Tag: memoir

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#BookReview: The Understory By Lore Ferguson Wilbert

Better Sipped Than Shot, Intense Political “Flavor” Means Taste Will Vary With Reader. There are times when you’re drinking (even non-alcoholic beverages) where you just plow through them. Maybe it is your first coffee of the day and you need that caffeine NOW! Maybe it is a hot summer day and that glass of lemonade disappeared *real* quick. Or maybe you just broke up with your significant other, and yeah, that tequila hit the spot.

A lot of books are like this. Action thrillers where reading at a frenetic pace to match the action being shown is part of the fun, for example.

This… is not that book.

This, instead, is one of those fine bourbons where you’re going to lose a lot of the nuance if you shoot it down too fast. One of those women’s fiction tales that feels like it is taking forever to have any real plot at all, but feels so *immersive* in the tale even still. One of those quasi-memoir/ quasi-religious pondering books (exactly what this is) where you really need to, as Wilbert did in taking inspiration for the overall narrative here, sit at your window and ponder the forest outside.

Read in such a manner, Wilbert’s struggles are more understandable and even relatable, as you consider your own similar struggles – and here, the things Wilbert struggles with really are things most all of us do at some level. The overarching forest narrative is a genuinely good guide for such contemplation, at least as Wilbert has written it here.

But what could ruin the taste – or make it truly exquisite – is the intense politics that are never far from the narrative, to the point that if there isn’t a political comment on *every* page, it certainly feels like at least some comment is made on at least the *majority* of pages. And yes, Wilbert’s politics are, to put it mildly, “left of center”. So know that going in.

This noted, where Wilbert eventually arrives… is a place we all probably need to, even if, again depending on your own political tastes, perhaps she arrives there a bit condesceningly.

Overall an intriguing read that truly urges us to slow down in this hectic world, it is one that we should all likely ponder – though I suppose few enough actually will.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Understory by Lore Ferguson Wilbert was originally written on May 25, 2024.

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#BookReview: Unstuck by Stephanie Stuckey

Fascinating And *Southern* Tale Of Near-Death Of Road trip Staple. Stephanie Stuckey has led a life few Georgians have. She is a scion of a family that had become somewhat rich and somewhat powerful over the last century, whose grandfather once proclaimed (per Stuckey, here in the text) that he had made more money than his grandchildren could ever spend (but which they did, again, per Stuckey here), whose father had been a Congressman and who herself had been a State Representative for nearly 15 years. Both she and her father are UGA alumni, both from well before the era where the HOPE scholarship made such an achievement much more doable for many Georgians.

All of this is included here, but really, this is the tale of the ascent to those heights… and the downfall from them, as changes mostly made by others – as well as a few mistakes made within the company – led to near non-existence of the family company, fortune, and even legacy.

Herein lies a quintessential Southern tale of Southern family and business acumen, of a legacy built, nearly destroyed, and of one woman’s fight to restore that legacy to all that it had once been… and maybe, just maybe… even increase it for her own children.

The story is told with all of the grace, grit, and wonder of a granddaughter who clearly grew up living at least some of the history involved, but only much later in life finding out all that she *didn’t* know, including just how fundamental the black community was to her (white) grandfather’s success in the era of Jim Crow, and how mutually beneficial and respectful the relationships there were. Up to and including Civil Rights activists actively encouraging their people to stop at Stuckey’s, knowing that they would be treated with the respect they didn’t always get in the South in that era.

As someone who has also uncovered lost family history later in life – and who has lived in some of the regions this tale centers around, as well as, yes, having sampled quite a few of the family’s candies-, this was a story I could connect with on several levels, even as my own family was… let’s go with “not quite so fortunate” over the years, to the point that when I graduated from Kennesaw State University near the turn of this Millennium, I was the first in my family to have graduated college at all.

Overall truly a triumphant and hopeful tale, well told with the respect, humor, and candor one doesn’t always get in such deeply personal tales fraught with such sensitive topics as race relations in the South. Very much recommended.

