Tag: autobiography

Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria Book Review

Rebelling against one’s community is a common experience. Doing the same as a female in a male-led religious theocracy can be empowering. But it can also be dangerous.

Journalist Loubna Mrie tells her story in the new memoir Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria. It was published earlier this year. Born into a Syrian Alawite family, she was raised to revere then-President Hafez al-Assad. Mrie also grew up in a home where her father played hot and cold, and a mother who tried to keep her husband happy.

Joining the Arab Spring in 2011, she believed in the right of the Syrian people to participate in a democracy and have their rights respected as citizens. Ultimately rejected by her family and heartbroken by the murder of her maternal parent, Mrie chose to leave the nation of her birth and seek a new life in the West.

I enjoyed this book. The chances that Mrie took could have ended in jail, or worse. She could have remained silent in an attempt to just get through it all. Instead, she spoke up and did what she felt was right. Even when that required hard sacrifices.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria is available wherever books are sold.

unSweetined Book Review

Addiction is akin to a beast with an unending appetite. One serving is never enough.

unSweetined, by Jodie Sweetin with John Warech was originally published in 2009. A new edition was released last year with a new foreword and afterward by Sweetin. To the public, Sweetin was Stephanie Tanner, the smart-mouthed middle child in the Tanner family on Full House (and later Fuller House). Once the camera stopped rolling, she was just like any kid.

Except that she was growing up in the public eye and torn between her job and wanting to be a normal child. There was also a growing addiction problem, and the underlying issues of mental health related to her adoption as a baby.

Listening to the harrowing rollercoaster of trying to get away from substance abuse broke my heart. Though Sweetin is in a good place now, it took many years and quite a few tries to get there. She is also aware of her triggers and the compassion that is needed for someone who is still working through their illness.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

unSweetined is available wherever books are sold.

Irena’s Gift: An Epic WWII Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, and Survival Book Review

When one survives an event like the Holocaust, the trauma of the experience does not just stay in the body and psyche of those who lived through it. It is unconsciously passed to their descendants, forcing its way into later generations.

Irena’s Gift: An Epic WWII Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, and Survival by Karen Kirsten, was published in 2024. In 1942, a Jewish baby girl named Joasia was smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Decades later, grown up and living in Australia with a family of her own, she receives a letter that shakes up her entire world. The writer is her father. The couple whom she knows as her parents are actually her aunt and uncle.

A few decades after this revelation, Joasia’s daughter, Karen, asks a simple question that will blow the mystery wide open and finally provide answers that have remained hidden for nearly a century.

I liked this book. The slow disclosure of the facts and the real story that was kept from the subject kept me going until the final page. At the end of the day, it is the story of adults doing their best to protect their children from the unthinkable, not knowing the outcome of such actions.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Irena’s Gift: An Epic WWII Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, and Survival is available wherever books are sold.

Full Circle: From Hollywood to Real Life and Back Again Book Review

When an actor plays a memorable character, it is easy to assume that the performer is just like the person we see on screen or stage. The reality is that once the curtains close and the credits start to run, the fantasy is over.

Full Circle: From Hollywood to Real Life and Back Again, by Andrea Barber, was published in 2019. Best known for playing Kimmy Gibbler on Full House (and later Fuller House), Barber is the opposite of her iconic role. Quiet and introverted, she left Hollywood after the OG series ended, looking for a normal life. Along the way, she finished school, got a 9-5 job, walked down the aisle, had kids, went through a painful divorce, and dealt with crippling anxiety and mental health issues.

This title is raw, real, and powerful. Barber spares no detail when it comes to her lifelong mental illness and the strength it took to get help. It is harrowing and a reminder of why it is imperative to remove the stigma around mental health.

My favorite aspect of the story was that Kimmy is not just the comic relief or the annoying kid next door. She allowed fans to be themselves, even if they were viewed as quirky, odd, or strange.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Full Circle: From Hollywood to Real Life and Back Again is available wherever books are sold.

The Survivor of the Holocaust Book Review

Human history is cyclical. The specific details may change, but the general theme is static. The only way to stop this vicious reboot is to acknowledge what led to the event(s) and educate ourselves to prevent it from happening again.

The Survivor of the Holocaust, by the late Jack Eisner, was originally published in 1980. Containing a foreword by his grandchildren (a new edition was published last year), the book is a firsthand account of the wholesale slaughter of Europe’s Jews. Born into a large Polish-Jewish family, he was all of 19 when the war ended. Most of his relations did not survive.

