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.

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: 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..