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[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreview|author= Bruce Springsteen|title= Born to Run|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= No you haven't stumbled into a music review from the 1970s, I'm talking about The Boss's autobiography. Lots of books have been written about Springsteen by folk who knew him, worked with him and by others who have only read the cuttings. Over the last seven years he has been going about – not putting the record straight, exactly – but telling it from his own perspective. As he puts it: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business''. By his own admission, it isn't the whole truth, discretion holds him back but ''in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind.'' ''In these pages, I've tried to do this.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471157792</amazonuk!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Krystyna Mihulka and Krystyna Poray Goddu0241636604|title=KrysiaThe Trading Game: A Polish Girl's Stolen Childhood During World War II|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Most of us would think of Polish children suffering in World War Two because of the Nazi death camps – they and their families suffering through countless round-ups, ghettoization, and transport to the end of the line, where they might by hint or dint survive to tell the horrid tale. But most of us would think of such Polish children as Jewish victims of the Holocaust. This book opens the eyes up in a most vivid fashion to those who were not Jewish. They did not get resettled in the Nazi ''Lebensraum'', but were sent miles away to the East. Krysia's family were split up, partly due to her father being a Polish reservist when the Nazis invaded, and then courtesy of Stalin, who had [[The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941 by Roger Moorhouse|signed a pact]] with Hitler dividing the country between the two states, before they turned bitter enemies. Krysia's family, living in the eastern city of Lwow, were packed up and sent – in the stereotypical cattle train – east. And east, and east – right the way across the continent to rural Kazakhstan, and a communal farm in the middle of anonymous desert, deep in Communist Soviet lands. Proof, if proof were needed, that that horrendous war still carries narratives that will be new to us…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1613734417</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewConfession|author=Matt Woodcock|title=Becoming Reverend: A diaryGary Stevenson

|summary=[[:Category:Matt Woodcock|Matt Woodcock]] If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is enjoying life: successful journalistthe East End, happily married where he was familiar with violence, poverty and a new dream home bought and heavily mortgagedinjustice. The only cloud There was no posh public school on the horizon is their struggle his CV - but he had been to have children but they have faith in the IVF treatment as it's early days yetLondon School of Economics. Then comes the funny turn Matt Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has on the way a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to a story one daybe stupid. This takes It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him by surprise but the resulting clergy collar comes as a total shockan internship with Citibank. He's a normal bloke who always thought of himself Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as more pint than piety believing in a God who's happy for him to remain in the pewstrader. Errrrm… whoops!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781400105</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick Mbaya1529395224|title= My Brain Is Letting the Cat Out Of Controlof the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating= 43.5|genre= Home Animals and FamilyWildlife|summary=Dr Patrick Mbaya Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was enjoying life as a consultant psychiatristGP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, husband and particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. His career When he was going well and seventeen he enjoyed making ill people better. His marriage took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was solid a vet and fulfilling and his two children were exploring their potential, often through was convinced this was the uplifting power of musicjob for him. Life Before long, he was good. But thenat Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524636649</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue KleboldEdel Rodriguez|title=Worm: A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of the Columbine TragedyCuban American Odyssey

|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=Sue KleboldWe's son Dylan was one of the shooters at Columbine High School re in Littletonchildhood, Coloradoand we're in Cuba. Her book opens on 20 April 1999 The revolution has happened, and Castro, the day first thought of as a saviour of the shootings. Klebold remembers the confusion country, has proven himself a Communist, and dread she and her husband and older son felt when they learned something was happening at Columbinenot done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Early on they were told Dylan was a suspect Well, and before those hours-long they also knew he was dead, but they didnspeeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't know how he was involved or how he died. From in the starthappiest of places here, though, it was clear that there an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be fallout: one of shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the first things they had to dofather being watched and watched, before they even cremated their sonand not liked for his successful photography business, was have a clandestine meeting success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with a lawyer. In the months that followedparty to ease some of the heat, they were essentially but in hiding in their own hometown. this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0753556812</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Astrid Lindgren1035025299|title=A World Gone Mad: The Diaries of Astrid Lindgren 1939-45Went to London, Took the Dog|author=Nina Stibbe