This review of Unstuck by Stephanie Stuckey was originally written on May 24, 2024.

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#BookReview: Down With The System by Serj Tankian

Fascinating And Humble Blend Of Personal Memoir, Cultural/ Personal History, and Activism. Serj Tankian burst into the public scene 25 years ago as the lead singer of System Of A Down – the band that had the number one album on 9/11, days before Tankian wrote a reflection on that day that nearly destroyed everything they had built.

This… is his story. We get to that day, but we get a long build up to it, explaining everything that had led him to that point in his life, including his grandparents’ survival of the Arminian Genocide in the WWI era through his dad’s legal troubles in Tankian’s teens and early adulthood, through his initial work creating a software company, finding music, eventually forming System… and then his life with and after System.

Through it all, Tankian’s activism to bring light to the horrors of the Arminian Genocide is never far from pretty well literally anything he is writing about in that moment. It is clear that it truly forms the backbone of his identity and everything he considers himself to be about – and truly, as the grandson of two survivors of WWII’s Battle of the Bulge, I actually can appreciate the personal family history, even as the particulars of our families are so very different.

Indeed, even our reactions to 9/11 were distinctly different, as Tankian was an immigrant from the Middle East region in his 30s on that day and I was an 18yo American fresh out of high school rocking out to Toxicity that summer before that day. I don’t remember my reaction to Tankian’s post that day, if I ever even saw it or heard of the public outcry. My own reaction was better summed up first by Alan Jackson’s Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning) (which I *finally* had a chance to hear him perform live in 2022) and the (sadly now late) great Toby Keith’s “Courtesy Of The Red White And Blue”. I was a college junior that day, even though I had just graduated high school at the beginning of that summer, but still an 18yo male with a US Selective Service card – the knowledge that if America went to war, I could be called to fight in it very, *very* real on my mind in the immediate aftermath.

But that day and the fallout are but a small part of this book, though it *is* discussed. The overarching tale being, again, that of Tankian’s work bringing publicity to the Arminian Genocide and his efforts to get to get the world to force Turkey to so much as acknowledge their crimes of that era and all that it has led to, including a new war in Armenia this decade that Turkey had a hand in, according to Tankian.

Overall this was truly an interesting look at a remarkable life that many of us had heard of before, but I suspect few of us indeed knew of the depth of the passion involved here and everything Tankian has done.

Very much recommended.

This review of Down With The System by Serj Tankian was originally written on May 24, 2024.

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#BookReview: Our Fight by Ronda Rousey

The End Of An Era. I write this review nearly a week after reading this book, and hours after the conclusion of Wrestlemania 40 – the beginning of a new era of WWE. Which is fitting, because so much of what Rousey talks about re: her involvement with the prior regime in WWE had been relatively well documented both in court and in the court of public opinion over the last couple of years in particular, as Rousey was experiencing some of it and then working with her writer to write this book. Yes, much of this book are complaints about how she was mistreated in various ways by both her longtime UFC trainer and later by Vince McMahon, whom Rousey rarely holds back on her disgust and disdain for, but there is actually much about this book to like as well. For one, for those looking for celebrity “look who I know and run with” kind of memoirs… this is absolutely that. (As contrasted to Rebecca Quin’s Becky Lynch: The Man which released a week earlier, and which played a heavy role in Quin’s Wrestlemania 40 presentation, which was pretty well the opposite of that.) Particularly husband Travis Brown and the other three “Four Horsewomen” of UFC, Rousey talks a lot about all of them and largely in a particularly glowing manner, while not holding back on those she disliked in both her UFC and WWE runs. Indeed, there is little “foundational” material here – perhaps because this is her second book and the prior book perhaps covered more of that, being written before her WWE run? And perhaps the very coolest encounter she recounts is actually with a Mexican colleague, ring name Santos Escobar, as she was getting ready to finally hang up her fighting boots and return to life on the farm. A similarity she shares with another former UFC and WWE star… Brock Lesnar, not mentioned once in this particular tale.

