Category Archives: Nonfiction – Memoir/Biography

A Review of Kim Barker’s The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan (by Bethany)

This book was nothing at all like I expected. I bought it (before my book-buying fast, I should add) when it became clear that one of the pieces of fiction I’m working on might need to include some farcical elements … Continue reading

Posted in Authors, Kim Barker, Non-fiction - History, Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Nonfiction - Politics/Current Events, Nonfiction - Travel, Reviews by Bethany | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Out Like a Lamb

I just wrote a post about Thoreau. More specifically, it was about Transcendentalist literature, which is the Classics Club’s theme for April. I took a bunch of pictures of my nasty old falling-apart copy of Walden, with a focus on … Continue reading

Posted in Authors, Book-related personal narratives, Henry David Thoreau, Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Reviews by Bethany, Transcendentalist Literature (Classics Club - April 2014 | Leave a comment

Thoughts on Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings

If this were 2012 or 2013, I would not be writing a review of this book. Back then, I was reading at a ridiculously rapid pace and only reviewing between a half and three quarters of what I read. I … Continue reading

Posted in Authors, Bethany's Homework, Eudora Welty, Nonfiction - Essays, Nonfiction - Literary Studies, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Reviews by Bethany | Leave a comment

A Review of Abraham Verghese’s The Tennis Partner

I was taught to distrust memoirs, to think of autobiography as a lesser art than fiction. I don’t remember a moment when I was taught this lesson explicitly; it is just an impression that I picked up along the way … Continue reading

Posted in Abraham Verghese, Authors, Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Nonfiction - Science, Nonfiction - Sports/Recreation, Reviews by Bethany | 2 Comments

A Review of Alice Munro’s The View from Castle Rock

I bought a copy of The View from Castle Rock when it was first published in 2006, and I read about half of it before putting it aside. I just didn’t like it – and I was well aware that … Continue reading

Posted in Alice Munro, Authors, Bethany's Homework, Fiction - general, Fiction - Historical, Fiction - literary, Fiction - Short Stories, Nonfiction - Essays, Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Reviews by Bethany | 2 Comments

Jill’s review of Domenica Ruta’s With or Without You

In March of 2013 this book was Powell’s Indiespensible selection, which is how I first learned of it.  The choice surprised me since all the other books Powell’s had sent me were fiction, and this is a memoir.  The choice … Continue reading

Posted in Domenica Ruta, Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Reviews by Jill | 7 Comments

In which Jill waxes philosophical about memory, and also talks about Pat Conroy’s The Death of Santini

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Pat Conroy should stick with being a memoirist.  I read this book faster than I’ve read anything in a while, for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is … Continue reading

Posted in Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Pat Conroy, Reviews by Jill | 2 Comments

My First Christmas in Domestic Servitude (by Bethany)

McDonald’s received some bad press in the weeks before Christmas for the callous way it treats its minimum-wage employees. First, workers reported that McDonald’s handed out brochures advertising a financial counseling “hotline” that connected callers not with a human being … Continue reading

Posted in Authors, Book-related personal narratives, Essays about literature, Fiction - general, Fiction - literary, Henry David Thoreau, Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Reviews by Bethany, Toni Morrison | 4 Comments

PAT CONROY MONTH!! finally continues. Jill reviews My Losing Season, with very little mention of basketball.

The more I read of Pat Conroy as an adult the more I know that his most powerful “fiction” is the stuff that is rooted in truth.  This sentence is made apparent in reading My Losing Season, in which he … Continue reading

Posted in Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Pat Conroy, PAT CONROY MONTH!, Reviews by Jill | Leave a comment

A Review of Pat Conroy’s The Death of Santini (by Bethany)

Last week I finished Pat Conroy’s memoir The Death of Santini, and I have mixed feelings about it. If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you know that Pat Conroy has a special place here at Postcards from Purgatory. We … Continue reading

Posted in Authors, Nonfiction - General, Nonfiction - Memoir/Biography, Pat Conroy, Reviews by Bethany | 10 Comments