Biography-Memoir – Page 10 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Jew(ish): A Primer, a Memoir, a Manual, a Plea

By Scott J. Pearson | November 8, 2020November 8, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The author, a British journalist, was born into a Jewish family yet feels somewhat estranged from his Jewish heritage. He spends much of his career chronicling the alleged anti-Semitism of certain leading members of Parliament. He restlessly ponders the depths of whether being Jewish matters in a society where assimilation is easy and where discrimination is looked down upon. Greene is at his best when he probes into how anti-Semitism can take root on the…

One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty

By Scott J. Pearson | September 24, 2020September 24, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Eudora Welty, master of the American short story, needs no introduction. Her writing chronicles life in Mississippi before and during the Depression era. This memoir was originally given as three lectures at Harvard University in April, 1983. Together, they constitute a repository of our knowledge of Welty’s upbringing and early adulthood – and importantly, her literary influences. Welty focuses on her family history and varied inspirations for her characters. Through her family and travels, she…

Biography-Memoir Healthcare

The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine

By Scott J. Pearson | September 21, 2020September 22, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Elizabeth Blackwell, MD, is well known as the first woman doctor in America. Less well known is her sister Emily in becoming a physician. Emily followed Elizabeth’s path through the hardships of initially not receiving a degree despite doing the work. They co-founded a women’s hospital in New York City along with a women’s medical college. Today, around half of all medical students are female. Their careers are the Blackwell sisters’ legacies. Florence Nightingale saw…

Biography-Memoir

Johnny Cash: The Life

By Scott J. Pearson | September 18, 2020September 18, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Johnny Cash is both a great and an enigma to most music fans: So much public yet so much unknown. His combination of country and folk music with a deeply baritone voice entertained audiences for nearly 50 years. The timelessness of his takes on American life reached for the heavens. Anyone who can elicit praise from Bob Dylan for musical acumen deserves to be remembered. Hilburn unearths Cash’s life in this in-depth biography. Though both…

Biography-Memoir

Found in Transition: A Mother’s Evolution During Her Child’s Gender Change

By Scott J. Pearson | September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

I did not know what to expect when I picked up this book. I hoped for something thoughtful and self-aware, something becoming of an MD. Fortunately, Hassouri did not disappoint. She shows an incredible, heartfelt openness that transcends her education and professional training. In many ways, this memoir can be used as an exemplar of supportive parenting. Likewise, it can be used as a guide of how to be rigorously honest in one’s writing. She…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

By Scott J. Pearson | September 6, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The recently deceased congressman John Lewis has been a public light to the United States for over fifty years. Nicknamed “the conscience of Congress,” he courageously campaigned for civil rights since a college student in Nashville. The author Jon Meacham, surely one of America’s greatest biographers, writes this history of Lewis’ doings in the 1960s. With extreme acuity, gravity, and imagery, he captures what the civil rights movement resembled on the inside. In so doing,…

Biography-Memoir History Religion-Philosophy

Sinner Saint: A Novel of Francis of Assisi

By Scott J. Pearson | September 5, 2020September 5, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The twelfth-century monk Francis of Assisi lived one of the most interesting and impactful lives in the history of Christianity. In this novel, Price tells the story of his life using the techniques of historical fiction to bring out Francis’ illustrious personality. Francis attempted to bring out Gospel living in an age of church hypocrisy. In so doing, he shares a tale with us all that lifts our spirit and inspires readers to excel in…

Biography-Memoir History Science

The Monk in the Garden

By Scott J. Pearson | August 30, 2020August 30, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

An outsider’s view of scientific history deems that stories of scientific discovery are boring. After all, how could readers be interested in narratives about how people work in laboratories? To that, Henig pens her eloquent reply in an interesting tale of how an obscure monk in Eastern Europe transformed modern biology… after he died. Thus goes the all-too-human tale of humble Gregor Mendel. After joining a monastic order in the 1800s, Mendel studied science and…

Biography-Memoir History Religion-Philosophy

Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mohandas K. Gandhi

By Scott J. Pearson | August 26, 2020August 26, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Gandhi’s name sticks out in bold in twentieth-century history. Words associated with this great include India, non-violence, independence, integrity, and freedom. Yet those (like me) who have been schooled in a different religious tradition (for me, Protestant Christianity) might not be aware of the depth of Gandhi’s greatness because of differing idioms. That’s why I originally picked up this book, and that’s why I suggest that your reading of this book is important, too. Gandhi…

Biography-Memoir

The Son and Heir: A Memoir

By Scott J. Pearson | July 12, 2020August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

The author, an award-winning Dutch journalist with professional expertise on Russia, writes his family history that is well-grounded in the European experience. This family of riches and complexities has ties to Latvia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Like most memoirs, this work can be seen as the author making sense of his own complex life here. Münginghoff died in April of 2020, shortly before this translation was published. Overall, this is a tragic story, not…