Memoir Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: What if Tomorrow Never Comes? by Neil David Schwartz

What if Tomorrow Never Comes? is the tragic and moving story of Neil David Schwartz, an attorney in Los Angeles whose daughter passed away from a rare form of cancer in her late twenties. In the middle of this trying time, his wife died in her sleep – literally, it would seem, of a broken heart. To say this is a sad story is putting it mildly. It would be impossible to come away from this book unmoved; both by the strength exhibited by all involved, the sheer frustration that one family could be afflicted by all of this, and […]

Henry Baum2014-05-14T11:11:12+02:00May 13th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Travels With My Hat by Christine Osborne

Christine Osborne is a travel photographer who has dedicated her entire life to capturing on film what it is to live on Planet Earth. Tracing a line through the Middle East and Africa, into countries that might be thought of by most to be “scary” destinations for a slim, blonde woman, Christine jumped in feet first with her Australian roots to help her along, in her trusty blue hat and a camera her constant companion.

This book is written so well because Christine has lived these details, these colors, these characters. There is no substitute for writing what you know, […]

Cate Baum2019-01-23T12:48:16+02:00May 5th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Travel Book Reviews|

Review: Showdown at Shinagawa by Bill Zarchy

As sardonic as it is poignant, hilarious as much as touching, Showdown at Shinagawa: Tales of Filming from Bombay to Brazil by Bill Zarchy is a truly interesting collection of anecdotes and expositions by a man who has been there, eaten that, and even gotten the Corregidor T-shirt.

His long and illustrious career as a freelance director of photography, as well as a teacher, a writer, and occasional bowler, has taken him across both America and the world over the past 40 years. Zarchy, who can boast being a blogger before “blogger” was even a word, has kept his on-the-road

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James Grimsby2014-06-13T11:50:43+02:00February 19th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Infinite Book 3: My Truest Fiction By D. C. L.

‘Infinite Book 3: My Truest Fiction’ is a memoir of author David Christopher Lawrence, a sufferer of paranoid schizophrenia, and his life surrounding his experiences with it, episodically. The book is part of the ‘Infinite Book’ series and is implied to have a later follow-up that details more aspects of the author’s experiences and recovery, completing his memoirs.

The author views his ‘illness’ as a part of him that cannot, and should not be silenced (“cured is the wrong word, integrated is the right one”), instead embracing the “truths” that are revealed to him by his voices and inner revelations, […]

James Grimsby2014-05-05T21:47:30+02:00August 5th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Breakfast with the Dirt Cult by Samuel Finlay

Breakfast with the Dirt Cult is a vivid and raw look into a young man’s term serving in the U.S. Army. It takes place over the span of his arrival into the army and his time spent serving in the war in Afghanistan. Reading from a non-military perspective, having never served before, I was very eager to dive into this book and see from what perspective of the war it would be written. The story is Samuel Finlay’s writing debut and it follows the life of Tom Walton, an American around the age of 20 who recently graduated from college. […]

Cate Baum2014-05-05T21:48:53+02:00July 31st, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Travels With A Road Dog: Hitchhiking the Roads of the Americas By R.K.

Rajam, named after a distant Indian friend, decides, on a whim of teenage wanderlust to leave it all behind in her small Alabama town and take to the road to follow the hippy festival trail across the country and beyond. Giving away all her “stuff” she takes off to the famous Rainbow gathering and falls in love with the vagabond lifestyle as she hitches with truck drivers, do-gooders and other drivers of questionable motive with only a pan and a tarp to get by and becomes a “road dog”: a hitchhiker living free on the open highways with only her […]

Cate Baum2014-05-09T21:17:07+02:00December 17th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Travel Book Reviews|

Review: From Particles and Disputations: Writings for Jeff by Philip D. Luing

Since the 80s when AIDS became rampant, its face has not changed. Its name, though not as raging in the headlines these days, has not been forgotten. What is different is each individual life it claims and the story of that life.

Philip Luing’s book, From Particles and Disputations, is the story of one of those lives lost – a celebration of Jeffrey Francis John Lalonde who succumbed to AIDS in 1994, twelve years after he met Philip. During their relationship, Philip liked to write down his thoughts and record their memories in brief passages and verse. This book is […]

shannonyarbrough2014-05-09T21:44:01+02:00September 21st, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Biography Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Clips & Consequences by Beth Myrle Rice

Imagine being invited to lunch by your ex-husband and his wife to discuss what to do with the hard-to-manage teenager you all have in common. Imagine that, instead of actually going to lunch, they simply stay in the car, turn to you as you sit in the back seat, and accuse you of providing drugs to said teenager. “They were looking for a confession,” writes Beth Myrle Rice of that day in 1995 when the incident happened to her.