The Moth Presents: All These Wonders

It's been a long time since I read a book that made me feel something long after I had finished reading it. Enter, The Moth Presents All These Wonders, a small book comprised of 45 personal "true stories about facing the unknown" by people of every walk of life. These stories were all read aloud to audiences as part of The Moth storytelling series over a 20-year span.

Every story was different. Some were easy to find yourself relating to (Modern Family, Go The ^&$% To Sleep) while others took the air out of your lungs with an audible swoosh sound (The Shower). There were stories about David Bowie (The Girl From Beckeham) and stories penned by Louis C.K and Tig Notaro. Stories about things both all-encompassing and minute. These stories, though on a personal level were about facing the unknown in one very particular circumstance for its author, also stood out as stories with a universal undercurrent that had the amazing power to pull us under for a little while and when it finally managed to release us, it left us stunned in wonder.

Blogger Note:  I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. This review is entirely based on my opinion.

Finally, a FUNNY Book About Depression courtesy of Jacqueline Novak

Depression is not funny. It's not supposed to be. But maybe by taking a little of the pressure off us depressos (my favorite term coined/stolen from Jacqueline Novak and her book How to Weep in Public) wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. That's where this book comes in. How to Weep in Public reads like half a memoir and half a shared conversation with a friend about being depressed but in the lightest way possible. No self-help material here (thankfully!).

Be prepared to laugh at your depression in all it's many forms. Mostly, just feel okay about it and like someone else is in on it with you. I also have to commend the author because despite the fact that this book is meant to be light-hearted and funny, there is a note in the introduction that includes the number for the National Suicide Prevention hotline. For the times when depression isn't that funny after all.

Blogger Note:  I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. This review is entirely based on my opinion.

Boy Meets Depression Hit All the Right Emotional Places

Writing a about depression usually falls into two categories: 1) writing about it from a medical/scientific standpoint or 2) memoir form. So when I read Boy Meets Depression: Or Life Sucks and Then You Die Live by Kevin Breel, I knew it was a first person account of a young man's struggle with depression but wasn't sure how it would be different from any of the other memoirs on depression I have read.

Boy Meets Depression by Kevin Breel

I quickly discovered a few things while reading this book. First of all, it was honest. I mean you could feel the experiences drip off the page and believe them. Second of all, it was easy to identify with Breel. His story described depression in a way that you have to stop yourself as you are reading it and say to yourself "YES! I can relate to this".  And when you are in the midst of a depression, being able to relate to someone else on that particularly dark/intense way is a comfort.

After I read this book, I quickly Googled Breel's TED talk on depression and was not disappointed. He comes off, both on the page and via video, as a young man who can put into words what it's like to live with the demons of depression. Again, it was refreshing because I felt like I knew a part of his story from having read the book, and his experience made mine easier to digest.

Depression is not a topic that lends itself well to light-hearted discussions, so keep in mind that this is an emotionally intense book. It could also trigger some people, so that is worth mentioning as well.

Blogger note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. This review is entirely based on my opinion and contains my honest evaluation.

Poor Little Holly Madison: A Disgruntled Bunny Explains Why Her Time at the Playboy Mansion Sucked

Dear Holly Madison,

I was so excited to read your newly-released tell all memoir, Down The Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, about life at the Playboy Mansion. I used to binge watch episodes of The Girls Next Door while I was pregnant and I couldn't wait to get an even more intimate glimpse into all the hijinks and shenanigans, the glamor and of course the drama that pervaded life at the Mansion.

Well you got the drama right. LOTS of drama. Between all the cattiness with you and the "Mean Girls" to all the backhanded comments you make alongside the name-dropping, I had to double check the cover to make sure I was reading the right book! This book read more like an attempt at explaining why everything bad or unfavorable that ever happened to you at the Mansion wasn't your fault. I mean the whole "I was there for a chance at making something bigger for myself" story got old fast.

