: Eggshell Skull, by Bri Lee
I remember seeing this book doing the rounds several years ago when I was living in Melbourne, but the cover design had me convinced it was a romance novel, and I looked no further. But after reading and loving Seed (Bri Lee’s latest novel), I was compelled to go back and take another look. It…
-
Book Review: Flesh Wounds, by Richard Glover
Another masterpiece by a national treasure. This book is Richard Glover’s memoir about his bizarre childhood and later quest to find out who his parents were and why they did such a spectacularly crappy job at parenting. Glover is, in my opinion, one of the funniest writers of all time, so you will find yourself…
-
Book Review: Homeschooled: A Memoir, by Stefan Merrill Block
I didn’t quite know what I was signing up for with this one, but what a journey. I was completely swept up in the confusion and crushing loneliness of this poor boy’s childhood. This book had a lot in common with Tara Westover’s Education. While Westover’s story is more extreme in its subject matter, this book was…
-
Book Review: A Life on Our Planet, by David Attenborough
“Nature is far from unlimited,” writes acclaimed British broadcaster and biologist David Attenborough. “The wild is finite. It needs protecting.” I picked up this book on a road trip in New Zealand and thought it would be a good fit for an outdoorsy kind of holiday. I quickly realised that if any book deserved to…
-
Book Review: Bookish, by Lucy Mangan
Books really do furnish a life, and this short memoir of sorts will validate book-lovers everywhere.
-
Book Review: Poor Charlie’s Almanack, by Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger’s classic compendium reminds us that he truly is the Godfather of interdisciplinary mental models.
-
Book Review: “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” by Richard P. Feynman
My high hopes for Richard Feynman’s ‘Surely You’re Joking’ were reduced to two letters: ew.
-
Book Review: An African History of Africa, by Zeinab Badawi
Zeinab Badawi’s African History of Africa did not quite live up to its admirable and long-overdue ambition.