memoir – Always With a Book

k2reader March 29, 2024

The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you SimonBooksBuddies / Simon and Schuster, #partner, for the finished copy of The Many Lives of Mama Love in exchange for my honest review. I purchased the audiobook for my collection. Publisher: Simon & Schuster / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: February 27, 2024 / August 1, 2023 Summary: New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin recounts her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot caller…

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k2reader March 28, 2024

This Isn’t Going to End Well by Daniel Wallace #bookreview #audiobook

Thank Algonquin Books, #partner for the finished copy of This Isn’t Going to End Well in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Algonquin Books / Hachette Audio Published: March 26, 2024 – Paperback Release Summary: In this powerful memoir, the bestselling author of Big Fish tries to come to terms with the life and death of his multi-talented longtime friend and brother-in-law, who…

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k2reader March 12, 2024

Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult by Michelle Dowd #bookreview #audiobook #blogtour

Thank Algonquin Books, #partner for the finished copy of Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Algonquin Books / Hachette Audio Published: February 27, 2024 – Paperback Release Summary: A moving, heartbreaking, and lyrical true story of the author’s escape from an apocalyptic cult—and the survival skills that led to her freedom. My family prepared…

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k2reader November 19, 2023

Spare by Prince Harry #bookreview #audiobook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Random House Audio Published: January 10, 2023 Summary: It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would…

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k2reader October 11, 2023

Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond by Henry Winkler #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Netgalley / Macmillan Audio, for the ALC and Celadon Books, #partner for the advanced copy of Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Celadon Books / Macmillan Audio Published: October 31, 2023 Summary: From Emmy-award winning actor, author, comedian, producer, and director Henry Winkler, a deeply thoughtful memoir of the lifelong effects of stardom and the struggle to become whole. Henry Winkler,…

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k2reader March 25, 2023

Memoir Madness 2023: 4 mini-reviews #memoirs #bookreviews #audiobooks

This month I participated in MEMOIR MADNESS 2023 – a challenge over on Instagram where we focused on reading memoirs throughout the month of March. It’s a little play on March Madness and I have loved participating in this. I love reading memoirs – it’s one of my favorite forms of nonfiction that I try to read throughout the year. So far, I’ve read 3 this month, but you are…

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k2reader February 25, 2023

A Place Called Home by David Ambroz #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Hachette Audio, #partner for the ALC of A Place Called Home in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Hachette Audio Published: September 13, 2022 Summary: There are millions of homeless children in America today and in A Place Called Home, award-winning child welfare advocate David Ambroz writes about growing up homeless in New York for eleven years and his subsequent years in foster care, offering a window into what…

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k2reader November 28, 2022

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book and audiobook for my own personal collection. Publisher: Flatiron Books / Macmillan Audio Published: November 1, 2022 Summary: In an extraordinary story that only he could tell, Matthew Perry takes readers onto the soundstage of the most successful sitcom of all time while opening up about his private struggles with addiction. Candid, self-aware, and told with his trademark humor, Perry vividly details his lifelong battle…

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k2reader November 22, 2022

Con/Artist by Tony Tetro #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Hachette Audio for the ALC and @NovelSuspects & Hachette Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Con/Artist in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Hachette Books / Hachette Audio Published: November 22, 2022 Summary: The world’s most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters—exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art…

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k2reader August 17, 2022

Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks: A Son’s Discovery of His Italian Heritage by Giovanni Ruscitti #bookfeature #authorinterview

Thank you GetRedPrBooks #partner, for the advanced copy of Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks in exchange for this feature. Today, I’m happy to be featuring this book, which published yesterday. Please see what others have said about the book and read an interview that was done with the author. Publisher: Radius Book Group Published: August 16, 2022 Summary: Cobblestones, Conversations and Corks is a passionate and deeply moving story…

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k2reader July 27, 2022

The Kitchen Is Closed: And Other Benefits of Being Old by Sandra Butler #bookreview

Thank you to GetRedPR, #partner, for an advanced copy of The Kitchen Is Closed: And Other Benefits of Being Old in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Both/And Productions Published: July 26, 2022 Summary: In her eighties, Sandra Butler does not identify as elderly. Or mature. She’s neither plucky nor a burden, and she’s not over any hills. She’s old, and she’s ready to reclaim that word. In this…

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k2reader July 11, 2022

The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Riverhead Books, #partner for the paperback copy of The Beauty in Breaking in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Riverhead Books / Penguin Audio Published: Print – June 29, 2021 (First published July 2020) / Audio – July 7 2020 Summary: An emergency room physician explores how a life of service to others taught her how to heal herself. Michele…

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k2reader May 18, 2022

Review: Bomb Shelter: Love, time & Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott (audio)

Publisher: Atria Books / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: April 12, 2022 Source: Print – ARC E-copy via Netgalley / Audio – ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio Summary: From the bestselling author of I Miss You When I Blink comes a poignant and powerful new memoir that tackles the big questions of life, death, and existential fear with humor and hope. A lifelong worrier, Philpott always kept an eye out…

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k2reader April 26, 2022

Review: Unmasked by Paul Holes

Publisher: Celadon Books Published: April 26, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher Summary: From the detective who found The Golden State Killer, a memoir of investigating America’s toughest cold cases and the rewards–and toll–of a life solving crime. I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to…

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k2reader April 5, 2022

Review: Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones (audio)

Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: April 5, 2022 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Avid Reader Press / Audio – ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio Summary: From Chloé Cooper Jones—Pulitzer Prize finalist, philosophy professor, Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant recipient—a groundbreaking memoir about disability, motherhood, and a journey to far-flung places in search of a new way of seeing and being seen. “I am…

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k2reader March 4, 2022

Review: Sanctuary: A Memoir by Emily Rapp Black (audio)

Publisher: Random House / Random House Audio Published: January 19, 2021 Source: Print – Personal Copy / Audio via library Summary: From the New York Times best-selling author of The Still Point of the Turning World comes an incisive memoir about how she came to question and redefine the concept of resilience after the trauma of her first child’s death. “Congratulations on the resurrection of your life”, a colleague wrote to Emily Rapp…

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k2reader February 24, 2022

Review: Enough Already by Valerie Bertinelli (audio)

Publisher: Mariner Books / Harper Audio Published: January 18, 2022 Source: Print – Hardcopy via Bibliolifestyle / Audio via Library Summary: Beloved actress and New York Times best-selling author Valerie Bertinelli returns with a heartfelt look at turning sixty, the futility of finding happiness in numbers on a scale, learning to love herself the way she is today, and tips for a healthier outlook on life. Valerie Bertinelli shares an inspiring…

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k2reader November 17, 2021

Review: Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (audio)

Publisher: Doubleday Books / Random House Audio Published: September 7, 2021 Source: ARC E-copy via Netgalley / Audio via Library Summary: An incandescent memoir from an astonishing new talent, Beautiful Country puts listeners in the shoes of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world. “Extraordinary…. Consider this remarkable memoir a new classic.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly…

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k2reader September 19, 2021

Review: Forever Young by Hayley Mills (audio)

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing / Hachette Audio Published: September 7, 2021 Source: Print – Finished Copy via Grand Central / Audio – ALC via Hachette Audio Summary: Iconic actress Hayley Mills shares personal memories from her storied childhood, growing up in a famous acting family and becoming a Disney child star, trying to grow up in a world that wanted her to stay forever young. The daughter of acclaimed…

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k2reader July 28, 2021

Review: Heavy by Kiese Laymon (print/audio)

Publisher: Scribner / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: October 16, 2018 Source: Print: Personal copy via Literati Book Club / Audio: Library Summary: In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse. Kiese Laymon is a…

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