A lot of people claim you are a gold digger and I didn't get that vibe after reading this book. However, I did walk away feeling bad for you. Instead of walking away when you could have salvaged relationships and saved face you proceeded to stick it out for seven years and then seemingly burn a lot of bridges when you left and with this book. I feel like this was your revenge to Hef and yourself for not having used Playboy as the stepping stone for what you wanted.

I wanted more juiciness! More celebrity encounters! More tales of how fairytale princess you felt while rocking the iconic bunny costume! I don't know what I was looking for exactly, but I walked away from this book feeling sad for you. Clearly your time affiliated with Playboy wasn't what I imagined it was like. That makes me wonder what else in life isn't all it's cracked up to be? Sigh.

I am glad your story has a happy ending and that you have the family you have always desired. I am sorry that you had to suffer through seven years of unhappiness to get there.

Sincerely,

a bummed out reader

Spinster, In Praise of Women who Crave Their Solitude

Quick! What do you think when you hear the word spinster? Chances are good that you think of a never-married woman living with an apartment full of cats. Whatever image your mind immediately conjures up,  it's likely to have a negative connotation.

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick takes a refreshing look at what it means to be a single woman by choice. It's less of a memoir and more of a history lesson on the kinds of women who have stood up throughout history to defy traditional female roles and stereotypes of Mother/Wife.

Spinster by Kate Bolick. Crown Publishing

Bolick presents the book as her own enlightening of sorts, she introduces us to the five women in history whom she relates most to because of their quest to define themselves first as individuals and then as women. These women are her five awakeners (whom are all writers of some variety and notoriety had either sworn off marriage or done so on their own, nontraditional terms). It's interesting for me, as a woman in her mid-thirties, to ponder what it was like to lack a choice in one's future. My generation grew up as the offspring of divorce, wedlock and normalized feminism and were probably the first group of women who honestly believed that they can tread any path that they choose, whether that means marrying and having children, staying single and focusing on one's career or any combination of both.

This book mingles the feminist historical context of what it is to be a single woman by choice as well as trace the author's own quest for self-discovery through re-examining the lives of her awakeners. She coins the term "spinster's wish" as her private desire "for the pleasures of being alone". And really what woman doesn't desire solitude from time to time? Whether that means a break from the kids/husband or the ability to fully immerse oneself in the things that fill one's life with passion?
Bolick encourages women of all states of coupling to take back the term spinster and make it into something positive.

Blogger note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. This review is entirely based on my opinion and contains my honest evaluation.

Ongoingness: The End of a Diary is a Must Read for Anyone Who Has Ever Kept a Diary

We keep diaries for many reasons, but at the core is the central theme of wanting to remember and the wish to leave something behind. I'm fascinated with other people's journals of late, and that is what drew me to Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso. It's a small, meditative book of blurbs that resonated with me and I would venture to guess anyone else who has ever kept a journal.

Manguso's book is written snapshots, snippets of her memories about diary-keeping over her life. She states that her goal of diary-keeping was to "end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened". It's a concise little gem of a book that constantly hits home the idea that we are not infinite, and that eventually "in a hundred and fifty years no one alive will have ever known me. Being forgotten like that, entering that great anf ongoing blank, seems more like death than death". Which of course is why the idea of diary-keeping seems so appealing. Being able to chronicle our lives so that we leave a written (or electronic) legacy behind long after we are gone. There is some comfort in believing that something we created will outlive us.

But as we grow, despite not wanting to let go of memories, or more precisely not wanting to miss an opportunity to perfectly capture all the fleeting moments that make up a life, we start to live our lives more fully. To be more ever-present. Instead of recording our memories in our diary, we imprint them into ourselves. And though that means we have to let go, at least a little, of our desire to be immortal through our diaries, it also encourages a bit more living and certainly a lot more to reflect upon.

This book was small but packed a big punch. Pick it up if you've ever kept a diary. It will speak to you.

Blogger note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. This review is entirely based on my opinion and contains my honest evaluation.

Neil Patrick Harris Writes His Autobiography (and You Can Too!)