Overall an interesting read that “peels the curtain back” more than some, if in a more negative/ pessimistic/ self-centered manner than others. Still, a truly interesting read and very much recommended.

This review of Our Fight by Ronda Rousey was originally written on April 8, 2024.

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#BookReview: Becky Lynch: The Man by Rebecca Quin

Excellent, If Not Overly Shocking, Memoir. This is one of those memoirs where if you’ve known of this person for much time at all, you’re already going to know a lot of the public stuff about their career – much of which is in fact covered in this particular tale, including how Rebecca Quin first became Becky Lynch before later becoming “The Man”, then, in one of the most famous moments of the COVID era of WWE, her famous line to colleague Kanako Urai (better known as Asuka) “You go and be a warrior. Because I’m going to go be a mother.” Finally, the tale wraps up with at least a bit of what happened after, through the birth of her daughter Roux and getting back into the ring.

Like I said, anyone who has followed Quin even through her WWE days knows most of these details already, and let’s face it, “engaged woman in her early 30s is pregnant” is about as shocking as “the sky is blue”. Even Quin’s earlier relationship with Fergal Devitt (better known to WWE fans as Finn Balor) and her being trained as a wrestler by him was already known.

But there is quite a bit here that *hadn’t* been as openly discussed publicly, if ever discussed at all, including so much about her childhood and how much her parents and older brother meant and mean to her. Even her actual history of first getting into the ring, meeting Fergal, their relationship and eventual breakup, her early days in Japan before seeming to give up on the entire industry, her eventual comeback and why… these are all details that show who Rebecca Quin, the person, is and was well before Becky Lynch ever came to be.

And yes, we also get the story of how the name Becky Lynch came to be and her rise in WWE, including how she met a colleague named Colby (Lopez, better known to WWE fans as The Architect, The Revolutionary, The Visionary Seth “FREAKIN” Rollins, the current World Heavyweight Champion) on her first day on WWE’s “main roster” (the Raw and Smackdown shows) and how she was actually in another relationship at the time and he simply became a good friend. She talks about meeting Big E, the various McMahons that have been so integral to WWE over the last decades – Vince, Stephanie, and Stephanie’s husband Paul Levesque, better known to all as Triple H – and several others. She talks about how she met Charlotte and her actual friendship with her – and their falling out and Rebecca’s hopes that that relationship can be repaired. She talks about Ronda Rousey’s entrance to WWE and their eventual legendary Triple Threat with Charlotte at Wrestlemania. She talks about how quickly things started heating up with Colby once she allowed the possibility that there might be something there. She talks about the days leading up to the meeting with Asuka above, and she talks about the months after that and all that was going on in that period of her life. She even directly mentions getting the deal to write this very book.

Overall, this isn’t one of those WWE memoirs that is meant to be a tell-all of all the famous people she has met and known or of all the various rivalries she has had, though all of that is done a fair amount as well. This is instead meant more as a way to humanize Becky Lynch back to Rebecca Quin, to reveal the actual woman behind the character, full of all of her own doubts and insecurities that the character largely (but not completely, as this is what in some eyes makes her so endearing) hides.

And in the build up to what WWE is currently billing as “the biggest Wrestlemania of all time” just 8 days out from when I write this review and just 11 days removed from the publication of this book, this is a particularly timely book with Quinn herself challenging for the Women’s World Championship and “Colby” now being so heavily featured in the event – seemingly working both nights of the massive two night event.

I’ve read a lot of WWE memoirs over the years, including from HBK Sean Michaels, The Rock, Mick Foley, now AEW superstar Chris Jericho, and even Batista’s memoir. In all honesty, even though many of those lean more into the “look at all the famous people I know” (and perhaps even *because* of this), this book, even in its brevity of discussing some of the finer details of her relationships, particularly with others in the public eye (and, admittedly, her current work colleagues) is one of the most “real” WWE memoirs I’ve ever come across. Quinn doesn’t hold back from her own thoughts and her own problems, even as she shies away from discussing too much about others’ issues around her.

