Tuesday, September 25, 2018

SEPTEMBER: Biography or Autobiography


Judy De la T:    A Mother’s Story by Rosie Batty
Judy described it as a good but difficult book to read. It was very sad and hard to understand the abusive relationship.

Connie:  The Selected Letters of Willa Cather edited by Andrew Jewell and Janis Stout
During her life she wrote over 3000 letters but indicated in her will that they were not to be published. Now they are out of copyright, and this book contains 700 of them. Her letters begin when she was 14year old and continue through her life, to her friends, family and famous people she met. Many of them reflect her love for Nebraska where she spent her early childhood.
She also writes about her books, making Connie wanting to read these books now.

Diann:  Women of Spirit, True-Life Stories of Inspiring Country Women by Anne Crawford
These are the true stories of 9 women who grew up in the country or married men working on the land. The book touched Diann because of these strong women who showed strength, fortitude, and courage often in very difficult conditions.

Tam:  My Story: Schapelle Corby with Kathryn Bonella
Understanding that the book is written from her point of view, Tam thought it raised some doubt about whether Schapelle was guilty. Much has come out later about the role baggage handlers may have played and how the media manipulated the story. The conditions in prison were horrendous but at all times Corby maintained her innocence. An interesting story.

Jo:   Survival: The Inspirational Story of the Thredbo Disaster’s Sole Survivor by Stuart Diver
Stuart had spent his childhood taking part in outdoor activities, including learning survival skills.
Following the avalanche he was trapped under concrete, next to his badly injured wife. The story of his survival was a fantastic, gripping story.

Julia: Judi Dench: With a Crack in her Voice by John Miller
This was a lovely book with lots of good photos covering her incredible and varied career. She has starred in many films, TV series, plays etc and ‘never wants to retire’.
As a young girl she had wanted to be a ballet dancer, but was talked out of this by her father because of the limited time in such a profession.
There are updated versions of her life story as her success continues.

Natalie:   Lucky Man by Michael J Fox
An interesting story, covering his acting career, his marriage and the diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, which forced him to give up acting.
 
Claurine:   A Writing Life: Helen Garner and her Work by Bernadette Brennan
The book covers the 40 years that Helen Garner has been writing and describes her life at the time of writing each book. The author spoke to family and friends and had access to Garner’s private papers.
Claurine really enjoyed the book, and it made her want to read more of Garner’s books.

Judy J:   Evita, the Real Lives of Eva Peron by Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navaro
This book gives many details of Eva Peron’s short but very full and interesting life. She grew up poor and had always dreamed of being an actress. After moving to Buenos Aries as a teenager, she later met and married Juan Peron and helped him to take on the presidency of Argentina. On her death at 33 years, she was a controversial figure, loved by the poor and unions but not popular with the military. The political history of the country is also well covered in this book.
 
Bev:   My Family’s Keeper by Brad Haddin
This book charts the rise of Brad Haddin from a talented junior cricketer to playing test cricket for Australia. Along the way he had to battle the stress of being an international sportsman and his family responsibilities when his daughter was diagnosed with cancer. As a cricket fan, Bev enjoyed reading about other cricketers and matches.
Luckily the story has a happy ending!

Charis:   I Me Mine by George Harrison
George Harrison was the youngest member of the Beatles and began playing with them in Hamburg when he was 15years old. This book tells of his life until his death aged 58 from throat cancer. Charis was interested in the account of the amount of money he donated to the Hare Krishna.
He left the Beatles when he was 23, to begin his own musical career, saying that the Beatles had overshadowed his life. As a music fan, Charis enjoyed the book.

Anne:   Natural Born Keller, My Life and Other Palaver by Amanda Keller
Anne described the book as light-hearted and reasonably well written. The author documents her early life and her path to her successful TV career. As she described this, it is a lot of hard work and not such a glamorous life.
There were some humorous parts, but much of it was forgettable.

Pamela:   Hildergarde von Bingen
Born in 1098, she was an artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher and theologian and is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
Her feast day is Sept 17th and she was canonized on 10th May 2012.

Val:   Clouds of Glory: a childhood in Hoxton by Bryan Magee
Val had spent part of her childhood in Worth (UK) and in this book the author has written about his childhood in nearby Hoxton. Val could relate to the area, the games, the shops, the people and the life they lived.
She liked the way he wrote, straightforward and descriptive. It was lovely to read and reminisce.

Judy A:  The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar
This is the author’s story of his search for his father. When he was 12 years old, his family went into exile in Egypt from Libya. A number of years later his father was kidnapped and sent back to Libya. After the fall of Gaddafi the author sets out to find out what happened to his father.
The story had a complex structure moving between the past and present, intertwining the history of Libya with the search for his father and his frustrations with the British Government and access to information.
This moving and well-told story won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
 
Ed:  The Lost Boy by David Pelzer
This is the 2nd book and begins when the author is about 9 years old. His early life had been dreadful, unloved and abused by his mother. In this book he is eventually taken into foster care and moves through a series of families and the Juvenile Justice System. He is fascinated by aircraft and wants to join the Air Force, but he need an education for this!
Despite the details of the boy’s suffering, there is no explanation as to why his mother hated him.

Wendy L:   A Fence Around the Cuckoo by Ruth Park
This lovely book tells the story of Ruth Park’s childhood growing up in New Zealand during the Depression. Much of what she experienced comes out in her books; tolerance, reliance, charity and humour. A delightful read.
 
Kris:   The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt
She was a marvelous woman who led a very interesting life. Although she came from a wealthy family she seemed to be a very frightened child, her mother was aloof and her father’s health was ravaged by alcohol. She married Franklin D Roosevelt who served four terms as President of the USA. She became very involved in political life, particularly women’s rights. Her book also tells of the famous people they mixed with, and gives explanations for many of the decisions her husband made.  A remarkable woman.

Diane:   A Very English Scandal by John Preston
Diane described it as one of the best books she had read.  It is the true story of the Thorpe affair in Britain, in which former Liberal Party leader, Jeremy Thorpe, was tried and acquitted of conspiring to murder his alleged former lover, Norman Scott.
Diane was flabbergasted by their behavior, all true and provable; members of Parliament conspiring to murder, cover-ups and the incredible power of the ‘upper class’.

Rosemary: Pastor and Painter: Inside the lives of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran – from Aussie schoolboys to Bali 9 drug traffickers to Kerobokan’s redeemed men by Cindy Wockner
Although they grew up in similar circumstances, they really didn’t know each other until the lure of easy money through drug running, brought them to Bali. Having been caught and charged, they were sentenced to death. This book tells how they rehabilitated themselves while in prison; one became a preacher, the other a pastor.
They accepted what they had done; they didn’t want release, just life. But all their good work was not enough to change their sentence. They died being good men. So sad. A gut wrenching story.


OCTOBER:      Susan Fletcher  ~  various titles available from the Library

NOVEMBER:   Lisa Genova    She is an American Neuroscientist and author who  writes fiction about characters dealing with neurological disorders.

DECEMBER:   The best book you’ve read this year. (not from Book Club)


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