Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: autobiography

Showing posts with label autobiography. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Boyhood (The Russians) ★★★☆☆

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Title: Boyhood
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Translator: Unknown
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Autobiographical Fiction
Pages: 98
Words: 28K

A quick sketch of Tolstoy’s tween and teen years. I believe this is the middle part of a trilogy (childhood, boyhood and youth) and as such, should have been read together. This just abruptly ends after a chapter and that makes it obvious this was chopped up into the 3 volumes for no good reason. Also, this “complete collection” of Tolstoy’s works are put together alphabetically and thus it will be a little bit before I get to Childhood and VERY long time before I hit Youth.

This was a bit of a tough read because Tolstoy is honest about portraying himself as a teenager and man, I always forget what self-absorbed twat-heads teenagers are. There’s a reason I don’t even attempt to help out with middle or highschool sunday school :-D It doesn’t help that there is a good bit of class awareness going on here and that is so foreign to me that it’s very jarring. I also don’t know how much is straight biography and how much is fictional.

The ironic thing is I can identify with a LOT of what he writes, even from the teenage perspective. Self-absorbed introverts have a lot in common, no matter the country, the culture or the time they lived. Of course, I’m not going to go on and become a world famous author whose works live on to shape the future, but you know, I’m really ok with that. That would be a lot of pressure and I don’t mind saying I ain’t got no time for dat!

Judging this portion, Boyhood, on its own, I wouldn’t like Tolstoy as a person. But that’s true of most teens, so it doesn’t surprise me, hahahahaa :-D

On a final note, that cover is totally misleading. This book records him from about 12-15 or so. He’s not a child in this and I find the cover set my mind down a path of him being a child. Of course, the only other covers I could find showed him as a full adult with the big white russian beard, so that was even worse in my opinion.

★★★☆☆

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Porcelain: A Memoir (Non-Fiction) ★★★☆ ½

^{This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
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Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s
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Title: Porcelain: A Memoir

Series: ------

Author: Moby

Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: Autobiography

Pages: 408

Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Moby, the music artist, looks back on his life from his late teens until the release of his album, Play, in 1999.

My Thoughts:

I've enjoyed various songs by Moby, as I like the kind of music he puts out. I'm not his greatest fan, nor do I know all his albums or all his songs or anything like that. I'm a casual fan. At best. I knew that one of his songs was the end song for the movie Bourne Identity. I knew that he was a vegetarian [turns out he's vegan] and I knew that he had, at some point, claimed to be a Christian.

Non-fiction is not the genre [notice how I lump it ALL together? That should tell you something] that I like to take long swims in. I prefer to let others have that privilege. But my recent read of Deadhouse Gates really left me needing something very different to get me back in the reading groove. This popped up at the library, I believe, so that is how I ended up reading it.

How do I review a book that is pretty much a journal? There is no plot. Moby goes all over the place even while keeping things very chronological. We might get introduced to Karen in one chapter and then he's with Josephine in the next with no rhyme or reason. This was not an indepth, exhaustive look at Moby's life. It touched on highlights that have apparently stood out to him up until 1999, when things started going his way?

3 things stood out to me. He had a very hard life growing up and overcame being the token poor boy where he lived. Relationally, he needs to grow up and make a commitment to one of the ladies and stop searching for “The One”. Love isn't just a feeling and he chases the feelings, time after time after time. Finally, while he might call himself a Christian, I'd be forced to say he's “spiritual”. He's interested in “God” but it is apparent that while he's read and even studied the Bible, he doesn't think that the God of the Bible is the God he's after. It is sad to see and he even acknowledges his gradual loss of Faith, but he never claims to have had Faith in Jesus Christ. So from my perspective, what has he really lost? A feeling.

This is definitely geared more towards those who are musicians themselves. When he starts talking about “the beatback interwoven with the attack high on his RGB-304” I have no phracking clue what he's talking about, specifically. I can glean that he's doing something musical with one of his instruments. In all honesty, that is enough, but it would have been nice to understand a little more sometimes. I felt like the dumb kid peeking through the window occasionally.

