Amy Schumer was born to upper middle class Jewish parents in New York; her parents lost their business when she was a tween and shortly after her father was diagnosed with MS. Her mother cheated on her father, who was probably fooling around on her too, and the couple eventually divorced. As a teenager, Amy idolized her mother but as an adult she has reflected on her past and has conflicted feelings about their relationship. Being the child of an alcoholic father and whatever my mom is has […]
Writing as therapy
As a teenager, Blair Braverman — who always had an obsession with the North — lived as an exchange student in Norway, where she had a really messed up experience with her host family (namely, the father). So she spent the next 15 years or so trying to work through that by traveling to very, very cold places and putting herself in difficult and dangerous situations, trying to find some peace. I did really enjoy certain parts of this book. Anything involving her work with sled […]
All the things I didn’t know I needed to know about Ruth Bader Ginsburg
As a lawyer and a woman, you’d assume I would know more about the women on the Supreme Court than I do. Although I probably knew more about Ruth Bader Ginsburg than Sotomayor and Kagan, it was really only vague knowledge. I knew I liked Ginsburg’s opinions, and I agreed with her politics. I’d also heard something about cancer and falling asleep at some inappropriate place. Unfortunately, that’s about it. I can’t remember where I first saw Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth […]
A very unusual memoir
Nadja Spiegelman, daughter of Maus creator Art Spiegelman and New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly, wrote this memoir that’s less about her own life, and more about how her life weaves into her mother’s and grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s — and how secret and lies and tricks of memory can affect these relationships. “I saw a pattern forming, like a series of skipping stones that sent ripples through the generations: all the granddaughters and grandmothers who loved each other, all the mothers left stranded in between.” Nadja’s […]
I had The Zombies song stuck in my head for a week
This was a really fascinating read by a well-spoken, intelligent woman with one hell of a sense of humor. “My conviction, by the way, had nothing to do with a desire to be feminine, but it had everything to do with being female. Which is an odd believe for a person born male. It certainly had nothing to do with whether I was attracted to girls or boys. This last point was the one that, years later, would most frequently elude people, including the overeducated […]
A lot has changed in 12 years
Some humor remains funny for decades. I’ve read books by Dave Barry that he originally published in the 1980s that still seem true and funny today. But other types of humor don’t hold up, and unfortunately Wanda Sykes’s Yeah, I Said It, full of political commentary during the 2004 election, is one of them. I actually really like Sykes’s stand up, and sections of this book seemed word for word from her acts. Most of the chapters are a page or two long, and headed by one single word or topic: […]
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