Book Review: Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong by Georgina Lawton

Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong by Georgina Lawton
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: February 23, 2021
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

From The Guardian’s Georgina Lawton, a moving examination of how racial identity is constructed—through the author’s own journey grappling with secrets and stereotypes, having been raised by white parents with no explanation as to why she looked black.

Raised in sleepy English suburbia, Georgina Lawton was no stranger to homogeneity. Her parents were white; her friends were white; there was no reason for her to think she was any different. But over time her brown skin and dark, kinky hair frequently made her a target of prejudice. In Georgina’s insistently color-blind household, with no acknowledgement of her difference or access to black culture, she lacked the coordinates to make sense of who she was.

It was only after her father’s death that Georgina began to unravel the truth about her parentage—and the racial identity that she had been denied. She fled from England and the turmoil of her home-life to live in black communities around the globe—the US, the UK, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and Morocco—and to explore her identity and what it meant to live in and navigate the world as a black woman. She spoke with psychologists, sociologists, experts in genetic testing, and other individuals whose experiences of racial identity have been fraught or questioned in the hopes of understanding how, exactly, we identify ourselves.

Raceless is an exploration of a fundamental question: what constitutes our sense of self? Drawing on her personal experiences and the stories of others, Lawton grapples with difficult questions about love, shame, grief, and prejudice, and reveals the nuanced and emotional journey of forming one’s identity.

Raceless is Georgina Lawton’s memoir of growing up in England with white parents and being raised as if she were also white, even though she’s clearly not. She’s the result of her mother’s one-night stand with a Black man. When Georgina was born, the midwife, looking at her brown skin, instantly provided a cover story – her dark hair and skin were the result of a “throwback gene” somewhere in her ancestry. Everyone seemed to buy into this story, including Georgina’s mother’s husband. He never even hinted at the fact that Georgina wasn’t his biological daughter while he was alive.

Georgina believed she was white growing up because that’s what her parents told her. However, most of the outside world treated her as if she were Black, leaving her confused. She loved her father too much to ask many questions while he was still alive. After he died, she took a DNA test and had to face the reality that he was not her biological father. In fact, she was almost half Nigerian. Raceless chronicles her journey traveling the world to find her true identity and learn to navigate the world as a Black woman.

I could not stop thinking about this book after I read it. My daughter is Black (my husband and I are white) and I cannot fathom raising her as anything other than a Black child. One of my constant worries is that I’m not doing enough to help her embrace her Blackness and live in the world as a Black woman when she grows up. Georgina’s situation is baffling to me. I feel for her so much. I wish she could have talked to her father before he died but I understand why she didn’t. She didn’t want to taint their relationship in any way. I’m curious if he really bought the throwback gene theory or if he knew he wasn’t her father and decided that keeping the family together and harmonious was more important than confronting his wife about her infidelity.

Georgina has great insight into racial identity. Her book is well-researched but she writes with a conversational tone that made it a pleasure to read. Hers is a real-life example of why colorblindness is detrimental to everyone. Highly recommended.

Audiobook Review: Calypso by David Sedaris

Calypso by David Sedaris
Narrated by: David Sedaris
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Release Date: May 29, 2018
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

If you’ve ever laughed your way through David Sedaris’s cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you’re getting with Calypso. You’d be wrong.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it’s impossible to take a vacation from yourself.

With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny–it’s a book that can make you laugh ’til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris’s powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.

This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris’s darkest and warmest book yet–and it just might be his very best.

I listened to Calypso because David Sedaris reading his essays makes them a million times funnier than they already are. And they already are hilarious. I highly recommend that you do the same – for any of his books actually. Calypso is just as funny as all his other books but it’s also his most personal. He has an essay about his sister Tiffany’s suicide and another about his mother’s alcoholism. Both are bittersweet.

As with his other books, family is at the heart of most of his writing. He bought a beach house in North Carolina, which he named The Sea Section, and his family spends quite a bit of time together there, giving him much material for this book. It’s pretty amazing how close he and his siblings are. His dad is in his 90s now and his rough edges have softened a bit, changing David’s relationship with him. I liked that this book went deeper than his others. After reading most of his books and seeing him perform several times, I feel like we’re old friends and I enjoyed getting to know him even better and laughing a lot.

Other books David Sedaris books I’ve reviewed:
Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002

Book Review: Open Book by Jessica Simpson

Open Book by Jessica Simpson
Publisher: Dey Street Books
Publication Date: February 4, 2020)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

This was supposed to be a very different book. Five years ago, Jessica Simpson was approached to write a motivational guide to living your best life. She walked away from the offer, and nobody understood why. The truth is that she didn’t want to lie.