If you were a child of the 80s there is probably one experience that we all have in common, at least from a literary point-of-view and that is the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. You remember them, they were the first time you ever felt like part of the reading experience. You would read a book from the series and then interact by choosing what happens next in the story (ex. For something good to happen to the main character, turn to page 20. For an unexpected turn of events, turn to page 25). In the time before the Internet, this was revolutionary!

Fast forward to the year 2014. One of the most recognized celebrities has taken the Choose Your Own Adventure formula and introduced it to a whole new generation, while re-introducing it to the far more cynical and grown up children of the 80s. The celebrity is none other than Mr. Doogie Howser himself, Neil Patrick Harris (90s kids would get the aforementioned Doogie reference).

Neil Patrick Harris, Choose Your Own Autobiography

It's beyond appropriate that Harris' autobiography, aptly titled Choose Your Own Autobiography, takes the form of the well-remembered and popular 80s children's book series. Of course at it's core the book is Harris' own take on his life from childhood to present day, but it is so much more than that. It is laugh out loud funny, full of celebrity chatter and tied together in the fondly remembered style that puts the reader in charge. The classiness of Harris pours through, yet he never seems to take himself too seriously. He touches on his childhood when he discovers his love for theater and acting, his coming to terms with his sexuality, how being Doogie Howser was a blessing and a curse, his dabbling with fellow celebrities and his most recent role as Barney on How I Met Your Mother.

This book is really an entertaining read. You will laugh and you will forget you are reading a book instead of sitting down and having a chat over coffee with your friend NPH. Don't pass this one up!

Blogger note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. This review is entirely based on my opinion and contains my honest evaluation.

Wanderlust Abounds in What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding

This book should come with a disclaimer: Have passport handy while reading. Really, this book will give you a major case of wanderlust (or at least it did me!). I read Kristin Newman's memoir What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding and longed to visit all the places she had. I wanted the foreign romances in Argentina, the walkabout in New Zealand, the typical partying you'd expect of Amsterdam and of course Paris on New Year's (tres chic!).

Another disclaimer: this book not only recounts Newman's 30-ish single-girl worldly travels but also her 30-ish single-girl worldly romantic conquests so just a head's up. The details are ALL THERE. Newman perfectly describes these encounters as "sweet, sexy, epic little vacationships" as opposed to relationships, which she avoids like some third-world plague.

So while Newman's friends were married and having babies, she was living the dream (as she saw fit). Which speaks loud and clear about following one's path and not being fearful of new experiences (even if it means going it alone). I found her tale refreshing and empowering for young women. Her message of it's okay to buck the trend and not get married before you are ready! and go have adventures because that is what living is supposed to be about! No regrets! And her whole "do the thing you are supposed to do in the place where you are" is a pretty good rule for travelers of all kinds. Engage with the locals, see the must-see sights, but the real gems are often the hidden ones that you have to go off the beaten path to experience. Immerse yourself in the culture. Become semi-fluent in the language. And maybe, if it feels right, get a little cozy with that Argentinian!

It should be noted that Kristen-adjacent (the traveling version of herself) is a Hollywood sit-com writer who has both the means financially and flexibility job-wise to travel during the off season. This sad, sad realization kept smacking reality into me when I daydreamed a little too hard about leaving my family and job for a little bit of world travel. Big buzz kill moment.

Newman's voice as a comedy writer comes across loud and clear and I couldn't help but imagine the two of us sharing a few bottles of wine as she personally recounted to me these tales of romance and adventure abroad. Very fun, irreverent and girl-friend to girl-friend kind of tone.

To sum up, this book is the EXACT POLAR OPPOSITE of Eat Pray Love, which ironically enough Newman has the insight to see herself and note that while she wasn't a fan of it, she could see all the things that were annoying about that book in her own memoir, noting that she (Newman) had a "tendency to be self-involved and inflict misery on (herself) in the middle of (her) pretty amazing life".

Toss this book into your carry-on on your next sojourn or just bring it with you to the beach and get lost in living vicariously through Newman's experiences.

Blogger note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. This review is entirely based on my opinion and contains my honest evaluation.

photo courtesy of Random House