One of the facts that I believe is missing from the larger narrative is that Jews who chose to convert to Christianity (and their descendants) were not exempt from their eventual destruction. A Survivor of the Holocaust, for obvious reasons, is not a light and easy read. Nor should it be.

Eisner highlights this detail and many others in this tale of survivor against all odds and a reminder of what happens when hate and autocracy combine.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

The Survivor of the Holocaust is available wherever books are sold.

Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom Book Review

In a culture where marriage is everything, a woman choosing to walk away from an unhappy relationship does more than put herself first. Her actions allow other women to realize that there are other options beyond what is “suitable”.

Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom, by Christine Brown Woolley, was published in September. Born into a Mormon family that practiced polygamy, the author became famous via the TLC reality show Sister Wives. Marrying Kody Brown in 1994, she became his third wife. Eventually, the family would grow to four wives and 18 children.

Through the show, Brown Woolley hoped that it would dispel the rumors about her faith and the relationships with her husband and the women she shared him with. As their lives became water-cooler conversations, she began to ask herself if this was the right path for her.

We still live in a society where a female is expected to marry and pop out a kid or two. Given the world she grew up in, it would have been far easier to stay with Kody and pretend that everything was fine. But she had the strength to know that her happiness was elsewhere and took the necessary steps to make it happen.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom is available wherever books are sold.

Best New Books of 2025

  1. Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
  2. Introducing Mrs. Collins
  3. Hostage
  4. Cammy Sitting Shiva
  5. Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane
  6. Sisters of Fortune
  7. How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir 
  8. Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President
  9. One of Them
  10. We Will Dance Again: A novel about October 7th and Jewish resilience

Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice Book Review

In the relationship between a predator and prey, a predator knows how to size up their potential prey.

Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, was published in October. After being sexually abused and trafficked by the equally late Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Giuffre escaped her abusers. Her book is an unflinching take on the years in their orbit and how she was finally able to break free.

It is no wonder that it is getting such glowing reviews. The author’s no-holds-bar takedown of the elite and the powerful is a revelation not to be missed. The fact that they thought they could do this to so many young girls while others looked away is disgusting.

If nothing else, Giuffre’s legacy (beyond her children) is that the “little person” is not powerless against the 1% when they try to throw their proverbial weight around.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice is available wherever books are sold.

Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy Book Review

For the generation growing up during the Cold War, the Soviet Union was the big bad. The irony (which I would guess that many in the West did not know) is that the USSR was a feminist mecca while American women were fighting for their basic rights.

Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, by Julia Ioffe, was published in October. The author comes from a family of Russian Jews who came to America in 1990 as the USSR was disintegrating. With a journalist’s eye, Ioffe mingles the history of her country of birth, starting from the late 19th century to the present, with her own familial tales.

Ioffe grew up hearing stories of previous generations of females who broke ground in ways that were revolutionary for their time. Returning to Russia as an adult, she discovered a backslide into a culture in which women were forced into a second-class status.

This title is an eye-opener. I was completely blown away by what I read. Like anyone with a basic understanding of modern history, I was familiar with the larger headlines of Russian history. What I did not know was that women had rights then that would blow away any progressive country in 2025.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy is available wherever books are sold.

Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging Book Review

Depending on one’s perspective, religion can feel restricting. The rules are the rules are the rules, and there is no getting around it. If someone chooses to go their own way, the consequences could be dire.

Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging, is the new memoir by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl. It was published in October. Rabbi Buchdahl is a representative of the modern Jewish community. Her mother comes from a Korean Buddhist family, and her father is an American Jew. Mostly raised in the Jewish tradition, she felt an early calling to take on the title of Rabbi.

Challenged by the idea of what a Jewish lay leader is due to her gender and mixed-race heritage, Rabbi Buchdahl has become a popular figure as the Rabbi of the Central Synagogue in New York City. Her tale is part memoir and part examination of the difficult events of the last few years.

The Rabbi is at the crossroads of Judaism in 2025. To the outside world, she is a Jew, no questions asked. But in a traditional sense, she is not MOT because her mother was not born to a Jewish family and never converted.

I think she represents where our faith needs to go to survive. The Rabbi has a deep respect for everything that the religion stands for. But, she also recognizes that the only way that future generations continue to practice is that we remain mutable to a certain degree.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging is available wherever books are sold.

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