The Anthropocene Reviewed

 The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, 304 pages

In the introduction to this book John Green quotes Allegra Goodman, who says that she is writing her own life story but "since (she's) a novelist, it's all in code." Green says that he didn't want to write in code anymore, and the resulting first foray into nonfiction is both startlingly honest and completely unusual. The book is made up of dozens of "reviews" on a 1-5 scale from things as specific as "The Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest" and as general as "Sunsets." The reviews tend to be one part microhistory, one part memoir, and one part broader cultural context. Even essays about timeless phenomena (Sycamore Trees, Canada Geese) are processed through the lens of the modern day and living on what has inarguably become a human-centric planet. 

While all of this is true, it is still difficult to describe what exactly this book is. I listened to the audiobook, which is read by the author, and I don't think I can count the number of times it brought tears to my eyes. Green is utterly sincere about not only his fear, but also his hope, and it is difficult not to feel some of the ache of the words for myself. This is a fairly short book that I feel richer for having read, and I believe there is something in it for anyone living in the world today.

Nobody's Girl

Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre (2025) 367 pages

I wanted to read this memoir to get a better sense about how abominable Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell were to hundreds (and maybe a thousand or more) of mostly teenaged victims. The book is especially timely as the U.S. Justice Department has been (slowly) releasing redacted parts of the information that had been collected, and some men (and women) are just starting to be held accountable for the trauma they inflicted—or failed to call attention to—during the many years that Epstein and Maxwell found vulnerable teens and groomed them for sex with both themselves and others, often men of great wealth and power.

Giuffre shares the trauma she went through beginning with her own father, and continuing with abuse by Epstein and Maxwell, which went on for years.

I recommend this book, but also suggest not reading it before trying to sleep.

107 Days

107 Days by Kamala Harris (2025), 304 pgs. 

On November 5th, 2024, the historic election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump ended sadly for many. Looking back on her whirlwind campaign, and ultimate loss, Vice President Harris reflects on the 107 days between the announcement that incumbent Joe Biden would not be seeking re-election and the election itself. 

This book and VP Kamala Harris herself are very compelling. Each chapter represents a day on the campaign trail, and although the chapters are quite short, they are jam-packed with events and reflections and information. Reviews on Goodreads have noted that this book will likely not change readers' perspective on VP Harris:

 
"If you want to hate Harris you can find reasons to do so, if you want to be sympathetic to her you can do that too. You liking the book depends more on you than it does on the book.
    --review by Traci Thomas on Goodreads

However, for those looking to gain insight into how a campaign is run and all the messy particulars of this one, it is a great read. The end is still devastating, even though anyone who starts the book knows how it will end, and it does not leave off on as much of a hopeful note as her concession speech. But it is still a wonder that she ran such a strong campaign in such a short time. Kamala Harris has made history and will continue to do so.

Persepolis

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2007), 341 pgs. 

Marjane's childhood was full of changes. Not just in her own life--as she grew up and discovered new interests in terms of religion, music, and style--but also in the political situation of her home country, Iran. When Marjane was little, she dreamed of being a revolutionary and a prophet, and she played with her friends in the yard. She did not have to wear a veil in public. After the Islamic Revolution, she and her friends were subject to new rules, but that did not stop their rebellious spirits.

In this autobiographical graphic novel about growing up in Iran (and Europe) in the 80s and 90s, Marjane Sarapti illustrates for an audience of all ages the dualities of being a child in a sometimes dangerous political environment. She captures well the love she has for her country and the beauty in her life, as well as the very difficult dark sides of her experiences. This book is a great introduction to Iran and one girl's (now woman's) experience in her culture. 

Dog Flowers

 Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller, 272 pages.

After Danielle Geller's mother dies from alcohol withdrawal, she is left with a suitcase full of her papers and a profound feeling of not knowing nearly enough about her mother's life before it was over. In the years that follow Geller uses her archival training to make sense of both her mother's papers and her own grief, both for her mother and the life they could have had together. This journey takes her not only to her childhood home in Florida, but to the Navajo reservation her mother grew up on, bringing Geller to family she had never had the opportunity to meet.

I'm not sure that this book had significantly more primary source material than the average memoir with photos, but the most interesting parts of this book were consistently where Geller's training granted her an unusual perspective on her own life. That being said, this is definitely a troubled family memoir, which isn't a genre I am particularly interested in. This ended up being structurally a much more conventional memoir than I was expecting, and I'm afraid I found it a little dull. 

