Memoir Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Flew Too High by Louie Mandrapilias

A coming-of-age journey into the heart of psychedelia and reality’s bitter truth, Flew Too High: A gay drug smuggler’s transcendent odyssey in the heyday of Studio 54 by Louie Mandrapilias is a thrilling memoir that summons a gilded and infamous past.

Louie is a closeted young Texan getting his first taste of New York City in the raucous age of gay liberation in Greenwich Village. His life immediately entangles with Govind, an Adonis-like tour guide to metropolitan hotspots and mind-expanding experiences. Fully under his new lover’s spell, Louie is soon seduced into the world of international drug smuggling, and then […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-01-20T16:29:42+02:00January 19th, 2025|Categories: New Releases|Tags: LGBTQI+ Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews|

Cycling 70 Years by Gordon Neale

Spinning through the years of a remarkable life on the move, Cycling 70 Years: Once World Champion by Gordon Neale is an inspiring and original memoir from a humble champion of the sport.

Recounting his eclectic and adventurous decades as a long-distance cyclist, from amateur competitions in France, Spain, and England to securing a World Championship in Russia, along with a diverse career off the bike, this is an intimate tale of resilience, discipline, and a healthy dose of reckless abandon. Whether competing, training, coaching, traveling, recovering, or relaxing in style, the author’s free-spirited optimism and perennial stubbornness lead to […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-01-13T14:56:05+02:00January 13th, 2025|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Sports Book Reviews|

Review: Diane: True Survivor by Ward V.B. Lassoe

A visceral and intensely personal memoir about trauma, resilience, forgiveness, and grace, Diane: True Survivor as told to Ward V.B. Lassoe is a portrait of heartbreaking fortitude.

Drawing readers through the tangled movements of Diane’s repeatedly fractured life, this is a vivid account of one woman’s determination to transcend the past, even with all the odds set against her. A detailed and thoroughly unflinching story, this dictated memoir looks at the situations forced upon her, poor choices she made and regretted, and moments of moral clarity that likely saved her life and any hope for a future.

Beginning with a […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-12-09T15:47:48+02:00December 9th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews, Latest Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: A Life’s Journey by Robert Furmaga

Paging through the chapters of his own adventurous existence, Robert Furmaga delivers a thoughtful and nostalgia-heavy memoir in A Life’s Journey: Choice and Circumstance.

Revealing the seminal moments and unforgettable events that shaped him, this is a compelling anthology of essays and treasured memories, combined neatly with professional achievements and personal accolades. From even the author’s earliest years of life, he recounts clear-eyed scenes and nuanced details of his successes, failures, and hard-won lessons, from terrifying tumbles out of bed and touching instances of parental bonding to the overindulgences of his teenage years and those first stumbling errors of […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-12-03T14:28:38+02:00November 4th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Hope: A Journey of Self-Love by Renee Louise

A visceral and unflinching memoir, Hope: A Journey of Self-Love by Renee Louise is an outpouring of raw honesty that holds nothing back.

Reflecting on the decade-long turning point in her life from self-loathing to security, love, and self-confidence, this impactful memoir examines the pain and struggle through which so many people quietly suffer. From the lowest lows to the highest highs as a mother, wife, child, friend, and professional, this is truly a journey of overcoming the mountain of stressors and insecurities that make up our lives, which ultimately don’t need to define us.

Louise reveals herself completely, letting […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-10-30T14:34:30+02:00October 30th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: I Paid to Play the Game by Russell Rosen

Tracing the unexpected journey of an aspiring baseball star, I Paid to Play the Game by Russell Rosen is a touchingly honest memoir, reflecting on growing up, following your dreams, and embracing even the hardest truths.

As a child, the author loved every facet of America’s pastime, following the local teams’ exploits in the newspaper and eagerly awaiting the next time his family would catch a game. Playing on an organized team wasn’t an option until his late teens – well past the typical age for a serious pursuit at going pro.

Even so, Rosen dedicated himself to the dream, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-11-04T18:34:17+02:00October 23rd, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Sports Book Reviews|

Review: MMMM: and the Music that Made Me by Heather Joy

A no-holds-barred look at the life and mind of an unconventionally wild spirit, MMMM: and the Music that Made Me by Heather Joy is an unapologetic and lyrical memoir. Boasting thirteen M-themed chapters composed of long-form personal essays, and accompanied by essential listening material, this is a blunt and charming downpour of social observation and fearless personal reflection.

Slow-burning and clever, like a sharp standup routine stretched over a few hundred pages, these anecdotal recollections feel deeply personal and specific to the author, yet the revelations and lessons she reaches are often universally profound. There is a restless wonderment to […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-10-25T11:58:24+02:00October 1st, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Fighting the Shadow Warriors by Harry Knickerbocker

Told with the unmistakeable fire of a soldier who has seen too much scorched earth, Fighting the Shadow Warriors: A Marine in Vietnam by Harry Knickerbocker is a powerful memoir from a writer with passion and conviction.

Sharing his battle-strewn tour in Vietnam with painstaking care, Knickerbocker brings readers right into the foxholes and hellish firefights of that horrific conflict. Explaining the brutal routine of life as a grunt, where a sniper’s bullet, a landmine, or an excruciating booby trap threatens with every step, this is a particularly gritty and unflinching account, which brings physical strife and psychological strain into […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-09-03T16:56:06+02:00September 3rd, 2024|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|