Jessica couldn’t be authentic with her readers if she wasn’t fully honest with herself first.

Now America’s Sweetheart, preacher’s daughter, pop phenomenon, reality tv pioneer, and the billion-dollar fashion mogul invites readers on a remarkable journey, examining a life that blessed her with the compassion to help others, but also burdened her with an almost crippling need to please. Open Book is Jessica Simpson using her voice, heart, soul, and humor to share things she’s never shared before.

First celebrated for her voice, she became one of the most talked-about women in the world, whether for music and fashion, her relationship struggles, or as a walking blonde joke. But now, instead of being talked about, Jessica is doing the talking. Her book shares the wisdom and inspirations she’s learned and shows the real woman behind all the pop-culture cliché’s — “chicken or fish,” “Daisy Duke,” “football jinx,” “mom jeans,” “sexual napalm…” and more. Open Book is an opportunity to laugh and cry with a close friend, one that will inspire you to live your best, most authentic life, now that she is finally living hers.

Jessica Simpson and I have been BFFs ever since I spotted her shopping at my local mall and introduced myself. I mean, I haven’t spoken to her since but I’m sure meeting me affected her in a profound way. I had to read her memoir to see if she mentioned our fateful encounter. Alas, she does not. Anywho, while I’ve never been much of a fan of her music, I loved the show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, her reality show with her then-husband Nick Lachey. Of course, the real reason I wanted to read her book was to get the inside scoop on that and other things, like her relationship with music’s biggest douche, John Mayer.

Open Book lives up to its name. Jessica spills it all: her childhood sexual abuse, her marriage to Lachey, her emotionally abusive relationship to Mayer (who is an even bigger jerk than I thought he was), the hot sex with her current husband Eric Johnson and more. She’s honest about her alcoholism, which I didn’t even know about. The only thing I didn’t like about this book is that she regularly breaks the fourth wall and addresses the reader in a way that sounds cheesy and a bit insincere. Overall, this is the kind of celebrity memoir I love – honest, dishy and detailed.

Book Review: Kansas City: A Food Biography by Andrea L. Broomfield

Kansas City: A Food Biography by Andrea L Broomfield
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Publication Date: February 25, 2016
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

While some cities owe their existence to lumber or oil, turpentine or steel, Kansas City owes its existence to food. From its earliest days, Kansas City was in the business of provisioning pioneers and traders headed west, and later with provisioning the nation with meat and wheat. Throughout its history, thousands of Kansas Citians have also made their living providing meals and hospitality to travelers passing through on their way elsewhere, be it by way of a steamboat, Conestoga wagon, train, automobile, or airplane. As Kansas City’s adopted son, Fred Harvey sagely noted, “Travel follows good food routes,” and Kansas City’s identity as a food city is largely based on that fact. Kansas City: A Food Biography explores in fascinating detail how a frontier town on the edge of wilderness grew into a major metropolis, one famous for not only great cuisine but for a crossroads hospitality that continues to define it. Kansas City: A Food Biography also explores how politics, race, culture, gender, immigration, and art have forged the city’s most iconic dishes, from chili and steak to fried chicken and barbecue. In lively detail, Andrea Broomfield brings the Kansas City food scene to life.

The theme of my public library’s Winter Reading Challenge was Missouri so my book club decided to read Kansas City: A Food Biography. I figured the book would be 80 percent BBQ and 20 percent everything else. It actually had a lot of non-BBQ related information. It started with prehistoric times, around 2500 BCE. That was a little more detail than I was looking for! I was more interested in the 20th and 21st centuries, which started about halfway through the book.

Once I made it into the chapters covering modern times, I became very interested. BBQ is, of course, covered but there were a lot of other noteworthy tidbits as well, like the history behind the famous fried chicken restaurant Stroud’s. It would be fun to reread this book after the pandemic is over and I could actually go to some of the restaurants mentioned. (Note: Do not read this book if you are hungry.)

If you’re from Kansas City, I think you’ll enjoy this book, especially if you just focus on reading the chapters that pique your interest and skim the rest.

Book Review: Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: October 17, 2017
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A World War II veteran grappling with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. Four friends traveling to the moon in a rocketship built in the backyard. These are just some of the stories that Tom Hanks captures in his first work of fiction: a collection of shorts that explore—with great affection, humor, and insight—the human condition in all its foibles. The stories are linked by one thing: in each of them, a typewriter plays a part, sometimes minor, sometimes central.

