Category Archives: Biography

The Big Tiny: a Built-It-Myself Memoir by Dee Williams

24 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Biography, Non-fiction

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This memoir is the story of how the author downsized her life after experiencing a heart attack at the age of 41.  She traded her large home with a mortgage for a tiny house that she built herself, one that she can clean in 10 minutes.  This book is full of warmth and humor.  If you liked Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed, try The Big Tiny.

“Visitors to [Dee Williams’] property may be forgiven for thinking someone had taken up residence in a beautifully built pine-and-cedar toolshed out back….[an] affecting memoir…she writes in The Big Tiny of finding a centeredness and peace in her little house, of being less fearful, more alive. Some of the best passages are when she describes the sensory experience of being inside: smelling raw cedar and knotty pine; listening to the weather.”—Steven Kurutz, The New York Times

“Even those who are contemplating downsizing may not be familiar with the DIY tiny-urban-house movement Williams describes. Imagine a floor space smaller than an average-size living-room rug with an external peak elevation of less than 10 feet and an open-space “ceiling” height of less than seven feet. Now picture a sleeping loft above the 84 square feet below. That’s it. The entire house. Williams explains that she was driven by a need to build a home and to be at home “in the world and in my body” after awakening in a hospital following a cardiac incident that caused her to reevaluate and change her life. “Feeling like a woman learning to swim,” Williams recounts studying DIY manuals as bedtime reading, and learning, hands-on, the finer points of using the correct tools to build a floor frame and much more as she undertakes securing prefabricated walls to the trailer-skeleton. She calls on friends for help with hoisting walls. Here Williams has built an engaging and inspiring how-to/memoir that goes beyond the DIY perspective.” –Whitney Scott for Booklist

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Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

29 Thursday May 2014

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This is the most compelling book I have ever listened to.  I was so moved by it days later that I wrote a letter to the author with the message that I will always remember her boys. I remember them each and every day.

“It was a festive time. Economist Deraniyagala, her economist husband (they met at Cambridge), and their two young sons flew from London to Sri Lanka to spend the winter holidays with her parents. They were all staying in a hotel near their favorite national park on December 26, 2004, the day of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. Deraniyagala describes their bewilderment as they flee the hotel and her terror as they are swept up by the 30-foot-high, racing wave that brutally changed everything. Only Deraniyagal survived. In rinsed-clear language, she describes her ordeal, surreal rescue, and deep shock, attaining a Didionesque clarity and power. We hold tight to every exquisite sentence as, with astounding candor and precision, she tracks subsequent waves of grief, from suicidal despair to persistent fear, attempts to drown her pain in drink, “helpless rage,” guilt and shame, and paralyzing depression. But here, too, are sustaining tides of memories that enable her to vividly, even joyfully, portray her loved ones. An indelible and unique story of loss and resolution written with breathtaking refinement and courage.” –Donna Seaman from Booklist

“Out of unimaginable loss comes an unimaginably powerful book. . . . I urge you to read Wave. You will not be the same person after you’ve finished.” —Will Schwalbe

“The most powerful and haunting book I have read in years.” —Michael Ondaatje

“Unforgettable. . . . The most exceptional book about grief I’ve ever read. . . . [Deraniyagala] has fearlessly delivered on memoir’s greatest promise: to tell it like it is, no matter the cost. . . . As unsparing as they come, but also defiantly flooded with light. . . . Extraordinary.” —Cheryl Strayed, The New York Times Book Review

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The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Biography, Non-fiction, Travel

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If you are looking for adventure, history and biography this is the book for you.  Millard captures Teddy Roosevelt’s larger than life personality as he fails at being reelected to the presidency of the United States in 1912 and then decides to explore an uncharted river in South America.  This is a story of guts and determination that has been well researched but reads like a novel and not as non-fiction.  You will feel every mosquito bite and see every crocodile that Roosevelt encounters in the Amazonian jungle.

“A rich, dramatic tale that ranges from the personal to the literally earth-shaking.” —Janet Maslin,

“A rich, dramatic tale that ranges from the personal to the literally earth-shaking.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“[A] fine account . . . There are far too many books in which a travel writer follows in the footsteps of his or her hero—and there are far too few books like this, in which an author who has spent time and energy ferreting out material from archival sources weaves it into a gripping tale.” —The Washington Post

Anacondas, huge snakes found in the Amazon River and its tributaries, can weigh up to 500 pounds. That fact and many others embedded in this marvelously atmospheric travel narrative are here for the reader’s asking and edification in Millard’s important contribution to the complete biographical record of the great, dynamic Teddy Roosevelt. TR, it will be remembered, attempted a third term as president in 1912, only to make certain of a Democratic victory. Licking his wounds, and reverting to his typical method of “seeking solace from heartbreaks and frustration” by testing his physical endurance, he embarked on an Amazon exploration adventure. A set of odd circumstances led to the River of Doubt as the choice of venue, a large tributary of the giant river that up to that point had been little explored. What with suffering from fever and infection, Roosevelt nearly died on the trip; but live through it he did, and readers of both American history and travel narratives will take delight in living through these exciting pages. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association.

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Stronger by Jeff Bauman with Bret Witter

18 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in Biography, Non-fiction, Sports

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After reading a book review about this book, I instantly requested this book to read since I have running daughters and the 2014 Boston Marathon is just around the corner.   I started reading it one evening , pushed all my other reading to the side, and continued reading this page- turner into the next day non-stop. This is the story behind the scenes of the famous 2013 Marathon photo –Carlos in his cowboy hat and Jeff with blown off legs pushed in a wheelchair by a woman. Waking up groggy after multiple surgeries, Jeff’s only thought was to tell the police that he had made eye-to-eye contact with the bomber which then led to one of the largest manhunts our country has witnessed.  Jeff set his goal to be able to walk on bionic legs by this Monday’s Marathon anniversary.  What a year he has shared with the Bruins, the Red Sox, James Taylor, the Watertown police to name but a few.  Jeff tells us who inspired him to fight through the grueling therapies and how he decided to accept a public role to inspire others.

“A moving demonstration of how strength of mind and character helped one man stand tall despite the loss of his legs.”—Kirkus

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A Vineyard in Tuscany: a Wine Lover’s Dream by Ferenc Mate

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Two New Yorkers, world sailor Ferenc and his artist wife and their young son, embark on a life time dream to restore a “ruin” and grow their own wines. They choose Tuscany, Italy. Share their adventures and misadventures in this intimate, at times very funny, memoir of restoring a 13th century friary and planting 15 acres of grapes after meticulous soil testing with world famous vintners and local neighbors. Three years later Mate’s wines receive instant international acclaim.

“Readers share a feeling of accomplishment and pride when their Syrah is voted ‘Italian Red Wine of the Year’ by Morrell. “– The New York Times Book Review

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My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

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This is a delightful and amusing read about a young girl growing up in a very unusual household.  Her father was a champion horse trainer in England so she shared her life with over 100 thoroughbred racehorses, mares, and ponies as well as a constant variety of dogs on a huge estate in the Hampshire Downs.  And Clare was often at the bottom of the pecking order in the family – boys always came first, and sometimes the horse and dogs did, too.  She shares amusing and poignant portraits of the beloved animals who buffer her tough challenges on her long road to becoming an award-winning broadcaster and proclaimed a “national treasure” as well as the gold medal winning presenter at the 2012 London Olympics.

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