Tagged: memoir
Belles on Their Toes
Belles on Their Toes by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, 5/5
I thought this lesser-known companion to the popular Cheaper by the Dozen would suffer from Sequel Syndrome but it doesn’t–the stories it contains are funny, touching, and calculated to make even a cynical reader like myself wish the book were ten times longer. While the first book is dominated by the charismatic person of their father, this sequel is a tribute to the mother who somehow managed to keep the family together after her husband’s death, put all the children through college, keep up the family business and pioneer the male-dominated world of industrial engineering.
[Why I read it: I enjoyed Cheaper by the Dozen.]
Entropy Academy
Entropy Academy: How to Succeed at Homeschooling Even if You Don’t Homeschool by Alison Bernhoft, ♥♥♥♥♥/5
My friend wrote a book! It is, unsurprisingly, just like her: intelligent, passionate, inspiring and humorous. Despite possessing an impressive formal education that includes degrees from England’s Royal College of Music, Oxford, and UCLA, Alison wasn’t afraid to embrace unconventionality when it came to successfully homeschooling her large family. Her decision to work with life’s chaos instead of fighting it resulted in a homeschooling style that is joyful and realistic, integrating learning naturally into every aspect of life. Hilarious anecdotes and creative educational ideas are woven into a family narrative that provides an antidote to the sort of dry, rigidly-structured homeschooling ideologies that crush children’s natural love of learning and burden their parents with unrealistic demands on time and patience. This is the sort of book that is written out of love, and, I have no doubt, in response to demand from people who have seen the fruits of Alison’s labour in her loving family and successful children, now grown up.
You can find more information on her website or buy a copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, and Books-A-Million.
[Why I read it: No one who has read Alison’s hugely-entertaining Christmas letters, met her talented family or talked to her in person could resist the opportunity of reading an entire book written by her! Also, I was honored to edit the book, design the cover, convert it to e-book formats, put it up for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Google Play, create the website and Facebook page, as well as whatever other things needed doing. It was a challenging project that took over a year to complete, but provided great fun and satisfaction, as well as invaluable learning experience.]
Update: Since writing this review, Entropy Academy has been further refreshed and published by Propriometrics Press.
Wordstruck
Wordstruck: A Memoir by Robert MacNeil, 2/5
MacNeil is obviously a highly successful and intelligent man (to judge from his Wikipedia article and contributions to The Story of English) but this memoir is very dull and would, I think, be of little interest to anyone not actually related to him. Perhaps it suffers from too much humility in the presentation or perhaps it’s just that people who write more exciting memoirs tend to lie a lot.
[Why I read it: it was a present from my mom and I liked MacNeil’s work in The Story of English].
Books: A Memoir
Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry, 1/5
Disjointed. Random. And kinda boring (much like this review).
OmniRambles 