To many, typewriters represent a level of craftsmanship, beauty, and individuality that is harder and harder to find in the modern world. In these stories, Hanks gracefully reaches that typewriter-worthy level. By turns whimsical, witty, and moving, Uncommon Type establishes him as a welcome and wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction.

I’m not the biggest fan of short stories so I don’t read many short story collections. And short story collections can be hard to review because they are so often all over the place. This is the case with Uncommon Type, written by Tom Hanks. Yes, that Tom Hanks. Some of his stories were intriguing, like The Past is Important to Us, about a man who keeps traveling in time back to the 1939 World’s Fair. Some were simplistic and a little dull. I especially enjoyed A Junket in the City of Light. It’s about an actor on a press junket for a movie and I felt like I was getting some inside scoop on how press junkets work. If anyone would know, it’s Tom Hanks!

Hanks writes what he knows. He’s known for being a WWII buff and also for loving space. There are war and space stories. He also collects vintage typewriters and he’s incorporated a typewriter into every story. In some stories, they are mentioned briefly and in some, they are center stage. It’s a cute gimmick but not necessary by any means. I think that fans of Tom Hank’s will enjoy Uncommon Type. It’s a solid offering for a first-time author.

Book Review: Almost Interesting by David Spade

Almost Interesting by David Spade
Publisher: Dey Street Books
Publication Date: October 27, 2015
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

A hilarious and biting memoir from the actor, comedian and Saturday Night Live alumni David Spade.

David Spade is best known for his harsh “Hollywood” Minute Sketches on SNL, his starring roles in movies like Joe Dirt and Tommy Boy,  and his seven-year stint as Dennis Finch on the series Just Shoot Me. Now, with a wit as dry as the weather in his home state of Arizona, the “comic brat extraordinaire” tells his story in Almost Interesting.

First taking fans back to his childhood as a wannabe cool younger brother and recounting his excruciating road-tour to fame—when he was regularly mistaken for a ten year-old, Spade then dishes about his time crisscrossing the country as a comedian, for low-paying gigs and dragging along his mother’s old suitcase full of props. He also covers his years on SNL during the beloved Rock/Sandler/Farley era of the 1990s, including his close working relationship and friendship with Chris Farley and brags about the ridiculous perks that fame has brought into his life, including the constant fear of being fired, a crazy ex-assistant who attacked him while he was sleeping, a run-in with Eddie Murphy on the mean streets of Beverly Hills, and of course an endless supply of hot chicks.  

Sometimes dirty, always funny, and as sharp as a tack, Almost Interesting reminds you why David Spade is one of our generation’s favorite funny guys.

I’ve always been intrigued by David Spade. His Hollywood Minute bits on Saturday Night Live were hilarious and so well-written. He’s been a scene-stealing supporting cast member in the TV series Just Shoot Me and Rules of Engagement. In both shows, he played a womanizing jerk. However, in his appearance on talk shows, he is self-deprecating to the point where it seems like he really does have low-self-esteem. Yet at the same time, he’s kind of a womanizer like his characters. But then, he dated Heather Locklear?! He’s an enigma. I picked up his book, hoping I could get to the bottom of who the heck is David Spade.

Almost Interesting starts in David’s childhood but the bulk of the book is about his career leading up to and as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. If you want an in-depth look at how an episode of SNL is put together, this is the book for you. I enjoyed learning about how the writer’s room at SNL works. David was there for five years and had imposter syndrome (that’s my diagnosis, not his) basically the whole time. He was always worried that he was going to get fired. I think that the self-deprecating humor he portrays on talk-shows comes from a place of genuine vulnerability that is in this book as well.

There are also some stories about the movies he made with Chris Farley, who was a close friend. He doesn’t go into much detail about Chris’s personal demons but I wouldn’t expect him to. There’s almost nothing about the two TV series he was in. The biggest disappointment is that there is NOTHING about Heather Locklear. I can only hope that he held back some info to include in a second memoir.

Memoirs from comedians can be hit or miss. Often their humor doesn’t translate well to the page. While some of the humor in the book was on the obnoxious, swarmy side, I thought that the sincere parts of the book made up for it. Recommended, especially for SNL fans.

Book Review: Broken by Jenny Lawson

Broken by Jenny Lawson
Publisher:Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: April 6, 2021 – That’s today!!
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.

With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor―the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball―is present throughout.

A treat for Jenny Lawson’s already existing fans, and destined to convert new ones, Broken is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of laughter when we all need it most.

