Period Piece: A Cambridge Girlhood by Gwen Raverat, for the #1952Club

This is a gently affectionate and often amusing memoir of a Victorian childhood from an unusual perspective – Gwen Raverat was a granddaughter of Charles Darwin and had an outspoken American mother. In 1883, Maud Du Puy came from Philadelphia to visit an aunt in Cambridge, England. She was pretty and sociable but not well educated or academically inclined so it seems a little surprising that she enjoyed the university life of Cambridge and attracted several suitors.

Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury by Drew Gilpin Faust

Title: Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury

Author: Drew Gilpin Faust

Publication: Farrar Straus & Giroux, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. Her official name was Catharine, but she never used it. Her father, though from a wealthy Ivy League background, wanted only to breed horses, so that was what he did. The girl grew up in rural, segregated Virginia in the fifties, reading Nancy Drew and pony books, riding horses, raising steers with the 4H Club, attending a small country school.

Would you be surprised to learn that she would become the president of Harvard?

England Was an Island Once by Elswyth Thane – for the #1940Club

Title: England Was an Island Once
Author: Elswyth Thane
Publication: Harcourt, Brace and Company, hardcover, 1940
Genre: Memoir/History
Setting: England just before WWII

This week, Karen of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Simon of Stuck in a Book are hosting the 1940 Club in which we all read and write about books published in the same year.

Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess by Frances Parkinson Keyes

Title: Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess
Author: Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885–1970)
Publication: Harper & Brothers, hardcover, 1937
Genre: Memoir
Setting: Washington, DC

Description: Keyes, who became a bestselling author in the first half of the 20th century, was married to a New England politician 22 years her senior. He served in New Hampshire as Selectman, Representative, Senator, and on several state commissions before being elected Governor of New Hampshire from 1917-19, then was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican for three terms from 1919-37. FPK was very conscious of the expense of public service, which she felt ordinary people did not appreciate: the cost for senators of maintaining two homes as well as entertaining and being entertained while raising a family.

The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir by Justine Cowan

Title: The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir
Author: Justine Cowan
Publication: HarperCollins, hardcover, 2021
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir/Social History
Setting: 20th century Great Britain

Description: Justine Cowan, an environmental attorney, grew up in a privileged home in Northern California, with a quiet, respected lawyer father and a British-born mother who was hypercritical of her daughters. Embittered by their troubled relationship, Justine distanced herself from her parents after leaving for college and it was not until after her mother’s death that she learned her mother had been raised in the famous Foundling Hospital in London, founded by Thomas Coram in the 18th century.

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas

Title: Funny in Farsi
Author: Firoozeh Dumas
Publication: Villard, hardcover, 2003
Genre: Memoir
Setting: California

Description: This warm and witty memoir tells the story of an Iranian family and its enthusiastic misadventures with life in America, embracing Thanksgiving and game shows on television, learning English with bafflement, and the author’s eventual marriage to a Frenchman she met at Cal Berkeley, which resulted in even more of a melting pot experience.

Living with a Dead Language by Ann Patty

Title: Living with a Dead Language: My Romance with Latin
Author: Ann Patty
Publication: Viking, hardcover, 2016
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
Setting: Upstate New York

Description: When editor Ann Patty retired from Manhattan’s publishing world to her weekend retreat in Rhinebeck, NY, she was unexpectedly bored and afraid her mind would atrophy through lack of intellectual stimulation.

Sun in the Morning by Elizabeth Cadell - a novel based on her youth in India

Title: Sun in the Morning
Author: Elizabeth Cadell
Publication: Thorndike Press, large print paperback, 1978 (originally published in 1950)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: India, early 20th century

Description: The narrator and her two older sisters live with their father in one of five houses on Minto Lane in Calcutta, 1913.

The Innocents from Indiana, a memoir by Emily Kimbrough

Title: The Innocents from Indiana
Author: Emily Kimbrough
Illustrator: Alice Harvey
Publication: Harper & Brothers, hardcover, 1950
Genre: Memoir
Setting: Pre-WWI Chicago

Description: When Emily was 11 and her brother 4, their family moved from Muncie, Indiana to Chicago.

