Book Review: Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Muller/Biography

Hello dear Readers,

Below is my book review of Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Muller.

Title: Anne Frank: The Biography

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Biography

Author: Melissa Muller

Publisher: Picador, Second Edition, Revised
Publication Date: June 03, 2014

Language: English

Paperback: 480 pages
Meet the Author: Melissa Muller
Buy Me: Amazon

Book Description

UPDATED AND FILLED WITH STRIKING NEW REVELATIONS, THE BESTSELLING, "SUPERB" BIOGRAPHY "HONORS IN FULL A LIFE WE THOUGHT WE KNEW" (NEWSWEEK)

Praised as "remarkable," "meticulous," and "long overdue," Anne Frank: The Biography, originally published in 1998, still stands as the definitive account of the girl who has become "the human face of the Holocaust." Full of revelations, Müller's richly textured narrative returned Anne Frank to history, portraying the flesh-and-blood girl as unsentimentalized and so all the more affecting.

Now, sixteen years after the book first appeared, much new information has come to light: letters sent by Otto Frank to relatives in America as he sought to emigrate with his family, the identity of other suspects involved in the betrayal of the Franks, and important details about the family's arrest and subsequent fate. 

Revised and updated with more than thirty percent new material, this is an indispensable volume for all those who seek a deeper understanding of Anne Frank and the brutal times in which she lived and died.

My Thoughts

It took me almost a year to read this book. The font is too small, and it is a very detailed account of Anne's story, however, it was worth every minute I spent reading it. 

What I loved the most about this book is that even though it is detailed and well-researched, and has a lot of information included, it is not too technical nor boring, it is easy to read, and it keeps you interested the whole time.  

I sure appreciate the amount of work and effort you can clearly see the author put into the writing of this book. I also liked that it is not just Anne's story being told but the other family members, all the people hiding in the Secret Annex, the Helpers, and many other people mentioned in Anne's diary, directly and indirectly. 

I am so grateful that this book exists, and along with The Diary, this is now my favorite book on Anne's story. 

Wendy

Book Review: Rachel Maddow: A Biography by Lisa Rogak-Biography

 Hello dear Readers,

Below my book review of Rachel Maddow: A Biography by Lisa Rogak.

Title: Rachel Maddow: A Biography

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Biography

Author: Lisa Rogak

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Publication Date: January 07, 2020

Language: English

Hardcover: 288 pages
Meet the Author: Lisa Rogak
Buy Me: Amazon

Book Description

The first biography of the most popular anchor in cable news.

Rachel Maddow has beaten the odds in a way that’s novel in today’s America: she uses her brain.

In a world of banal and opinionated soundbites, she regularly crushes Sean Hannity’s ratings thanks to her deeply researched reports. And in our highly polarized world, Maddow amiably engages the staunchest conservatives, while never hesitating to expose their light-on-facts defenses.

As a result, she's become the top anchor for MSNBC and a beloved representative for all that progressive America holds dear. The news that Maddow was the first publicly-out lesbian to anchor a prime-time TV news show seemed almost anticlimactic to her millions of viewers, who will be surprised and intrigued by little-known details of her life, as written by New York Times bestselling biographer Lisa Rogak.

Growing up in a conservative California town – and viewing herself as a perennial outsider – helped spark an early interest in activism. After attending Stanford and Oxford, she opted for a minimum-wage job as a radio DJ in a tiny Massachusetts market while finishing her Ph.D. She planned to pursue a career as an activist, but 9/11 changed all that, so she returned to local radio where she could help listeners by "explaining stuff." A stint at Air America raised her national profile, which led to her groundbreaking MSNBC show where she dissects the news of the day with an approach found nowhere else on TV.

My Thoughts

I listened to the Audiobook and loved it. 

It was fascinating to know more about Rachel, and not just what you see on TV, which I love watching her but knowing about her growing up, going to school, college, her activism work, her sexuality, how she handled her coming out, and her beginnings on the Radio and TV. All very interesting, gives you an extra perspective on her, and the work she continues to do.