|summary=Before she became a world famous author, Astrid Lindgren worked as a secretary, and as Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a wife and mothersabbatical after being away for twenty years. She kept a diary's been at Victoria's smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writing, and throughout the war maintained her own personal record of world events, commenting on political situations as well there's always something smallholding happening - as her own day to day activities and strugglesyou might expect. She writes in The other side of the decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of Deborah Moggach) at a fresh and candid manner, and her observations are both personal and astutevery reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782272313</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= John WilliamsChristopher Fowler|title= My Son's Not Rainman: One Man, One Autistic Boy, A Million AdventuresWord Monkey|rating= 3.5|genre= Autobiography|summary=In 2012, stand-up comedian John Williams was encouraged by his work colleagues to write a show charting his experiences as the parent of an autistic boy. After registering the domain name: ''My Son's Not Rainman,'' he also decided to write a blog to share his funny anecdotes and experiences. After a shaky start (''I had a handful of followers. Three of them were my brothers''), the blog eventually went viral as it increased in popularity with parents who felt a connection with John and 'The Boy'. This book fills in some of the gaps in the story, starting with 'The Boy's' early childhood and ending, appropriately, on his thirteenth birthday, when he suddenly became 'The Teen'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782433880</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Deborah Ziegler|title=Wild and Precious Life|rating=4

|summary=You probably remember It's the case first of Brittany Maynard; it was much in the news August in the latter half middle of 2014. Diagnosed with a massive brain tumour at age 29, Brittany chose to move from her home cool wet summer in California East Anglia. I decided not to Oregon so that she could take drugs to end her life swim at a time the pool in favour of her choosing using that state's Death with Dignity Actgoing to my beach hut. She and her family appeared The weather closed in documentaries , rain arrived, and national news media I decided not to do that either. When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and gave official testimony (b) I did not want to raise awareness do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and his first chapter tells us about the cause of assisted dying for the terminally illhis terminal diagnosis. A film There is something very strange about her story being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and you know he actually is also in the worksat that point, because he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785033026</amazonuk>0857529625

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Iris Murdoch, Avril Horner and Anne RoweKit De Waal|title= Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934-1995|rating= 5|genre=Autobiography|summary=This collection of Iris Murdoch's most interesting and revealing letters gives us a living portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers and thinkers. They show her mind at work - seeing Murdoch grappling with philosophical questions, feeling anguish when a book fails to come together, and uncovering Murdoch's famed personal life, in all its intriguing complexity. They also show the 'real life material' that fed into her fiction - and above all we see her life - blazing, brave, Without Warning and brilliant in this collection of letters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099570157</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Magda Szubanski|title= ReckoningOnly Sometimes|rating= 54

|summary=In her memoirAs Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, actressyour mum and dad/ They may not mean to, comedian but they do” Without Warning and activist Magda Szubanski describes her journey Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of self-discovery from parenthood and the bonds that bind family. This book is a suburban childhood memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as an immigrant child, haunted by the demons a teenager living in a lower class area of her Birmingham. Her father's espionage activities is from St. Kitts in wartime Poland the Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her secret awareness of family for becoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a large role in the autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her sexualityrace, to the complex dramas of adulthood and her need to find out the truth about herself class and her familygender. With courage and compassion she addresses her own frailties Her parents loom large and fearsare written with care, and asks the big questions about lifelove, about the shadows we inherit and the gifts we pass onkind of anger only a child can express to their parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1925355411</amazonuk>1472284852