WWW Wednesday: December 16, 2020

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Myself When Young by Daphne du Maurier #DDMreadingweek

Title: Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer
Author:  Daphne du Maurier
Publication:  Arrow Books, paperback, 1993 (originally published in 1977)
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
Occasion: Daphne du Maurier Reading Week

Plot: You probably know her as the author of Rebecca but du Maurier (1907 – 1989) wrote several other bestselling books that are equally memorable.  She came from a talented artistic family.  Her father was a famous actor, Sir Gerald du Maurier and her mother, Muriel Beaumont, an actress who met him in a play. Her grandfather was a well-known cartoonist for Punch, a popular humor magazine, and writer, French-born George du Maurier. He is best known for creating the character Svengali that became a catch-phrase for a coercive influence on someone.  Daphne was educated primarily at home before being “finished” in France, in the kind of family that summoned the children to say hello to guests briefly before sending them to the nursery with Nanny. Although not part of the nobility, the du Mauriers clearly mixed with all the right people due to Sir Gerald’s prominence.  Her upbringing seems fairly typical for an upper-middle-class British family but the drive and passion that developed in this shy young woman was all Daphne’s own.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Stasiland to The Parent Trap

The award-winning Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder is this month’s starting point for Six Degrees of Separation, which is organized by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best.   The idea is to start with the same title, add six books, and see where you wind up. Kate's blog has links to other chains.

Stasiland is nonfiction by an Australian author which sounds interesting but the libraries that own copies locally are closed so it will have to wait.  I see the book is taught in the history department of Dean College which is part of my library network.

Forty Autumns (Book Review)

Title: Forty Autumns
Author: Nina Willner
Publication: William Morrow, trade paperback, 2017
Genre: Memoir/History

Plot: After World War II ended, the Russians took control of the eastern part of Germany, where Hanna, a pretty teenager and eldest of a large family, begins to question the repressive communist regime controlling what becomes East Germany. Her father, a respected educator, conforms to protect his family while her mother maintains optimism publicly but privately encourages Hanna to make a perilous escape to freedom in West Germany. Although Hanna eventually marries and settles in the United States, she never forgets her family, despite years with only an occasional censored letter as contact. This book depicts Hanna and her family, including the daughter and author – who amazingly became an Army intelligence officer stationed in Berlin – as well as the fascinating story of the family she left behind, their suffering and perseverance during the forty years before the Berlin Wall came down.

Audience: Fans of WWII historical fiction, books about strong women, 20th century history

Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Library

My Impressions: This is an amazing book that reads like fiction but with the chill of knowing it really happened as the author describes. I have read many novels set around WWII but little about the Cold War (unless you count some later Helen MacInnes), and a review I read last year in Publishers Weekly or Kirkus caught my attention, so I was delighted to have this opportunity to review Forty Autumns. I cannot recommend it more highly, and believe Forty Autumns will make a great book group selection when it is my turn to pick.

Willner’s achievement is not merely her ability to tell the story of three generations of courageous women but the way she vividly portrays their parallel lives, their endurance, and the way they kept each other in their thoughts. Her research and careful reconstruction of events she did not personally experience is also impressive.

While Hanna was making a new life for herself in Heidelberg and later when she is living in the US, bringing up six children, she yearns for her family, unaware of the suffering they are experiencing and sending care packages that are rarely received. I liked the way author described the sense of connection between Hanna and her youngest sister Heidi, who met only once when Heidi and her mother briefly visited Heidelberg, but despite a significant age difference, that meeting gave Heidi the courage to resist the communist doctrine she was fed by her community. I especially liked the juxtaposition of the next generation – that while the author is stationed in Berlin as a young intelligence officer her younger cousin Cordula, on the other side of the Wall, is being groomed as an elite athlete for East Germany.

Hanna’s parents are the true heroes of this book: the father who tries to reconcile his love of teaching with the communist doctrine he is forced to incorporate to his curriculum for the sake of keeping his family safe, and the mother who tries to preserve the affection and loyalty that will protect her children through the deprivations they are forced to endure. I also appreciated hearing about the brave individuals who tried to escape but were killed in the attempt and a few, like the intrepid Gunter Wetzel, who flew over in a hot air balloon. It is hard to imagine oneself being that courageous.

