Two Recent Reads #1: Wild Swans & Owl and the City of Angels

Today I will be writing two short reviews for two of my most recent reads!

The nonfiction, autobiography book Wild Swans and the fantasy, vampire book Owl and the City of Angels (The Adventures of Owl #2).

Let's dive right in.

Two WWII Reviews: Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation & The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

 

I'm waaay behind on reviews, so I decided to review these two WWII books together and put my reviews for them in one post.

Both books that definitely distressing. 

Let's dive right in!

Review: Professional Idiot: A Memoir

Author: Stephen "Steve-O" Glover

Started reading: March 30th 2022

Finished the book: April 14th 2022

Pages: 336

Genres: Non-Fiction, Autobiography, Memoir

Published: June 7th 2011

Source: Ebook

Goodreads score: 4.10

My score:

Synopsis

From his early days videotaping crazy skateboard stunts to starring in the Jackass movies, there was little that Stephen "Steve-O" Glover wouldn't do. Whether it was stapling his nutsack to his leg or diving into a pool full of elephant crap, almost nothing was out of bounds. As the stunts got crazier, his life kept pace. He developed a crippling addiction to drugs and alcohol, and an obsession with his own celebrity that proved nearly as dangerous. Only an intervention and a visit to a psychiatric ward saved his life. Today he has been clean and sober for more than three years.

Review: They Called Us Enemy

Author: George Takei

Started reading: December 26th 2020

Finished the book: January 5th 2021

Pages: 208

Genres: Graphic Novel, Autobiography, War, Nonfiction

Published: August 25th 2020

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.38

My score:

Synopsis

In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard.

They Called Us Enemy is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the terrors and small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's tested faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.

What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins cowriters Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.

Review: The White Masai (The White Masai #1)

Author: Corinne Hofmann
Started reading: February 14th 2019
Finished the book: February 17th 2019
Pages: 320
Genres: Autobiography, Cultural, Travel
Published: March 1st 1999
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 3.43
My score:

Synopsis
The White Masai combines adventure and the pursuit of passion in a page-turning story of two star-crossed lovers from vastly different backgrounds. Corinne, a European entrepreneur, meets Lketinga, a Samburu warrior, while on vacation in Mombasa on Kenya's glamorous coast. Despite language and cultural barriers, they embark on an impossible love affair. Corinne uproots her life to move to Africa—not the romantic Africa of popular culture, but the Africa of the Masai, in the middle of the isolated bush, where five-foot-tall huts made from cow dung serve as homes. Undaunted by wild animals, hunger, and bouts with tropical diseases, she tries to forge a life with Lketinga. But slowly the dream starts to crumble when she can no longer ignore the chasm between their two vastly different cultures.

Review: The Urban Shepherd: Chasing the American Dream

Author: Ben Amor
Started reading: September 26th 2017
Finished the book: October 24th 2017
Pages: 178
Genres: Autobiography, Memoir
Published: January 11th 2017
Source: Got a physical copy from the author
Goodreads score: Not enough ratings
My score:

Synopsis
He has come a long way both literally and figuratively from his days as a poor shepherd boy in North Africa, but Ben Amor is a symbol of what can happen when someone's American Dream comes true. The successful career man reinvented himself again after a dream in 1983 of children crying because they were dying of starvation. Unable to forget the sound, he founded Terra-Genesis Inc., a nonprofit agency that began as a way to try to end world hunger through technology.

Review: Everything is Normal: Life and Times of a Soviet Kid

Author: Sergey Grechishkin
Started reading: July 2nd 2017
Finished the book: July 17th 2017
Pages: 305
Genres: Autobiography, Memoir
Published: 2017
Source: Got a digital copy from the author
Goodreads score: Not enough ratings
My score:

Synopsis
This book is both a memoir and a social history. On one hand, it is a light-hearted worm’s-eye-view of the USSR through one middle-class Soviet childhood in the 1970s - 1980s. On the other hand, it is a reflection on the mundane deprivations and existential terrors of day-to-day life in Leningrad in the decades preceding the collapse of the USSR.

The author occupies a peculiar place in the Soviet world. He is the son of a dissident father and also the step-son of a politically favored Leningrad University professor and Party member. He also occupies a peculiar place in the literal geographic sense- both his home and school are only a few blocks away from the city’s KGB headquarters, where a yet-unknown officer called Vladimir Putin is learning his trade..

Ebook GIVEAWAY - Torn by Simon Williams

An eye opening, unapologetic and hilarious romp through the darkest moment of an Australian man's life.

My father told me life wasn't meant to be easy, but I don't think he anticipated it would turn out as heartbreaking as it did. Before one miserable night in 2014 there were two actions I'd never contemplated doing in my life, write a book or jumping off a 20-story balcony.

However, this night I found myself so afraid and despondent that I leaned against my balcony railing and wished that I could take away all the pain I was feeling with one action.

What could drive a man to consider taking his own life? I sat at my computer and started writing a suicide note. As I typed, I started to weigh up my life. With it resting perilously on the edge, I had the strength to be open, honest and unrepentant. 

Only when we start to die, do we stop apologizing for who we are, what we have done and what we go through.




I've read Torn: The Story of an Undeserving Wallaby Drowning in a Septic Tank a while a go. You can read the review here.

In this blogpost you can enter an Ebook Giveaway for Torn. There will be 5 copies to give out. Winners will be announced Sunday the 25th!

Sidenote: Make sure you fill out the blanks while entering the Giveaway. All information needs to be verified. If you don't fill out the blanks, your entry will not be valid!


Ebook Torn: The Story of an Undeserving Wallaby Drowning in a Septic Tank

Review: Torn: The Story of an Undeserving Wallaby Drowning in a Septic Tank

Author: Simon Williams
Started reading: May 28th 2017
Finished the book: June 7th 2017
Pages: 213
Genres: Autobiography
Published: March 28th 2015
Source: Got a physical copy from the author
Goodreads score: 3.95
My score:

Synopsis
My father told me life wasn't meant to be easy, but I don't think he anticipated it would turn out as heart breaking as it did. Before one miserable night in 2014 there were two actions I'd never contemplated doing in my life, write a book or jumping off a 20-story balcony.

However, this night I found myself so afraid and despondent that I leaned against my balcony railing and wished that I could take away all the pain I was feeling with one action.

What could drive a man to consider taking his own life?
I sat at my computer and started writing a suicide note. As I typed, I started to weigh up my life. With it resting perilously on the edge, I had the strength to be open, honest and unrepentant.

Only when we start to die, do we stop apologizing for who we are, what we have done and what we go through.