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=George Harrison1638485216|title=I Me MineBlack, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds

|summary=This sumptuous volume was first published in 1980 as a rather heftily-priced limited edition of 2''Corruption is not department,000 copies, each signed by the former Beatlegender or race specific. It now appears has everything to do with a revised introduction by his widow Olivia, including brief references to their years togethercharacter. Period.'' ''One more body just wouldn't matter''. What we have here is not a book  The murder of memoirs in the conventional sense. George Harrison was the Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man whose first solo album, excluding two rather experimental records of electronic music and film soundtrack not really aimed at a mainstream audienceon 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, was a lavish boxed set including three longforty-playing recordsfour-year-old police officer, one consisting in the US city of extended musical jamming sessions with friendsMinneapolis sent shock waves around the world. If you We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd're expecting a tidy set s death was an exception. The image of chapters telling his story as he recalls it from childhood to Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the date he laid down his pen (or powered his laptop off, or whatever protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the 1980 equivalent was) police - this is and not itjust in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905662408</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Irina Ratushinskaya Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=Grey is the Colour of HopeI May Be Wrong

|genre=Autobiography|summary=In April 1983 [[:Category:Irina Ratushinskaya|Irina Ratushinskaya]] was convicted of When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn'agitation carried on for t really matter how the purpose rest of subverting or wrecking the Soviet Regime'world responds to your book. She had dared to defend human rights and to ask questions of I know, having read the Soviet system via her writing book in general and poetry in particular. The penalty question, that came Lindeblad would disagree with the conviction was 7 years in a labour camp followed by 5 years in internal exilethat thought. In [[In He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the Beginning by Irina Ratushinskaya|In rest of the Beginning]]world responds to this book, her first autobiographybecause it tells the truth as it is, Irina touches on that time in the early 21st century.|isbn=1526644827}}{{Frontpage|isbn=gareth_steel|title=Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of her a vet's life. Now, have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals''Grey is definitely not the Colour of Hopecompanion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures''lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he' goes back s written it to look at inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it in detaildoesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473637228</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Irina RatushinskayaDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=In the BeginningSpeedy: Hurled Through Havoc|rating=4.5

|summary=[[:Category:Irina Ratushinskaya|Irina Ratushinskaya]] was born in How to summarise the Ukraine life of 1954 Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to an engineer and kick off a teacher. Irinareview of his memoir? Do you know, I really don's very early childhood is innocent, having been sheltered by a loving extended family from the harsher side of Soviet lifet think I can. However, when Irina starts school she begins to realise that doing the right thing   Dave is often frowned on an author and tainted by an illogical regimeartist. Early on she realises she has An inspirational speaker and a choice: be professional horseman. And a good Soviet citizen or be true to her own sense of justicerecovering alcoholic. The choice – and living with its repercussions – form Irinason of a Lutheran minister, he's existence from that point onwards for Ratushinskaya struggled with a controlling father, run away to join the poetcircus (not a metaphor), the writertrained horses, painted caravans, the dissidentdesigned and painted theatre sets, and hit rock bottom when the prisonerbottle took over.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473637244</amazonuk>B0965V3LLN

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lydia Ginzburg0008350388|title=Notes from the BlockadeWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba

|genre=Autobiography Politics and Society|summary=With the scenes from war torn Syria brought ''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to our screens every nightbe seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba 'Notes from the blockade' is 0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a timely bookby a woman. It is the remarkable story of Lydia Ginzburg's survival during ' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War 2UK from Kenya when she was five years old. With beautiful prose full of Russian melancholy Her sisters were seven and pragmatismnine. It was her mother who came first, it details daily life in the besieged citywith her father joining them later. I The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have to confess that I found this to be one of the most moving books that it has ever been my pleasure to readbest education possible. Pleasure may be There was always a strange choice painful awareness of words to describe money although this did not translate into a book recounting horrifying events, but shortage of anything: it came from the lyrical quality of the writing. Ginzburg's prose is was simply beautifulcarefully harvested. Her descriptions of When Otegha was ten the minutiae of everyday lifefamily acquired a car. For Otegha, as it descends into the abysseducation meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, are the most human I have encountered. It is this that leaves its mark long after the final page is turnedOxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099583380</amazonuk>