Source: I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher for review purposes. Thank you also to TLC Book Tours for inviting me to participate in the tour. You can visit other stops by clicking below:

Tuesday, August 15th: Openly Bookish
Wednesday, August 16th: Back Porchervations
Wednesday, August 23rd: Reading Reality
Wednesday, August 23rd: Laura’s Reviews
Thursday, August 24th: Literary Quicksand
Wednesday, August 30th: Bibliophiliac
Thursday, August 31st: Mama Vicky Says
Monday, September 4th: Doing Dewey
Tuesday, September 5th: My Military Savings
Wednesday, September 6th: Tina Says…
Thursday, September 7th: Man of La Book
Friday, September 8th: Eliot’s Eats
Friday, September 8th: Thoughts On This ‘n That
TBD: Wining Wife
TBD: Art @ Home

Life is Not an Accident (Book Review)

Title: Life is Not an Accident
Author: Jay Williams
Publication: Harper Collins, 2016 Hardcover
Genre: Memoir

Description: Jason Williams, the outgoing Duke guard, who helped lead my beloved Blue Devils to a national championship, left Duke after his junior year (earning a Sociology degree in three years by amassing credits in summer school). He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and had a frustrating rookie season where his mistakes were magnified and his successes were mostly ignored. Just as frustrating, the team was in a rebuilding phase and in the first few weeks of the season the Bulls lost more games than he’d lost at Duke in three years. However, he continued to work hard and was convinced his second year as a pro would be a breakthrough season. Sadly, in June 2003, he was in a terrible motorcycle accident that nearly killed him. In this heartbreaking and all too candid memoir, Jay reflects on the arrogance of a healthy college basketball star, the desperation and self-reproach he experienced after the accident, and the 10+ years he has spent recovering physically and emotionally from the fateful day he picked up the keys to a motorcycle for which he never bothered to obtain a license.

Audience: Duke alumni, college basketball enthusiasts, sports fans.  I am a Duke alumna but college hoop fans who are not Dukies or did not follow his accident will be interested in his story and be glad that he has made a successful post-NBA career as an ESPN commentator.

What I liked: This is a painful read but fascinating portrayal of a smart young man and how he recovered from tragedy. By being so candid about his inner self – his behavior in college, his excesses during his one year as an NBA player, and his various addictions and poor decisions during prolonged rehab - Jason risks alienating the reader whose approval he seeks. However, his story is so beautifully written that it would take a much harder heart than mine not to be moved by what he has gone through. I wondered if he used a ghost writer but, if so, it was not mentioned. 

Admittedly, I liked the parts about Jason’s adolescence and recruitment and time at Duke better than the painful aftermath of an accident that all but destroyed him but I found the book very readable and recommend it. I was at one of the first college games he played – a tournament at Madison Square Garden – and have always had a special feeling for him, and admired not only how he played but also what seemed to be a very happy personality. I enjoy his thoughtful commentary now that he is a basketball analyst; I would prefer to see him working with Dick Vitale but that is ESPN's fault.

What I disliked: My ARC does not include an author’s note so I am curious about what made Jason (renamed Jay after he left Duke due to two other Jason Williams but, as he reveals in this book, without much input by him) decide to write this book. He (or HarperCollins) calls it a memoir of reinvention. Does he finally feel he’s at peace with what happened to him? I think he is smart enough to realize he will always have regrets (which will hit him when he least expects it) about the poor decision making that damaged his basketball career and nearly cost him his life. What is sadder is his depiction of the venom and personal attacks people use to try to make him worse about the fateful motorcycle ride. Human beings can be vile.

I can tell Jason believes he is still on a quest of self identity and it is unfortunate that his “warts and all” approach reveals some regrettable things about the parents who love him so much. I wish he had left them their privacy and dignity. He also goes on at some length about how leaving college to attempt to play in the NBA is a good move, ignoring the fact that most young players would not have had his good options if their NBA careers did not work out so should obtain a degree while they are fortunate enough to be able to do so for free.

Source: I received an advance reading copy of this book from HarperCollins in return for an honest review. Recommended.

The Fairy Tale Girl (Book Review)

Title: The Fairy Tale Girl
Author: Susan Branch
Publication: Illustrated Hardcover, Spring Street Publishing, November 2015
Genre: Memoir/Coming of Age (first of two books)

Plot: This is a charming and beautifully illustrated memoir from the very talented Susan Branch, following her from childhood through her first serious relationship and unhappy first marriage.  She captures the warmth of her family and friends, as well as her discovery of her artistic talent and her growth as an artist and writer.  She asks if your life reflects who you really are and reveals how she came to recognize she had lost part of her true self while married to someone who cared only about his own accomplishments.