If you’ve read Jenny Lawson’s previous books or follow her blog, The Bloggess, then you know that she suffers from mental illness, including depression and has chronic physical health issues as well. In Broken, Jenny shares her experiences in only the way that she can – with brutal honesty and complete hilarity. I appreciate that book is organized so that the more serious essays are interspersed with the funny essays so that the book never gets too heavy. She lays herself bare in some of the more serious essays, she hasn’t been quite this raw in her other books. Everyone will relate to her chapter about her experience with her insurance company. Ugh.

Once again, she had me laughing so hard my cheeks hurt at some of her stories, especially when her husband Victor is involved. Although, the tables were turned in one of them – she was the one behaving sensibly and he was the irrational animal lover. It was fun to see that side of him.

Even if you haven’t heard of Jenny, you will love this book. And if you suffer from chronic or mental illness, Jenny will make you feel like you are not alone. Highly, highly recommended.

Other books by Jenny Lawson I’ve reviewed:
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

(I received a complimentary copy of Broken for review.)

Book Review: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: September 7, 2011
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.

Henry’s fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry’s gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners’ team captain and Henry’s best friend, realizes he has guided Henry’s career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert’s daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment — to oneself and to others.

I picked up The Art of Fielding at a used book sale a couple of years ago because I remembered that there was a lot of buzz around it when it was first published. I love sports movies, e.g. Rudy, Hoosiers, etc. so I figured a novel about baseball would be right up my alley.

Henry Skrimshander comes to Westish College to play baseball. He was the star of his high school team and is the star of the Westish team until a wild throw of his injures somebody. From then on out, he has the yips, i.e. the inability to throw a baseball accurately. This causes a ripple effect through the lives of the other people in his life – his roommate and teammate Owen, his mentor Mike, the school’s president Guert and Guert’s daughter Pella.

I enjoyed the first three-quarters of this book a lot. The author weaves an intricate cloth with all five main characters’ lives. While baseball is definitely part of the story, there’s quite a bit more to it. It’s also about the relationships between the five main characters. It’s hard to go into too much detail without spoilers but I will say that some of the relationships are not healthy.

So that last quarter of the book…it was so out of left-field (pun intended!) that it actually made me a little angry. This book is over 500 pages long so to have invested quite a bit of time in it and for it to have such a disappointing and weird ending was unsatisfying, to say the least. I would give the first three-quarters of this book four stars and the last quarter two stars. Take that for what you will!

Book Review: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication Date: August 14, 2018
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

I’m sure you’ve heard of and probably even read Where the Crawdads Sing by now. It’s been on The New York Times bestseller list for eons and is one of the top-selling books of all time. It’s a murder mystery as well as a coming-of-age novel. Kya is known as the “Marsh Girl”. Abandoned by her family, she’s survived on her own in a remote cabin in the marsh. When Chase Andrews, a popular local boy is found dead, Kya is the prime suspect. The book alternates between the present day of the investigation to Kya’s childhood and how she became the “Marsh Girl.”

I didn’t read this book until it had been out quite a while so there was a lot of hype about it. Several of my friends said that it was one of the best books they’ve ever read. While I did enjoy Where the Crawdads Sing, I didn’t think it quite lived up to that level of hype. It bothered me that there were so many coincidences necessary for the twist ending to work.

The author did a good job of bringing emotion to the story. Reading about Kya’s childhood was heart-wrenching. There were also beautiful descriptions of the natural world that Kya inhabits, which makes sense because the author, Delia Owens is a retired wildlife biologist. Even though I had some minor problems with the murder mystery element of the book, I still liked the book as a whole. Recommended.

Book Review: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She’s also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she’s recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she’s trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the “Queen of Spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth…no matter where it leads.

In 1947, Charlie St. Clair is pregnant and unwed. Her well-to-do mother takes her to Europe to take care of her Little Problem. Charlie uses the opportunity to escape her mother and search for her cousin Rose, who went missing in France during WWII. She finds and convinces Eve Gardiner to help her. Eve was one of several female spies known as The Alice Network during WWI. The book alternates between Eve and Charlie’s journey to find Rose and Eve’s experience as a spy in WWI.

I enjoyed The Alice Network, especially Eve’s story during WWI. I wasn’t that interested in Charlie’s story. A couple of turns in the plot were just a little too convenient and didn’t make much sense, which bothered me a bit. There’s also a torture scene that had me majorly cringing so beware if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing. I appreciated that the author did her research in writing about the spy network. At least one of the characters is an accurate portrayal of a real person. Recommended.