Ultimately a compelling memoir, and, again, a very timely released one. Very much recommended.

This review of Becky Lynch: The Man by Rebecca Quin was originally written on March 29, 2024.

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#BookReview: Homestead Survival by Marty Raney

Solid Guide To Things To Consider Before Committing To Homesteading. If you’ve seen so much as a single episode of Homestead Rescue, the Discovery Channel show where Marty Raney travels the US with his younger daughter Misty and his younger son Matt assisting homesteaders with critical issues on their properties, you largely know what to expect from this book – both in terms of content and style. Listening to the Audible in particular, which Raney narrates himself, you absolutely hear the exact same speech cadences and tones Raney is known for on the show in the Audible. The overall book content is basically a summation of a lot of the same points he makes throughout the show regarding the various elements of homesteading, though in the case of the book here you also get a few specific places to look for information that aren’t always discussed on the show, as well as some specific product recommendations. Raney is also clear, however, that he does in fact make mistakes – including among the final chapters when his own mistakes in a COVID-based mental fog cost him the house he had built and lived in for decades as a fire began specifically because of a wood burning stove he both knew he had to replace… and already had the replacement stove in the house, waiting to be hooked up!

Overall a seemingly comprehensive guide to the various issues to consider before attempting to create a homestead yourself, if mostly general and a touch prevaricating (in that he is quite honest that specifics you need in your situation will always come down to the details of your own property and what you may have access to on/ near it), this is absolutely a book to read if you’re remotely considering the possibility of living this particular lifestyle at all. Even if you’re not, this is still a great general guide on how to prepare for a wide variety of scenarios that one may face even in suburban or even urban situations, though his recommendations for handling those scenarios are more explicitly designed for a more rural lifestyle. (As a general example, his suggestions for say livestock in particular won’t work in an urban setting where even chickens tend to be banned, but at least some of his suggestions for gardening could work in even window planter sized gardens.)

Truly a fascinating book, though one that I do suspect will have more market share among those already fans of the show and/ or already active in the homesteading community than necessarily a wide public appeal – but hey, maybe I’m wrong there.

Very much recommended.

This review of Homestead Survival by Marty Raney was originally written on January 11, 2024.

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#BookReview: The Last Supper Club by Matthew Batt

Moving Memoir Of A Memorable Moment. This is a memoir of one of those moments in one man’s life where he was just looking to make a buck and make sure his family was ok… that turned into something he found he loved doing. After it ended, this book has become his love song to that period in his life, that place, and those people. And yes, Batt discusses his entire life, including touching on what he is doing outside the restaurant quite a bit. But even when the tale leaves the restaurant, it never strays too far… and it always comes back fairly quickly. Overall a poignant tale that will leave you looking back on the similar periods of your own life. Very much recommended.

This review of The Last Supper Club by Matthew Batt was originally written on October 4, 2023.

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#BookReview: Year Of No Garbage by Eve O. Schaub

Realistic Look At The Practical Side Of Trying To Eliminate Household Garbage. I intentionally read this book immediately after reading Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis (which is scheduled to release about two months after this book), and the convergences and divergences were quite interesting. Franklin-Wallis’ text is absolutely the better, more well-rounded, guide to almost the entirety of the overall waste problem around the world, and is has nearly triple the overall percentage of the text as bibliography – indicating *far* more actual research and documentation. This is actually the first star deduction – the lack of bibliography. Perhaps more excusable in a more memoir-based book such as this, but even among memoirs, getting closer to that 20% range on documentation is more typical in my own experience with reading Advance Reviewer Copies of these types of books.

