Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley
This memoir is candid without being solacious and honest without being self-indulgent. Structured as a series of essays, the book moves through Polley’s life from being a child actor, to the death of her mother, to leaving home as a teenager, to becoming an activist, to becoming a mother herself. Run Towards the Danger is strangely inviting. Polley welcomes the reader into her life in a non-exhibitionist sort of way and keeps your attention.
Book Review: Wreck by Kelley Jo Burke
Wreck by author, playwright, and documentarian Kelley Jo Burke is a hilarious and honest exploration of family trauma, love, and memory.
It a story about loss. How we carry loss in our bodies and minds, how loss can impact perspective. But it is also about love. How love remains despite the hurt, how love, if we let it, can heal, no matter how imperfect or messy.
A humorous and well-crafted memoir.
Book Review: This One Wild Life by Angie Abdou
Angie Abdou’s memoir This One Wild Life is a beautiful and engrossing reflection on the healing power of family and of time spent out of doors.
In a series of hilariously authentic, poignant, and at times, down-right terrifying vignettes, Abdou writes about the grandeur of the natural world, the comfort of family, and the ever-challenging escapades of good parenting. Both author and daughter come of age in this daringly honest memoir, each discovering what it means to live This One Wild Life.
Recommended for a quick, delightfully absorbing summer read!!
Book Review: Birds Art Life by Kyo MacLear
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you find a book that matches your particular mood or state of being. The realization of this simpatico starts as a simmer—a reverberation in your chest signaling recognition and relief. “That’s me,” you shout (hopefully in your head.) “That’s exactly how I feel!” And a nugget of gratitude lands in your throat. This is how Kyo McLear’s Birds Art Life found me: Stranded. Aching. Adrift. Just like her.
Book Review: The Way of the Gardener by Lyndon Penner
Lyndon Penner deftly brings the reader into the present moment. His appreciation for the magpie, his love of wisteria vines, and his rich connection to the earth are infectiously palpable. Each page drips with appreciation for all that is beautiful. The Way of the Gardener is a wonderfully charming book and a deeply pleasurable read.