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The Chiffon Trenches

Andre Leon Talley

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Discover what truly happens behind the scenes in the world of high fashion in this detailed, storied...

The White Headhunter

Nigel Randell

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

A REMARKABLE TRUE-LIFE HEART OF DARKNESS In 1868, Jack Renton, a teenage Scots sailor, was...

Memoir History Biography

Kaz (232 KP) rated The Diving-bell and the Butterfly in Books

May 15, 2019

Great Writing, Fantastic descriptions (0 more)

Being only 139 pages, this book may be short, but the impact it had, was enormous. This is an extraordinary memoir of a man who had a stroke and was left unable to move or talk. He dictated this novel to someone, using eye movements to indicate letters on an alphabetic board.

Whilst this book doesn't have a linear story as such, this is a beautifully written novel about the writer's day to day experiences in the hospital he is being treated in and, in the most mundane or saddest moments, there is humour and insight. This is a very interesting and poetic novel.

My Rating ****

Kudos

Hallettatme (9 KP) rated I am, I am, I am: Seventeen Brushes with Death in Books

Aug 2, 2018

For whom the Bell jar tolls

I almost gave this memoir a pass because of its title coming from a quote from the Bell Jar. I am glad that I did not. It is not so heavy handed nor dense as I imagined a work that gleaned its name from Sylvia Plath's work would be.

A life story told in near death experiences, it still manages to be, not macabre but light heartfelt and self effacing. I reccomend this book for anyone who believes that a life is made up of defining moments, and wants to see what those moments can add up to.

Kudos

Erika (17788 KP) rated The Missing Matisse: A Memoir in Books

Mar 26, 2020

The Missing Matisse: A Memoir

Pierre Henri Matisse | 2016 | Art, Photography & Fashion, Biography

1.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

I've been trying to finish this book for months. Today, I realized that I didn't actually care what happened, so I stopped reading.
It started slow, then got slightly more interesting once WWI started. HOWEVER, I picked up this book because I thought it was going to be more about the artists at the time.
The description of the book is very misleading, if you want to read a mildly interesting memoir about a kid who participated in the French Resistance and was "related" to Matisse. Honestly, bringing up the uncertainty of who this dude's biological father was a side note and didn't make sense.