But where *this* text stands out is in just how *practical* it is. Schaub is apparently effectively a performance artist whose medium is memoirs, and she has to learn quite a bit along the way and ask a *lot* of questions of people that I’m honestly not sure Joe Blow (who can’t say that he is working on a memoir) would ever have actual access to. But even outside of all the questions Schaub asks of various waste industry professionals and activists, she has to wrestle with the day to day realities of truly trying to eliminate 100% of her family’s trash – for an entire year. A year which turned out to be 2020, and thus involve the worst parts of the global collapse and home imprisonment. Which is where the star deduction comes in, as I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID. Yes, even in 2023.

Nevertheless, the challenges Schaub had to surmount were indeed quite formidable, and in the end she learned a hard fought, depressing for some, lesson: Ultimately, eliminating 100% of garbage cannot currently be done in modern society. *Perhaps* as a true Homesteader/ Survivalist – which Schaub is not and therefore did not test -, but for the vast majority of those living in the modern, Western-ish society, it simply cannot be done.

Read the book to see how close Schaub and her family got and all the trials and travails they had to go through to get there. Schaub writes in a fashion that comes across as both no-nonsense and humorous, and the tale reads well because of this. Her ultimate recommendations… let’s just go with “Your Mileage May Vary” on. If you’re a avowed environmentalist fan of Bernie Sanders… you’re probably going to like a lot of them, perhaps all of them. The further away from that archetype you are, the less you’re likely to agree with her recommendations.

Still, regardless of where you think you’ll land on her recommendations – and thus, how much you’ll want to throw this book on the nearest trash heap, pour gallons of gas all over it, and light it up (even if it is on your Kindle) -, read this book to see just how hard it is to eliminate household garbage in the US, and perhaps start thinking about some possible solutions for your family or possibly policy solutions for your local community, your state, and/ or your nation that more align with your own principles.

Overall, this book is very much recommended.

This review of Year Of No Garbage by Eve O. Schaub was originally written on April 8, 2023.

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#BookReview: Miss Memory Lane by Colton Haynes

Raw. Brutal. Not A Name-Dropping Hollywood Story. Like so many others, I first “met” Haynes when he showed up on my TV screen as Roy Harper in CW’s Arrow. A show which I didn’t want to like at first because it came *so* close to Smallville and Justin Hartley’s own excellent portrayal of the same (now titular) character, but whose grit and realism shined through and made me a fan (at least of its earlier seasons). But I never knew too much of the actual Colton Haynes other than knowing that he seemed to be friends with his female cast mates in particular and that he had previously been on the MTV version of Teen Wolf.

And while both of these shows are mentioned here (with more details about Teen Wolf than Arrow, though not a Hollywood-gossip type entry on either of them), the focus of this book is more about Haynes’ upbringing, from his earliest memories to his first sexual abuse at age six to his later sexual abuse throughout his teenage years, and his life as all of this was happening. Even when we get into the areas where he came into the public eye, beginning with modeling in New York and LA (after h

This review of Miss Memory Lane by Colton Haynes was originally written on June 9, 2022.

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#BookReview: Just Dope by Allison Margolin

Current (420 Day 2022) Description Inaccurate. Read As Memoir. If you go into this book expecting what the current description claims the book is – a take down of all drug laws by a lawyer who knows them well – ummm…. you’re going to be severely disappointed. As pretty well every review earlier than my own notes. If you go into this more as a memoir with some generalized points about why legalization of all drugs would make for a more just world – with scant documentation, accounting for only 10% of the ARC text -… you’ll be more satisfied with this book than had you believed the current description. The text here is truly more about Margolin and her parents – her dad being one of the more famous/ infamous drug criminal defense lawyers in the US – than any other central issue, though the drugs Margolin uses and she and her dad defend others using in court are never far away. Overall, this is more of a primer text for those who may not be familiar with many of the complete legalization arguments to see how they play out in the life and mind of one particular LA-based drug lawyer. If you’re looking for a more detailed examination of the arguments and their pros and cons… this isn’t that text. Still, for what it is this is a worthy read that can at least add a degree of nuance to the overall conversation, and for this it is recommended.

This review of Just Dope by Allison Margolin was originally written on April 20, 2022.