Vikki Turner is a busy mum of four, and for her, family is everything. Her first two children gave her no cause for concern, hitting their developmental milestones right on cue and behaving beautifully when in public. When Toby came along, she naturally expected things to be the same, but it soon became apparent that there was something different about him. Toby had a fear of bright lights and insisted on wearing sunglasses wherever he went. Sounds bothered him, so he constantly wore earphones to block out the outside world. Earphones in, sunglasses on and hood up, Toby had created his own 'bubble' in which he could feel safe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032003</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris McIvor0571365884|title=The World My Mess is Elsewherea Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=54

|summary=As a Country Director, Chris McIvor Georgia Pritchett has worked for a number of years at Save the Children. 'The World is Elsewhere' covers his time there andalways been anxious, his journeys across even as a number of countrieschild. It is a beautiful mix She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of autobiography life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and travelfar between. It also captures his philosophical thoughts on international aid. He reflects on both the good and the bad with On a visit to a very easytherapist, conversational writing style as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that makes the book truly captivating. I read from cover to cover in she should write it down and ''My Mess is a single sitting, unusual for Bit of a reviewer. Such was Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the draw as he laid himself bareresult - or so we are given to believe. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124346</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Violet PraterDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=My Life from the BeginningA Tattoo on my Brain|rating=23.5

|summary=Violet Prater is 83 and sheAlzheimer's decided to tell us her story. She knows is a disease that there are grammar slowly wears away your identity and spelling errorssense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, but she wants to tell as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the story ''her'' way without any interference from an editorelements. I can understand It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and I recognise the your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs'memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in 'honesty'A Tattoo on my Brain' behind her words. Her story's important because it illustrates that child abuse can extend beyond beatings and sexual abuse.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524636738</amazonuk>1108838936

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mara Wilson1529109116|title= Where Am I Now?Call Me Red: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental FameA Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah Jackson|rating= 4.5|genre= AutobiographyLifestyle|summary= Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and a little out of place: as ''I want the only child on a film set full image of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, the sole clinically depressed member British farmer to simply be that of a cheerleading squad, a valley girl person who is proudly employed in New York and a neurotic in California, and an adult feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.'' The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the world still remembers land where ''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a little girlfarmer. It's not always the case though. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animals. Her original intention was that she would become ''Melrose PlaceDr Jackson,whale scientist'' to losing and she was well on her mother at a young age, way to getting achieving this when her first kiss (or was it kisses?) life changed on a celebrity canoe trip, family holiday to not the Lake District. She saw a lamb being cute enough to make it in Hollywoodborn and, although 'Hannah Jackson, these essays tell farmer' lacked the story kudos of one young woman's journey from accidental fame her original intention, she knew that she wanted to relative obscurity, but also illuminate be a universal struggle: learning to accept yourselfshepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, and figuring out who you are and where you belongshe set about achieving her ambition. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0143128221</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Lydon0008333173|title= RottenHungry: No Irish, No Blacks, No DogsA Memoir of Wanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=3.5|genre=EntertainmentAutobiography|summary= Picking up this book immediately makes you wonder what exactly you make I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of John Lydon, the man who became notorious in the late 1970s as judges on ''Masterchef'Johnny Rotten' . You know that you're going to get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the Sex Pistolstime. Was he the iconoclast who if some You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of her. I've often wondered about the tabloids were to be believed was about to destroy western civilization almost single-handed? Had he really come to destroy, or merely to use woman behind the showbusiness system media image and end up becoming part ''Hungry: A Memoir of what he had set out to fight, or both – or what?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859653412</amazonuk>Wanting More'' is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Nev Schulman1504321383|title= In Real Life: LoveSingle, Again, and Again, Lies & Identity in the Digital Ageand Again|author=Louisa Pateman|rating= 4.5|genre= ReferenceAutobiography|summary= Nev (it's pronounced Neev) is 'You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a man who knows about the darker side of online dating. Known for his documentary ''Catfish. This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasn'' – a film which showed an online flirtation going sour, Nev then began making a tv show of t unkind: it was simply the same name, travelling America to offer advice adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced by all those in online relationships, and possibly being catfished fairy tales where the girl (which means being lured into a relationship she's usually fairly young) is rescued by someone adopting a fictional online persona). Now the go-to expert in online relationships for millenials, a generation handsome prince who have never known a world without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other online places where interactions then marries her so that they can formlive happily ever after. Here, he takes his investigation Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without'' the page – exploring relationships in the era of social media, delving deeply into the complexities of dating in expectation that they will marry and have children. It was a digital age, belief and continuing the dialogue his show has begun about how we interact with each other online – as well as sharing insights from his own storyit would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473608066</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julie BartonSakinu Ahronglong|title=Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From MyselfHunter School|rating=34.5