I think it is fascinating how she delivers the information to the viewers. In a way, that no matter how complex or complicated the subject it, we can understand, have it clear, and make our own judgment.  I think her show is the only one that I can watch and honestly say I learned and took something valuable out of it. 

I recommend this 100%, and listen to the audiobook makes it more enjoyable. 

Wendy

Book Review: Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land-Biographies/Memoirs

Hello dear Readers,

Below my book review of Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land.

Title: Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Biographies/Memoirs

Author: Stephanie Land

Publisher: Hachette Books
Publication Date: January 22, 2019

Language: English

Hardcover: 288 pages
Meet the Author: Stephanie Land
Buy Me: Amazon

Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed in Stephanie Land's memoir about working as a maid, a beautiful and gritty exploration of poverty in America. Includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich. 

At 28, Stephanie Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly. 

She wrote the true stories that weren't being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans. Of living on food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) coupons to eat. Of the government programs that provided her housing, but that doubled as halfway houses. The aloof government employees who called her lucky for receiving assistance while she didn't feel lucky at all. She wrote to remember the fight, to eventually cut through the deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. 

Maid explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of what it's like to be in service to them. "I'd become a nameless ghost," Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients' lives-their sadness and love, too-she begins to find hope in her own path. 

Her compassionate, unflinching writing as a journalist gives voice to the "servant" worker, and those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not her alone. It is an inspiring testament to the strength, determination, and ultimate triumph of the human spirit.

My Thoughts

"The Alchemist's theme, this Personal Legend, pulled at me. I'd wanted to be a writer for nearly twenty-five years."

I cannot explain with enough words how much I can relate with that sentence. That line, this entire book gave me one more reason for wanting more than ever to pursue what I really want in life. And that part in reference to The Alchemist, which just happen to be my favorite book.

I cannot imagine how hard it was to go through what Stephanie went through. Our stories are different in that sense, but as Stephanie and many other women out there, I can relate to the desire of wanting a better life for me and the love ones around me, of having to go through difficult times in life and doing whatever it takes to make it better, to be better, to pursue our dreams and make them happen. 

I have seen many comments and reviews on this book where people consider it to be a display of pity, a person seeking attention and sympathy. I respect all these people's opinions, you cannot expect everybody to like one's story but I cannot feel and have other than respect and admiration for the author. I respect their opinions but I also think if you have not been in a given situation, can you really understand and relate with what other people's lives are and what they go through?

It is not easy to share with the world your struggles and hardships in life. I don't know if being in the situation I would be brave enough, open enough to share my story. But as a reader who loves reading books about other people's lives and a writer who writes about her life, I always appreciate the honesty and openness of other writers, authors. 

That is what I see in Stephanie's book. Honesty, a person sharing her story in an honest and open way, a human being sharing her difficulties in life, the daughter, the mom, the worker, the writer, the friend, the partner, the human.

Wendy

Book Review: The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya-Biographies/Memoir

Hello dear Readers,

My book review of The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya.

Title: The Girl Who Smiled Beads

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Biographies/Memoir

Author: Clemantine Wamariya

Publisher: Crown

Publication Date: April 24, 2018

Language: English

Hardcover: 288 pages
Meet the Author: Clemantine Wamariya
Buy Me: Amazon

Book Description

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“The plot provided by the universe was filled with starvation, war and rape. I would not—could not—live in that tale.”

Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.

When Clemantine was twelve, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States; there, in Chicago, their lives diverged. Though their bond remained unbreakable, Claire, who had for so long protected and provided for Clemantine, was a single mother struggling to make ends meet, while Clemantine was taken in by a family who raised her as their own. She seemed to live the American dream: attending private school, taking up cheerleading, and, ultimately, graduating from Yale. Yet the years of being treated as less than human, of going hungry and seeing death, could not be erased. She felt at the same time six years old and one hundred years old.

In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine provokes us to look beyond the label of “victim” and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms.

My Thoughts

Loved this book so much. The urgency on Clemantine's voice for her story to be heard, the power on her words, a very emotional read. Makes you see certain things in a total different way, a new perspective on life, what we might take for granted, for others is not even an option. A must read.