Question 7

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan (2024) 280pp

Flanagan, winner of the Booker Prize, combines an ode to his father and a brief history of his homeland into a memoir using masterful literary devices and extraordinary writing. Starting with a search for information on the prison camp in Japan where his father was held Flanagan weaves in Rebecca West, H.G. Wells, Leo Szilard, the crew of the Enola Gay, and the indigenous people of Tasmania with a tale of his father and Flanagan’s extended family. The first half of the book startled me with exquisite sentences and leaps of time and place. Only later, when the literary puzzle pieces began to fit tighter, did I realize that this is a reworked compilation of previous writings. My only disappointment was a lengthy description of his near fatal kayak accident -- although critical to the memoir aspect of the book -- it seemed gratuitous and an awkward fit in such an otherwise outstanding book.

Once Upon a Tome

 Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire, 244 pages.

Oliver Darkshire originally wandered into an apprentice role at Sotheran's, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, mostly out of a lack of direction or any skills marketable at a better paying job. But the atmosphere (and strange cast of eccentrics) built up by Sotheran's in its nearly 300 year existence proved intoxicating, and he ended up staying for many years beyond the one he had planned. 

This book was delightful. I listened to the audiobook (read by the author), and it did an excellent job capturing the personal and lighthearted way that Darkshire told his many stories. It felt a little like a friend telling you about their day at work, with a tendency towards humorous exaggeration. This is the kind of book that serves as a window into a very specific profession, and leaves you happy knowing a little more about the world. A fun, light read perfect for book lovers. 

The Soul of an Octopus

 The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery, 261 pages.

This book was recommended to me by a professor in college, which means I have truly been meaning to read it since approximately 2018, but I am so glad I finally did! This book is in many ways very similar to Secrets of the Octopus, a different book by the same author I reviewed earlier this year, but the focus still felt very different. Where the later published Secrets of the Octopus was more focused on octopus facts, this book has a more emotional focus. It is clear on every page that Montgomery truly loves her subject, and it is hard not to feel the same by the end of this beautiful book.

Which isn't to say that you don't learn a whole lot of factual information about octopuses in this book, it's a treasure trove of information! I learned less because I had recently read Sy Montgomery more National Geographic style book, but I still frequently found myself both amazed and genuinely touched. I would say I recommend this book to octopus fans, but I think anyone who didn't start as one would be by the time they finished. So perhaps a better specific recommendation is for anyone interested in different ways of being alive. 

Uptown Girl

Uptown Girl, A Memoir by Christie Brinkley with Sarah Toland (2025) 401 pages

Christie Brinkley's life story, from the rough start she had with an abusive father, to her move to Paris after high school and her eventual modeling career, marriages, and children, is compelling. The amount of traveling she does for work—as well as for recreation—is extraordinary. I did not expect to like learning about the modeling industry, but I did enjoy it from her insider's point of view.

Regarding her romantic life, I would say that she made better choices when she was younger (Jean-Francois Allaux and Billy Joel) than she did later (Richard Taubman and Peter Cook), but I'd also say that trauma leads one to make choices that one might not otherwise consider. As a Billy Joel fan, I was especially interested in how they met and in getting her view on their relationship. (When things were good, they were very good.) In spite of their marriage eventually ending, they are still good friends.

The memoir's 16-page glossy section is filled with her drawings and iconic photos.

Homework: a Memoir

Homework: a Memoir by Geoff Dyer  (2025) 276pp
Dyer is first and foremost a writer and at times this rollicking (do they rollick in the UK?) coming-of-age memoir reads like Dickensian fiction. I keep expecting Miss Havisham and Estella to make an appearance. But Dyer would put Havisham in a caravan and Estella would be dressed in a mini skirt and drive a Mini Cooper. A literary polymath, Dyer can write about anyone and anything and he does not disappoint here. Certainly, an argument could be made that he is too stylish and too detailed, but the writing is snappy and his ability to put the reader in the setting is uncanny (of course this is not autobiography, it is memoir, much license given). Fair warning – once you read a book by Dyer you will read another and another and another.

Careless People

 Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams, 382 pages.

Sarah Wynn-Williams was the Director of Public Policy at Facebook for many years, and this memoir gives a chilling internal look at the unbelievable irresponsibility of Facebook as an organization and especially of the people at the top. Although the generalities of Facebook's many crimes are pretty much public knowledge, the specific incidents Wynn-Williams describes still manage to be shocking, as she describes how carelessly the people running Facebook move through the world, completely unbothered by the harm they cause. 

