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Tag Archives: mother’s death

From Here to the Great Unknown: a Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough

07 Monday Apr 2025

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Biography, memoir, Non-fiction, United States

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autobiographies, biography, Lisa Marie Presley 1968-2023, mother's death, mothers and daughters, Riley Keough 1989-, singers, United States

Before she died, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter Riley Keough to help write her autobiography. After Lisa Marie passed, Riley used hours of her mother’s recordings to complete the book. Without knowing much about the Presley family before reading this, I was moved by Lisa’s story and her family bonds. I recommend the audiobook.

“Instead of tap dancing around the hard parts, we’re drilling into the bedrock. We hear less from Presley and more from Keough, who comes across as level headed, valiant and kind. . . . Keough approaches the episode with respectful levity, the best tool available to members of a dysfunctional family. . . . Presley still gets a word in here and there, and these passages show how determined she was to stand up to her demons.”—The New York Times

“When her actor daughter, Riley Keough, writes that she wants Lisa Marie to emerge from the pages of the memoir as a ‘three-dimensional character’, she’s not kidding . . . it’s clear that Presley was nothing if not radically honest. It’s also striking how Keough seems to almost plead with the reader to understand and love her mother as much as she does. Ultimately, this is a book built on grief: Lisa Marie Presley’s for her father and son, but also a daughter’s for her mother.”—The Guardian

“The book is of two minds: It’s an unadorned, conversational memoir that’s more matter of fact than gossipy, little interested in preserving what her father’s biographer Peter Guralnick once called ‘the dreary bondage of myth.’ And it’s a frank, almost unbearably heavy meditation on grief. . . . Stunningly candid . . . Both women write gracefully about the unbearable, immovable heaviness of grief. Keough’s portrait of her mother in her final months is especially indelible. ‘I had mistakenly thought she was so strong-minded that nothing could ever truly hobble her,’ she writes. ‘But of course it could. Enough pain can hobble anyone.’”—The Washington Post

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One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

18 Monday Jul 2022

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, Fiction, magic

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Itlay, mother's death, mothers and daughters, Positano

Katy is heartbroken when her mother dies, and decides to take their planned mother-daughter trip to Italy on her own. As she revisits the Amalfi Coast where her mother traveled as a young woman, she comes across an unexpected person: her mother, as she was 30 years ago. This novel also serves as a vacation to Italy, with beautiful descriptions of the places Katy visits.

Serle’s whimsical tale can be read in one sitting.  But take your time and savor the food, the lush settings and sights that Katy discovers in her search for what her mother experienced in her youth. 

In these cynical, jaded times, this book elevates the magic of place.“An unconventional love story that embraces people’s flaws and selfishness as part of what makes them human.”—Kirkus


“Poignant and ultimately uplifting. The mouthwatering descriptions of Katy’s food and the lush Italian coast bring a strong, atmospheric sense of place. Recommend to fans of Helen Fisher’s Faye, Faraway (2021) and those who enjoy being transported to other countries through fiction.” —Booklist 


“A touching story…the mother-daughter bond is made palpable through Katy’s grief and desire for connection.” —Publishers Weekly

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The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay

20 Monday May 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Fiction

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India, Jammu and Kashmir, journey, mother's death, mothers and daughters, villages Himalaya Mountains region, young women

This debut novel kept me turning the pages sensing something ominous was going to happen but wondering just how this privileged, naïve girl from Bangalore on an unplanned trip to locate a long ago visitor to her family home would manage or fail traveling in the now volatile, dangerous mountains of Kashmir.  Frought with tension….well worth it.  Can’t wait for her next book!

“Vijay intertwines her story’s threads with dazzling skill. Dense, layered, impossible to pin—or put—down, her first novel is an engrossing tale of love and grief, politics and morality. Combining up-close character studies with finely plotted drama, this is a triumphant, transporting debut.”—BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW)

 “Dazzling… Vijay’s prose is exquisite—florid and descriptive at times, spare and pared back at others. The story keeps twisting unexpectedly until the end, keeping emotions fraught, questions percolating. It’s a scintillating novel from a truly gifted writer.”—BOOKPAGE (STARRED REVIEW)

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