"This was the first time that I was told that my story, all the information I needed, was already there. I just needed to slow down and know how to look, how to listen. I needed to trust that the lingering details contained the whole history."

Wendy

Book Review: In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park-Biographies/Memoirs

Hello dear Readers,

Below my book review of In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park.

Title: In Order to Live 

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Biographies/Memoirs

Author: Yeonmi Park

Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication Date: Reprint Edition September 27, 2016

Language: English

Paperback: 288 pages
Meet the Author: Yeonmi Park
Buy Me: Amazon

Book Description

Yeonmi Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North Korea as a child many times, but never before has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape. 

Park’s family was loving and close-knit, but life in North Korea was brutal, practically medieval. Park would regularly go without food and was made to believe that, Kim Jong Il, the country’s dictator, could read her mind. After her father was imprisoned and tortured by the regime for trading on the black-market, a risk he took in order to provide for his wife and two young daughters, Yeonmi and her family were branded as criminals and forced to the cruel margins of North Korean society. With thirteen-year-old Park suffering from a botched appendectomy and weighing a mere sixty pounds, she and her mother were smuggled across the border into China.

I wasn’t dreaming of freedom when I escaped from North Korea. I didn’t even know what it meant to be free. All I knew was that if my family stayed behind, we would probably die—from starvation, from disease, from the inhuman conditions of a prison labor camp. The hunger had become unbearable; I was willing to risk my life for the promise of a bowl of rice. But there was more to our journey than our own survival. My mother and I were searching for my older sister, Eunmi, who had left for China a few days earlier and had not been heard from since.

Park knew the journey would be difficult, but could not have imagined the extent of the hardship to come. Those years in China cost Park her childhood, and nearly her life.  By the time she and her mother made their way to South Korea two years later, her father was dead and her sister was still missing. Before now, only her mother knew what really happened between the time they crossed the Yalu river into China and when they followed the stars through the frigid Gobi Desert to freedom. As she writes, “I convinced myself that a lot of what I had experienced never happened. I taught myself to forget the rest.”

In In Order to Live, Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea—and to freedom. 

Still in her early twenties, Yeonmi Park has lived through experiences that few people of any age will ever know—and most people would never recover from. Park confronts her past with a startling resilience, refusing to be defeated or defined by the circumstances of her former life in North Korea and China. In spite of everything, she has never stopped being proud of where she is from, and never stopped striving for a better life. Indeed, today she is a human rights activist working determinedly to bring attention to the oppression taking place in her home country. 

Park’s testimony is rare, edifying, and terribly important, and the story she tells in In Order to Live is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. Her voice is riveting and dignified. This is the human spirit at its most indomitable.

My Thoughts

More than the being the best book I read in January, In Order to Live is a big reminder of the reality we, human beings, are surrounded by. I could not help but cry while reading this book because it is still hard for me to comprehend, to accept all the evil in our world, that bad things happen to good people, that horrible things happen, period. 

In Order to Live is the story of Yeonmi Park, a 23 years old girl, born in North Korea and how she escaped her country, went to North Korea to finally settle in South Korea, where she was free. Well, free from her oppressive country but still in a strange land, having to get used to a new country, a new culture, a different life from the one she always knew.

I love her honesty, she does not keep anything to herself. Is it true she had doubts about telling the whole story at the beginning but at the end she understands and realizes that the only way to heal, to make her sacrifices worth, to be able to help other people by telling what happened to her was by telling the true and everything. I admire her courage to do so because I strongly believe these kind of stories can somehow help other people. 

In my case like other books I have read, this one made me reflect on my own life and that sometimes we take things from granted even our own freedom when we should not. Other people have to fight harder for freedom and equality because like Yeonmi, that is the only option they have. They have to fight and survive In Order to Live.

In Order to Live touches very sensitive subjects. Human trafficking, killing, prostitution, and all these other situations Yeonmi tells us. It is hard to read about it but even harder to write about it, I like the openness in Yeonmi's story. 

In order to live, a story about pain, suffering, sadness, family, love, sacrifices, the strength of a young woman to live and find her purpose in life. A story I urge everybody to read.

Wendy