memoir – Page 2 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s

By Scott J. Pearson | March 24, 2022March 24, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

In the last twenty years, autism has risen to the forefront in the American consciousness. High-functioning autism (otherwise known as Asperger’s) is of particular interest because these people can and do function positively (even excellently) in society. Still, they face unique challenges in socially interacting with colleagues, family, and friends. Robison’s memoir shows how such an adaptation can happen and how happiness can ultimately be found. Robison was raised without a formal understanding of his…

My Life by Bill Clinton

By Scott J. Pearson | January 9, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The name Bill Clinton evokes several reactions among people, each with its own emotional subtext: economic prosperity, partisan conflict, sexual misconduct, and international peacemaking. In a long history of American presidential memoirs, Clinton adds his to the list in this book. It is lengthy, thoughtful, and carefully crafted. He attempts to provide insight into himself and his leadership while advocating for the policies his administration enacted during his presidency. I was a Republican teenager from…

Biography-Memoir Cooking

Lineage: Life & Love & Six Generations in California Wine

By Scott J. Pearson | November 1, 2021November 1, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Wine as a topic can intimidate and make even sophisticated people feel like novices. I, for one, fully admit that I more frequently make jokes involving wine than actually imbibe a glass. Nonetheless, I appreciate the significance of the ancient drink. Mirassou, whose family helped bring European wine to California six generations ago, writes about his experiences making wine in the state’s Livermore Valley. This place is more famous for its tech industry (Sandia and…

Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence

By Scott J. Pearson | June 12, 2021June 12, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Theological memoirs (or memoirs in theology) have been “a thing” since St. Augustine of Hippo wrote his autobiographical and masterful Confessions in the fourth century. Butler Bass adds her voice to the mix with her story. In so doing, she hopes to encourage us to rediscover the Christian God and the Christian faith. While acknowledging the limitations of any experience-based, somewhat arbitrary categories, she organizes her work according to six personality traits of Jesus. None…

Biography-Memoir HIV/AIDS

Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir

By Scott J. Pearson | April 2, 2021April 2, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

“What am I going to do without him?”…“Write about him Paul… That’s what you have to do.” In a world before triple-drug therapy (HAART) was enacted and allowed individuals to live a normal lifespan with HIV, Monette and his lover Roger Horwitz contracted HIV, which ineluctably progressed into AIDS. Professionally, Horwitz was a lawyer and a lover of literature; Monette was a writer. Both were educated at Ivy League schools. This work is the first…

Biography-Memoir Society

Black Boy out of Time

By Scott J. Pearson | February 23, 2021March 11, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Ziyad is a black, queer male writer from Cleveland, who now lives in New York City and uses the pronouns they/them (which shall be used in this review). They write about his struggles forming an identity in a world that seems violent and hostile to his health. While such an environment exists in some part for most children, Ziyad seems to have a particularly difficult time given a multi-religious home, public schooling that seemed to…

Biography-Memoir

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…

Biography-Memoir Humanities Writing-Communication

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

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

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…