With all of that being said, I still enjoyed this read. I learned more about a guy whose music I like. I jumped the rut of SFF for a day and I learned that I am pretty damned satisfied with my life even if I'm not famous, making 100K a year or sleeping with pornstars. If Moby, whose real name is Richard Melville Hall, writes another memoir about later in his life, I'll be reading it for sure.

★★★☆ ½

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Vet in a Spin (All Creatures Great and Small #6)

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Title: Vet in a Spin
Series: All Creatures Great and Small #6
Author: James Herriot
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 224
Format: Kindle digital scan

Synopsis:

James completes his pilot training and is all set to do his part in the RAF when a minor bit of surgery removes his A+ health rating and he loses his rating to fly. After kicking about, the RAF sends him back home to be a vet again.

Stories from his vet days are once again interspersed and make up the bulk of the book.

My Thoughts:

Another good edition of the Vet series. I really wish he'd done more about his actual time in the RAF though, as the little tidbits he doles out shows that he can tell much more than just animal stories.

The ending with him entering Darrowby, for the first time again, to start over and wondering if his vet skill have atrophied in the time he spent in RAF training is a good look at a young man who has done a lot but just isn't sure.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Vets Might Fly (All Creatures Great and Small #5)

Synopsis:

Jim is training to be a pilot for the RAF during WWII and various people and circumstances bring back memories of his vet times in Darrowby. At the same time his wife is expecting their first baby and he relates several instances of him sneaking away from training to be with her.

My Thoughts:

This is a series that continues strong story telling but the sameness of the stories brings the rating down for each book. I think my rating would be higher if I read one of these a year instead of every 2 months.

I was hoping for more military training stories than I got. What I did get were all very compact and led right into a vet story. I think the most amusing story was about his son being born. Jim asked the nurse if he was "normal" because he was such an ugly little thing and asked if he could see another baby, "just to compare". The nurse got upset, Jim was confused and I just grinned. Newborns ARE ugly but you'd think a vet would be used to that whole thing.
`

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Vet in Harness (All Creatures Great and Small #4)

Synopsis:

More stories by James the Vet as he prepares to go to WWII. People and animal stories.

My Thoughts:

These are starting to get repetitive. Not that that is a bad thing, as I enjoy the stories. Just sometimes you expect a little more and you don't get it. Good filler read though and easy on the mind.
`

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Let Sleeping Vets Lie (All Creatures Great and Small #3)

Synopsis:

Jim continues his apprenticeship and we get a good number of character sketches. This time around it is definitely about the people and not even the funny stories.

My Thoughts:

This book was just as fun as the previous two. However, this time around it felt more like a deeper look into what made up the people of the village that Jim worked in. Some were funny, some were rather sad [the young couple that failed at farming because of a disease that killed all their cows was the toughest] and some just "were".

Also, Jim finally gets up the courage to make Helen his. Took him long enough :-)

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (All Creatures Great and Small #2)

It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet - James Herriot

Friday, February 19, 2016

If Only They Could Talk ( All Creatures Great and Small #1) 4.5 Stars

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: If Only They Could Talk
Series: All Creatures Great and Small
Author: James Herriot
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Autobiography
Pages: 205
Format: Scan

Synopsis:
Jim has just graduated from Vet school in England, at a time when the tractor is literally putting the horse out to pasture.
Thankfully, he gets a post as an assistant in a small rural town and these memoirs are the various adventures, funny and sad, that he has with the animals and the owners.

My Thoughts:
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Herriot's writing style is laid back and calm and I was swept along with each story. Even in the midst of some of the sad stories, Herriot's ability to keep it light made it easier to deal with.
At the same time, the funny stories didn't have me roaring with laughter, but they had me laughing out loud and nodding when human nature shown through, the same then as it is now.

He doesn't shy away from describing some of the very nasty and gross things that a vet had to deal with. And he doesn't shy away from describing how he felt at 2am, after getting back from one call, grabbing all of 15min of sleep and then having another come in. The descriptions feel genuine. Not all shiny, not all crap.

I also connected with his love of his job. On the good days and the bad.

On a book'ish side of things, I didn't realize that this was re-released, or re-titled or something, as All Creatures Great and Small. I guess it isn't just indies who can screw their fanbase over.

Wednesday, June 14, 2000

Surprised by Joy

C.S. Lewis

Autobiography