Memoir Book Reviews

Author Jane Garland welcomes readers into the messy realm of her life in Lady Garland Tames Her Dragons and Brings Peace to the Kingdom, a clever, heartfelt, and deeply revealing memoir. Though pitched as a fairy tale for adults, this metaphor-laden memoir is playful and nakedly honest, but also academically appealing and philosophically rich. Garland can recount a painful anecdote in one breath, and then impartially dissect her relevant reactions and emotions in the next.

As the title implies, Garland has had a great many battles in her past, and now having found something akin to peace, she has […]

James H. Morgan pulls back the curtain on his own high school experiences during the early 1960s in his The Reject Bench, a sensitive, authentic, and eye-opening look back. Celebrating the uncertainty of youth, and acknowledging the weight of adulthood, this is a nostalgic and vulnerable read.

Setting the internal tensions of normal teenagers against the external stress of the early 1960s, this six-year memoir is an impressive glimpse into the past, imbued with the honesty of autobiography. From playing catch with his friends and chauffeuring the family to church to SoCal free thinking and the assassination of JFK, […]