|summary=It was 1996 and Julie Barton was twenty-two years old and one year into her job in publishing in New York when she collapsed on the kitchen floor The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of her apartment in Manhattanfiction. That's possibly misleading. She was severely depressed, an illness provoked, on I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in the face of sense that Ahronglong made itall up, but the end of a destructive romantic relationship - or was whether it is as the end? Will kept coming backblurb goes on to say ''recollections, in folklore and autobiographical stories''. It feels like the early hours of latter. It feels like the morningstories he tells about his experiences as a child, sleeping with heras an adolescent, then leaving againas an adult are real and true. When Julie collapsed all she could think to do was to ring her mother who drove from Ohio to New York But memory is a fickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and took her hometherefore more people will read it. Despite the best intentions of her parents and therapists, Julie seemed unable to break out of the depression, until she finally made just one positive decision - to adopt a Golden Retriever puppy whom she called Bunker HillMore people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509834486</amazonuk>1999791282

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sue Perkins1544641923|title= SpectaclesAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona|rating= 4|genre= Autobiography|summary= A dash of dramaIt's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, but family connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do so, you know), but the diplomatic spouse, the accompanying baggage, a sprinkling of gossip well, that's an entirely different matter. She (and it still usually is a smattering of laugh-out-loud funny make for the best sort of memoir'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405918551</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amy Krouse Rosenthal0241446732|title= Textbook Amy Krouse RosenthalOur House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating= 5|genre= AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary= I wasn't sure what to expect when I asked for this book to reviewThe Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. It claims Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the front cover to be ''not exactly a memoir'', and it isn'tparenting of their two daughters. YetThen eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, alsoBeata, it kind of isthen nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In factsuch circumstances, I would struggle it's natural to seek a solution close to describe or decipher exactly what home, but eventually, it isbecame clear to the family that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet''. It is so unlike any book I've ever read beforeIf they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1101984546</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alastair Fraser191280493X|title=Forestry Flavours Coming of the Month: The Changing Face of World ForestryAge|author=Danny Ryan|rating=4.5|genre=Business and FinanceAutobiography|summary=Alastair Fraser's experience of forestry spans more than five decades 'He began writing novels and having the benefit of poetry at the long view he's ideally placed to consider the changes which have occurred over the course age of his career. He also has the abilitytwelve, not as common as but it ought was to be amongst professionals, of being able take him a further forty-eight years to look realise that he wasn’t very good at what either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, he does both from the point remains a shining example of view of the business hope over experience...''and  '' the people who work in it and are affected by itThis a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have. There's a lack of tunnel vision too: he sees what's happening in forestry both in the narrow focus and where it sits globally so far as economics and politics are concerned.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524628921</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gerald Durrell190874572X|title= My Family and Other AnimalsLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary=Meet Back at the beginning of the Durrellscentury, I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a quintessentially eccentric English Familywonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of-friends. We have Larry, the lazy and pompous eldest; Leslie, who loves hunting and the outdoors; Margo, I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a sulky teenage girl at the mercy later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of her hormones; Mother, who seems unflappableThe Summer Book, even in the most extreme situations; Roger the loyal family dog and finally Gerry, who is 10 years old and has an obsession with that I eagerly awaited the natural world. “My Family and Other Animals” is Gerry's story 'Sort Of'' translations of what happened when the family decided to uproot to escape the drab monotony rest of England for the sunnier climes of CorfuJansson's work and devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141321873</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= P J Kavanagh1908745819|title= The Perfect StrangerSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''The Perfect Strangerthis one has your name on it'' was originally published in 1966. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, this edition 50 years on hasnunless it turns out that we didn't lost any of its charm or appeallike the book. That's a rare experience. Intended as People who are sensitive to hearing a memorialbook calling your name, 'rarely get it wrong.In this case, I was told why..made out The blurb speaks of bits and pieces lying around methe author considering ''an older, bits less tethered sense of myself, all I had to bring herherself.'' Older. Less tethered. Or rather itThat's part not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of it'the natural world, in of those aspects of the foreward added to the 1991 edition Kavanagh is appalled poetic and lyrical that his are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book should have been so widely categorised as an autobiography and states that if he had known that would happen he my name on it. It was written for me. It would have stopped writing at oncefound its way to me eventually. To me this attitude is an early indication I am pleased to the personality and character of Kavanagh. His journey highlights how disaffected, withdrawn, and isolated he is from the world around him, with an arrogance and cynicism that goes beyond the petulance of his teenage yearshave it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910463299</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Liam Klenk1906852472|title= ParalianWild Child: Not Just Transgender|rating= 4.5|genre= Autobiography|summary= Paralian is an Ancient Greek word, meaning ''one who lives by the sea''. Here, we follow the author's journey through life, narrated by his relationship to water – the river he grew up near, the oceans he crosses, and the water that later becomes his place of work. A tumultuous journey, we follow the author in his quest to find authentic self and happiness, against an incredible array of adversities. At five months old, Liam was adopted from an orphanage – and thus began Growing Up a journey to conquer childhood disability, issues with parents, marriages, divorces, and gender dysphoria.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785891200</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewNomad|author=Amanda Leask|title=Miracle: The extraordinary dog that refused to dieIan Mathie|rating=45