This book manages to be personal while still feeling very focused on Facebook as an organization, which is a difficult line to walk with memoirs that are also informative about a topic. This makes this book very readable. The events are often dark, but it almost feels like watching a train wreck, and I couldn't look away. This especially feels like an interesting companion piece to Maria Ressa's How to Stand Up to a Dictator, which is another memoir about how Facebook undermines democracy, but from a very different perspective. 

The Next Day

The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates (2025) 162 pages

Melinda French Gates, even if she had never been married to Bill Gates, is an amazing woman in her own right. Gate's book, part memoir, part advice, goes into her past, finding areas where changes were underway, and shares how she dealt with these transitions. 

Both of her parents were very engaged with their children, and her father‒who worked on the Apollo space program‒especially encouraged Melinda to aim high in her life's calling. One of her transition times was her entry into college at Duke University, where she majored in computer science and economics, and also got an MBA.

Melinda also reaches into her married life to show more transitions there: motherhood and marriage issues. I am impressed with her way of speaking about her marriage, and 27 years later, her divorce, from Bill Gates. She talks about the reason for the divorce without giving too much detail, which I thought also spoke to her character.

This book is a quick, informative, personal, and reassuring read.

A selection of May graphic novels

 The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (2005) 498 pages

The original publications of the three books in this set were in 1978, 1987, and 1995. Not a fan of the first three short stories in A Contract with God, even though they each have good moments. Loved "Cookalein" with its strong literary characterizations and bringing multiple threads with adult themes together in a satisfying way. Eisner explains in his preface that Cookalein is a Yiddish-English word that means "cook alone." Instead of bed and breakfasts, farms in upstate New York offered summer holiday stays with bed and kitchen. Multiple families had access to the kitchen so the mothers could cook for their own families. The second novel in this graphic novel trilogy, A Life Force, is excellent! It starts in the Great Depression and explores the meaning of life through Jacob Shtarkah's family and neighbors as well as his observations of a cockroach. Again Eisner is brilliant at probing the depth of characters. He brings the novel to graphic novel with many subplots on the side and real history affecting the characters at the center. All of these stories take place around the fictional Dropsie Avenue in the Bronx, NY. The third novel, Dropsie Avenue, traces the history of this neighborhood beginning in 1870 when this part of New York was still farmland. The story moves quickly through all the changes of ethnicities that call this neighborhood home throughout the century. It is an immigrant story and a microcosm standing in for many small towns that turned into big cities. The story is full of tearing down and building up, politics and business deals, tragedy and celebration, biases and prejudices. Year after year, decade after decade, with certain characters getting older, Eisner again illustrates our very real world.

Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice by Eddie Ahn (2024) 208 pages

This memoir covers a lot as indicated by the subtitle. The author/artist strangely is a bit distant in revealing his personality. It comes through in certain moments, but in describing the facts of day to day work and repeatedly trying to explain his career to his parents, who do not understand, Eddie remains elusive. I liked the realistic art, which is like a photo album. The different color tints help distinguish different times and places. I wish the book went even more in depth about environmental justice efforts.

Orbiter by Warren Ellis with art by Colleen Doran (2003) 104 pages

Short and intriguing. Perhaps too short to let you really get to know the characters. Set in a dystopian near future that imagines NASA's space program ended after shuttle Venture burned up on launch. Inspired by the loss of Challenger. But 10 years later the shuttle reenters the atmosphere and crash lands near the Kennedy Space Center. Scientists whose careers ended are put on the case by the military to solve the mystery. There is a lot of science-y speculation to explain the condition of the shuttle and the one surviving astronaut. Pretty fun adventure like a Michael Crichton thriller. Somewhat dark and gritty art.

And Mankind Created the Gods: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Pascal Boyer's Religion Explained by Joseph Behe (2024) 368 pages

This is dense with a lot of complex ideas. Fascinating to think about. It is based on Pascal Boyer's book Religion Explained. Pascal appears in the graphic novel leading a philosophical dialogue. Picture Plato exchanging ideas with a group of people. For visual learners the black and white illustrations of the dinner party conversation, world cultures, and the workings of our minds are very helpful. It is difficult to sum up. You just have to dive in and explore with Pascal's dinner guests yourself.

Gaytheist: Coming Out of My Orthodox Childhood

 

Gaytheist: Coming Out of My Orthodox Childhood by Lonnie Mann (2024) 256 pages

Lonnie recounts growing up in a strict Orthodox family. He's the youngest of three brothers, and he tries to be everything his parents want because of the turmoil that his older brothers put his parents through in their teenage years. But later, when when Lonnie realizes he is gay, he's torn between religion and his own autonomy: in Orthodox Judaism, being gay is not acceptable.

