Books to Look For (July): Biography/Memoir

     

Books to Look For (May): Biography/Memoir

Malevolent Muse: The Life of Alma Mahler by Oliver Hilmes, translated by Donald Arthur (Northeastern, 360, May 5)

Alma Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel (1879–1964) was both loved and hated by her contemporaries in the cultural circles of 20th-century Europe. As mistress and wife to many famous and brilliant men (including the composer Gustav Mahler), Alma was once called "a cross between a grande dame and a cesspool" by a contemporary. Nonetheless, as Hilmes discovered upon reading many of her previously-unpublished papers, Alma was a force to be reckoned with in European intellectual circles and then in emigre communities in the U.S. after the Nazis swept across Europe. Looks fascinating.



It's a Long Story: My Life by Willie Nelson, with David Ritz (Little, Brown and Company, 464 pages, May 5)

I'm sorry, do you even need me to give you a reason to read this book? DIDN'T THINK SO.

Random Recommendation Guest Post: The Earth Is Enough by Harry Middleton

This recommendation comes from Carl. Follow him on twitter @KoenigCalibos.

The Earth Is Enough: Growing Up in a World of Flyfishing, Trout & Old Men (1989) by Harry Middleton

"In this memoir of his boyhood on a farm in the Ozark foothills, Harry Middleton joins the front rank of nature writers alongside Edward Hoagland and Annie Dillard. It is the year 1965, a year rife with change in the world---and in the life of a boy whose tragic loss of innocence leads him to the healing landscape of the Ozarks. Haunted by indescribable longing, twelve-year-old Harry is turned over to two enigmatic guardians, men as old as the hills they farm and as elusive and beautiful as the trout they fish for---with religious devotion. Seeking strength and purpose from life, Harry learns from his uncle, grandfather, and their crazy Sioux neighbor, Elias Wonder, that the pulse of life beats from within the deep constancy of the earth, and from one’s devotion to it. Amidst the rhythm of an ancient cadence, Harry discovers his home: a farm, a mountain stream, and the eye of a trout rising."

Books to Look For (April): Biography/Memoir

Born with Teeth: A Memoir by Kate Mulgrew (Little, Brown and Company, 448 pages, April 14)

Yes, that is indeed the Kate Mulgrew. She's portrayed many strong women in her life, including Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager and "Red" on Orange is the New Black, and in this memoir, she tells us about the sources of her real-life strength. From the time she left her hometown to move to New York until now, Mulgrew has used Stella Adler's advice to guide her: use everything that life throws at you. I can't wait to read this, you guys.




Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon (Random House, 672 pages, April 28)

I find it bizarre that no one had ever written about both Marys in one book, especially considering how similar their lives were. Though Mary W. died just after her daughter was born, both became famous writers and defied many of the conventions of their day. Both also helped define what we think of as the Romantic era. So go (re)read The Vindication of the Rights of Women and Frankenstein, and then read this.

Review: Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, ed. Pamela Smith Hill

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill (South Dakota Historical Society Press, 472 pages)

If, like me, you devoured the Little House books when you were a kid, then you need to get your hands on this book. Not only does it give us Wilder's unadulterated memoir, but it also provides us with a TON of information about everything you ever wanted to know about pioneer life and the Ingalls/Wilder experience.

Hill's exhaustive and detailed introduction explains just how this never-before-published memoir was the basis for all of Wilder's subsequent books for children about frontier life. In 1929 or 1930, after her sister Mary died, Wilder decided to set down on paper everything she could remember about growing up on the move, living at various times in Wisconsin, Dakota territory, Kansas, Missouri, and Minnesota. The memoir reads like a series of vivid scenes, many of which were adapted and expanded for the Little House books.

Books to Look For (November): Memoir

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: My Life by Sophia Loren (Atria Books, 352 pages, November 4)

International film star and winner of numerous acting awards, Sophia Loren tells us all about her remarkable life and work in Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Born into poverty in Naples during the 1930s, Loren worked her way into the limelight by winning pageants and starring in films opposite actors like Cary Grant and Marlon Brando. The first artist to win an Oscar for a foreign language performance, Loren is as fascinating as her memoir promises to be.





So, Anyway... by John Cleese (Crown Archetype, 400 pages, November 4)

I'm sorry, but how can you not want to read something written by the Minister of Silly Walks and the owner (and would-be returner) of a dead parrot? In So, Anyway..., Cleese traces his path from Cambridge and The Frost Report to Monty Python's Flying Circus, reinforcing why he's one of the funniest people ever to walk this planet.