|summary=Amanda Leask For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has been obsessed come up with dogs all her life and it's been an obsession which needs the world and missing link in his narrative, the story of a lot of very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well it's attitudes to dogs to change for hardly news two years later – is that the betterbook is published posthumously. SheAs always, it's not daunted by beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of the obstacles: shequestions in Ian Mathie's simply determined to do all that she possibly can to make the world later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a better place for dogs. Amanda lives with her husband Tobias, son Kyle and more than twenty rescue and sled dogs near Inverness. Very nice, you're probably thinkingsatisfying clunk. Wouldn't we Seemingly all like to have that sort of lifestyle? But hold on a minute's now left in the drawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032550</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Kalanithi1999811402|title=When Breath Becomes AirPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley

|summary=At the age of thirty six Paul Kalanithi seemed to have a glittering career - and life - ahead of him. He had degrees in English literature, human biology and history and philosophy of science and medicine from Stanford and Cambridge universities, as well as the American Academy of Neurological SurgeryIt's top award for research. His reflections on medicine had been published in the very difficult to classify ''New York Times''. The ''Washington PostPainting Snails'' : originally I thought that as well as the it''Paris Review Daily''. It had been hinted, as he came to the end of ten years training to s loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a neurosurgeonlifestyle book, that hebut you'd have the pick of re not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the jobs on offerbest results. There was just one nagging problemThe answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'. Well there was more than one. He had severe back pain Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and he knew that he was unwell. He had stage four is now an A&E consultant (terminalpart-time) lung cancer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847923674</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Edith Morley|title=Before and After: Reminiscences of a Working Life|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Edith Morley was born in Bayswater in 1875 and wasn I found out that there't overly keen s an awful lot more to what goes on being in a girlMajor Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', although she found but that isn't really what the late Victorian conventions restrictive rather than repressivebook's about. Her descriptions of the life There's a lot about rock & roll, which young women (or even women of any age) were expected seems to lead is exceptional in be the way that real passion of Hartley's life, but it shows didn't actually fit into the tedium and the limitationsentertainment genre either. She had one great good fortune in that her father (Did we have a surgeon-dentist) and well-read mother believed in the benefits of a good education category for boys 'doing the impossible the hard way'and? Yep - that'' girlss the one. After spending two years in Germany as part of her education she went on to get It's an 'equivalent' degree from Oxford University (which is all that was available to women at the time) and then to become the first female professor in England in 1908, at Reading Universityautobiography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909747165</amazonuk>