This graphic lit memoir is well-drawn and a fast read. Lonnie, his family, and his friends are realistically depicted. I learned a bit more about Orthodox Jewish traditions through this insider's view.

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

 Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea, 400 pages

This book started as a series of interviews between theater director Brendan O'Hea and actress Judi Dench, originally intended for a theater company's archives. O'Hea soon realized this work was something a whole lot of people would want to read, and decided to turn it into a book instead. However, especially in audiobook form, this book retains the feel of an intimate conversation between old friends. Although Dench read only small portions of the audiobook, the actress they got to read her part sounded so similar I couldn't always tell when they switched.

The book covers the dozens of Shakespeare roles Judi Dench has played in her decades-spanning career, as well as collecting a whole lot of general thoughts about performing Shakespeare and working in theater. I was very impressed how the book managed to twist together biography, funny anecdotes, and very solid Shakespeare analysis into something that felt so cohesive. Judi Dench is riotously funny, and it was a pleasure to feel as if you were in her living room listening to her chat with an old friend. I would strongly recommend this to anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, performing live theater, or Judi Dench. 

The Third Gilmore Girl

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop, 244 pages

In her new memoir, veteran actor Kelly Bishop recounts her life in show business, from her early days as a ballet dancer and chorus member in stage musicals to her more recent roles as formidable matriarchs in movies and TV shows. Along the way, she won a Tony for her role in A Chorus Line (a role that she also inspired the creation of) and became known in households across the country as the exacting Emily Gilmore in the WB show Gilmore Girls. This book covers all of that, as well as her personal life behind the scenes, including her marriages, her longtime love of animals, and her dedication to feminist causes. It's a lovely book, and the audiobook (read by the author) made me feel like Bishop was sitting beside me, just chatting about her life. It's nothing groundbreaking, but as a longtime Gilmore Girls fan, I loved it.

As You Wish

 As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride by Cary Elwes, 259 pages.

Elwes' very focused memoir follows the making of the cult classic film The Princess Bride from it's earliest stages through to the twenty-fifth anniversary reunion of the cast. To give a more complete picture, many of his former cast members also offer their own memories and thoughts of the makings of the film. In the excellent audiobook, which I listened to, most of these cast members also offered their voices to tell their own stories. 

Although the making of this movie honestly didn't sound particularly wild, I quite enjoyed this book anyway. There was something very relaxing about a group of people gushing about how much they liked each other and how much fun they had making a movie I love. This is a very kind book, and I found it very soothing to listen to. I would recommend it for fans of the movie, or for people interested in the movie making process generally, as Elwes does a very good job covering pretty much every aspect of the making of the movie. 

The Art of Asking

 The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer, 339 pages.

This book, which is part memoir and part self improvement guide, is based on the TED Talk of the same title. I was a fan of Amanda Palmer's music, both with The Dresden Dolls and as a solo performer, as well as her blog writing, and both put together made me think that this book (read by the author) would be worth my time. 

It definitely was. In addition to being a very open look at Palmer's life, this is a book about vulnerability. It's a book that believes deeply in the goodness of people, and the power of community. It's the kind of book that encourages courage. I would recommend it widely, and especially the audiobook (which feels like an especially strong recommendation coming from me, who usually struggles with audiobooks). The thirteen minute TED Talk is a great place to start, and if you find yourself interested, consider treating yourself to this book. 

The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards

The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards, A Memoir (2024) by Jessica Waite 309 pages

Jessica Waite's memoir details her shock and grief at her husband Sean's sudden death at age 47. Her difficulties are compounded when she comes across information that shows he had been a consumer of pornography, and also had affairs. Her money situation looked scary, too, finding that his credit cards had large balances.

The memoir starts raw with Jessica learning of Sean's death in an airport in Denver, and wanting to break the news to their nine-year-old son gently. As Jessica's grief turns to anger, the memoir chronicles her emotional journey. She comes across as fully human, sometimes saying or doing cringy things, but also showing the many resources she used to find healing.

Impossible City: Paris in the 21st Century

Impossible City by Simon Kuper (2024) 258 pp

Part memoir, part travelogue and part history, Impossible City takes the reader through an introduction to contemporary Paris and follows the author as he eventually becomes a French citizen. Kuper is a journalist for the Financial Times and the writing is brisk, but the organization is scattershot, perhaps appropriate for one of the world’s most complex cities. A reluctant emigre, Kuper uses detailed personal anecdotes to illustrate the unique character of 21^st Century Paris and his place in the metropolis. This is a dense book – a series of vignettes on various aspects of Paris including transportation, terrorism, politicians, culture and of course food.