Category: Autobiography

Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Y’all, I was so excited when my friend Emily asked if I wanted to read Crying In H Mart with her, especially since it would help cap Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month for me here at The Frumious Consortium. We’d both heard so many great things about the book, and it looked short and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/30/crying-in-h-mart-by-michelle-zauner/

An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman

An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman

By the early 1960s, Vasily Grossman was in an odd position with the authorities of the Soviet Union. He had been a recognized writer starting in the 1930s, and as a war correspondent he was both beloved by regular troops and honored by the state. His novels were serialized in major newspapers, and his time …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/11/an-armenian-sketchbook-by-vasily-grossman/

Advocate by Eddie Ahn

subtitled A Graphic Memoir Of Family, Community, And The Fight For Environmental Justice. As a grossly overscheduled person myself, I would genuinely like to know where Eddie Ahn finds the time and energy for everything he does! A day job, volunteer work and a cartooning career? I was both impressed and secretly comforted reading this …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/07/advocate-by-eddie-ahn/

I’ll See You In Ijebu by Bunmi Emenanjo & Diana Ejaita

After reading this wonderful, tender memoir of childhood — so close to my own yet so vastly different — I finally understood how it feels to suffer from anemoia, a longing for a past I never actually knew. Is there a separate thing for when you wish this was your past, that this could have …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/14/ill-see-you-in-ijebu-by-bunmi-emenanjo-diana-ejaita/

Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir by Denise Dorrance

As this graphic memoir opens, Denise Dorrance is a cartoonist living with her husband and son in London. Originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she calls her 91 year-old mom every day just to check in. Mom has been living alone in their hometown since the death of her husband five years prior. When Mom doesn’t …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/06/polar-vortex-a-family-memoir-by-denise-dorrance/

Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir by Ai Weiwei, with Elettra Stamboulis & Gianluca Costantini

This gorgeous hardcover graphic memoir by celebrated artist Ai Weiwei is a must-have for his fans, and a must-read for anyone who cares about modern art and, particularly, its intersection with political protest. For those unfamiliar, Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, sometime designer of architecture and longtime political dissident against the Communist government of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/05/zodiac-a-graphic-memoir-by-ai-weiwei-with-elettra-stamboulis-gianluca-costantini/

What’s Wrong? by Erin Williams

subtitled Personal Histories of Chronic Pain and Bad Medicine. After a lifetime of anxiety and self-medication, Erin Williams realized that the American health system had failed her. At best, it focused on symptoms instead of attempting to treat her as an entire person, leaving her to suffer with chronic pain and, finally, to search for …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/01/30/whats-wrong-by-erin-williams/

The Woman In Me by Britney Spears

Y’all. Y’ALL. I was barely thirty pages into this book and I wanted to take up my sword and shield and fight to the death for Britney. And I know that autobiographies aren’t gospel: they’re always going to tell you only one point of view. But damn, y’all. Even if she was exaggerating (and I’ll …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/01/11/the-woman-in-me-by-britney-spears/

The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power

The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power

Samantha Power was a writer before she went into public service. And even though she’s been America’s ambassador to the United Nations, and is now serving as the chief of the US Agency for International Development, it’s possible — maybe even probable — that she’s a better writer than anything else. Which means that even after …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/30/the-education-of-an-idealist-by-samantha-power/

Every Other Weekend: Coming of Age With Two Different Dads by Anthony Mohr (EXCERPT)

Hi readers! Here we have a different kind of autobiography, as an author chronicles what it felt like to grow up with two very different men, switching between father and stepfather every weekend. As his credit card industry pioneer stepfather’s career rises and his well-known radio actor biological father’s eases downward, author Anthony J. Mohr …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/05/every-other-weekend-coming-of-age-with-two-different-dads-by-anthony-mohr-excerpt/